It is no surprise that outbound telemarketing is still a valuable strategy for generating new leads. Outbound calling, however, scares a lot of people. It’s crucial to remain aware of compliance laws and regulations when managing an outbound contact centre. In addition to avoiding costly fines, the goal is to run a more successful firm. Payroll, data, and compliance costs—your three highest costs—will be reduced if you combine regulatory compliance with clever dialling tactics. You’ll also see an increase in income. You’ve made a profit.
In this article, we are going to discuss why marketers are still using Outbound calling and what are the best practices they should follow to get better results in telemarketing.
Let’s dig in deep.
Why are Marketers Still using Outbound Calling?
1. To Better Know their Customers
Outbound BDRs can only learn so much about your prospect’s organisation, job function, and potential pain areas in their industry from a basic one-to-one conversation. On the other hand, they can learn far more about the prospect’s priorities while they are on the phone. Through the call, Outbound BDRs can learn the following things about their customers:
- What issue are they attempting to address?
- How have they handled this issue or obstacle thus far?
- What objective do they want to accomplish?
- Do they have a set spending limit to follow? How stringently do they adhere to this budget?
2. Personalized Communications
Reaching out to each individual prospect through outbound sales calling makes it a highly targeted and interpersonal method of communication as opposed to sending emails that are almost certainly going to be ignored.
After all, prior to reaching out to a potential customer, some investigation must be done, allowing sales representatives to identify the caller and instantly handle any problems. Speaking on the phone additionally enables you to speak enthusiastically and in a more informal manner, which is difficult to convey via email or other written message communication.
3. No More Geographical Limitations
Sales Development Representatives are not restricted to a certain area or location while doing outbound telemarketing. Calls can be placed from anywhere in the world, whether they are local or international.
Don’t be misled by the word “international” now! You don’t have to be concerned about added calling rates or unexpected charges when using Call centre software for making outbound calls! There are several corporate phone systems and outbound sales dialers available that offer reasonable prices to dial internationally. This also makes it simple for you to extend your firm internationally.
4. Quick and Genuine Feedback
In contrast to other cold outreach techniques, speaking directly to a prospect on the phone increases your chance of starting a conversation. Outbound BDRs can ask prospects more detailed questions about their opinions of your goods or services by developing rapport and intent with them. Then, you may customise your product or service to better suit your target market using this insightful input.
All these 4 reasons make outbound calling still more effective and productive as these 4 benefits can’t be offered by any other outbound marketing tactics, and that’s why they have to keep it within their outbound marketing portfolio. But, it is also essential to know that the effectiveness of your outbound calling depends on how you do that and what kind of practices You and your Outbound BDRs are following while making it.
This makes it essential for you as a marketer and for your Outbound Sales Agents to know the outbound call centre tips to gain productivity.
Here’s a detailed guide for your sales representative team to master cold calling and gear up for lead generation. Following these 8 practices can make your business’s lead generation scale up!
Things to Follow while making Outbound calls – Outbound Call Centre Best Practices
1. Use the Right Technology for making Outbound Calls –
The advantage of using technology in sales outreach is that it can assist you in automating numerous associated, repetitive processes, such as call logging, call reporting, automatic dialling, or callbacks, and enable you significantly scale your sales process. That’s the reason you must choose Cloud-based Predictive Dialer – an outbound sales dialer that is effective and efficient.
US Rules for Predictive Dialer
Early Hang-ups: Before the caller hangs up, each phoned number must ring for at least 15 seconds.
Disconnected Calls: The percentage of abandoned calls should not be higher than 3% of live calls, not “all calls,”
Live Clients Waiting in Line: According to FTC regulations, a call should only be held in queue for two seconds after the end of the customer greeting once it is connected, the phone goes off-hook, and the caller begins speaking.
2. Invest in opt-in compliant data.
Utilizing compliant opt-in data is more expensive, but it lowers fine risks and boosts contact and conversion rates. Outbound contact centres should make the procurement of high intent leads for their outbound dialling campaigns a best practice whenever it is practical. Lead generation must also adhere to a consent-based marketing paradigm, or at the very least, permission-based acquisition (opt-ins).
It’s actually just a reasonable strategy since if someone is interested, they are more likely to accept your call than to reject it, which increases your chances of conversion. Additionally, you wind up needing to buy fewer leads if you’re engaging with more people. You can still save money, though.
3. Power your Conversations with Local Caller ID
Calls from well-known numbers with local area codes are more likely to be picked up by the recipient. A poll has demonstrated this, finding that consumers are 400% more likely to pick up calls with local area codes. Also, when your sales staff employs a local caller ID, people are more likely to give you a callback. Local numbers are the best option if you’re trying to reach customers in a certain county or state.
4. Get your Caller IDs to display the STIR/SHAKEN Attestation.
Technically speaking, it’s a data interchange that telecom carriers utilize to confirm genuine phone calls. It will finally give users visual authentication that the number contacting them is from a legitimate person or company.
Even though STIR/SHAKEN implementation and use are the responsibility of your phone service provider, there are several procedures that businesses should take to guarantee that the numbers they use for calling have the highest possible attestation grade. It is anticipated that many businesses will discover that STIR/SHAKEN helps them engage with prospects over the phone as verification badges start to restore customers’ trust in answering calls from ominous numbers.
The technology might also assist in defending firms from scammers who fraudulently use their names or phone number. Service companies should work to have their calls rated with an A-Attestation to help ensure effective call campaigns. With an A-Attestation rating, the carrier can confirm the caller’s identity and the legitimacy of their use of the phone number. This rating ought to increase your response rate.
5. Registering Your Caller ID With the Free Call Registry
When a customer receives your call, their first impression of your business is based on your caller ID. Consumers are 53% more likely to answer calls from businesses when they are verified. To maximize the effect of your outbound calling lead generation strategy, first and foremost, you should get your organization’s numbers registered on the free caller registry. Not only will this prevent you from getting your number blocked or flagged as spam but also, customers will receive your call with a consistent caller ID.
6. Rest your Caller IDs at Regular Intervals
Outbound calling is a practice that you need to design most strategically. You should not use the same caller ID for a very long period of time. It tends to recognize your number by the customer, which leads to unsuccessful Outbound calling. Immediately remove a number from your dialing list if an app or carrier flags it with a “Scam Likely” Tag.
If you give it a chance to cool down, you might be able to use it once more in the future. Some flags will vanish after 60 to 90 days. Make sure to develop a thorough call control approach that incorporates ongoing phone number tracking. Clean numbers and compliance must be considered when running your outbound sales initiatives.
7. Restrict the Number of calls per day per caller ID
Your phone numbers are one of the most essential resources for your agents when you perform outbound dialing campaigns. Potential clients see caller IDs for your business first, and they can tell them a lot about it. Therefore, managing phone numbers is crucial in today’s dialing campaigns. If your agents utilize a specific number more than 100 times a day, carriers can notice and mark it as potential spam.
Customers may also express dissatisfaction over unwanted calls. In order to prevent these situations, you must have access to a sufficient number of phone numbers. You should factor in how many calls your agents will make per day for high-volume campaigns.
8. Smartly Manage your Call Time to Boost the Response Rate
Because of the inappropriate calling schedule, many sales representatives have horrible outbound calls and call answering ratio. Your prospect might be in the process of taking off their children at school or getting ready for the day if you call too early. They might have already left the workplace for the day if you phone too late.
Some timings inherently outperform others, even though the optimal time to outbound calls varies by industry. The optimal time to conduct outbound calls, according to a comparative analysis, is between 4 and 5 p.m., followed by the late morning hours between 10 and 11 a.m. This is understandable given that call connection rates decline after 11 am as people leave for lunch and again after 5 pm as people get ready to wrap up their days.
Tuesdays to Thursdays are the ideal days to make outbound calls.
9. Send Voicemail on Answering machine Calls
Cold call sales voicemails can be one of the easiest ways for a team to increase response rates and attract the interest of their prospects if done correctly. The majority of salespeople simply hang up the phone, planning to try again later. But it doesn’t mean a decision-maker isn’t interested in what you have to give just because they aren’t available to answer the phone. You are missing the ideal chance to connect with more prospects and produce more quality sales leads if you aren’t leaving voicemails in your cold calls.
Voicemail should be viewed as an essential productivity tool. It’s the opening message in a series of communications between you and your prospect that should create a story and foster trust. Even if they don’t pick up the phone to call you back, just one voicemail can start a long-term relationship.
10. Don’t Ignore the Inbound Calls
Not taking inbound calls when customers call you back after you reach them with the outbound call is the biggest mistake any outbound BDR can make. Doing that is like self-killing the trust and sales potential of the prospect.
Customer contact is the initial step in an inbound telemarketing strategy with a business. Inbound marketing lets clients contact a company whenever it’s most convenient for them, as opposed to outbound marketing, where agents approach customers directly to close a deal. This could ultimately result in increased profitability. Be ready and open for inbound calls, get ready with your best support team to answer inbound calls. They are the potential customers and not just inbound calls. Gear up with the best team for them!
Wrapping it up:
If done right, Outbound calling is a game changer in generating leads for your business. Outbound calling is in here for a very long time, it’s time to freshen up your strategies to put up the great fight. For more information on how outbound calls may be used to rule industries by leveraging a number of lead-generating tools and strategies, get in touch with our experts at support@leadsrain.com or schedule your free trial today.