Hiring a service provider to prospect for you or sell your
product or service can be a very effective solution.
However, you can also waste valuable time, money, and have
the reputation of your company tarnished very quickly.
There are a few good, professional, and legitimate service
providers with solid business models and there are those
that do not. Be very careful. The purpose of this article
is to educate you and help you develop an understanding of
what to expect in the outsourced Sales and Telemarketing
industry in order to make a wise decision.
Beware of 100% pay for performance arrangements. Don't give
in to the NO RISK temptation. When providers are
compensated for quantity instead of quality, you can
imagine what happens - the quality of each lead drops, as
quantities rise - and your in-house sales team has to work
twice as hard to weed out the "garbage leads". These type
of arrangements fail the majority of the time due to
constant turnover, recruiting, poor management,
re-training, and re-ramping. No real momentum or business
continuity is ever established. Finally and most
importantly, your companies reputation will be adversely
effected due to the lack of professionalism.
Realistic Expectations. Many sub par providers of this
service will tell you just about anything you need to hear
to make the sale. They make a living turning over clients
with cheap rates and small tests. Why? Because they gain
more sales. Your provider should want to know your business
in detail and listen to your objectives. An honest provider
will tell you what is realistic within a certain amount of
hours. There are many variables, so its not feasible for
any provider to tell you exactly what to expect. However,
they should give you a realistic depiction of ramp times
and potential production. They should come up with a
customized strategy recommendation for success. A good
provider should be focused on how to maintain a long term
partnership.
Training prior to starting the program. - Good providers
will want you to be directly involved with the training.
After all it is your business and you know it best.
Preparation is key to success. A good provider should be
able to take your marketing collateral and create an
initial calling script for training and ramping. Talented
callers will not read a script word for word. The script
should be nothing more than a training tool and reference
until they have it down.
Caller Talent. - How do you want your company represented?
Avoid hiring providers that use high school, college,
inexperienced or off offshore callers. While young people
may be good for business to consumer programs, A good B2B
company will have mature, experienced professionals
representing your company.
Be aware of your service provider's quality control system.
The last thing you want is for your existing customers -
your revenue generating customers - to have a bad
impression of your company because of relaxed quality
standards. Good providers have a professional management
staff with a solid infrastructure. Consistent feedback and
communication between management, callers, and client is
crucial for mutual success. What types of reporting and
database access does the provider offer? Is it online and
fully accessible to you?
Look for professional communication and management. A
business development company should be giving you regular
updates, and have data available to you on demand - not
having this could be a warning sign that the data isn't
there at all. Consistent feedback and communication between
management, callers, and client is crucial for mutual
success. Does the provider offer you the ability to be
involved in the program and speak directly with the callers?
Beware of companies offering short tests (less than 50
hours). The profitability & success of a campaign cannot be
judged in such a short period of time. If you choose a
provider based on the results of such a short test, you may
end up getting "short changed" in the long run. This is
equivalent to you hiring an internal person for just over
one weeks worth of work. Pipelines take time develop.
Anything less than 50 hours and you are probably just
wasting your money.
Find out the exact location of the agents working for your
service provider. Offshore agents aren't usually held to
the highest quality standards, and the communication
barriers they create can reduce the effectiveness of your
campaign - actually costing you money in the long run.
While costs may be appealing, quality will most likely lack
severely and cost you more money and the reputation of your
company.
Avoid companies who charge less than $25/hour for their
services. All companies have to profit somewhere, and if
they don't charge enough for their services, you can be
sure they will cut back in other areas - such as employee
quality and training, equipment, and consultation time. You
can see how important it is to not only know what you're
outsourcing, but exactly who you're outsourcing it to.
Lists and dials per hour. Good providers will be educated
on the best list resources for your particular program.
They can typically provide you with or assist you in
procuring the nest list. Don't make the mistake of thinking
the more dials per hour, the better. That is a big
misnomer! EX> Lets suppose you are selling a sophisticated
software application and need a company to properly qualify
the prospects for you. If a provider tells you they can
make 30 dials an hour on average, that's 2 minutes per
call! How is it possible to effectively have a quality
conversation with a prospect in 2 minutes? Its not. These
are usually "telemarketing agencies" that use predictive
dialers. Essentially they are just burning through your
valuable lists of contacts and letting Quality slip by the
wayside. A professional organization is focused on the
quality of the lead or sale. Therefore they should be able
to give you a realistic idea of the average dials per hour
for your specific program.
Brick and Mortar or Remote provider.
Cost – Brick and Mortar companies have a much higher
overhead. In order to be competitive, they have to reduce
costs internally. Often this means paying a smaller wage to
their callers. Talent level is impacted. Remote model
providers are usually more price competitive over Brick and
Mortar companies.
Labor pool – Brick and Mortar companies are limited by an
average of a 30 mile radius of their location. Once that
pool is tapped out, the company has limited expansion
ability.
Calling Talent - Ability to attract top talented
professionals is crucial for success. Most experienced
professionals between 30-60 years old does not have any
interest in commuting to a call center and sitting a
cubicle all day.
Flexibility – Ability to market in specific geographical
regions of the country where the accent/dialect may be
different. Remote model providers have the ability to
designate talented calling agents who reside in the regions
where you need to have call on, thereby allowing calling
agents to build rapport more effectively.
Scalability – Fixed brick and mortar providers have limited
real estate for expansion. A remote model allows for
efficient scalability in the event you need callers added
quickly to ramp up your program.
Focus – Brick and Mortar call centers utilize close quarter
cubicles. Employees talk to each other and can be very
distracted between calls resulting in less focus on the
task at hand. Remote callers work in a quiet professional
home office by themselves and are very focused on results
without distractions.
Noise levels – Call centers are very loud. This is very
distracting to the prospect on the other end of the phone.
Additionally it sounds unprofessional, especially in the
B2B marketplace. Remote agents engage in dialogue with
prospects without the background noise.
Labor turnover – Brick and Mortar call centers experience
very high levels of employee turnover. Remote agents have a
high level of job satisfaction due the lack of commute and
peaceful environment. This equates to higher energy levels
and results for our clients.
Green and environmentally friendly - Remote model providers
keep cars off the roads.
----------------------------------------------------
Brian Augustus Parnell has extensive Sales, Sales
Management, and Marketing experience. He is considered an
expert in the area of Business Development. Brian founded
Grindstone Inc. in 2003. see http://www.grindstone.com .
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