1. Double your outbound calls for less than $200/month

Outbound B2B campaigns average 15-18 minutes of talk time per hour, while preview (not predictive!) dialing campaigns average over 30 with no drop in call quality.  But you don’t have to purchase a $100,000 dialer.

Preview dialing is now available as a virtual service for $200/month or less per person, and one of our clients is now getting nearly 200 dials per caller per day with little to no drop in call quality.  Preview-dialed call queues are assigned to only one caller, so there are no abandoned calls as with predictive dialing.  Instead, between-call waste time is simply eliminated.  Integration with your CRM and phone system is relatively quick and easy; call us for details.

2.   Quadruple voicemail responses

B2B campaigns might reach decision makers once out of five dials (or even less), so voicemail protocol becomes critical.  Adding two simple additions to voicemails earned a Fortune 50 company a 400% increase in voicemail responses.

This widely-admired high-tech company found that by offering hyper-accessibility and uncommon personal touches, a bond was created that resulted in four out of ten prospects calling back.  When it was appropriate, and where trust had been established on both sides, callers began providing prospects with their home phone numbers -- which were hardly ever called; the prospects called the office or the cell -- and details about their personal lives, such as activities with their kids, which made prospects feel especially included and privileged to call back.

We have 20 methods to improve screener-handling and voicemail response; call for the free article.

3.   Use better Headlines

Simple changes to a headline can dramatically improve success rates.  Example:  Just adding one key phrase to the script we used for a credit union resulted in the campaign hitting 300% of quota.

Our credit union client had us assist them on a pre-approved credit card campaign.  We began the call with “Hi, (name), it’s (full name) with (credit union name), and I believe I have some good news for you!”  We briefly told the prospect what that good news was, along with the ease of obtaining the card, and were so successful that we had to hire a full-time paperwork person for each caller we had. 

You don’t always have news like that to tell, so the key to great headlines is the difficult task of being compelling and non-threatening at the same time.  Here’s one of our favorite generic greeting/headlines: “(name), it’s (full name) with (client name); we do (this) and (that), and I wanted to see what procedure you would like me to follow to compete for some of your business.”  As you can see, this differs from less-successful approaches in several ways, the primary one being politely asking for eventual business while still acknowledging that it’s the buyer who makes the decisions in the relationship. 

Your company is likely to have headline-worthy news or events that can be more effectively promoted than they are now; we’ll be glad to chat with you about what works.

4. Improve follow-up phrasing

B2B salespeople often follow up emails with “brain dead” questions – did you get it, did you read it, do you have any questions – yet there are much better questions and phrases that substantially improve buyer engagement and reaction by focusing attention on specifics.

Long-sales-cycles require a gradually escalating series of permissions.  Until a large amount of trust has been created with the prospect, effective follow-ups suggest only bite-size errands for the prospect – “John, just look at paragraph three on page 2 of that tech sheet on document imaging…”  Naturally, if the prospect has some interest in paragraph three, there is a strong chance he/she will look deeper into the material.

We know dozens of ways to improve prospect response that we’d be happy to share with you.

5. Hire smarter

Sophisticated tests that measure a number of significant B2B call center aptitudes are now available for less than $30 each.

Bigby-Havis has been creating sophisticated employment tests for decades; recently, they took on the call center universe (see www.bigby.com).  Of course, it helps to have an expert administrator, and one of our staff members, Dr. Eileen Connolly, has years of experience in this area.  To get in touch with Eileen, call us.

6. Use KPI (key performance indicators) and measure call quality accurately to double performance and results. 

Many factors contribute to call center performance beside call quality and call quality.  Our staffer Tom Rocca is an acknowledged expert in KPI, managing campaigns of over 100,000,000 calls per year for Fortune 50 companies.   Tom is an expert at call center right-sizing, federal, state and insurance compliance management, sales process flow analysis, average speed-to-answer, calls per minute/month, and outsourcing – domestic and overseas.   

To maximize call quality, our CallCoach forms measure dozens of call quality factors, such as Greeting, Headline, Qualifying, Presentation, Objection-Handling, and Closing, as well as addressing intangibles such as Ease and Grace, Voice Quality, Conversational Control, Attitude, Workload and Organizational skill. 

For a free copy of the CallCoach form, or to get in touch with Tom, give us a call.

7. Have an expert get on the phone to show your salespeople how to do it.

Yes, we get right in front of your salespeople and make live calls to show them exactly how it’s done, and costs can be surprisingly reasonable.

There’s nothing like watching to a world-class expert providing live examples of how to get the job done.  Check around; we’re the only company that does live calls, selling your products or services, in front of your staff.  And since we’ve rolled our prices back to 1998 levels, your customized training is likely to be right-priced and exactly what’s required to not only survive, but thrive in the current environment.