Found a Telemarketer - Commission Only

GreenSky

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15,319
Henderson, NV
I found a woman who is home schooling her daughter. She has extensive business background and in fact managed a telemarketing company. I've grown to know her over the past few weeks as I hired her to provide speech practice following therapist's instructions for my mother. (Mom had a stroke 6 yrs. ago; stem cell treatment in April, starting to speak about 3 months ago).

Anyway, I think she's terrific and is looking to pick up additional money.

She would prefer to be paid ZERO per hour but receive commission. I suggested that she actually set appointments for me to either meet with the prospect or a time for me to call back. (She used to be a licensed insurance agent years ago). I want to pay her per appointment kept as well as an additional bonus for every policy sold.

I'm thinking of $10 per appointment and 1/2 of the first month's commission on each sale. Is that equitable?

By the way, my plan is to re-read all the scripts everyone has been sharing on this forum and find something that really works. She will call small business and aside from avoiding financial services, anything else that should be "off limits?"

Rick
 
Difficult. If I sold Aetna that's 3 months to get paid - Blue Cross is 4 to 5 months to get paid and $17.50 a month commish. GR is an advance but a month later and only Assurant advances weekly.

You'd become her employee and constantly have to report to her about how many deals you closed and how many got issued.

I'd probably just pay her per appointment and leave it at that. You could do the math and figure out what a qualified appointment is worth to you. Maybe $50 or more.
 
I have two telemarketers working for me now...both 100% commissions.

I pay them $50 per submitted application. I might have to advance a bit but that is okay as long as I screen the apps well.

GreenSky, Feel free to PM me if your friend is interested in that type of structure. For my telemarketers it works out to be about $25-$30 per hour this way.
 
I am looking to hire a telemarketer myself as well. I was thinking of paying $10 per appointment and $50 per application. My only question is where to look for a qualified person to do this, our local timeshare companies seem to have a lock on qualified telemarketers and the national companies want big $$ up front with no promises.
 
Craigslist - and post in many cities so you get at least 20 or 30 replies. You'll have to go through a few of 'em to find one's who stick and even then the life span is short. However, it's really not that much of a headache to hire experienced marketers.

If you're looking for some kind of price point, expect to close about 1 out of 30 leads if they don't do any type of qualification. If you do the calls yourself it's more like 1 out of 15. I'm not too sure about having marketers actually set appointments but it depends on who you're calling.

If you're calling residential I'd say go for it. If you're calling small biz owners I think most marketers will get crushed while trying to qualify biz owners and set an appointment. What you'll end up getting in the uninsured.

Just my experience and experiences vary. Your best client is a savvy biz owner with current coverage. They are standoffish and rightfully so. You have to build trust with them, break the ice and then it's easy to set the appointment. I just set three appointments today from leads I generated but it was the 3rd time I called each of them. None of the 3 would have scheduled a thing with me on the 1st call.

I also don't run unqualified appointments. 100% complete waste of time. I'm gonna know detailed health history, what they're situation is - the prospect is gonna know the range of rates, already have seen the PDF files of the plans and I'm basically just coming over to explain the choices and do the app.
 
I believe they passed a law in 2007 in California that telemarketers if they are asking health insurance questions they have to be a licensed agent now. I know when I was at mega they discuss this so all the telemarketers were going to get licensed. So you might want to double check if you are having her set you appointmnets. Would not make sense for her to set appointments for you without qualifying. I am sure she is qualifying the lead only way you can do that is by asking medical questions.

Maybe some other california agents can chime in on this like Dave, John and others
 
I found a woman who is home schooling her daughter. She has extensive business background and in fact managed a telemarketing company. I've grown to know her over the past few weeks as I hired her to provide speech practice following therapist's instructions for my mother. (Mom had a stroke 6 yrs. ago; stem cell treatment in April, starting to speak about 3 months ago).

Anyway, I think she's terrific and is looking to pick up additional money.

She would prefer to be paid ZERO per hour but receive commission. I suggested that she actually set appointments for me to either meet with the prospect or a time for me to call back. (She used to be a licensed insurance agent years ago). I want to pay her per appointment kept as well as an additional bonus for every policy sold.

I'm thinking of $10 per appointment and 1/2 of the first month's commission on each sale. Is that equitable?

By the way, my plan is to re-read all the scripts everyone has been sharing on this forum and find something that really works. She will call small business and aside from avoiding financial services, anything else that should be "off limits?"

Rick

I think your proposal to her is more than fair. If you are going to give her half of the first months commission she will make a lot of money if she is as good as she says she is.

Personally, I would not be comfortable with her setting the appointment. I would want to talk to the prospect, ask some questions and find out if they are really a qualified buyer. It also gives them a chance to get to know me so when I knock on the door I'm not a total stranger.

I believe appointments go a lot smoother if I have talked to them first.
 
I found a woman who is home schooling her daughter. She has extensive business background and in fact managed a telemarketing company. I've grown to know her over the past few weeks as I hired her to provide speech practice following therapist's instructions for my mother. (Mom had a stroke 6 yrs. ago; stem cell treatment in April, starting to speak about 3 months ago).

Anyway, I think she's terrific and is looking to pick up additional money.

She would prefer to be paid ZERO per hour but receive commission. I suggested that she actually set appointments for me to either meet with the prospect or a time for me to call back. (She used to be a licensed insurance agent years ago). I want to pay her per appointment kept as well as an additional bonus for every policy sold.

I'm thinking of $10 per appointment and 1/2 of the first month's commission on each sale. Is that equitable?

By the way, my plan is to re-read all the scripts everyone has been sharing on this forum and find something that really works. She will call small business and aside from avoiding financial services, anything else that should be "off limits?"

Rick

I'd stay away from telling her that it's 1/2 of the 1st month' commission. No employee has any right to know what the president of a company is making off of each sale. Let's see here....divide by .5 and then 12. Wow, Rick makes some very good money and I'm entitled to more because I set the appts. My ass you are entitled to more. Go start your own agency. I've had the conversation before.....

If you are going to do a per appt. deal $10 for every appointment (and it better be qualifed to) + $25-$50 for an individual and $50-$75 for a family (more than 2 people) is fair, but then again, it is based on demographics and expectations of both of you.

If I make $1000 per deal (let's assume a family) and it takes 5 appts to get that deal Here's you scenario....

5 appts X 10 = $50
50% commission 1 month = $83

Total = $133

My system
5 appts. X 10 = $50
$50 for family deal

Total = $100

Now do some calculations for your hourly rate and ROI and come to an agreement. The appt volume, as well as commission level is going to increase or decrease the numbers, so you want to make sure you factor that as well.

Granted, we're only talking about $33, but that can add up. An incentive based system might work where the more appts. she gets the higher the per deal payment..... Just don't say it is any % of your commission.....

I'd first find out what she thinks is reasonable based on her experience. Then I'd negotiate a 30 day trial period or a 40 hour trial period. Pick your poison. THEN, you can both see where you are at and take it from there.
 
I would personally not tie my sales to their pay. I have enough pressure on me as it is - I don't need to tell some telemarketer I had "bad week" and only closed two deals then explain why.

And I agree with JR, what I make is none of their business. I'd simply do the math if you want to have them set appointments then just pay per appointment. If they're just gonna be getting leads they pay per lead.

If you really want to get super technical, giving her anything based on the deal closing could be construed as commission splitting which is a DOI violation if she's not licensed.
 

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