Effective telemarketing can be one of the most significant ways for marketing or promoting goods and services, but successful telemarketing calls for a lot of skills, preparations and effective communication. When done correctly telemarketing is a powerful way to improve sales and get appointments. Identifying and exploring new opportunities and potential new business is a primary task of any sales team. Despite the fact these calls are viewed with scorn by vast majority of the people, it is through these calls a company establishes the crucial leads to carry the business forward, so it is the primary duty of a telemarketer to adopt a high level of professionalism in trying to distinguish his or her call from tens of other telemarketing calls that any household receives on a day-to-day basis. Also the positive and confident mind-set is essential for successful telemarketing and cold calling. Herein lies the importance of learning techniques for successful telemarketing. Important points which have to be kept in mind for effective telemarketing are discussed here.

Planning and Preparation

Prior to starting any telemarketing campaign, planning is the most crucial aspect of the entire process. One has to be very clear about the objective of campaign and how to achieve it. The telemarketer should be prepared for the call with script and relevant documents like questions one wishes to ask.

Effective Communication It is not only professional but good manner to identify oneself and one should always call at the customer’s convenience. It is of utmost importance to keep the opening of the conversation simple with agenda in mind, direct and language of the telemarketer should be polite and professional. Often the most successful telemarketers are those who are natural on the telephone. One should avoid "telephone voice" because it is visible to the person at the other end.

Apart from active conversation there are two aspects of communication which are equally important:

Effective Listening Listening is a technique in itself and listening proactively strikes a chord with the prospective customer. Impatience to retain control of the conversation should be avoided because the person you are talking to may not be a customer now but may become one in the future.

Mirroring your Prospect People are attracted to people who are like themselves. Mirroring builds rapport with your prospect and because of similar demeanors, your prospects will feel a connection

with you.

Effective Questioning

Questioning is an integral part of effective communication. It is advisable to prepare a detailed list of questions using variety of questioning techniques like open, direct, probing, exploratory and reflective etc. There are many different types of questions so know what they are, what they are good for and when to use each of them effectively.

Telephone Qualification Process

Always qualify the business prospect on different levels. Qualify for authority - are they the decision maker? Qualify for interest - there is no point wasting your time with a prospect that simply has no interest. Telemarketing is a numbers game. It is important to identify buying signals but as soon as you ascertain that a prospect is not interested, there is no point wasting time with people who are simply not interested. End the conversation politely and move on.

Qualify your prospect

Success in cold calling means making the most of time and resources so that all your efforts will be spent on potential prospects. Qualifying your prospects is a skill that can be learned and following points should help you look for the opportunity early on.

Build rapport by acknowledging to what your prospect has to say and once common point of agreement reached, your prospect can be encouraged to get more involved in the conversation. This will let you gather the information that you need.

Ask questions to gain insight into the decision making process of the prospect's organization.

In some cases a prospect customer gives usual just send me information or call me back response, so it is important to ask for the best time you can call them back. A specific answer means that your prospect is a legitimate one. A different answer means you have to move on to the next prospect.