Telemarketing Appointment Setting Best Practices-Part 1

By Angela Garfinkel, President

Telemarketing Appointment Setting Best Practices: Part 1

Author note: This is the first article in a 3-part series.

Telemarketing appointment setting is a cost-effective way to use less expensive people resources to set appointments for your salespeople. The best telemarketing appointment setting initiatives have these things in common:

A targeted contact list with phone numbers
A friendly, open phone voice
A nutshell message
A reason for the prospect to schedule the appointment with you. WIIFM (What’s in it for me?)
A timely calendar invite sent via email with a very brief summary of what will be discussed in the appointment
Productive outbound dialing (we like to see about 35 dials per hour, 262 dials per day from a B2B telemarketing appointment setting program)

If any of these core components are not optimized, then your telemarketing appointment setting program will not produce the highest Return on Investment (ROI) possible. Continue reading →

Important Forecasting Considerations for Inbound Contact Solutions

By Rich Hamilton, Director of Marketing & Product Development

It’s said that the heart and soul of most companies is their Inbound Contact Solutions operation (also known as an inbound call center). This vital department with an organization has an opportunity to get key customer insights and the call center interactions often make or break the customer relationship.

Author note: When I refer to inbound contacts, I’m talking about inbound voice contacts plus the other non-voice contacts that contact centers are responsible for handling, including email, text and chat.

Have you ever sat on hold, trying to call a company and finally gave up, never to interact with that company again? Making sure that your Inbound Contact Solutions operation is properly staffed is super important. Whether this is a first impression or an angry customer that is giving the company one last chance, each inbound contact can be vital. Continue reading →

Worthwhile Work = Success at Telemarketing Agencies

At Quality Contact Solutions we have seven core values that guide how we behave. One of the most important of those core values is Conducting Worthwhile Work.

What is Worthwhile Work for Telemarketing Agencies?

I can’t tell you how many times per week I get a telemarketing call and before the call is completed I find myself shaking my head. I shake my head because so many telemarketing agencies engage in practices that harm our industry. There is a stigma that is associated with the telemarketing industry and that stigma exists primarily because of a small number of companies that have no regard for poisoning the well for the rest.

Okay, that was a tiny rant. Reeling myself back in before I really fall down the rabbit hole.

Continue reading →

‘Tis the Season… For Inbound Telemarketing Overflow

By Ryan Apodac, Operations Manager/Trainer

Busy season can be vastly different from one business to the next. Many people think of the holiday busy season as Black Friday through Dec 31st. For one of our clients in the party supplies business, they do 80% of their business in the six weeks prior to Halloween. For another client in the energy business, their busy season is defined by the state’s public service commission’s rules surrounding when they can market to new customers and sign them up for an agreement (typically in March and April of each year). Continue reading →

Membership Telemarketing: Telemarketing Laws Compliance

By Angela Garfinkel, President

Telemarketing Law When our company first started working with associations and membership renewals telemarketing, I was a bit surprised to learn that placing telephone calls to renew professional individual memberships must comply with all telemarketing regulations. I had assumed that because the membership is a professional membership based on the career area of an individual, and because the calls are typically placed to the professional at their work phone number, the calls must be exempt from the consumer telemarketing regulations. I was wrong.

There are four primary areas that associations must be aware of and comply with: Continue reading →