The productivity of your team starts with you, the manager. We will provide the factors that increase productivity and with that, you will determine how productive your telemarketing team is. Before you do that though, you must understand what makes telemarketing effective. Once you grasp that you will be able to lead your sales team to productivity!
1. Train New Telemarketers Well
Take the time to train new telemarketers to comply with the telemarketing guidelines and, as the manager, make it a goal to keep all of your sales team up-to-date on the changing guidelines, so they can focus on selling.
Save time and increase productivity by doing things legally. You don’t want to be uninformed about the rules and regulations of telemarketing and end up in a legal issue that will consume time and resources.
One highly enforced regulation is the Do Not Call list. Keeping up with DNC scrubbing and compliance can be simple though, with the use of a DNC Scrubbing software.
2. Encourage Advanced Telemarketers to Specialize
Everyone has their strong skills in telemarketing and everyone has skills that they lack. If you are able to work with your sales team to analyze where their strengths and weaknesses lie, you would be able to encourage your telemarketers to specialize in what they are good at. For instance: Lead Management, Lead Generation, Decision Maker Contacts, Appointment Scheduling, etc.
Think about how productive and effective your call center would be if the best lead generators worked solely on lead generation, the best follow-up contractors worked solely on follow-ups, etc.
Instead of trying to make average, yet well-rounded, telemarketers, make excellent, specialized telemarketers.
3. Use Better Recruiting to Improve Culture Fit
We have three tips for hiring great call center agents:
- When recruiting telemarketers consider your company's culture or the culture you are trying to achieve.
- Make an agent profile must-have telemarketing skills and other characteristics that you want to add to your company culture.
- Develop interview questions that will help you understand the person better and see if they are a good fit.
Try to also include questions that ask about their selling personality. There are many and not all of the selling personalities will be ones that fit the company's culture.
4. Hold Productive Team Meetings With the Telemarketing Team
One way to hold productive team meetings is by creating an agenda of the necessary things that need to be discussed or resolved. Having something like an agenda will help keep you or the guest speaker on track.
Put aside dedicated time for the meeting and let people know a week or two in advance when the meeting will take place, so the telemarketing team can prepare. Also, leave time for discussion/questions. It’s always helpful to receive feedback from your employees.
Another way to hold productive meetings is by keeping it interesting. It's a simple way to spark creativity and increase productivity in your telemarketing team. A few ways to do this include:
- A Guest Speaker
- A Ted Talk
- A New Location for the Meeting
- Team Building Activities
- Providing Food or Prizes
- Brainstorming Exercises
Anything that will give your sales team variety and encourage them to think creatively.
5. Provide Good Equipment
How does technology increase productivity in the workplace?
Well, it's difficult to do a good job when the equipment you are using is outdated or not fit for the job. So, consider investing in better suited equipment for your team.
Your sales team’s productivity could skyrocket with the right equipment, like the Dolphin Dialer, which helps your sales team reach prospects 4 times faster! With the ability to manage leads, create reports, call coach/monitor, and use a CRM, you will be able to put more energy into other things.
6. Lead Your Telemarketing Team by Example
Your telemarketing team will only be as productive as its leader. So lead by example. If you are able to get your work done plus some, then so can your telemarketing team.
Set goals for yourself to track your productivity. This will give you a better idea of what to expect out of your team.
Here are some practical tasks you can do repeatedly:
- Make a Plan: Each person should have an objective and a plan of action
- Be Clear and Concise: Use clear, positive language, speak clearly and slowly
- Start a Conversation: Advise your team to ask questions, listen patiently to the responses and treat each customer with a personal level of interest and respect
- Stay Positive: People are going to hang up, say no, be rude, and reject your sales team — make sure they know this is a normal part of the job
- Practice: Tell your team members to practice their scripts and responses
7. Foster Personal Growth and Self-Care
The skills that telemarketers use for selling are the same skills they will need to learn for life. Here are just some of the skills your sales team will need:
- Preparation (prepare for the call as well as the closing of a sale)
- Reading Signs/Verbal Cues (know when the prospect is ready to say “yes” to purchasing)
- Learning When to Speak and When to Be Silent (give pauses to allow for discussion)
- Politeness/Manners (saying “thank you” goes a long way)
8. Stimulate Telemarketers to Make Their Own Decisions
Too often, employees have to seek approval before making a decision. A simple way to encourage your employees is by giving them more responsibility to make decisions. At the same time, it frees up your day to tend to other tasks. When employees feel that they have more freedom to make decisions and more control over their tasks at work, they are also more likely to get more done, since they don’t need to seek approval before completing tasks.
9. Create a Healthy Work Environment
Healthy work environments are ones that encourage communication, collaboration, and even conflict:
- Having agents and other departments in constant communication builds community and helps the company work as one body, not as separate moving parts.
- Using everyone's skill sets to accomplish tasks creates synergy.
- Talking through opposing ideas helps the team come to a conclusion on the solution.
To create a healthy environment, allow for healthy communication, collaboration, and conflict. You can do this by using a democratic management style. This style of management encourages feedback, communication, and all skill sets. Your call center agents will have more freedom to make decisions as a team as opposed to you making all the decisions for them. That way you only need to step in when necessary.
10. Set Realistic Goals for Your Telemarketers to Achieve
Goals not only keep employees on track, but they are also ways to motivate employees and increase productivity because they know what they are working towards. Make goals that track the day-to-day progress, as well as the long term progress. Having data on goals that have been achieved and when they were achieved helps you plan for future goals and helps determine the direction of the company. As the saying goes, if you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it! Use realistic goals to help you manage your team and their progress.
11. Celebrate the Achievements Together
Find ways to reward your agents and your team for their achievements. The workplace should be mainly about work, but every now and then you need to celebrate accomplishments, otherwise, the working environment becomes stagnant.
It doesn’t need to be grand, something simple like lunch being brought in or gifting gift cards is one way to celebrate without wasting time or overspending. Your staff will appreciate this and the work environment will be more positive because of it.
12. Reward the Telemarketing Team With Experiences
While rewarding your telemarketing team with experiences can be costly and more time-consuming, they are great incentives ways to increase productivity and they can make your telemarketing team stronger. For instance, having a day dedicated to team building or team outings. This is just another way to say ‘thank you’ to your team.
13. Let the Telemarketers Have Flexible Schedules
Flexible schedules have revealed how to increase productivity at work. Think about it! Not everyone's schedule works for 9 to 5. Allowing for flexibility allows employees to work when they feel are good times for them. For instance, a night owl probably would work fine in the morning, but they also might accomplish much more if they were able to work at later hours in the day.
In a 2018 survey, it was discovered that 80% of employees would choose a job that offers a flexible schedule. So, by giving your telemarketers the ability to have flexible schedules it can reduce turnover rates and increase the number of loyal employees.
14. Enable the Telemarketing Team to Work Remotely
The same goes for working remotely, as with flexible schedules. People are more inclined to work for a company because of the opportunity to work from home.
Does working from home increase productivity?
A study done by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office revealed that staff who were allowed to work from home were 4.4% more productive than those who worked in an office. By allowing employees to work from home they have more time to get work done. Their office space is in their home, so they can work at more convenient times for them when they are most productive.
Another benefit to allowing employees to work remotely is that you can select from a larger pool of eligible employees and be more selective about who you hire.
15. Have Clear Processes in Place for Your Telemarketing Services
The more productive call centers will have predetermined processes in place, so the telemarketing team can complete tasks quickly. If there aren’t very clear processes, mistakes will be more common, and it will take longer to complete tasks.
Use the knowledge of your telemarketers to collectively create effective processes and shorten the processes whenever you can to save time and shorten the sales funnel.
16. Improve Team Communication
Communication doesn’t have to be just face-to-face. Communication in the workplace also takes place through emails, chats, phone calls, and virtual meetings. Utilizing these tools and sharing information between agents and the rest of the department is important for increasing productivity.
Here are a few tips to increase productivity through improving team communication:
- Have an open-door policy
- Give clear instruction and feedback
- Accept and encourage feedback
- Use the appropriate platforms of communication based on the scenario
- Have regular communication training days
Again, the effectiveness of communication is only as effective as you make it, so lead the way you want everyone to follow.
17. Update the Telemarketing Scripts Regularly
The best cold calling scripts to help you call telemarketing lists always begin with identifying yourself and when possible call the client by his or her name. That should never change, however, as the telemarketing industry changes and as your competitors change, so should your telemarketing scripts.
18. Ask Your Telemarketers for Feedback
Giving and receiving feedback is essential for a productive work environment. It increases the level of transparency, reduces repetitive mistakes, teaches new skills, and optimizes work processes.
So, how can you encourage feedback? Here are just a few ways:
- Use words that motivate people
- Avoid using blaming or judging words
- Have an open door policy
- Ask Questions
19. Use Telemarketing Software for Task Automation
Automation increases productivity! It's a fact. Why not let the computer handle those repetitive daily tasks? After all, it would save you time and time is money!
When looking for telemarketing software use these factors to make your decision:
- The Call Limitations
- The Ease of Use
- The Call Drops and Delays
- The Compatibility with CRM
- The Reporting
- The Reminders
- The Email Automation
Cloud-based software like the Dolphin Power Dialer has the ability to send emails, SMS text, and pre-recorded voicemails with just a click. Another automation feature that the Dolphin offers is moving on to new calls when no one answers or when a number is disconnected. Imagine how much time you could save, using automation.
20. Make the Most Out of Your Telemarketing Lists
Plain and simple. Use your telemarketing list in a way that you get the MOST out of them. These 7 tips will help you improve your phone call lists:
- Plan a Strategy Before the Call
- Train Agents to Identify Buyer Issues
- Work Out Techniques to Get Past the Gatekeeper
- Build Rapport with Decision-Makers
- Train Callers on Smart Questioning Techniques
- Focus on Handling Objections
- Follow-up (over and over until you secure the sale!)
Everything has room for improvement, that includes your management style and tactics. Read our guide to telemarketing management, so you can see what you need to improve as you develop as a telemarketing manager!
Works Cited
Business Residential Telemarketing Phone List | USA | Canada. 2021. Outbound Telemarketing Laws: A Brief Guide. [online] Available at: <https://www.telephonelists.biz/blog/outbound-telemarketing-laws-brief-guide/> [Accessed 12 February 2021].
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