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You're about to launch a major telephone campaign to shore up your circulation and compensate for a recent uptick in churn on the back end. Corporate management is counting on you--the campaign is a big investment and you must succeed. You've pulled a list, cleaned it, checked it and have a lot of confidence in it. You've got a script from last year, and it seems okay--but is it? Is it clear, concise, quick, user-friendly to caller and customer alike? Just how important are scripts, anyway?
Simply put: Extremely important. The script is your anchor, the tool that can either make or break a sale. And with new Federal Trade Commission rules in place, your script has become even more critical. According to the FTC's telemarketing sales rules, not only are your phone reps restricted to calling customers within a certain time period, they must clearly identify what publication they're calling from, and, most crucial, they must oblige any customer who asks to have his or her name removed from a telemarketer's list. Whether you're on a consumer title looking for new business or renewals, or a trade magazine trying to requalify target readers, these seven ingredients for developing effective, successful scripts should be an integral part of your approach.
Do some strategic attention-grabbing
"There's an art and science to any script," says Gary Rich, president of Subscription Marketing Services, a telemarketer that is a unit of Chicago-based ICT. "The science part is the introduction and legalese. The art is capturing someone's attention in a short period of time. After all, they weren't waiting for your call, and it's likely you interrupted whatever they were doing. Try to get them to refocus."
To do that, it may help to grease the skids. Try sending potential subscribers a copy of your magazine before the call campaign gets started. This helps ensure that the targets recognize the name of your title. "To bring home the sale, we tell people we're calling from a magazine they've recently become familiar with," says Sylvia Sierra, circulation manager of Potomac, Maryland-based Phillips Business Information, publisher of 11 trade titles. "Then, we tell them that in order to keep getting it for free, they just need to verify whether they want to keep receiving it."
Don't get caught in a script glitch
"Our quality-assurance division tries to anticipate everything, including any possible rebuttal a customer might make," says Rich. "The telephone reps need to be prepared for what they might hear." In addition, each script has to be clear and concise so the customer knows exactly what the magazine offers editorially and at what price. "You don't want your script to confuse someone with any other facts that will cloud the issue," he adds.
To bolster the script itself, Rich suggests sending copies of the magazine, any promotions related to the title and the media kit to telephone reps. These materials will help explain who the target audience is and what the respondents may say to an offer. "Our trainers explain the ins and outs of specific titles," he adds. "We used to do work for Bowling Digest. In the script, we knew that readers wouldn't say they didn't have time to read a bimonthly immediately. But our script emphasized the fact that the techniques to improve your bowling game that are included in the magazine would always be valid and helpful to them."
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This is especially important because telemarketers have a limited time to make their pitch, and the script has to build in every possible question a customer might have. "When we sit down to develop a script, we try to learn about the product and how best to present it so that in a short call we can convert that person into a new subscriber or renewer," says Thomas Olson, president of Entertel, Inc., a Lenexa, Kansas, outbound telemarketing firm. "It takes a lot of understanding of why people are reading it now, why they may have stopped reading it or why they read it in the first place."
Respect the audit bureaus
That means getting your script approved by BPA International or the Audit Bureau of Circulations before you start any campaign. Your scripts have to follow the rules established in the audit statement, including leaving room for a yes/no option and a place for the telephone representative to sign the form. Most important, the audit bureau must approve the personal identifier question. Rita Stanley, president of Circulation Concepts, a Los Angeles-based circulation consulting firm. says you have to be very careful that the question is personal enough, but not offensive.
That personal identifier question has to change annually. This means that one year you can ask for a maiden name, for example. and then the next year ask when that customer started at his or her current job. "That question needs to be clear cut but not too personal," says Susan Lambert, senior associate director of circulation at Cleveland-based Penton Publishing. "BPA will randomly call some of the sources, asking the personal question and every script question. This is comparable to a signature on the form."
Keep the tone professional
"The worst thing to do is get too chatty with a customer or refer to them by their first name instead of being professional," says Rich. "A lot of people may want to carry on a conversation. but your phone representatives have to try to control the direction."
In addition, your phone reps should avoid pressure tactics, and should not ad lib. "Even on requalifications, we don't want people to feel forced to answer questions on the phone," says Sierra. "We make sure the telemarketing bureau doesn't insist on them taking the time then to answer requalification questions. Usually, if they're the right audience, they love the magazine and we're better off doing a follow-up mailing than pressuring them to spend the time on the phone."
Keep the telephone pitch quick
In most cases, people aren't going to stay on the phone too long. "With a renewal, you're selling convenience and price," says Rich. "With new business, you have to find a way in three sentences to create a mental image for the customer. For example, with TV Guide, most people know that it has listings, but people also know they can get a free television listing in their Sunday paper. The phone representative has to create a value for the customer, explaining why TV Guide is better than a Sunday listing. That explanation will then crystallize in the reader's mind."
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Any pitch beyond three minutes is too long, adds Olson. In addition, most people remember only seven items following a question, so keep open-ended requalification questions to a minimum. "The law requires you to ask permission to proceed with a call after the pitch," he says. "Most people will say go ahead, but it's important to ask whether it's a good time. If you're calling within the b-to-b environment, a person might have just come out of a budget meeting or may have just had a confrontation with a boss. The script has to build in a sense of respect for a customer's time."
If it's a bad time, most telemarketing professionals emphasize trying to set a call-back time so that the customer can somewhat anticipate a return call.
Those logistical problems get more complicated with voice mail and answering machines. Technology has made getting access to top-level people much more difficult for telemarketers. "I once set up a telemarketing test for a beauty salon title on a Monday. That's the day most beauty salons are closed," says Stanley "You have to know the best times to reach your audience as well as how long you can keep them on the phone."
However, voice mail can become another distinct selling opportunity. "The first thing that is vital in a telemarketing script is the message you're leaving on voice mail," says Betty Shapiro, president of BestTel Inc., a Lake Success, New York-based business-to-business telemarketing company "It must have enough of a hook so the person will call you back. That's where it's hardest. Once you've got someone on the phone, you can be as charming as you need to be. People don't hear words, they hear an attitude, a voice, enthusiasm. After that, they listen for the content. That's why your message has to be compelling."
Don't oversell
"Chances are, customers know what the magazine is about, especially when it comes to consumer titles," says Entertel's Olson. Their recognition of the name is often what motivates the subscriber to listen to the pitch. And the more narrowly focused the magazine, the higher the conversion rate the campaign is likely to have. Says Olson, "Sell the end result to the reader--that the magazine will give them the tools to increase their knowledge of the industry, for example, or that it will keep them up to date on current news."
While the campaign is in progress, it's also a good idea to determine why people are declining to buy a sub or to renew. "Find out why interest is lagging--then you can capture and quantify that data," Olson says. "We talk to publishers about revising our presentation to better convince customers to continue subscribing. We want to find out whether it's a matter of the editorial content or a lack of time for the magazine."
Recapture old business
"I believe that if a consumer you're trying to renew hasn't died, moved to a place where you can't reach him or changed allegiance to the title, there's no reason for him not to renew," says Rich. "People opt not to renew because there's clutter in their lives. We've all been trained, however. We get these `last' renewal notices, but we know it isn't the last time we'll hear from a magazine. That's why calling three months later can be the perfect time to get that business back."
Avoid relying on renewals from those customers who signed on through a charity offer, because most likely, those customers will be a drag on your telemarketing campaign's results. "These individuals tend to show the lowest [renewal] rates in publishing," says Rich.
-- Lambeth Hochwald
Lambeth Hochwald is a freelance writer based in New York City, formerly a senior writer for Folio:.
COPYRIGHT 1997 Copyright by Media Central Inc., A PRIMEDIA Company. All rights reserved.
COPYRIGHT 2004 Gale Group
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