Offshore Telemarketing – Why Distance Isn’t So Bad

Scott Edinger from the HBR Blog Network recently posted his findings about people who worked remotely from their superiors. In short, the results seem to lend some positive support which can be helpful for HR software vendors who are looking to revolutionize the worker. At the same time, it also lends some support for offshore telemarketing.

Now here’s just an excerpt detailing what he observed: “The team members who were not in the same location with their leaders were more engaged and committed — and rated the same leader higher — than team members sitting right nearby. While the differences were not enormous (a couple of tenths of a point in both categories), they were enough to provoke some interesting speculations as to why this might be happening.”

Recently there have been developments when it comes to remote business processes whether that process is in HR or in telemarketing. Edinger’s reasons however gives a good case for both:

For mobile HR

Software vendors who want to grant workers more mobility do so because of an increasing desire for workers to do their jobs out of the cubicle. In turn, there are companies who also desire this because it could potentially allow them to save up on office space without the fear of losing productivity. And speaking of which, if remote distances already increases productivity (as Edinger suggests), then that would make these companies very desirable HR leads. You already have a good reason to believe they’re interested so you should approach these prospects with more confidence. Finally, Edinger also states that remote workers can lead to a better use of virtual tools. That includes your HR software!

For offshore telemarketing services

You can increase your own productivity as well. If you’re outsourcing an offshore telemarketer, it could encourage you to collaborate more. Close collaboration is a standard that many telemarketing companies do their best uphold. Some of them will say that location doesn’t really matter but on the other hand, it can be a driving reason to not take this collaboration for granted. The distance should give your salespeople more reason to check on leads and even review recorded phone conversations. Speaking of which, many telemarketers come with their own virtual tools as well (such as their own CRM database). Like HR software, the distance will encourage your salespeople to use those tools just as it encourages your customers to use yours.

Today many people are still skeptical of outsourcing offshore and in some cases, they can be right. However, both telemarketing and HR software are both placing their focus on bridging that distance whether it’s between leaders and workers or telemarketers and salespeople. That focus can lead to more appreciation for the tools and methods used as well as their increased use.

Ultimately, it could go to show that distance isn’t actually so bad. And as Edinger puts it at the end, it could only demonstrate how communication and collaboration are what really matters despite the distance. It just so happens that distance itself is somehow acting as a strong reminder.

Organize Medical Leads According To Different EMR Concerns

Generating medical leads isn’t just about product promotion in order to attract interest. It should also be about discovering a potential customer’s needs and what they’d normally expect out of an EMR system. What’s challenging is that you have to do this without arousing suspicion or resistance. This event will most likely happen when you’re capable of tailoring an EMR system for medical institutions of all sizes ranging from small private practices to entire hospitals. It’s just a matter of organizing your prospects according to their concerns and what specific solutions you can prescribe to them.

These concerns can be divided into two concepts: affordability and application.

• Affordability – You should never ignore a prospect’s budget when you’re qualifying business leads. Some private doctors are often skeptical of EMR because of the costs it would take to implement it and maintain it in order for it to stay useful. Hospitals on the other hand, tend to manage them a little easier. In either case though, you need to offer a solution that makes a right fit with their budget (and again, not just in terms of implementation costs). For private practice, you might want to offer cheaper software and advise your prospect on easy but acceptable practices to keep those costs down. Hospitals on the other hand should know every single detail of such costs. Your sales should be ready to explain the reasons behind the price tag and stay open to negotiation.

• Application – Another issue with EMR is meaningful use. The issue seems prevalent in both hospitals and private practices with both under pressure by governments to achieve it. Unfortunately, there are a lot of things that such pressure can’t teach to your potential emr leads. All of them need to know just how an EMR system can help run the place more smoothly and your sales team should be informed of such expectations. And seeing as how you’re likely to prescribe a different solution to each one, then it’s only fitting that you educate each one differently from the other. Try to demonstrate your software solution in relation to your prospect’s respective field. Don’t hesitate to go beyond the specifications either. If you’re confident that you have a better idea, then discuss with it them.

Helping your sales team prepare for your software appointments is part of what lead generation is about. Sure some sales representatives would insist that they’d rather wing it but they shouldn’t pursue without even at least a basic understanding of what a prospect needs. The following lists just some of the mistakes that could result from a lack of preparedness:

• Offering an expensive solution – They could end up preparing a proposal that could be way beyond a prospect’s budget. On the other hand, they would’ve readied a different presentation had they known that the prospect was a private practice.

• Offering an inefficient solution – Insufficient knowledge of a prospect’s field will result in a solution that doesn’t easily adapt to their demands. Features remain unused. Costs rise up from improper usage. The loss of meaningful use incentives could have a devastating effect on their finances.

These are just some of the consequences of not organizing leads according to different kinds of EMR concerns. It leaves sales (and even sales leads) in the dark about what kind of solution to propose and could result in rough sailing throughout the end of the sales process (and beyond).

Professional Telemarketers – What Good Grammar And Attention To Detail Have In Common

Telemarketing obviously requires verbal communication. And if you can’t even get basic communication skills right, then you can forget about using it effectively. This is why good grammar is a well-defining mark of professional telemarketers.

Now there are obviously many reasons why grammar is important in telemarketing. It enables clearer understanding. And with clearer understanding, there comes clearer information. Miscommunication and misinformation are both intertwined. Good grammar is so basic yet it serves as the remedy for both! Therefore, it’s only natural that professional telemarketers should fulfill such a basic requirement.

On the other hand, is good grammar limited to only the basics? Does it play a more significant role other than sounding all nice and clear? Actually, Kyle Wiens of the HBR Blog Network, implies that it does:

“And just like good writing and good grammar, when it comes to programming, the devil’s in the details. In fact, when it comes to my whole business, details are everything.

I hire people who care about those details. Applicants who don’t think writing is important are likely to think lots of other (important) things also aren’t important. And I guarantee that even if other companies aren’t issuing grammar tests, they pay attention to sloppy mistakes on résumés. After all, sloppy is as sloppy does.”

In the case of telemarketers, the relationship between details and good grammar is even more evident. As prior stated, grammar is the key to clear communication. Clear communication in turn results in clearer information. However, clear information also requires attention to detail.

B2B telemarketers use their skills for lead generation and information is vital to that process. It’s a necessary element in lead nurturing and qualification so every detail counts! These would include a heavy amount of details like:

• The budget of the prospects
• Details about their needs
• A time and place to meet if the telemarketer is setting an appointment.

It only gets more demanding when your B2B product is highly sophisticated and complex. ERP software is a good example and its coverage of several management departments should only give you more reasons why attention to detail is critical. If your telemarketer doesn’t pay enough attention to the details of their grammar, how much worse when it comes to the details of enterprise software needs?

It already takes a while to discuss those needs over the phone so it’s very important that communication is clear. They need to pay attention to the conversation for the information that they need. Whether your telemarketers are outsourced or in-house, that requires a good grasp of grammar. Compromising the quality of communication will only compromise the quality of the ERP leads.

Some might argue that telemarketers will need more than good grammar to compete with marketers who use other approaches. But guess what? The need for good grammar hardly varies in between forms of communication. The same goes for the information and details being transmitted! So even if you have telemarketers with additional skills like email marketing, good grammar still applies! If they can’t pay attention to the grammar details of their message, how can you expect them to pay attention to the details found in business software problems? Both good grammar and attention to detail can have a lot in common!