Autodialer and 9/9/09

[Josh]

Sounds like thats working for you, although $20-$25 per lead seems a little high for over seas leads. Have you thought of hiring your own TMs to work for you locally. I also sell leads from 20-25 each (american reps) just like you are paying for....BUT my true cost to do it with American reps is about 14-18 per lead depending on the state. To be honest I over pay my reps a little too so you could probably do it cheaper. If you work from home that may not work for you to house them but keep in mind that despite the 9/9/09 law change for VB there is still always Hosted Predictive Dialer | VoIP Call Center Solution which allows you to hire telemarketers to work form home on a dialer that you can monitor in real time, barge in on the call if need be, and even get a live transfer from the TM as they get warm leads. The dialer access, unlimmited LD and dialing, targeted data, full set up, training, and support from 300-400 per month (depending on how much data you need).

Telemarketing is NOT dead and NOT all dialers are illegal....we just all have to adapt back to pitching with live reps is all. If any one needs advice, and or help in doing that let me know.

The hard cost on a lead tends to depend a lot on the area. In parts of MO I can get a solid lead for around $12, for the same lead in CT would cost me 5 times that. I can't find anyone in the states that'll work as hard and do as good a job on the final expense as my friends in a different time zone..

My dialer and data cost is less than half of what you're talking about.

Do you sell your leads to independent agents or just your own? Most of what I do is have agents at reduced contracts and give them the leads at no charge.

 

[Ramond B]

Your right costs will vary by state which is why i say 14-18 on average per lead after all your costs (labor, lists, dialer, etc...) Outsourcing is easier just a little emore in the long run in my experience.

Also, I don't have agents, I do not write insurance. at all I am the owner of Best Rate Referrals which is a full service marketing firm. We do sell to agents although right now our schedule is pretty full. When we cant get agents in our schedule we try and show them how to do the calling them self efficiently.

I was just basing my post on what you had posted about 20-25 per lead you were paying. I was simply stating you could hire your own rep and beat that pretty easily and have a little more control over the quality as well. If the over seas thing isn't broken for you don't fix it. :-) Just letting you know you could do it your self and save money if that was something you may be interested in.

Good luck boss!

 

[mcmillian-1]

Your right costs will vary by state which is why i say 14-18 on average per lead after all your costs (labor, lists, dialer, etc...) Outsourcing is easier just a little emore in the long run in my experience.

Also, I don't have agents, I do not write insurance. at all I am the owner of Best Rate Referrals which is a full service marketing firm. We do sell to agents although right now our schedule is pretty full. When we cant get agents in our schedule we try and show them how to do the calling them self efficiently.

I was just basing my post on what you had posted about 20-25 per lead you were paying. I was simply stating you could hire your own rep and beat that pretty easily and have a little more control over the quality as well. If the over seas thing isn't broken for you don't fix it. :-) Just letting you know you could do it your self and save money if that was something you may be interested in.

Good luck boss!

Raymond, Knows what he is talking about,I have ran telemarketing rooms for years and trust me he is on the mark. Now coming over to the insurance sales side I am now trying to bring some aspects of that into my insurance business and its working! Talking with raymond, you will get some great advice. You may not want to do what he says but hey, you are not in marketing we are insurance sales, we do some marketing..we market ourselves and most of us don't know how to do that, so its something you have to learn we are all here to help one another.

Just Ask yourself this. why would you pay 10cents a lead when you could pay 1 cents or 3 cents for the same info? I don't know about anyone else but I only like to get screwed by my woman not my lead source!

I am in this business to make a profit and You will never help your bottom line by paying extra for leads. If you knew how these leads compaines work you would understand a lot of them are resellers and you want to have leads that will save you time and money.

 

[theinsuranceman]

Sept 9 Is when we are no longer susposed to use auto dialers to make pre recorded messages to consumers. And to answer your other question no there is no website to help us even the Do not call one or the FCC website gives no info. I have called a few places where the lady says we can still use it and everybody seems not to know

Which places said you can still use it?

 

[mcmillian-1]

Which places said you can still use it?

I called the FCC and A Consumer Action place
Consumer Action Number
800-952-5210
Cindy rep ctr98

I know I am just going to use the voice broadcaster to call business and I will use the other dialer for cold calling.

 

[Ramond B]

Thank you for the kind words and time yesterday on the phone. I hope I was able to help you understand the data world a little better, it has changed a lot over the last couple yrs. If you need anything else please let me know.

Raymond, Knows what he is talking about,I have ran telemarketing rooms for years and trust me he is on the mark. Now coming over to the insurance sales side I am now trying to bring some aspects of that into my insurance business and its working! Talking with raymond, you will get some great advice. You may not want to do what he says but hey, you are not in marketing we are insurance sales, we do some marketing..we market ourselves and most of us don't know how to do that, so its something you have to learn we are all here to help one another.

Just Ask yourself this. why would you pay 10cents a lead when you could pay 1 cents or 3 cents for the same info? I don't know about anyone else but I only like to get screwed by my woman not my lead source!

I am in this business to make a profit and You will never help your bottom line by paying extra for leads. If you knew how these leads compaines work you would understand a lot of them are resellers and you want to have leads that will save you time and money.

 

[Josh]

Your right costs will vary by state which is why i say 14-18 on average per lead after all your costs (labor, lists, dialer, etc...) Outsourcing is easier just a little emore in the long run in my experience.

Also, I don't have agents, I do not write insurance. at all I am the owner of Best Rate Referrals which is a full service marketing firm. We do sell to agents although right now our schedule is pretty full. When we cant get agents in our schedule we try and show them how to do the calling them self efficiently.

I was just basing my post on what you had posted about 20-25 per lead you were paying. I was simply stating you could hire your own rep and beat that pretty easily and have a little more control over the quality as well. If the over seas thing isn't broken for you don't fix it. :-) Just letting you know you could do it your self and save money if that was something you may be interested in.

Good luck boss!

That's cool. I actually hire the folks to work directly for me and train them myself so I don't really know how I could get much more control over the situation. The overwhelming majority of what I do is just having my agents work leads my center generates and I make my margins on the overrides. I'm impressed that you can make the center work stateside. Could you e-mail me your number? I've got a few questions for you.

 

[Ramond B]

Email sent....

 

[jjjtrio]

Which places said you can still use it?

B2B is still 100% legal.

 

[Daytona_Guy]

Sept 9 Is when we are no longer susposed to use auto dialers to make pre recorded messages to consumers. And to answer your other question no there is no website to help us even the Do not call one or the FCC website gives no info. I have called a few places where the lady says we can still use it and everybody seems not to know

Here it is... it very clearly states that this takes effect 9/1/09.

The actual web link is here: FTC Issues Final Telemarketing Sales Rule Amendments Regarding Prerecorded Calls

For Release: August 19, 2008
FTC Issues Final Telemarketing Sales Rule Amendments Regarding Prerecorded Calls

Rule Will Halt Prerecorded Sales Calls Unless the Seller Obtains Consumer's Permission

The Federal Trade Commission today announced two amendments to the Telemarketing Sales Rule (TSR). One will expressly bar telemarketing calls that deliver prerecorded messages, unless a consumer previously has agreed to accept such calls from the seller. The other related technical amendment modifies the TSR's method of calculating the maximum permissible level of "call abandonment."
The amendments will not affect consumers' ability to continue to receive calls that deliver purely "informational" prerecorded messages - notifying recipients, for example, that their flight has been cancelled, that they have a service appointment, or similar messages. Such purely "informational" calls are not covered by the TSR because they do not attempt to sell the called party any goods or services.
"Just like the provisions of the Do Not Call Registry, these changes will protect consumers' privacy," said FTC Chairman William E. Kovacic. "The amendments now directly enable consumers to choose whether they want to receive prerecorded telemarketing calls."
The amendments announced today will be published in the Federal Register shortly, and are available now as a link to this press release on the FTC's Web site. They are the result of a rulemaking proceeding initiated in 2004 in which the FTC, responding to a petition from the telemarketing industry, proposed a change in the TSR to allow calls that deliver prerecorded messages to consumers with whom a seller had an established business relationship.
The nearly 14,000 comments elicited by that proposal overwhelmingly opposed such a change. Based on that record, in October 2006 the Commission altered its position and instead proposed a broad prohibition on the use of prerecorded messages whenever the consumer called had not previously given express written permission to the seller to place such calls to his or her number. The action announced today adopts the October 2006 proposal, with several refinements suggested by the more than 600 comments it elicited.
The New TSR Amendments
Specifically, the TSR amendments adopted by the Commission and announced today:

• Expressly prohibit telemarketing sales calls that deliver prerecorded messages, whether answered in person by a consumer or by an answering machine or voicemail service, unless the seller has previously obtained the recipient's signed, written agreement to receive such calls;
• Permit sellers to obtain the required permission for prerecorded message sales calls from a consumer in any manner permitted by the Electronic Signatures In Global and National Commerce Act (E-SIGN Act);
• Exempt healthcare-related prerecorded message calls that are subject to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) from the prohibition on telemarketing calls that deliver prerecorded messages;
• Exempt from the written agreement requirement all charitable solicitation calls placed by for-profit telemarketers (telefunders) that deliver prerecorded messages on behalf of non-profits to members of, or previous donors to, the nonprofit, but require that such calls include a prompt keypress or voice-activated opt-out mechanism;
• Require that, by December 1, 2008, sellers and telemarketers provide, at the outset of all prerecorded messages, an automated keypress or voice-activated interactive opt-out mechanism so that consumers can opt out as easily as they can from a live telemarketing call;
• End the FTC's current policy of forbearing from bringing enforcement actions against sellers and telemarketers who place prerecorded calls that meet certain specified conditions that would be inconsistent with the new requirements; but
• Permit sellers, as under the forbearance policy, to continue for one year after the rule's publication to place calls delivering prerecorded messages to consumers with whom they have an established business relationship, after which no prerecorded message calls can be made to consumers without their express permission.

The prerecorded call amendment requires that any prerecorded telemarketing call must: 1) allow the telephone to ring for at least 15 seconds or four rings before an unanswered call is disconnected; 2) begin the prerecorded message within two seconds of a completed greeting by the consumer who answers; 3) disclose at the outset of the call that the recipient may ask to be placed on the company's do-not-call list at any time during the message; 4) in cases where the call is answered by a person, make an automated interactive voice and/or keypress-activated opt-out mechanism available during the message that adds the phone number to the company's do-not-call list and then immediately ends the call; and 5) in cases where the call is answered by an answering machine or voicemail, provide a toll-free number that allows the person called to be connected to an automated interactive voice and/or keypress-activated opt-out mechanism anytime after the message is received. The telemarketer, while complying with each of these provisions, also must be in compliance with all other requirements of the TSR and other federal and state laws.
The additional technical amendment the Commission has made pertains to the method of calculating the maximum allowable rate of call abandonment that telemarketers may have. Call abandonment is a side-effect of very efficient telemarketing equipment called predictive dialers. Predictive dialers place calls in anticipation that a salesperson will become available by the time one of the numbers called is answered.
Inevitably, a call will sometimes connect when no sales representative is available. The TSR sets a limit on how often this can occur. It requires that at least 97 percent of a telemarketer's calls that are answered in person - not by an answering machine - be connected to a salesperson within two seconds after a consumer answers. This is designed to minimize the number of "dead air" and "hang-up" calls that result when no salesperson is available to take the call. The amendment will retain the current three percent permissible abandonment rate, but will permit it to be calculated over a 30-day period, rather than on a daily basis as is now the case. The change will permit the use of smaller calling lists than before without an appreciable increase in call abandonments. It will enable all sellers to target their calling campaigns to consumers most likely to be interested in their offer, and will benefit small businesses that have smaller customer lists in particular.
Effective Dates
The provision requiring that all prerecorded telemarketing calls provide an automated interactive opt-out mechanism will become effective on December 1, 2008. The provision requiring permission from consumers to receive such calls will become effective September 1, 2009. The amendment modifying the method for measuring the maximum allowable rate of call abandonment will become effective on October 1, 2008.
The Commission vote approving issuance of the Federal Register notice announcing the amendments to the TSR was 4-0. The notice will be published in the Register shortly and can be found on the FTC's Web site as a link to this press release.
Copies of the prerecorded call amendments to the TSR are available from the FTC's Web site at http://www.ftc.gov and also from the FTC's Consumer Response Center, Room 130, 600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., Washington, DC 20580. The Federal Trade Commission works for consumers to prevent fraudulent, deceptive, and unfair business practices and to provide information to help spot, stop, and avoid them. To file a complaint in English or Spanish, visit the FTC's online Complaint Assistant or call 1-877-FTC-HELP (1-877-382-4357). The FTC enters complaints into Consumer Sentinel, a secure, online database available to more than 1,500 civil and criminal law enforcement agencies in the U.S. and abroad. The FTC's Web site provides free information on a variety of consumer topics.
MEDIA CONTACT: Mitchell J. Katz,
Office of Public Affairs
202-326-2161STAFF CONTACTS: Craig Tregillus or Allen W. Hile,
Bureau of Consumer Protection
202-326-2970; 326-3122 (FTC File No. R411001)
(TSR - Prerecorded.final.wpd)