Selling through the telephone is hard work, isn’t it? If you have just agreed with this statement - I guess that you have had a go at voice broadcasting. Thousands of salespeople have ‘earned their stripes’ by selling on the phone. This happened to me when I tried selling consumer products, in the City of Los Angeles (I lasted for a whole five days).

Five times the response of direct mail.

Voice broadcasting is inexpensive - on a cost per contact basis. However, money is a relative commodity, isn’t it? Yes, voice broadcasting is inexpensive - when you compare it to, say, direct mail. However, it is also extraordinarily effective.

This is because it is a live medium, where objections can be dealt with, appointments made and decisions reached - just as in a face to face selling situation. BUT without the time involved in travelling, not to mention the training and experience which is required to become an effective salesperson.

Which perhaps explains why it can typically generate five times the sales / results produced by a direct mail shot. Interesting, isn’t it?

Here, then, are some of the major rules of voice broadcasting:

Purposes

As always in marketing - decide what your purpose are. Do you want people to request further information? Are you trying to organise sales meetings? Or can you actually take orders over the phone?

Goals

Always set goals for the number of broadcasts, and / or the number of Decision Maker conversations, or the number of ’successes’ (appointments, direct sales, etc) which you will achieve for each session. It is amazing what people will achieve, if you set them a target.

Database, Database, Database

Have you heard the old one about houses? (Question: What are the three most important things to take into consideration when you are buying a house? Answer: Location; Location; and Location). It’s the same with voice broadcasting. The three key things are your Database, your Database and (yes, you’ve guessed it), your Database.

————— more Rules next time————————–