Concept of Correlativity – Cracking the Telecalling Code

Reuters photo

By

Siddhartha Rastogi

How many times do you get unsolicited calls from banks, mutual funds, insurance companies, credit card companies, loan providing Non-Banking Finance companies, Hotel Chains, Airlines, wealth managers, investment advisors, spas, gyms, etc, to sign up for their product or services or offering?

Every firm in the world believes that they have created a world class, superior offering. When they enter with that offering in the market, the product or service fails to attract customers.

Where do these entrepreneurs or businessmen fail?

Most businesses believe spending money in advertising will yield great results. Perhaps true, some great ads have changed the fortunes of some B2C companies. Despite that, the risk reward ratio with ad spend is always low. Media presence only enables awareness and does not necessarily translate into demand.

Moreover,

What happens when you are doing B2B marketing and you don’t have enough budgets to spend on print or online medium?

In such a scenario, telecalling and seeking customers’ time through meetings is the most viable option.

The biggest challenge for any telecaller is to get attention from a potential client for 45 seconds and convert that conversation into a meeting.

When telecallers connect with potential clients, they encounter customers who can be bucketed into 4 groups. H-END Theory

1. Hunters – These customers are constantly looking for deals. They will have multiple meetings but no closure. These are dream customers for telecallers but worst for the company. Even if they buy products, they squeeze the margins and don’t allow any money to be made by the firm. They harbor the fight amongst the competitors and ensure lowest pricing wins the transaction.

2. Experts – They know it all. They understand the exact pricing, break up of costs involved and give out their rules. They don’t allow the telecallers to get in and snub them badly as they believe telecallers are just wasting their time.

3. Naysayers – For them, everything is a straight no and don’t entertain any kind of calls.

4. Disbelievers – These only work on references and thus don’t entertain unsolicited calls. More often than not they don’t answer unknown numbers at all.

One can infer from the above that 75% of the time, potential clients are not interested or don’t entertain telecallers and the balance of 25% who end up buying through telecalling origination don’t allow companies to make profits.

Then how do clients end up buying, thereby generating enormous profits for the firm?

It’s all based on a Simple Principle of Correlativity.

As per the dictionary “correlativity means a reciprocal relation between two or more things or reciprocality, or reciprocity or a relation of mutual dependence or action or influence“

In layman marketing terms, the way you wcreate shock, awe and vibrations, the same will come back to you.

Let me explain by giving an example. Everyday if you wish your watchman in the morning with a loud pitch, he will wonder for a few days. The day you stop initiating morning greetings, he will pick it up.

Exactly the same thing happens in telecalling, when you greet a person before the conversation, it allows the person to shift his / her attention on you.

Similarly for Hunters, if you send a small gift or a token, the person is morally obliged and indebted not to haggle till the last penny.

4 Easy steps for effective telecalling

1. Greet with High Pitch & Enthusiasm – (Good Morning / Good Afternoon/ Good Evening) You have to be a little loud with high vibrations, so that he / she focuses on what you are going to say next. It also allows the person to shift his / her focus on you away from the thoughts / work he / she is currently doing.

2. Wish them well – (Hope your day is progressing well/ Hope you are doing good/ Hope you or your business is prospering well). This is essential to genuinely make the other person feel that you are concerned about his / her wellbeing.

3. Check if they are free – (Is it a good time to speak to you or shall we connect later / would you like me to call later in case you are busy?). This will give the impression you value their time.

4. Request for a meeting – (Talk about the experience and qualification of the person whom you are calling on behalf off and seeking the meeting). This will build confidence that you can offer solutions and have large experience in the field.

Making this a habit will increase your probability of success by almost 90%.

Siddhartha Rastogi

Siddhartha was born to a learned middle class educated family in Semi Urban India. His father was an extremely honest man who because of his honesty had to pay the price in corporate world. Mother is a determined woman who ensured that children are being well taken care off. After a few years of birth, doctors called Siddhartha, a slow child having flat foot. He would fall more than he could walk. Determined mother ensured all therapies for her son to come out strong to fight the world. Siddhartha joined swimming when he was in 6th standard. Seeing other children of his class, he jumped in 10 feet deep pool and learnt swimming on his own, the very same day.

From that day there was no looking back. He topped his city in 12th and went to score highest in his B school exams. During his profession as banker, he became youngest branch manager of a MNC bank managing their biggest wealth branch in the country. There he found love of his life and got married. His love of his life emerged in the form of his daughter who completely changed him for good.

Siddhartha Rastogi is Director for a boutique Investment bank in India.

Siddhartha is a forward looking thinker & writer who has written a book on decision making. 8 Simple steps to effective decision making.

He writes on various social and current issues via his blog and can also be found on twitter.