Does anyone have experience telemarketing for a small business??

i just completed going thru the files of a small seasonal service
business and to my surprise of the 90 customers that wrote
checks one or more times--only 73 showed up in the files
and of those only 50% had home phone numbers. My reason
for going thru things was to help institute an email campaign
and call up the customers and ask for their email addresses.

with only 50% home numbers and only 10% cell phones and
19 % work numbers---there is a deeper problem.

how should i approach the situation so as not to offend
and to get the point across that the salesmen out in the
field need to gather all contact information so the company
can upsell existing customers by phone instead of making
expensive sales to cold customers.

Is this normal--what should the contact information numbers
be and does anyone have any advice to share??

When gather personal contact information a lot depends on the level of rapport established at that point.

The problem is that salespeople tend to see customers as one shot deals, therefore lack the desire to ask for and record information beyond what is needed to acquire the deal.

The good thing is most salespeople are problem solvers by nature and like seeing their solutions in action.

My approach would be to present them with the problem you have (lack of contact info), what it is causing and why you need it solved. The cherry on top is how it will benefit them. I am sure you will get results with this formula.

As far as what is normal contact information and numbers, it would depend on what information would be useful for you to keep an ongoing relationship. I always recommend capturing as many contact numbers, emails etc. as possible, but don't waste your time on trivial data like birth dates, spouse name, unless you are planning on sending a card or it comes up in the conversation.

Happy Marketing
John
"Achieving more, easily on the phone"

Get an "opt-in" commitment by offering the email volunteers special offers not available to regular customers--an extra 5% discount, or seasonal specials not otherwise advertised. That way you get people happy to receive your emails, as they are getting something for having given the address to you. Always give something to get something!