Telemarketing loses popularity contest. Telemarketers win with respect and trust

Telemarketing has never been a popularity contest. If much of the public opinion we read on the subject is true, it’s already unpopular with a lot of people.

What this post deals with is the notion that, for many people making the telemarketing calls, success is dependent upon being liked, popular, or accepted in a positive way. In a reversal of roles for a moment, if you’re a telemarketer yourself and you receive a call whilst in the middle of something important, how do you feel about the noisy interruption? Chances are, if you’re a telemarketer yourself, you’ll likely give the person calling you a tougher time than most other people will.

Smiling before dialing is far from where this post is at, but if it genuinely works wonders for you, keep on doing it. The real test is to smile during the call while establishing and admitting that both you and the prospect are probably:

- unfamiliar / unknown to each other, and therefore likely to be wary and uneasy with the contact, especially at first.

- unlikely to conclude any agreement to do business together on the basis of this one call. You’re expecting too much too soon. The goal of the call is to see if grounds exist for building a relationship based on the problems you’re an ace at solving.

Getting comfort-able enough with each other to continue the conversation is important if trust is going to develop. You probably know some people you don’t particularly like yet you still have respect for them based on their achievements or trust in the value they represent. If we decide we dislike someone, we can still demonstrate respect and foster trust.

By needing to be be liked, people bring far too much pressure to bear on themselves. Moreoever they are focusing far too much on themselves and their own feelings and not enough on the prospect. Think about this for a moment: When you stop and ask a stranger in the street for directions or some information about the locality, do you concern yourself with how much they’ll like you? Of course not. You’re looking for information, not for an invitation to come and dine at their house whenever you please! Shift the focus of your attention from being liked to fostering respect and trust between you and the prospect.

Let’s take a look at another profession: Parking wardens. What thoughts come into your head? Do you share the widely held negative perception of a spoil-sport or a petty law enforcing bureaucrat with nothing better to do than make people’s lives more difficult? Some of you reading this will agree with the description above, others will say “They’re just doing their job”. How many popular parking wardens have you met? Chances are, very few. They are generally unpopular (and even treated to lack of respect, including verbal and physical abuse by many people!). Feeling better yet?

In telemarketing, especially cold calling, you’re upsetting the status quo at the prospect organisation you call and you’ll be upsetting it even more if you dare to suggest to your prospect that your organisation has the audacity to believe it can change certain situations for the better. Change frightens people, especially if there is no trust between parties. No matter how open a person may say they are to change, when we really think about it and the change process is imminent, often that same person who tells you they are an advocate for change can be found looking for ways to avoid it. Human beings like comfort zones, we like to feel safe. By contrast, we like to achieve and we crave variety. In order for us to achieve and experience variety, change is most definitely on the agenda. Who better to help us carry out change than with well qualified people we respect and trust?

So, in conclusion, if being liked is all important to you, either learn to accept that attaining overwhelming popularity as a telemarketer is unlikely, or remove yourself as far from the telephone as possible and make way for someone else to do the telemarketing.

Copyright: Shaun Gisbourne 2009

Call +44 208 133 0702 or +44 203 348 8702.

Email: shaun@phoneforbusiness.com

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