Brand awareness is a key part of business success. After all, if people don’t know who you are, they
can’t possibly utilise your business’ products or services! Read more…

Think telemarketing is all about the hard sell? Not these days.

Modern marketing has evolved beyond pushy sales tactics. Now, it’s all about building brand awareness, understanding your customers, and delivering exceptional value.

Telemarketing is no longer just for sales: it has evolved to become a valuable tool that can help grow any business. Whether your aim is to gain new leads, update your database or create more authentic relationships with your customers, telemarketing can deliver.

Learn about the many benefits of telemarketing for your business below.

The Benefits Of Telemarketing – More Than Just Sales

Nurture Customer Relationships

In the digital age, it can be challenging to build genuine, one-to-one relationships with your customers. Most marketing is done online, via commenting, emails and messaging, making it difficult to create a human connection.

But a personal, human connection is exactly what today’s consumers are looking for.

They don’t want to interact with a fake business persona; they want to hear from the people behind your brand. But most business owners don’t have time to call and chat with every customer to nurture those relationships.

Relationship building is one of the key benefits of telemarketing. It allows your customers to have a genuine conversation with a real person rather than a chat-bot. They can speak with someone who can directly answer their questions and address their concerns rather than having to search through a FAQ page on your website.

Better Understand Your Customers

There are various ways to gather data about your customers. You can analyse the data from your different marketing channels, send out surveys via email, or interact directly with your audience on social media.

These methods can help you to understand your customers for sure. But, one of the best ways to get accurate, up-to-date information is to actually talk to them.

Why not use telemarketing to gain a deeper understanding of your customers? We can conduct a specialised campaign to gather reviews and measure the levels of satisfaction or dissatisfaction.

We can run surveys to find out your customers’ pain points so you can better tailor your products, services, or marketing efforts to your ideal audience.

Enhance Customer Experience

Customer service and marketing are no longer two distinct concepts; they are inseparable. Satisfied customers are more likely to become loyal customers, and loyal customers are more likely to become advocates for your business.

One of the most underrated benefits of telemarketing is its ability to enhance customer experience. It allows both prospective and existing customers to feel like valued acquaintances, not just another number in your follower count.

Telemarketing can be used to follow up with your customers to get feedback after a transaction or interaction with your business. This helps you improve your customer journey and make sure your clients feel valued.

Keep Your Database Updated

Did you know that it costs five times more to gain a new client than to retain an existing one? That’s why it’s so important to keep in touch with your current customers, even between purchases.

But many business owners don’t have time for this kind of one-to-one interaction. They might have a CRM populated with names, numbers and email addresses, but have no idea if that information is up to date, let alone if the list contains clients who are still interested in purchasing from them!

Telemarketing is a fantastic way to update your database. Experienced telemarketers can work through your customer list and ensure the contact information is correct. They can find out which clients are still engaged and active, and identify who might benefit from your offerings.

This is exactly what the Hot Leads team did for the NZTE in a specialised telemarketing campaign.

Practically Updated

With a CRM crammed full of contacts that hadn’t responded to previous emails, NZTE weren’t sure which of the businesses were still active and who might benefit from their value-packed digital platform.

We updated contact details, created connections with customers, and provided 500 hot leads interested in doing business with NZTE.

Does your customer database need dusting off? Are you looking for cost-effective ways to build authentic connections with your customers? Why not experience the benefits of telemarketing by working with the experts at Hot Leads.

Contact us today to find out more about how we can help your business grow.

What would happen to your business if the number of direct competitors in your industry doubled? This is a daunting prospect for any business owner, but especially difficult😔 during a pandemic, when the selling environment is already challenging.

This is exactly the situation LJ Hooker Huntly real estate agent Vangie Philpot faced this year. During an already slow market, the number of agents in the area increased from five to eleven!

But instead of worrying about the competition, Vangie focused on finding ways to stand out from the crowd, working with Hot Leads on a targeted telemarketing campaign.

Collecting Hot Leads For Future Gains

Competition wasn’t the only challenge Vangie faced before connecting with Hot Leads. The market was also in a sluggish phase, with vendors in no rush to release their properties in the midst of a pandemic and during the school holidays.

Sellers are willing to play the waiting game, holding onto their homes until the market changes. But slow markets don’t necessarily mean a lack of opportunities. This is the ideal time to build connections and relationships with clients so that they’re warmed up and ready to work with you when they decide to sell.

A telemarketing campaign conducted by Hot Leads helped lay the foundations for solid relationships and kept Vangie busy during what would otherwise have been a slow period.

“My colleagues are excited that I’m busy appraising even though they aren’t! While the market is slow right now, I'm still getting in touch with these people and building a connection for when they are ready to sell.

[Telemarketing] has helped me to get in front of people and given me long term leads for when they might come back in a year’s time.”

The Perfect Fit

The thing about competition is that no matter how many competitors surround you, they are not you. Even within the same niche, there are those who offer variations in quality, differentiation personalities, and have varied ways of presenting themselves and their products.

In Vangie’s case, she recognised the value of additional marketing to help her get ahead of the competition. But she didn’t just choose any telemarketing business. She wisely selected a 100 % Kiwi telemarketing and lead generation company with a unique understanding of NZ businesses.

The partnership was a successful one.

“I’ve known other agents who have been to different leads companies, ended up paying way more with less results – no reports like Hot Leads provide. The written reports are great.

Hot Leads spoon-fed the info to me. I have all the leads in my database because of them, with a comprehensive reports, which puts me in a good position to capitalise on the start they made with each of the individuals.”

Fantastic Foundations

There’s no good time in business to sit back and wait for things to improve. Slow markets are theideal opportunity to connect with potential clients, get your name out there, and build relationships in preparation for the future.

Whether you’re faced with increased competition, a slow phase, or reluctant sellers, it’s essential to get keep looking for ways to lay the foundations for a positive outcome down the line. Telemarketing with Hot Leads helped Vangie get ahead of the game. She booked an impressive 43 appraisal appointments from her campaign and has some solid leads to keep her busy for the next few months.

“I recommend Hot Leads because they did a really excellent job. They did their very best for me, even though the vendors are just not ready right now. They’ve done so much, I’m happy. The report was really good; they spoon-fed the information to me, and it will always be there for me to refer to. This gives me the chance to present myself in the best way, and the campaign was done professionally compared to other agents.

I’m so happy I found them.”

If you’re looking for an edge over your competition, why not try a telemarketing campaign? It could be just the thing to get your name out there to your customers and set you up for a successful future.

Get in touch with the Hot Leads team today to discuss how we can help you stand out from the competition.

What Is A Sales Pipeline?

Funnels, pipelines, leads and conversions – sometimes sales lingo sounds more like a plumbing job than a marketing process!

In the practical sense, a sales pipeline describes the process you use to deliver consistent leads (aka potential customers) into your business.

It can help to visualise your pipeline as the journey a prospective client takes with your business, from the first time they become aware of you to developing interest and (hopefully) making a purchase.

Every business is different, but when it comes to sales, there are generally five stages to the salespipeline:

  1. Initial contact
  2. Qualification
  3. Meeting
  4. Proposal
  5. Close

How A Hot Pipeline Can Help Your Business

Wouldn’t it be great if all your prospective customers found you on the internet, approached you, and made a purchase on the spot?

This may happen once in a blue moon, but to really grow your business, you need to be proactive about discovering and nurturing your leads as they move through your sales pipeline.

A study by the Harvard Business Review revealed an 18% difference in revenue growth betwee companies that had a defined formal sales process and those that didn’t.

When you have a healthy pipeline, you’ll have the data necessary to improve your sales process and forecast business results. Plus, you’ll have a better idea of how and where to allocate resources to close sales and get a more precise overview of the health of your business – now and in the future.

Why Outsource Your Telemarketing?

In the real world, pipes allow something (such as water) to travel from a source to a destination. But of course, you need there to be a source! If your water pipes are connected to an empty tank, they’re not going to be able to deliver.

The same goes for a sales pipeline. You need a steady flow of interested customers to grow your business.

One of the most important aspects of a sales pipeline is the number and quality of leads. Naturally, you’ll get the most value out of sales-ready, warmed up customers rather than people who aren’t really in the market for what you have to offer.

But getting these high-value warm leads requires skill and time that many businesses just don’t have. Would you rather have your sales consultants spend hours every day cold calling to come up with a list of warm leads? Or would you rather hand them a list of prospects who are already interested in buying and let them spend their time closing deals?

By outsourcing your telemarketing, you can do just that.

This is what New Zealand’s largest independent insurance brokers, BrokerWeb Risk Services (BWRS), discovered when undertaking a test campaign with the Hot Leads team.

Hot Results

Throughout the telemarketing campaign we ran for one of our insurance clients, we were able to quadruple the number of leads for one of their key referrers and finished up the campaign with a mindblowing conversion rate of 55%!

Thanks to this investment in outsourced telemarketing, our client created a smoking hot sales pipeline with more than 80 telephone appointments and 75 email enquiries to follow up with.

A telemarketing campaign with Hot Leads helps your business skip to the good part: you spend less time cold calling dead leads and more time closing deals with clients who actually look forward to hearing from you.

Sound good?

If you’d like to work on your sales pipeline with a hot telemarketing campaign, contact Hot Leads today to find out how we can help.

lisa@hotleads.co.nz

Cold calling sucks

As a real estate agent, you have probably perfected your marketing funnel. After all, there are plenty of options to promote visibility and get in front of your ideal audience.

There are traditional marketing methods like letterbox flyer drops, sponsoring events in the community, making connections with people at open homes and then following up with them via phone or email… it’s like you are running a well-oiled marketing machine.

But then, pesky old Covid pops up again and spoils all your plans.

Letterbox drops are off the table. Open homes are out of the question. And all of those amazing community events have been cancelled or postponed. What can you do?

Well, you could try and pick up the phone for some cold calling. But the thought of that probably sends you into a downward spiral. Who would you call, what would you say?

What if you could have all the benefits of cold calling leads without actually making any of the calls yourself? That would be pretty amazing right?

Now is the perfect time for telemarketing.

Now, is quite literally the perfect time for gaining visibility through telemarketing. Especially if you are using an expert, professional company. Why?

Well, there are a number of reasons:

  • The property market is booming – despite lockdowns, homes are still selling above CV
  • During lockdown restrictions, people are spending a lot more time in their homes. So,
    • You can get them on the phone easier
    • They are thinking about their life and property circumstances
    • They have plenty of time to consider what their next big life changes will be
    • The weather is starting to get warm and people are making plans
  • New property valuations are just around the corner and people are interested in maximising the return on their investments

But, you need to ensure that your telemarketing campaign takes the right approach. People don’t want to be bombarded with pushy phone calls.

Which is why using the experts can really help you create successful results. Recently, we ran a campaign for a local Franklin agent. The campaign was completed during level 4 lockdown, so we tailored our approach to maximise positivity in a time of uncertainty and ensured the appointment process was pivoted to work within lockdown restrictions.

The end result? In a 40-hour test campaign we generated 18 appraisal appointments, 70 email opt ins, 72 requests for follow ups and 2 requests to discuss the purchase of a property. So, the time is right!

The sun Is shining so make hay!

Franklin is a farming community, so this cliche is very appropriate… You gotta make hay when the sun is shining!

Right now, the sun is shining for a targeted telemarketing campaign. With many other marketing tactics off the table for realtors, telemarketing allows you to stay visible and generate enquiry. While all those other agents are fading into the background, you could be getting yourself out there and generating visibility. Whether people are wanting to sell their homes now or in the new year, you want to be getting in front of them now.

A targeted telemarketing campaign can secure qualified appraisal appointments, build your email database of property decision makers, and keep you active and visible.

Our professional team plant the seeds for a long term relationship of trust. That way, when you contact the warm leads for a follow up, they already feel like they know you a little bit. You start partway down the trust relationship, instead of floundering at the beginning.

It’s true you can’t do open homes and mail drops right now, but that doesn’t mean you can’t still market your real estate business. If you are interested in chatting more about getting yourself out there, then get in touch with the Hot Leads team today.

Yeah, but nah. We understand that you may have had trouble finding the right mix of resource to bring onboard.

But while we agree that it’s hard to find that elusive person who can understand your technology, clearly articulate the business benefits it offers, and talk engagingly to your target market, it doesn’t mean they don’t exist. They just work for us!

Case in point

Meet ecommbi. They deliver fully integrated ‘best of breed’ omnichannel eCommerce and Online solutions. Their enterprise-scale platforms provide the all-important single customer, single product and single inventory views, with a focus on middleware and data management.

General Manager Glen Moody says their business considered and abandoned several potential sales models, including hiring salespeople to focus on pipeline building. “The people we found who had strong lead generation skills didn’t have the grasp of technology we needed. And the ones with great technical sales skills didn’t have the cold calling experience or initial contact skills. It was a real issue for us.”

Finding the right sales model (and people) was an exercise in frustration. Then ecommbi met us.

We do technology, and we do it well!

Now Hot Leads is not known for shying away from a challenge. Our investment in hiring local businesspeople to do lead generation has paid off time and time again when undertaking campaigns for the technology sector. We not only offered ecommbi the skills and experience to run sophisticated campaigns, but the ability to reach and have intelligent, robust conversations with the people they’d identified as hot prospects.

Our immersion approach to learning about their business and solutions paid off. “Our Hot Leads’ consultant now probably knows more about sales in our business than 90% of the people who work here, which is a powerful thing,” says Glen.

That’s a win in anyone’s books. But even better, we delivered ecommbi real business value. “Using Hot Leads has been extremely cost-effective because of the high value of each sale. Our ROI is much better than if we’d had to find, hire, and train an in-house lead generation resource.”

(Glen also said lots of other really nice things about us which you can read here).

We’re not a one-hit IT wonder

Glen and ecommbi aren’t the only ones to appreciate our expertise in the technology space. For example, Lisa Nicks, GM of Sales (NZ) for Australian business solutions company, Fusion5, also gave us the big thumbs up.

“Fusion5 provides ERP, CRM and HCM business applications into SMB and Enterprise organisations across Australia and New Zealand. Recently, Fusion5 hired Hot Leads to execute a telesales campaign in order to generate and drive new business leads specific to the ERP space. We found Lisa and her team extremely professional in their approach in understanding our requirements before the campaign kicked off, as well as the execution and follow-up. At all times, we were in sync with Hot Leads on the expectations and co-ordination of next steps, as there was constant communication. The campaign has been a success to Fusion5.”

So, if you’ve always thought that you’d never find the IT sales skills you need in a lead generation company, think again!

lisa@hotleads.co.nz.

New Zealand has now been in lockdown for a week and we’ve all been busy preparing to do things differently in many respects. Most of us are working from home (WFH the new 2020 acronym), mitigating the family requirements fully blended with work responsibilities, and trying not to freak out about how we all ended up here in such a short time. Seriously, what the heck just happened?

Like many businesses, we’ve had to close the office doors, however, for the Hot Leads team it remains business as usual, now from the safety of our homes. Whilst we can’t meet face-to-face, we are available for video meetings, emails and phone calls. We will continue to deliver and maintain the best service possible and welcome our valued clients to communicate with us in their usual way.

This is a time we have not experienced before and we are facing our own unique challenges, but Kiwis are resourceful by nature – tap into your can-do and make the best of the now.

A good time for housekeeping.

When I say housekeeping, screw the vacuuming. Like everything, this too shall pass. How can you make the most of this time? There’s no time like the present to get your customer or prospect lists up to date and squeaky clean. You’d be surprised at how many out-of-date, poorly formatted databases we see. The quickest way to pour your marketing funds down the drain, is to send your message to the wrong people, phone numbers, email or mailing addresses. Check out our blog on database cleansing and feel free to give me a call if you need assistance.

When the going gets tough, the tough reinvent!

If your business is struggling – don’t give up.

Get your creative juices flowing and think outside the square.

How can your business adapt to meet today’s market, which is so different from the market only a few weeks ago?

If you need to, and can, reinvent the wheel of how/what/where/when you do business. Go for it!

A diamond is just a chunk of coal that did well under pressure.

Keep pushing through with initiatives that work for your business. Communicate with customers, look for new business, realise opportunities that lie within new and existing relationships. Don’t fall into the wonky pipeline trap – when we come out the other side, will you have a strong sales pipeline, or will you be starting from ground zero? Starting from ground zero will only extend the struggle. Be strong. Be ready to fly through the clouds and swoop to close business you have nurtured or developed because you didn’t bury your head in the sand when things were tough.

How can we help?

If you need to deliver a message, be it the same or a different pitch, feel free to give us a call to discuss working through your plan.

We are a team of Kiwi professionals who are highly adaptive and have the skills to support your business, so if you need to think outside the square, we can too – just let us know your requirements and we’ll get through this together.

0800 HOT LEADS 0800 62 33 11 021 797 919

Remember that the rainbow, comes after the rain.

While these are challenging times for all New Zealanders, as well as for people around the world, with care, kindness and compassion we will prevail.

Lastly, a huge thank you to all those frontline people who, in many cases, are putting themselves at risk to make us and our families and friends safer.

Stay safe, stay strong, take care and keep in touch.

Lisa and the Hot Leaders

Sadly, it often takes a bad experience with a telemarketing service to appreciate a good one.

One of the most constant pieces of feedback we get from new clients is the difference they experience working with us compared with their previous lead generation partners.

In our latest case study, Brendan Drury, Orbit World Travel’s Managing Director said: “From my perspective, the difference between using Hot Leads and our results from the previous two to three years is like comparing night and day.”

Here comes the sun again.

After outsourcing their lead generation services to a local company for several years, Brendan wasn’t happy with the results. A lack of quality information combined with a disappointing volume of appointments led them to pull the plug on their investment. Dark days, indeed!

And he’s not alone. We’ve won the hearts of many clients who have been just about ready to give up on finding a telemarketing company they can trust to deliver results.

So what makes us shine so bright?

1. We keep a tight focus on the quality of the data we collect – making sure it’s accurate, current and appropriate. As far as we’re concerned, near enough is never good enough.
2. We find the people you need to connect with – we’re great at tracking down those hard-to-find-and-even-harder-to-reach decision-makers. Yes, we’re rottweilers of the telemarketing world, smart, strong, tenacious and well-trained!
3. We make you look good – we’re professional, local, friendly, approachable and take pride in representing your brand and explaining your value proposition. We think on our feet and don’t use scripts, so the people we call won’t even realise that we aren’t your employees. Our consultants get rave reviews!
4. We help you break into new markets – we’ve delivered significant, high-value opportunities to our customers in industry sectors they’ve only dreamed of penetrating. We’ve literally seen jaws drop when our clients see who we’ve arranged for them to meet.
5. We generate detailed reporting – we collect a wealth of valuable information, so you always know what’s in the pipeline.
6. We give valuable advice – we can help you improve outcomes through our knowledge and experience.
7. And we do it all with a smile. Because we’re doing what we love.

Ready to walk into the light? Call us.

lisa@hotleads.co.nz

 

We’ve just published our first Hot Leads ‘Essential Guide’ to Lead Generation. It’s packed full of practical, step-by-step ‘need to know’ stuff that you well…need to know, to run a telemarketing campaign that will seriously boost your sales pipeline. As written by the experts (that’s us).

Why do you need to read up on telemarketing? Isn’t it all pretty straightforward?

Telemarketing is one of the most effective methods of lead generation. But its success isn’t random, and it doesn’t come without planning.

Great marketers and sales professionals apply best practice to deciding on, setting up, running and measuring a campaign that delivers value – and, importantly, a return on investment. They understand how to amplify a campaign’s impact and to present their brand professionally and consistently.

Become a lead generation know-it-all – for FREE

It doesn’t matter if you’re an experienced sales or marketing manager looking for new tips to boost your campaign outcomes, or you’re just exploring the possibilities for your business and want to understand the process.

Either way, we’ve got you covered. Because one thing is for certain – when you download and read our FREE eBook you’ll improve your know-how, starting with:

  1. Know your objectives and define what constitutes success
  2. Know your target market
  3. Know how to get a great prospect list
  4. Know how to design and test a compelling campaign
  5. Know how to work your CRM
  6. Know how to put together the perfect lead gen team
  7. Know your next steps! (Your campaign checklist).

Get your FREE DOWNLOAD here! Happy reading!

lisa@hotleads.co.nz

We do a lot of work in the not-for-profit (NFP) sector. And while all our clients are important to us, I must admit that helping others ‘do good’ gives us a big case of the warm fuzzies.

There are countless businesses and organisations doing wonderful work in New Zealand, so trying to catch the attention of the people who can help make the difference to their critical and ongoing fundraising efforts is critical.

That’s where we come in. You see, we know that a friendly chat goes a long way towards reminding people that their help is genuinely needed and appreciated.

In the Pink

We recently had a chance to help New Zealand’s Breast Cancer Awareness Foundation. Like most NFPs, they need to be sure every marketing initiative is targeted and cost effective.

Nicky Sinclair-Perkins, the Foundation’s Campaigns Manager, called us as they were looking for a way to get new businesses to support their work – in particular their Pink for a Day campaign.

With a limited budget she said it was super important to know that the Foundation’s brand was in safe hands.

Her confidence in us was well placed. We’re passionate about everything we do but this one really struck a chord, as almost everyone in our team knew someone affected by breast cancer. Shockingly, one in nine Kiwi women are diagnosed with breast cancer at some point in their lives.

Here are some far more positive figures. We made 2030 calls and signed up 158 new businesses that wanted to be involved in the Foundation’s work.

We also followed up all those calls with a personalised email, so they really felt they were getting involved and were part of the team. That made a huge difference.

Great results

In the end, one in every four organisations that registered for Pink for a Day came from the people we called.

That meant the Foundation was able to speak to thousands more people about breast cancer awareness. Better still that helped raise over $150,000 for breast cancer education, research and support.

Not only that, but we were also able to give Nicky and her team a list of new businesses that were keen to be involved in the future.

“The results were great,” says Nicky. “It was a successful campaign and we are very happy with the outcome.”

If you’d like to read more about the Breast Cancer Awareness Foundation NZ campaign, then check out the case study.