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The National Do-Not-Call Registry has been in force for a year. Tens of thousands of companies, like yours, have made adjustments to comply. They believe they’re done. Are they? Are you?
In a do-not-call (DNC) world, how does your enterprise make pleasant and productive telephone contact with prospects and customers? After all, it’s easier to acquire and retain customers if they readily will speak to you.
I’ve outlined several possible answers to this question. Some involve very different ways of doing business that, once tested, can boost profitability. Feel free to use and adapt what you think may be suitable for your company.
Dealing With Consumer Resistance
Although it reduced employment in the telemarketing industry, the DNC list tapped into consumers’ frustration and gave them a way to act on it. Was this frustration with highly professional calls for companies and products or services that were of real interest to the individual? No.
Consumers liked such calls. In fact they bought or became qualified leads, sometimes in double-digit percents. Consumer frustration occurred with calls that were of little or no interest—calls that converted at 2 percent to 3 percent. These were gratuitous calls in the view of many receiving them.
The way to succeed at overcoming consumer resistance is for your calls to be the kind that interest the recipient. This means segmented, modeled and even individualized calls.
Here’s another way to look at this: If your current average conversion rate is 3 percent, it is likely composed of segments that convert at 10 percent or higher and other segments that convert at less than 1 percent. If you use modeling to identify and eliminate the unprofitable, low-conversion segments and call only those most likely to convert, your cost/sale becomes much lower because you don’t waste calls on those who don’t buy.
Going further, a company can use segmentation, modeling and individualization to differentiate subgroups among those most likely to buy, as well as to craft offers and scripts that are of particular interest to each group. When I did this with a campaign for the AMA’s American Medical Directory, varying the script based on the market segment, we produced sales far in excess of client projections.
The way to fail at overcoming consumer resistance is to take the shotgun approach: Spray great numbers of calls in all directions because someone on some list will buy. Your company will get a few sales this way, but at a cost. The shotgun approach drives up the cost-per-sale, reducing profits; it also reinforces and hardens consumer resistance to all calls.
In a do-not-call (DNC) world, how does your enterprise make pleasant and productive telephone contact with prospects and customers? After all, it’s easier to acquire and retain customers if they readily will speak to you.
I’ve outlined several possible answers to this question. Some involve very different ways of doing business that, once tested, can boost profitability. Feel free to use and adapt what you think may be suitable for your company.
Dealing With Consumer Resistance
Although it reduced employment in the telemarketing industry, the DNC list tapped into consumers’ frustration and gave them a way to act on it. Was this frustration with highly professional calls for companies and products or services that were of real interest to the individual? No.
Consumers liked such calls. In fact they bought or became qualified leads, sometimes in double-digit percents. Consumer frustration occurred with calls that were of little or no interest—calls that converted at 2 percent to 3 percent. These were gratuitous calls in the view of many receiving them.
The way to succeed at overcoming consumer resistance is for your calls to be the kind that interest the recipient. This means segmented, modeled and even individualized calls.
Here’s another way to look at this: If your current average conversion rate is 3 percent, it is likely composed of segments that convert at 10 percent or higher and other segments that convert at less than 1 percent. If you use modeling to identify and eliminate the unprofitable, low-conversion segments and call only those most likely to convert, your cost/sale becomes much lower because you don’t waste calls on those who don’t buy.
Going further, a company can use segmentation, modeling and individualization to differentiate subgroups among those most likely to buy, as well as to craft offers and scripts that are of particular interest to each group. When I did this with a campaign for the AMA’s American Medical Directory, varying the script based on the market segment, we produced sales far in excess of client projections.
The way to fail at overcoming consumer resistance is to take the shotgun approach: Spray great numbers of calls in all directions because someone on some list will buy. Your company will get a few sales this way, but at a cost. The shotgun approach drives up the cost-per-sale, reducing profits; it also reinforces and hardens consumer resistance to all calls.
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