As a telemarketing Program Director, my focus is selling services. Selling services requires a thorough understanding of our prospects individual and organizational goals. Likewise, the value of the service I provide when executing telemarketing campaigns, hinges on my ability to help my client reach their overall goals. This is nothing new. Setting goals has long been a part of campaign planning, as it is necessary to ensure achievement of an acceptable return on investment. What is evolving, however, is how these goals are used to motivate and manage your telemarketing team.
In a typical telemarketing campaign, key metrics are tracked and evaluated to determine the success or failure of the initiative. These goals are derived from baseline industry standards or data mining of past performance metrics. While these goals provide important benchmarks for analysis, they also set performance expectations for the team carrying out each individual campaign.
Individual campaign goals are effective but, when there are multiple initiatives taking place simultaneously, you can motivate performance to new levels by communicating the big picture goal to all members of the team. Research has shown that group goals are far more effective in collective endeavors. This is because a team goal is more than just the sum of its individual parts. In fact, it is an entirely different thing all together.
When setting team goals and communicating the big picture to your team there are a few guidelines to follow.
- By definition, a team goal should include some input from the team. Typically the goal itself may not be a number you can alter. That why group goals should focus on processes (telemarketing best practices), not outcomes (raw number of leads). For maximum buy-in, you should get your team input on how you are going to achieve the goal.
- Goals have to be specific. You know how many leads you need to generate in a given timeframe, so what is your plan of action? This plan should be outlined and tracked as you make progress towards the goal.
- Goals must be challenging yet realistic. That is, the team must perceive the challenge as realistic. Avoiding rigidness is key. Build flexibility into your process by establishing regular checkpoints and a plan for communicating proactive steps to avoid pitfalls when necessary.
- Visibility. Setting performance benchmarks motivates and inspires performance excellence. When the results and performance expected of your team is publicly displayed and clearly associated with the overall success of your organization, your goals will be motivating and inspiring.
If you are looking for a way to consolidate your marketing efforts and gain dashboard visibility into the effectiveness of your overall marketing plan, consider team goal setting and motivate your team to new levels of performance.