An extremely important aspect of your profitable B2B telemarketing is locating and hiring the best people. It’s not like I could just put someone on the phone with expectations of good results. Once you understand the main goals of your telemarketing efforts, you’ll need to come to grips with the specific role that telemarketers will play in the equation. You’ll want to assess the skills and personalities required to fulfill the role and meet each overall objective. Ask yourself these questions:

– Do these telemarketers have adequate backgrounds and knowledge?

– Will it require them to be familiar with Microsoft Office or the CRM software they will be using?

– Should they already be experts at the time of hire or will you train them quickly?

– What are the minimum candidates you will need in terms of skills and characteristics?

– Does the job require high-energy, task-oriented, or easy-going people?

– Will it require certain levels of professional maturity from these telemarketers?

– Is it imperative that they understand how to prevent and solve problems?

Workplace Today magazine lists the 5 qualities that make great salespeople:

1) Empathy

2) drive

3) Service Motivation

4) Awareness

5) Self-esteem

Location of candidates

First you need to start with the right pool of candidates. Well-written recruiter ads can be found on one of the myriad of online recruiting sites like monster.com, careerbuilder.com, and jobs.com. It is also possible to create a job listing with the college career center and senior center in your area. You can place cheap ads describing open positions on (cable) TV or radio, and even buy ads that play before the movie starts at your local cineplex.

Also take into account the service people in the restaurant, the supermarket and the theater. The friendliness of these people and articulate ways are often traits that are translatable and useful in telemarketing. I also recommend that you consider giving a fee to staff members if your contact with a new telemarketer is successful. This is known at the end of a 90-day training and testing period. One last word about help-seeking ads: Try not to use ‘telemarketing’ or ‘telemarketer’ in your ad, but instead opt for a term like ‘sales support’ or ‘customer service’; these terms appeal to a larger group. of potential candidates.

A better hiring process

Instead of asking for resumes first like you would for other types of positions, ask potential telemarketers to call a special number. Make sure the call goes immediately to voicemail, with an outgoing message describing your business and title; then ask the caller for their name and number, giving them a minute or two to tell you why they are the right person. for the position. Just taking the time to listen to the candidate talk on the message machine, and the way they “sell themselves” is a great indicator of who will make the cut and move on to the next step.

Deduction

Conduct phone interviews with those who make a good impression on you through their voicemail. Be on the lookout for those who ask questions about the business, the industry, and what you will expect from them at work. Those who are considerate enough to ask tend to be the kind of focused entrepreneurs you’ll need to generate leads on the phone. The best of them aren’t just based on the script, they’re trying to keep a conversation going. Good listening and questioning skills are better than those who simply give the speech. Remaining candidates who are still impressive may be asked to submit a resume along with a cover page explaining why they are the right person to hire. This gives you a chance to take a closer look at their backgrounds to find out if they can write as well as they can talk on the phone. Then schedule final in-person interviews with your top selected finalists.

Training

The main way to avoid frustration and failed phone marketing effort is to invest in proper training. Training programs give your new workers the skill and confidence to succeed in a variety of situations. The amount of training they need depends on both the type of telemarketing they will be doing and their experience in the past. Included in the training basics are industry information and the history of your company’s role and that of your competitors. Then, talk about your products and services, providing a good description, as well as the potential benefits for those who decide to buy them. Telemarketers require a good understanding of pricing and the sales process they are a part of.

Spend time showing them the best and most efficient way to apply the software system to the needs of the job. Take the time to discuss company policy, responsibilities, and what you will expect from them. Set some goals for call volume and number of sales per week or month to make it easier for new telemarketers to compare your performance and better budget their time as a result. At the end of the day, finding and retaining the right people is the number one way to drive the success of your B2B marketing program.