We set our recruitment bar high. Would you make the cut?

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We are the best paying lead generation company in New Zealand. Our clients have high expectations of us, so naturally, we have equally high expectations of our people. It will come as no surprise that we’re super picky about who joins our team.

Why? Well, we recruit people who differentiate us from the big, impersonal New Zealand-based or offshore call centres, and help us achieve results our clients can count on. They are the ‘face’ of our business, so we can’t afford to settle for the wrong person. We also like stayers, people we can invest in.

Every time we place a recruitment advertisement we receive hundreds of applications. But volume doesn’t mean quality, so there have been times where we’ve hired no-one at all.

What do we look for?

Great communicators. Our people have impeccable oral and written communication skills. They talk clearly and very confidently, and are easy to understand. They enjoy engaging with prospects; it’s not forced. Their maturity and professionalism shines through – these are people you can trust. And when they need to send a follow-up email it’s always grammatically correct and professional (yet friendly).

Keyboard ninjas: As part of our work we collect a lot of contact names, email addresses, phone numbers, job titles, mailing addresses, etc. These can be for lead generation or database cleansing projects. Data accuracy is crucial in our business, so excellent alpha and numeric keyboard skills are a must.

Attitude adjusted: We don’t hire students. They may be bright, lovely and enthusiastic, but we prefer our team members to come ready seasoned with exposure to the world of business, and with the EQ you only get from years of successful adult interaction and negotiation. With that knowledge comes a natural confidence and genuine empathy that you just can’t fake. Our people usually have a background in business sales/telemarketing, so they have the skills and aptitude to hit the phones running.

Self-starters. Being self-motivated is a biggie. Our team members work from their own homes, so they are disciplined and focussed. We expect our people to be at the top of their game all the time, so our working week is just 25 hours. Traditional call centres operate 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, but you can bet that their efficacy in generating opportunities goes down the longer they are on the phone. We prefer to avoid burnout – fresh is best!

Flexible and fabulous: Sometimes we need to switch campaigns at short notice. Our team members have to jump on to a new campaign, or split the effort on a project someone else is working on. The ability to absorb information and get up to speed on the spot is critical. Our people not only need to act as motivated individuals but as supportive team players.

IT’s so hot right now: Many of our team have experience in the IT sector – the technology sector is one of our sweet spots. So, while not vital, IT’s nice to have!

As with anything in life, it’s people who make a world of difference. And our guys all have an awesome attitude. As a team we celebrate each other’s wins, share experiences and take on board lessons learned. We’re all about making every client campaign the best it can be.

PS: If you think you’d make the cut, feel free to reach out to me.

lisa@hotleads.co.nz

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What’s the magic number for lead gen cold calls per day?

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The more, the better

There’s the ‘as many as possible’ crowd, who value quantity over quality. We’re talking 100-120 calls per day. And sure, that works, in its own way. But it’s hard work, and apart from a very few exceptional telemarketers, maintaining this call rate is an unrealistic and unsustainable goal unless you are working with an offshore telemarketing sweatshop. And do you seriously think your prospect can’t tell that they are being rushed through a script?

Calling by numbers

Then there’s the ‘based on my careful calculations’ group. This group follows a methodology where time is carefully broken down and allocated to research, talk time, scheduling, adding data to the CRM, scheduling meetings (if that’s the call objective), etc. I won’t bore you with the breakdown details, but this method generally calculates that a telesales person should make an average of 8 cold calls per hour, or around 60 calls a day. There’s nothing wrong with this approach, but it places the emphasis on getting through calls as a KPI, rather than getting a higher conversion rate.

Better, not more

Finally, we come to our philosophy which quite simply places the ‘quality of the call over the quantity.’ That’s not to say we don’t get through 50-70 calls a day (because we rock) – but it’s never done by sacrificing outcomes. More often than not, fewer phone calls means a higher level of engagement and longer, more in-depth conversations, equalling a better result. And that’s what we focus on.

Are you getting hung up on call numbers?

Instead of concentrating on the number of outgoing calls, how about turning it around and looking at the number of quality leads generated as your defining metric?

When you’re setting up your campaign KPIs, start at the end of the process. Trying working backwards. Ask yourself what you need to provide in order to make your lead generation campaign more effective.

As part of the process, you will also extrapolate a feel for how many calls potentially need to be made (and therefore your list size), but that should be the upper limit if you ensure that:

  1. Your list is the best it can be. How complete is it? How much time is going to be wasted finding phone numbers or tracking down the right contact? You may recall me saying in an earlier blog on databases that we’ve been provided with lists which are missing up to 30% of the contact phone numbers!
  2. Your offer / product / solution resonates with your target market. Don’t waste time and money on talking to the wrong person, or making an offer which doesn’t fit your target market and their potential needs. Test and refine it if needs be, it’s well worth the small amount of extra effort and expense to guarantee better results.
  3. Your supporting collateral is on the money. Do you have professionally prepared marketing material to support your campaign? Does it reinforce the campaign messaging, communicate the right depth of information to reassure the prospect, and provide them with a mechanism to take the offer further? If someone is too busy to talk, then sending out collateral by email (preferably) or even snail-mail is your second bite of the cherry. It can also measurably boost response rates. And while we’re at it, how’s your website looking? Does its messaging support the campaign, and do you have a landing page where you can allow prospects to ‘buy’ or , and for you to track where your leads have come from?

In a nutshell: There’s more to running a successful lead generation campaign than the number of calls you make. Think better, not more. We do.

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How to terrify your salespeople in 1 easy step

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Saying these two words will strike fear into the hearts of most salespeople: Cold. Calling.

I recently saw this tongue-in-cheek comment in another blog: What do you call a salesperson who will not cold call?  An account executive.

To be fair, we’re not all created equal. By nature, we are extroverts or introverts, or we fall somewhere in-between. The best cold-callers are extroverted and task-focused. They don’t suffer from social rejection anxiety or procrastination. They persist, stay on track, and keep on smiling, day after day.

Born, not made

Telemarketing isn’t a skill that can be learned. If a salesperson isn’t hard-wired to cold call, all the training, incentives and threats in the world won’t change them.

And your prospective customers can spot a scared caller a mile off.

A salesperson who is not suited to cold calling will fumble a script, and become tongue-tied when not using one. And they sound like unwilling hostages to an offshore call centre. Despite all of their innate drive and face-to-face charm and charisma they won’t effectively engage, extract, entice, educate, empathise and convert on a telemarketing call. Ever.

I’ll do it tomorrow

Telemarketing is a task that’s all too easy to put off. Preference is given to writing proposals, catching up on expense claims, filtering lists looking for targets they may know in person (to reduce the anxiety of talking to a stranger), increasing numbers of coffee and toilet breaks, and shifting the ‘new customer prospecting’ days to later in the week. Or the week after that.

Here’s a typical scenario: “We have a sizeable organisation with an experienced team of sales consultants, who are excellent at scoping work and closing sales. However, procrastination runs rife when it comes to picking up the phones to make cold calls and finding qualified leads. Because of this, we have an inconsistent pipeline of opportunities, which makes it difficult to accurately measure sales forecasts.”

This is a common problem. But it doesn’t matter what your salesperson’s excuse is; the issue is real and impacts on the business’ bottom line.

The outsource solution

So, what’s a realistic and cost-effective approach to dealing with it?

Savvy business owners or managers will support their sales teams by eliminating or reducing cold calling functions. They will focus on keeping their salespeople directly in front of qualified leads, where they shine and demonstrate their true value to your business.

Outsourcing is an excellent way to create leads from cold calls (or can also be highly effective when combined with a sophisticated multi-channel strategy), and to bridge the gap between cold calls and warm leads. And it delivers a measurable return on investment when you choose the right partner and deploy the right strategies.

Lisa@hotleads.co.nz

Why talk to us?

We’re not inexperienced minimum-wages telemarketers from overseas. We’re New Zealanders with backgrounds in sales and management. Our experience enables us to talk to people within an organisation at any level. And we rarely use scripts; instead, we engage in intelligent conversation to deliver your message, extract information and achieve your objectives. We’re born telemarketing professionals.

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