Telesales

[Simpo Two]

I'm interested in getting someone to do some telesales for me - not closing sales as such, but finding and qualifying contacts for me so I can go in and do the serious bit.

The only quote I've had so far was from a company that wanted £250 for a briefing meeting, then said it would take a minimum of 20 hours work, and gave me a quote of £950 + VAT, which seems bonkers to me.

Can it be done for less? Any recommendations? Any bored folk out there who can talk well in corporate circles and want some money?

[griffgrog]

Agencies can be good, but obviously expensive. In the past we have hired in temps for a month at ago - circa £100 / day. Worked for us.

[whygee02]

Simpo Two said:

The only quote I've had so far was from a company that wanted £250 for a briefing meeting, then said it would take a minimum of 20 hours work, and gave me a quote of £950 + VAT, which seems bonkers to me.

50 quid an hour, or so, seems to be taking the mickey for a semi-numpty to do some cold/warm calling. I'd recommend (as per last post) getting a temp. Better still no friends/family that could do it for you? that way you might get someone who cares about good results, and could earn a bit beer money for xmas. School holidays only a few weeks away now - might find a relative at a loose end who can spare a week.

Dunno what the company quoted you for, but I used to be in outsourcing, and it may be that they're slapping together a datacapture program in order to do the exercise - if its a manageable number of calls you could consider a m$ access or even excel alternative. If its a one off exercise for a finite number of calls, could do the job just as well.

HTH

Edited by whygee02 on Monday 5th November 19:03

[silent k]

I guess it depends on how complex a product it is you're trying to sell as to whether it's worth employing an outside agency. If it's just a question of going through a big list and verifying information (i.e postal or email addresses), or following up a direct mail then it may be worth using a temp, but if it's a more complex sales process (i.e setting up meetings and follow up calls) or product then an experienced telemarketeer should do better than a temp! As for cost, some agencies work on a per lead basis so they only charge when they've generated a qualified lead or appointment for you, but generally a decent agency (with decent people) will charge upwards of £250 day.

I suppose I should declare that my company develops a bit of software that telemarketing companies use to do their calling from, so I've got a bit of a vested interest in telemarketing agencies!

[blackcab]

We use telesales all the time for appointment making, they are expensive but the return is usually really good, and its a lot less hassle than employing them.

most telesales companies we have used even have there own contact databases to make life easier.

I think we pay ours about £150 a day plus £30 - £50 an appointment

[10 Pence Short]

Are you looking for someone to make appointments, or just verify who the right person to speak to is?

[Simpo Two]

10 Pence Short said:

Are you looking for someone to make appointments, or just verify who the right person to speak to is?

The latter, and how interested they are. My main business is corporate video, so it's relatively expensive, not an impulse buy, and requirements for it vary from occasional to never. It's not the kind of thing you can sign up with 'Would you like the red one or the blue one Mr Prospect?'.

I've wasted much time and petrol visiting people because they'll take the appointment but don't buy. So I don't want someone who'e brilliant at making appointments, it will just waste more time - I want them to find the people who are seriously thinking about video/related subjects and then hand over to me, as I can do the technical/detailed bit.

Possibly the wife of a friend of mine might be ineterested. She used to work for Philips, so knows the coprporate arena, and has a gorgeous voice!

[JustinP1]

Simpo Two said:

...So I don't want someone who'e brilliant at making appointments, it will just waste more time - I want them to find the people who are seriously thinking about video/related subjects and then hand over to me, as I can do the technical/detailed bit.

From a motivation aspect then, a temp is a bad idea.

You maybe should be looking at someone full time. If the business is reasonably profitable enough to take the hit on wages in the meantime what they bring in often more than pays their wages.

I am in a similar area, and it is a big jump to get someone to do the 'sales job' for you. However, the equation to look at is, how many extra jobs will I have to do to pay their wages compares to how many jobs they are likely to bring in.

For example, if you are getting £5000 turnover per month from spending 10 hours per month on the 'sales' and the new person will be doing 40 hours then it stands to reason that although they may not be as good as you pro-rata, even if they were half as good they will bring in £10,000 pm extra turnover.

If that more than covers their wage then it becomes a calculated risk. Get them on a 3 month trial and you even have a 'stop-marker' put in place to cover the fact it may not work out.

[Simpo Two]

Nope, this will be a by the day, or hour, or possibly per call issue. All I'm looking for is a call report such as:

'Mr A: Not interested'
'Mr B: Not thought of video before but wants to know more'
'Mr C: Exhibition in September, looking for quotes'

- and all points in beteween. In the case above, I would ring B and C and take it from there.

[silent k]

One thing to help reduce wasted time travelling to appointments is make sure you only go to ones where they have an interest to purchase in the next 6 months or so (or whatever criteria you set) and make sure the person doing the calling qualifies the timescales involved. So after every call make sure they rate it, so for example an A rated call is someone who is looking to buy in the next month, B in the next 6 months, C a long term prospect, D some interest and X no interest at all, also make sure any follow up actions are clearly recorded. That way you'll have a definite system to rate each call and who to target for follow ups.

[JustinP1]

Simpo Two said:

Nope, this will be a by the day, or hour, or possibly per call issue. All I'm looking for is a call report such as:

'Mr A: Not interested'
'Mr B: Not thought of video before but wants to know more'
'Mr C: Exhibition in September, looking for quotes'

- and all points in beteween. In the case above, I would ring B and C and take it from there.

YHM... about something different!

[Simpo Two]

silent k said:

One thing to help reduce wasted time travelling to appointments is make sure you only go to ones where they have an interest to purchase in the next 6 months or so (or whatever criteria you set) and make sure the person doing the calling qualifies the timescales involved. So after every call make sure they rate it, so for example an A rated call is someone who is looking to buy in the next month, B in the next 6 months, C a long term prospect, D some interest and X no interest at all, also make sure any follow up actions are clearly recorded. That way you'll have a definite system to rate each call and who to target for follow ups.

Sensible idea. Some projects can take years to happen. Other projects get killed off when the company 'reorganises'. When the leadtime is two years and the business reorganises every 18 months, you can see how hard it is to nail some people down... and remember I have no salary in-between times...

[silent k]

Simpo Two said:

silent k said:

One thing to help reduce wasted time travelling to appointments is make sure you only go to ones where they have an interest to purchase in the next 6 months or so (or whatever criteria you set) and make sure the person doing the calling qualifies the timescales involved. So after every call make sure they rate it, so for example an A rated call is someone who is looking to buy in the next month, B in the next 6 months, C a long term prospect, D some interest and X no interest at all, also make sure any follow up actions are clearly recorded. That way you'll have a definite system to rate each call and who to target for follow ups.

Sensible idea. Some projects can take years to happen. Other projects get killed off when the company 'reorganises'. When the leadtime is two years and the business reorganises every 18 months, you can see how hard it is to nail some people down... and remember I have no salary in-between times...

Tell me about it! We've been chasing a couple of our prospects for over 24 months, with the point of contact changing every 6 months as they get reorganised or priorities change. Very frustrating when you get to the point where they're about to sign and they then get moved on, and you have to start again with the new person. We've pretty much given up trying to sell into large companies due to the time taken to make a decision.

[Simpo Two]

That cheers me up a bit, thanks