Outbound calling – never easy

With the apparently endless and so often repeated knock backs that outbound callers receive, it takes a special person and specific skills to last at the job more than a short time.

For typical outbound call centre recruits, as they look at the seemingly endless list of names in front of them, they are filled with doubt, fear and anxiety.

Before the first call, when they break out in a cold sweat, they are suddenly hit with a new meaning for the term ‘cold call’.

Some people never get over their call reluctance and fear. And they quickly move on to something else. Some successful operators live with that call reluctance for years, or maybe forever, but just grit their teeth and get on with the job.

A couple of keys that good coaches always impress upon raw recruits are:

• Just as you are able to control the image that you project to the world, so by being super prepared before you start calling, you can build your own confidence and convey a positive self-image.
• Before calling it is important to remind yourself that the prospects you call, can benefit from your expertise and knowledge and that you are calling to offer them something useful.

Of course, before putting yourself forward for a job in outbound calling it is important to check your attitude. Unless you are a super positive, super optimistic person, it is probably better not to apply in the first place.

Generally in the community, most people try to avoid individuals with a negative attitude. If a person with a negative attitude does outbound calling, it’s a fair bet they won’t make a success of it because there will be little rapport established.  Having a positive attitude makes a huge difference to your approach and the way you come across to your prospects.

With all outbound calling, it is the first few seconds that are critically important. The opening needs to be a major focus for the training of all outbound callers.

Essentially, when the call begins, you have just a few seconds to 'win' the prospective customer. You need to get onside with them and very quickly convince them that they should agree to proceed with the call.

When you take into account that many people are a little negative about answering the phone in the first place, it is obvious that this initial task is not easy.

Your only tool in the beginning is your voice and you must prepare for using it well – with strength and kindness and good humour. The person at the other end can ‘hear’ your smiling voice so it is a good thing to smile to the point of a grin before you begin the call.

Apart from getting the training and the people right for outbound calling, there are many other issues for managers including predictive diallers and technology.

Many predictive dialers are used responsibly by outbound telemarketers, but some are not. This, combined with increasing consumer awareness and concern about nuisance calls, is prompting national marketing organisations to think about what steps they should take to safeguard consumers’ interests. And they are also concerned about ensuring a healthy outbound market in the long term.

A well-designed predictive dialer will launch calls so that the expected number of answered calls equates to the number of available agents, given that some numbers are expected to be ‘busies’, no answers and so on.

An efficient outbound operation requires a modern module for facilitating proactive customer contact.

The system needs to include predictive and preview dialing, campaign and call list management, automated messaging and scheduled recalls. Ideally, the system also needs to intelligently match outbound calls to the appropriate agent - based on skills and availability. Automating these tasks maximises agent productivity and enhances the value of outbound customer contact campaigns.