Telemarketing Vs Direct Mail

[davisgroup]

I have been depending on direct mail for most of my leads. My return rates have been frustratingly inconsistent. As an alternative, I am considering hiring a part time telemarketer to generate leads. My research has found that you should expect at least one lead per hour from a competent telemarketer. Paying around $10 and hour, 20 hours a week, that would come out to 20 leads for $200. Or you can pay by each lead generated. I know it does not include the call list and set up costs, but it still looks like something to consider.

I would like to hear from anyone that has experience hiring their own telemarketer to develop leads (not a telemarketing service). What are the pitfalls, and the estimated ROI?

 

[Josh]

I've hired a bunch of telemarketers over the years and it's a different kind of work.

A few points in no particular order:

- You can find telemarketers for $10/hour, you can usually find good ones for $12-$15.
-You want to find telemarketers that have at least one year of experience on *business to consumer* calls, b2b is a very different critter.
-Paying per lead doesn't work. The problem is that telemarketers have the option of working with just about anyone they want on a per lead basis, but most of those offers are garbage. Most good telemarketers are hourly minded so giving them an hourly rate is what they respond best with. If you pay them on a per lead basis they are also less likely to follow a script and trying to figure it out themselves if they don't like the script. That's understandable because you're only paying them by the appointment.
-You'll find better results and more consistent results if you have them follow a consistent script. If you keep doing the same thing you've been doing you can expect the same results. Most folks usually focus on the negative implication of that, but there is a positive one too.
-Expect the telemarketer to find people interested in having a conversation with you, not qualify them. A telemarketers job isn't to sell insurance or screen for health/financial information, it's to find anyone willing to talk about insurance on a favorable basis about insurance. The seniors get told by the TV and everyone that "watches out" for them not to give out financial or health information over the phone. If you start asking about that information over the phone right off the bat with a telemarketer, it can only hurt your odds.
-The ROI can be unpredictable, especially at first. Be prepared to lose money because you're going to think you hired the greatest telemarketer and they may or may not actually pan out.

I probably should have started with this last point, it's certainly the most important. When you hire a telemarketer make sure you're using a dialer that's designed for it (which means having cell phone numbers scrubbed from the list as well, which is something I'll shamelessly plug that I do). The dialer I offer is the one I've used to manage telemarketers in the states as well as overseas and it does it's job very well. Five9 is another strong solution. Most of the dialers that are more budget friendly are going to have limited functionality when it comes to really drilling down on what your telemarketer is using their time doing.

That's what I would have told myself years ago when I started hiring telemarketers.

 

[digfesales105]

If you are going to buy the lists and dialer...you're going to be paying a lot more per lead then what your #'s are.

Yes...we sell our leads but we started just like you. Developing our own in a dialer but spent so much time cold calling we hired 1 TM. Then a 2nd one and so on. Now we have a team in house here developing for our agents daily.

Let me just say that one TM will have a hard time. You need about 2-3 to develop leads for you. Mine who are experienced and truly some of the best average 1-3 an hour but that is with a whole team of them running the dialer at the same time.

I don't allow 1-2 reps on the dialer as it's a waste of time and money.

Hope this helps?

 

[Josh]

I don't allow 1-2 reps on the dialer as it's a waste of time and money.

Why wouldn't you want 1-2 on the dialer?

 

[digfesales105]

Why wouldn't you want 1-2 on the dialer?

At least on our Predictive dialer. Because they end up sitting tooooo long. Regular hours my reps sit about 30-45 seconds in between calls. But sometimes 1 or 2 want to work through lunch. I will have to sit and manually watch the speed and dial it up and down because it's all over the place.

Ideas?

 

[Josh]

At least on our Predictive dialer. Because they end up sitting tooooo long. Regular hours my reps sit about 30-45 seconds in between calls. But sometimes 1 or 2 want to work through lunch. I will have to sit and manually watch the speed and dial it up and down because it's all over the place.

Ideas?

Yup. Run it on ratio when you're below 7 users. Even a single user part-time can work effectively on ratio. I'm not sure why cost would be an issue, with Welcome to AffordableDialer.com (my service) you get 40 hours a month for $49, from our conversation before I didn't think your service was much more than that.

 

[digfesales105]

Yup. Run it on ratio when you're below 7 users. Even a single user part-time can work effectively on ratio. I'm not sure why cost would be an issue, with Welcome to AffordableDialer.com (my service) you get 40 hours a month for $49, from our conversation before I didn't think your service was much more than that.

Thats what I have it set at? But that's why I thought it would go up and down like a roller coaster? The rest I will pm you on.