More and more businesses are relying on telemarketing services industry to capitalize on it with a proven rate of success. Today most of the sales leads generation is often conducted through telemarketing and it has many advantages only if it is done in an appropriate way. But many telemarketing programs are also failing to meet expectations because too many companies are making the following errors:

Working with poor quality lists: Poor quality leads such as wrong numbers and outdated contact information are examples of bad list. List selection is a critical component of any lead development effort, better the quality of the list, more chances you have to generate the qualified leads for your company.

Using the wrong metrics: Telemarketing metrics such as number of dials per day or total talk time result in low ROI. Instead companies should focus on quality oriented metrics like average conversation length, number of calls culminating with real decision makers, and number of calls moving to next step like scheduling a demo or a meeting.

Not prepared before making calls: Instead of a following regular script, it is better to research the industry and the company to know the pain points. If you want to increase in ROI, you need to have a strategy in place like tailoring the messaging to the pains of a specific goal to compel the prospect to have a dialog with you and quickly establish a rapport with them.

Trying to sell on the first call: If you are dealing with products which have long sales cycles, it would totally unwise to sell someone on the first call. Instead, it would be much more effective to have longer term relationship with the individuals.

Focusing on unqualified prospects: It is waste of time if you talking to the wrong person or trying to increase number of appointments for sales professionals without considering the quality of qualifications. Instead, it is much wiser to focus on generating qualified and sales-ready opportunities.

Lack of script at hand: It is always good to have good script because you need to know what you are going to tell to your potential client. Script can be kept as guide and for emergency in case you come across question that you are not prepared for.

Calling at wrong time: People hate when they receive cold calls at odd hours or even at work when they are busy. It is better to call them in the morning to get in before their day gets started.

Not having good product knowledge: Before you go on calls, make sure that you have the complete product knowledge. You can lose a potential customer if you cannot answer a client’s question or cannot provide them with the information that they ask.

No follow up: It always takes more than on call to convince a customer and to clench the deal. If you think the client is entitled for a follow-up call, ensure all communications are documented so that you can review the history and pick right from where you left and build the bridge that would help you get a sale out of that customer. In B2B lead development , each conversation has to build on prior conversations in order to move a prospect along the sales cycle.

Not following Do Not Call: It is important that a telemarketing program is compliant with all Federal and State Do Not Call Laws. Ensure that the legalities of your telemarketing services program are verified to avoid being fined for illegal telemarketing. And one must maintain a list of people, who have requested to be put on your do-not-call list.

Complete script adherence has its own pitfalls: Because telemarketing is basically communication between two people and it can be nearly impossible to predict response for every situation that arises on the phone. Telemarketing services have different approaches to the idea of scripting, but the best practice for this process is a having a reference tool and the ability for agents to modify these responses though constant up training. This will ensure that agents have the right answers at the right time to the right customers.

Not ensuring Quality Assurance: Quality Assurance processes can make or break a program. Quality Assurance should ensure each sale made or lead generated is verified for accuracy and acceptance. If this is not done, chances are many of the sales and leads that have been marketed will not end up paying. In addition, it is important to see that sales agents are monitored to make sure that they are improving and telemarketing program is going to be successful.

There are many ways and reasons for a telemarketing campaign to fail. To avoid the failure most vital part would be selecting quality telemarketing services provider and taking the help of a good consultant will ensure success.