Throughout my tenure in the Sales Outsourcing arena I have
been approached regularly with my thoughts regarding pay
for performance marketing for Lead Generation and
Appointment Setting campaigns. Particularly in Outbound
telemarketing Business to Business. Sure it seems very
appealing. No risk, have the vendor pay for your marketing,
and let them work for free until results come. Wouldn't it
be nice to do a direct mail campaign, but only pay for new
customers? How about marketing on a cable or local T.V.
network, and only pay them if you get new business? Maybe
place some ads in your local newspaper and only pay them
for results? Marketing is Marketing and Telemarketing is no
different. Some vendors have tried this, mostly offshore in
places like India, The Philippines, and South America.
Although it may appear as a safe approach, you will almost
always experience poor results, higher staff attrition,
increased training time, reduced quality and the risk of
having your company conveyed in an unprofessional manner.
Nathan Lewis, A Senior Business Development Advisor for
Grindstone Inc. Shares the following: All marketing efforts
embrace a "ramp-up" period. If your company is paying for
results alone you can bet the telemarketing agent is being
paid the same way. If immediate success is not achieved it
is proven that the quality will suffer due to "pushing"
through leads and appointments that are not properly
qualified. The result: Your sales executives are chasing
down prospective clients that were never truly interested.
Worst case scenario, your salesperson shows up for an
appointment only to find that the prospect has no idea who
you are or why you are there. Naturally, this lack of
quality leads to call agent replacement which will now
require additional training and more ramp up time for those
new agents. Worst case scenario, many pay for performance
call centers will simply add agents and increase call
volumes to satisfy minimum quotas without thorough
training. Now your company's visibility and integrity is
jeopardized by representation that is not symmetrical or up
to the professional standards that you have worked so hard
to create. Let's face it, the reputation of your company is
critical to growth."
Companies looking to have success in outsourcing must
select those vendors with solid management infrastructures;
appropriate recruiting measures and capable systems and
technologies to execute professional Business Development
efforts. These qualified vendors work on hourly rates
because they have adequate resources and processes in place
to ensure proper practices and professional business
continuity.
First, many call centers vendors are fly by night
operations. Do not be surprised when doing your due
diligence to find that the sales guy is also the manager
and telemarketer for your program. Ask about the structure
and composition of the company you are researching. Here
are a few excellent questions to ask to determine the
quality of the company you are prospecting: How many
members make up your management team? How many clients are
you currently servicing? How many calling agents are
currently representing your clients? What is included in
your service? How are the agents compensated? How are the
calling efforts monitored? Will the agents be working my
program exclusively? You will uncover quickly the
companies that are well organized, procedurally sound and
equipped to make the best use of your marketing dollars.
Second, you can avoid many of these detriments by selecting
a vendor with strong business continuity and quality
assurances in place. Any telemarketing program is driven
by the calling agents making the actual phone calls. Be
sure when shopping for a third party vendor to ask about
the agent selection process. You deserve to know who is
representing your company, their work experience and why
they are the best fit to represent your organization. All
quality telemarketing firms should allow you the
opportunity to meet and learn about the agents representing
you. If they do not, consider this a red flag. The
relationship and communication between agent, management
and client heavily impacts performance. Top notch firms
strengthen business continuity by paying agents on an
hourly basis and rewarding them through incentives for
quality results. After all, you want your telemarketer
focused on delivering the right message and not wondering
where their next paycheck is coming from.
Last but not least, the company you are investigating must
have appropriate systems in place to effectively monitor
your program. The best vendors out there have management
software and give clients access to their program's data
and reports. Everyone wants results but credible firms
want you to get those results with an explanation as to how
they were achieved. Marketing is an ongoing learning
process and not something that just happens. A call
center's ability to monitor activities, make revisions, and
track efforts will ultimately paint a clear picture
regarding your company's successes.
Next time you decide to look for the assistance of a third
party Telemarketing Company, realize that the right
questions will get you the right answers. Whether you are
an upstart or an established company, the key to success is
finding a firm that focuses on agent talent, embraces a
strong management team and provides modern day technologies
to help track and build an adaptable and successful
marketing program. I assure you that your return on
investment and overall experience will be greatly improved
by following these simple little steps in your selection
process. Bottom line, avoid Pay for Performance plans.
----------------------------------------------------
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. an outsourced Business Development company
in 2003. see http://www.grindstone.com
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