Phase 1

Every campaign starts with the development of a Telemarketing Plan. The Telemarketing Plan is a document that we write with your input, if possible, (you can provide your input here,) as well as the results of our own research and development. At a minimum, the Plan articulates your product's or service's features, benefits and value, and the strategy we're going to use to promote it. Telemarketing Plans usually take about a week or two to write, depending on the availability of material and the complexity of the problem; but we don't start calling until you've approved it. Writing the Plan is an important part of the process though - albeit one that we try to do as inexpensively and as well as possible, so that we can get to the business of selling for you as quickly and effectively as possible.

(To be sure, there are two maxims that underlie this approach: "Fail to plan; plan to fail" and "No plan ever survived the first encounter with the enemy." The first reminds us that some degree of planning is necessary whenever you go into battle, as you have to know what you're doing - i.e. have "conscious competence" - if you're going to be successful. At the same time, there are always things you forgot, or didn't anticipate, when planning; so adjustment is a necessary part of any implementation. And, of course, the "enemy" always gets a vote, so we have to be a little bit flexible regardless.)

The Telemarketing Plan usually contains script elements, rather than verbatim scripts, because you can't read from a script when calling high-level business decision-makers. That is, we provide our Lead Generation Specialists with specific statements and, especially, questions (such qualifying questions and probing questions,) that he or she can use to get attention, stimulate initial interest, uncover needs, build value, qualify the decision process, overcome objections and get the appointment. The Plan often also includes collateral material, sample cover letters, references, case histories, descriptions of the value proposition, email cover notes and other verbiage so that we can leave effective voice mail messages and provide effective send-outs. We also write sample openings, objections handles, and closes, as well as examples of how your company's value proposition can be communicated. In fact, ideally, the Plan will include statement describing the Economic Value to the Customer (EVC,) that can be communicated in a spreadsheet model or statement.

Obviously, The Telemarketing Plan will include your goals and objectives, budget, scheduling and logistical information, as well as the criteria that will be used for measuring success. But we try to put, in one place, all the information we need to sell effectively on your behalf.

The Telemarketing Plan also often includes the calling list, or the instructions to build the list that will be used in the test. And for this, we use a wide variety of sources to develop call lists, including our clients' in-house lists, Sales Genie, Hoovers and other commercial data bases. (We may also conduct an entire project just to compile a good list, if necessary.) The Telemarketing Plan identifies data sources so our research staff can go get the data.

And most importantly, The Telemarketing Plan includes the strategy and tactics that we're going to use to generate business for you, whether it's cold calling, pre-qualification, or executive appointment-setting - includeing how we're going to get past voice-mail and gatekeepers. Often The Telemarketing Plan also includes a discussion of why the strategy was chosen, as well as instructions and contingency plans for how to deal with any barriers we encounter once we start calling. Consequently, it also sometimes deals with the subtle sales issues, customer needs, hot buttons, competitive incumbency issues, market trends, and other factors that can impact success.

The Telemarketing Plan serves as a tool for the telemarketer to become familiar with your business efficiently and effectively, so it is, more than anything else, a training document. Because of that, though, one thing that we're often asked is why we don't just bring the telemarketer into your office for a training session? Or why not skip all the writing and just get right on the phone? The answer is that the Telemarketing Plan serves another purpose, and that is to solve the scaling problem. The Telemarketing Plan not only enables us to get our people up-and-running in a day or two, it lets us add Lead Generation Specialists efficiently and effectively when it's time to scale up the program. It also provides the insitutional memory needed if something happens to the LGS. But most important, the Telemarketing Plan lets you know what we're doing, and tells us what to do.

For that reason, the Telemarketing Plan can end up serving as a compendium of information for you on how to sell for your company. It provides a useful way for us communicate with a minimum of misunderstanding, since all of our assumptions are written down. And it is often updated with new information gathered during the course of the trial, and so it can be used as a source document for your general sales program. But for us, it is what we use to launch the trial, and insure that it is successful by making sure that the person who's doing the calling has as much information as possible to get the job done, and done right.

If you would like to speed the process of developing the Telemarketing Plan and assure that the quality is as high as it needs to be, we have provided a list of questions here that you can answer to help us develop the document. Remember, the more information you can provide, the better job we can do for you. (And remember to hit "Save" every once in a while, as your answers to these questions are really important!)

Our goal is not to sit around writing Telemarketing Plans all day. (we don't make any money on them anyway.) Our goal is to generate qualified leads for you. For as little as $800 (and rarely more than $2500,) it's a bargain.