Wednesday, October 1, 2008

Six Mistakes That Telesales Managers Should Avoid

By Terry Stanfield

Business to business telemarketing can be challenging for both call agents and telesales managers. Many people do not respond favorably to outbound telemarketing and managers face the challenge of keeping all their agents up to date with the latest training and techniques. It is easy for both call agents and telesales managers to make mistakes when conducting calls as more and more innovative techniques become necessary to close sales.

If your telesales team is not performing as well as you would like it to, you may be making some common mistakes. Here are six mistakes telesales managers should avoid to ensure that their team is as productive and successful as possible.

Many telesales managers do not adequately prepare their call agents with tips and techniques specific to the target market they will be working with. A lack of preparation can cause both agents and managers to miss out on many potential sales.

When call agents talk too much and listen too little they loose potential sales; this is one of the major mistakes telemarketers make. The same is true for telesales managers; they need to listen to the concerns and ideas of their team to be able to manage effectively.

When telesales managers fail to implement positive change they also risk forfeiting success in business to business telemarketing. New techniques, scripts, and approaches are always evolving so be sure to embrace change for your team to stay on top.

Another common mistake is failing to follow up with team members when a change has been made or new policy implemented. When a telesales manager does not follow up to ensure changes are working or being implemented properly these innovations are wasted.

Some telesales managers have a hard time dealing with challenges and finding solutions. Because telesales is a tough field to be successful in telesales managers must be able to identify and solve problems instead of ignoring them.

As with managers in any industry, telesales managers are responsible for their entire team and their success as well as their failures. Don't make the mistake of passing blame when something goes wrong or if your team is underperforming; the success of your team is your responsibility.

Business to business telemarketing is a challenging field, but with the right attitude and strategy you can be a successful telesales manager. Avoid these common mistakes and you will be on your way to the top.

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The Power of Having The Right Keywords in a PPC Campaign

By Brian Basch

The Secret to a Good PPC Campaign is choosing the best group of keywords. It's important to be certain that you've managed to find high standard keywords and phrases to get the best outcomes. Develop a comprehensive list and find out all of the options that are open to you. Begin with a current popular keyword -- for example the word "credit", many people search for this word online, but it is difficult to rank well with this word because it's used for lots of other advertisements. So how can you increase your options? Change your approach and include related terms.

Consider how searchers could be using the keyword in question. Someone searching for the word "credit" may be attempting to find out ways to get a credit report, ways to improve personal credit which lenders will give loans to people with poor credit or ways to consolidate credit card debit. When you've gotten a range of concepts that the word could be related to, then try to condense them a bit.

These longer concepts become a series of terms that people search for, all related to your basic keyword. "Credit" becomes "free credit report", "get better credit", "bad credit loan" and "consolidate credit cards". There are lots of other options, and these words are just a little different from the original keyword. You can keep expanding from there.

Try to stick with the basics and don't over think the whole campaign. Perhaps you can start to ad specific company names to the list, but remember that it has to relate to the word "credit". Your list should be starting to grow by now and you might even be able to divide it up into different keyword groups.

Try adding an extension like .com or .org or .net to the end of the search term. You can even try to target specific countries like .au for Australia or .ca for Canada. People still include these in their search sometimes. By including them in your ads, you are increasing your chances of a targeted click and sale.

General keywords are often a waste of resources as the bidding for these is fierce. Try to concentrate on related terms and phrases. Phrases can be turned around so that the same words can reach a different set of viewers. Again, this is all about getting inside your customers heads and trying to see through their eyes. What is it that they will type when they want your product?

A good keyword list is the best way to start out a PPC campaign. Once you get a winning combination of words you are on your way to success.

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