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Although no one can deny its importance to lawn care sales, telemarketing can be down right frustrating. Here are a few tips by Holganix CEO, Barrett Ersek on how to telemarket the right way. 

• What’s the goal? Before you even pick up the phone and start dialing, you need to know what your goal is. For example, is your goal to close a sale? To get a lead? To gain permission to measure a lawn? Have the goal in mind, and then direct your conversation around your mission.

• Script it! It goes without saying that working off a script makes things easier for telemarketing newbies. Create a script and role-play with colleagues or friends until you feel comfortable with the content. If you are new to telemarketing, don’t be alarmed if you don't get sales for the first week or two of telemarketing. It takes several days of practice for a telemarketer to get into their “groove”.

• Make it a habit. Treat telemarketing like going to the gym - stay disciplined, work at it every day, and your persistence will pay off. If you take short cuts and telemarket only a couple days of the week, than telemarketing will be a waste of time.

• Don’t give your prospect the opportunity to say no. Don’t ask your prospect a question that will give them the opportunity to say no. If the wife says you need to speak with the husband, ask: “Would Tuesday or Thursday be best?”. If you want to get prepays, ask: “Would you like to prepay or autopay?”. If you want to ask for a sale, say: “I’m going to sign you up for the first application, and if you don’t like it call, and I’ll cancel free of charge. But, if you do like it, I’ll keep on coming out until you say otherwise. What’s your email and I’ll send you a confirmation with everything in writing?”.

• Keep them talking for as long as possible. The longer you can engage with a prospect on the phone, the easier and easier it is to close the sale. Whatever you do, keep talking… until they hang up!

• Don’t leave a voicemail. Don’t leave a voicemail when you telemarket. Instead, call back in a couple hours or the following day. If you leave a voicemail or two and keep calling, you’ll seem pushy (or at least pushier than usual!).

• Understand your ROI. Measure your telemarketing to understand your ROI (Return On Investment). Barrett always kept a list on hand, and marked when a prospect didn’t answer the phone, asked for a callback or additional information, provided an email or closed the sale. By collecting data, you can tell which hours are best to telemarket in your region, and how many calls you need to initiate in order to make a sale. For example, it might take you 25 calls to get 5 prospects. Out of those 5 prospects, you might get 1 sale. And, 25 calls may take 1 hour to complete. Your ROI? 1 sale per hour.

• Capture the email address. Whatever you do, make sure you are capturing email addresses. Even if your prospect isn’t interested in buying from you today, he may be ready to purchase from you tomorrow or next week or next month. Add him to an email list that you can target on a once a week or once every other week basis. Slowly drip information on your prospect, and he will become a warmer lead on his own.

• Couple telemarketing with other sales and marketing techniques. Telemarketing on its own can be a super effective way of gaining customers. However, when coupled with another form of sales or marketing, your ROI on telemarketing can increase. Consider coupling telemarketing with a social media campaign, email marketing or direct mail piece. In this way, you are reaching your prospects through several different channels and they’ll remember your name when their pain is at its greatest.

• Make it fun! Telemarketing can be tough and sometimes a tad bit depressing. Make telemarketing fun for you and your team. Throw a pizza party or open some beers. You can also boost morale by holding sales competitions featuring prizes. Don’t be afraid to let loose and have fun on the job.