The B2B Influence Podcast. The Importance of Relationship-Building in Telesales with Richard Blank.pdf

The B2B Influence Podcast. The Importance of Relationship-Building in Telesales with Richard Blank Are you a leader making waves in the B2B marketing space? The B2B Influence podcast is an exclusive platform designed to spotlight exceptional individuals driving innovation, growth, and transformation in industries that market to small and mid-sized businesses. This is your opportunity to share your story, showcase your achievements, and connect with a highly engaged audience of industry peers and decision-makers. At The B2B Influence Podcast, we showcase the brilliance, values, and strategies of B2B industry leaders who are shaping the future. Our podcast spotlights trailblazers who are redefining how businesses market to small and mid-sized companies, setting new standards in innovation, transparency, and growth. Whether you’re a marketing executive, a data analytics expert, or a business leader with a vision, this is the podcast for you. Join us as we celebrate the achievements of industry pioneers and uncover actionable insights to fuel your success. In this episode of The Marketing Vanguard: Leading Voices in B2B Innovation, Paula Chiocchi interviews the President, CEO, and Bilingual Telemarketing Trainer of Costa Rica's Call Center, Richard Blank. Richard explores the crucial role of call centers in the marketing-to-sales pipeline, emphasizing the importance of human connection and empathy in telemarketing. Richard discusses balancing inbound and outbound calls, the significance of soft skills, and the operational challenges of converting leads. He advocates for quality interactions over quantity, effective follow-up, and maintaining realistic expectations. Richard underscores the enduring value of personal connections in customer service and telemarketing. Paula Chiocchi, president and CEO of Outward Media, Inc. (OMI), is a marketing industry veteran whose mission is to help businesses realize their full potential by effectively reaching their target audiences and converting more prospects into customers. Advice for Selecting a Call Center What kind of advice would you give for people in searching for a call center, whether outbound or inbound? Good cop and bad cop. Let's go bad cop first. You got to make sure that they are a company that follows all legal laws. I follow all business and banking laws in the United States with my company that's out of Florida. They in turn hire my company in Costa Rica, which follows all the labor laws here. I'm not going to be a fall guy for anybody. I'm a guest here. I have to pay the Caja. I got to do the Aguinaldo. I got to pay everything. And it costs money to run a business overseas. There's benefits to it. But then again, I'm not here to hide away. Google me Handling Difficult Calls with Empathy And I've also learned that if you allow somebody to vent, remember the cartoons when steam would go out of someone's ears? I do. I have a profanity rule. If they curse at you, Paula, they get a warning. They do it a second time, you can hang up. But if they're venting and they're getting it out, I'll let you do it. And then I'm going to give you some Philly guilt. I'm going to go, hey, Paolo, you done yet? You want to curse some more? And you go, Richard, I'm so sorry. I go, may we begin again? And you say, yes, we may. And then look at that sort of foundation. Now you have a client for life. And that's how you're training your people. It's maturity. Yeah. You can't take it personal. And you think about it. You're speaking to someone's worst day. Something broke. For an example, we work with a law firm. So we do level one intake coordinators for wrongful termination and disability. So imagine that extended empathy when people are calling us after they've been fired. And so we can cradle these calls. And I think those specific soft skills are the things some people might be lacking today. https://youtu.be/bzJze5vXiuM https://youtu.be/yIF8TGySqIA https://youtu.be/w8aGC09Yy-4 Richard Blank hired bassist Garry Gary Beers of INXS. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ieGjN5H4xPQ The B2B Influence PodcastPaula Chiocchi, The Marketing Vanguard, Richard Blank, Costa Rica's Call Center, Outsourcing, Telemarketing Call Centre, BPO, Nearshore Contact Center, Sales, Entrepreneur, B2B, Business, Podcast, Gamification,Leadership, Marketing, CX, Guest, Money, B2C education, BPO trainer,call centre, contact centre, contact center,trend, trending As a B2B business leader and data innovator my work has led to dramatic increases in both revenue and digital marketing campaign ROI for hundreds of Fortune 2000 and midmarket firms. I’ve driven nearly $300 million in revenue for a single Fortune 500 client in one year.