The New Telemarketing Part Vi Why Telemarketers Prefer Tnt

Writen by Dr. Gary S. Goodman

Sixth in a series of articles, we'll discuss various issues and practices associated with modern ways of selling over the phone.

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The New Telemarketing™ is a set of selling practices designed to accomplish several things:

(1) To sell more goods and services than its predecessor, the "traditional" style;

(2) To be less offensive than its predecessor to buyers;

(3) To be consistent with a customer service style of communicating;

(4) To help in recruiting and retaining qualified phone representatives and managers; and

(5) To repair and reform the image of telemarketers in business and consumer communities.
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Traditional telemarketing is a burn out for most reps that don't have the personality, drive, or physical constitution to stomach its challenges.

It requires call after call be made to people who respond, by and large, antagonistically.

The average non-salesperson finds this regimen daunting, and continuous rejection is alien to his or her experience and sensibilities.

She doesn't communicate in an adversarial way with her friends or family, and she probably hasn't been required to do it in other business contexts. So, why should she put up with it in a phone environment?

The negatives we associate with traditional telemarketing aren't inherent, they're matters of choice and design. The scripts we use are talk-a-thons, one-way monologues that invite incessant rejection.

If we change the communication content of calls, we'll change their impact not only on clients, but on reps, as well.

For example, traditional telemarketing is geared to telling. It tells prospects about a product's features and benefits, and it tells its way to a close.

The New Telemarketing™ is consultative, and it asks its way to a sale. It's much more in keeping with the relationship values we expect from friendship, family, and customer service; its egalitarian, and not dictatorial.

Reps like to communicate in a give-and-take manner, which is the model upon which The New Telemarketing™ is built. It is low-key and not high-pressure.

This wears well on everyone.

If you train reps, as I have, in both styles, and give them a choice, they'll opt for TNT, time and again.

In a future article, we'll discuss the fact that with The New Telemarketing™ traditional objections and rejection become much less of a concern.

Dr. Gary S. Goodman, President of www.Customersatisfaction.com, is a popular keynote speaker, management consultant, and seminar leader and the best-selling author of 12 books, including Reach Out & Sell Someone®, You Can Sell Anything By Telephone! and Monitoring, Measuring & Managing Customer Service, and the audio program, "The Law of Large Numbers: How To Make Success Inevitable," published by Nightingale-Conant. He is a frequent guest on radio and television, worldwide. A Ph.D. from USC's Annenberg School, a Loyola lawyer, and an MBA from the Peter F. Drucker School at Claremont Graduate University, Gary offers programs through UCLA Extension and numerous universities, trade associations, and other organizations in the United States and abroad. He holds the rank of Shodan, 1st Degree Black Belt in Kenpo Karate. He is headquartered in Glendale, California, and he can be reached at (818) 243-7338 or at: gary@customersatisfaction.com