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Appointment Setters Compensation?

by RentItNow
26 replies
Does anyone know the average rate to pay an appointment setter? Hourly, commission or per appointment? It's for website services obviously.

I want to focus on my strong side for the next two months and that's at the appointments.
#appointment #compensation #setters
  • Profile picture of the author Njenyus
    There are a few ways you could do it:

    First, you could pay the appointment setters by how many appointments they set. I sued to pay $25 per appointment set. Be careful, though. Before I got a call center, I was wondering why I had low closing ratios. They were just attempting to get the $25 by saying almost anything. So, you can remedy that by making sure the appointment setters are credible and by recording all of your calls (Make sure you abide by your laws for recording calls. I don't know if Canada has any, but check to make sure.)

    Second, I paid appointment setters (overseas) $5/hr. You have to make jsure these are experienced appointment setters and not just ones that are there to collect the check by "experiencing" on your behalf.

    I usually also paid a bonus to get extra production out of them. I don't know what your margins are, but I paid $100 per week bonus on 20 QUALITY appointments set.
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  • Profile picture of the author Jason Kanigan
    $25 seems OK, but yes you have to make sure your telemarketer is getting you qualified appointments.

    When I set up an agency for a management consultant last year, we only paid after the salesperson got there, discovered he was expected, and the conversation lasted 15 minutes or more.
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  • Profile picture of the author ryanmckinney
    I have a buddy, goes door to door. Does a soft pitch on window installation, and if he can get them to agree to talk to a rep in person, with both decision makers home, he get's paid $145. The sales guy comes in for the hard sell.

    He is pretty good at what he does, he started to make a killing doing this, not uncommon to have 3-4 a day for him, some times 7-8.

    This guy could talk a woman into eating spaghetti with her hands in her wedding dress on her wedding day.

    Once he started getting so many damn appointments , the company started ripping him off.. i.e. not paying for the qualified appointments.

    He was to be qualified for the pay the second the sales man entered the door with both decision makers home.

    So he was an appointment "setter" and that was the stipulations around that, in light of being ripped off by this company, he is just going to sell mobile packages for my company :-) their loss, my gain.


    Just another "angle/aspect" to keep in mind on the qualified appointment parts.

    Ryan
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  • Profile picture of the author John Durham
    Originally Posted by RentItNow View Post

    Does anyone know the average rate to pay an appointment setter? Hourly, commission or per appointment? It's for website services obviously.

    I want to focus on my strong side for the next two months and that's at the appointments.
    I would pay 8-10.00 per hour with incentive bonuses to start them and test them John. You may say they get $15 at the end of the week if they've maintained a certain average... the big jump will make it seem worthwhile to perform.
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    • Profile picture of the author Centurian
      Originally Posted by John Durham View Post

      I would pay 8-10.00 per hour with incentive bonuses to start them and test them John. You may say they get $15 at the end of the week if they've maintained a certain average... the big jump will make it seem worthwhile to perform.
      Yes, John's on the money. I've secured decent $8-$10 hour appointment setters on elance. Then offer a bonus or incentive based on some criteria. You can get them to pre-qualify as well once your system gets going.

      I've had them setting 3 to 4 appointments a day. Then you can just run with the wind.
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      • Profile picture of the author MRomeo09
        I agree that you can get them in at $8-10 an hour, but you incentivize them so that they can hit around $20-25 an hour with high productivity. Most telemarketers won't believe they can make much more than that, so if you advertise even that they are very skeptical. Incentivize them too much to where they are making more money than they are comfortable with and that's a problem. The funny thing is those cash bills don't seem to get factored into their brain.

        I'm also a pretty firm believer in top grading. No matter how good you think you are at hiring, you are still going to pick some that just can't make it happen. So I typically will hire 3-4 for a project and be flat out honest and tell them you're looking at your competition. Only one of you will be here in a month, it's up to you to make sure that's you.

        Telemarketers are an interesting species. Must be why I like John so much.

        Marcos
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        We do not have to become heroes overnight. Just a step at a time, meeting each thing that comes up ... discovering we have the strength to stare it down. - Eleanor Roosevelt

        Your opinion of yourself becomes your reality. If you have all these doubts, then no one will believe in you and everything will go wrong. If you think the opposite, the opposite will happen. It’s that simple.-Curtis Jackson- 50 Cent
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        • Profile picture of the author John Durham
          Originally Posted by MRomeo09 View Post

          I agree that you can get them in at $8-10 an hour, but you incentivize them so that they can hit around $20-25 an hour with high productivity. Most telemarketers won't believe they can make much more than that, so if you advertise even that they are very skeptical. Incentivize them too much to where they are making more money than they are comfortable with and that's a problem. The funny thing is those cash bills don't seem to get factored into their brain.

          I'm also a pretty firm believer in top grading. No matter how good you think you are at hiring, you are still going to pick some that just can't make it happen. So I typically will hire 3-4 for a project and be flat out honest and tell them you're looking at your competition. Only one of you will be here in a month, it's up to you to make sure that's you.

          Telemarketers are an interesting species. Must be why I like John so much.

          Marcos

          Same back atcha. You also have to know little nuances such as : if you pay them on wednesday, you wont see them thursday and friday alot of times... Always pay on friday... If you pay them too much, you may not see them all next week... Funny creatures indeed.
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          • Profile picture of the author RentItNow
            Originally Posted by John Durham View Post

            Same back atcha. You also have to know little nuances such as : if you pay them on wednesday, you wont see them thursday and friday alot of times... Always pay on friday... If you pay them too much, you may not see them all next week... Funny creatures indeed.
            It's like my one teenage daughter, only around to cut the grass or wash the car when SHE wants a few bucks, not when the grass needs cut or the car needs washed.

            John, knowing the product (which is pretty well your 90 day product) do you think I can get 2 or 3 appointments per hour from someone?

            I have been explaining to my wife it is cheaper to pay someone to set an appointment and save time then spend that same money in gas and car wear and tear. Gotta have checks in place and she is mine :-)
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            • Profile picture of the author MRomeo09
              Originally Posted by RentItNow View Post

              It's like my one teenage daughter, only around to cut the grass or wash the car when SHE wants a few bucks, not when the grass needs cut or the car needs washed.

              John, knowing the product (which is pretty well your 90 day product) do you think I can get 2 or 3 appointments per hour from someone?

              I have been explaining to my wife it is cheaper to pay someone to set an appointment and save time then spend that same money in gas and car wear and tear. Gotta have checks in place and she is mine :-)
              Telemarketing isn't the answer for everything(sorry John), it's just a cog in a puzzle.

              It's really about putting together a marketing campaign that works. I like to use Telemarketing further down the process. Maybe the third or fourth touch. You can really multiply the percentage who respond favorably as well. While calling cold you'll be likely to get a 1-2% return rate. Following up a mailing campaign with a telemarketer can get you 4-10% returns.

              If you're doing something with a limited pool of prospects(i.e. site rentals/lead gen) it's especially important to go for a higher rate or return even if it costs a lot more.

              Cold calling a Yellow pages list, it's highly unlikely that you'll get 1-2 appointments per hour UNLESS you have a killer offer, and someone really good on the phone. I'd prefer to not be so dependent on the perfect setup but instead use direct mail to soften them up, and then swoop in for the kill with a good telemarketer(they don't have to be great).

              But I don't also sell $500 websites like John. If I did, I'd be much less inclined to spend any money on DM unless I could consistently approach a much higher rate of return.

              In the end, it's all about the ROI. If you have $1,000, if I spend that money in different ways, what returns me the greatest amount on my initial investment. I might get $10k from cold telemarketing. But I could possibly get $15k on DM followed up with telemarketing.

              Make sense?

              Marcos
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              We do not have to become heroes overnight. Just a step at a time, meeting each thing that comes up ... discovering we have the strength to stare it down. - Eleanor Roosevelt

              Your opinion of yourself becomes your reality. If you have all these doubts, then no one will believe in you and everything will go wrong. If you think the opposite, the opposite will happen. It’s that simple.-Curtis Jackson- 50 Cent
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        • Profile picture of the author Jay Rhome
          I will use a system of a per hour base, plus a bonus per lead, plus a HUGE quality bonus - meaning the greater ratio of sales to leads, the higher the bonuses. It makes more sense for them - and I show them the stats - to provide only very solid leads, than to just get leads or fake some. (I will compensate them if somehow the leads land in a rep having a bad day and it's obviously not their fault...)

          From one of John's WSO, I learned the importance to teach our reps (and ourselves) how to make sure the lead is a quality lead.

          Originally Posted by kaniganj View Post

          When I set up an agency for a management consultant last year, we only paid after the salesperson got there, discovered he was expected, and the conversation lasted 15 minutes or more.
          For some weird reason, I would have payed my quality bonus mentioned above obviously after the sale, but would have payed the "per lead" bonus right away, so thanks for the heads up! What was I thinking...

          Originally Posted by MRomeo09 View Post

          I agree that you can get them in at $8-10 an hour, but you incentivize them so that they can hit around $20-25 an hour with high productivity. Most telemarketers won't believe they can make much more than that, so if you advertise even that they are very skeptical. Incentivize them too much to where they are making more money than they are comfortable with and that's a problem. The funny thing is those cash bills don't seem to get factored into their brain.

          I'm also a pretty firm believer in top grading. No matter how good you think you are at hiring, you are still going to pick some that just can't make it happen. So I typically will hire 3-4 for a project and be flat out honest and tell them you're looking at your competition. Only one of you will be here in a month, it's up to you to make sure that's you.
          Interesting that if you pay them too much they don't believe it, or will coast with the money and not even show up the next week... Mmmm. With my bonuses they could make $40+ an hour. I figured it'd help retain the good ones and reduce turnover. Maybe not.

          And if you don't show up next week don't bother ever coming back. I can't believe a caller would be so damn good that he/she is irreplaceable.

          Originally Posted by ryanmckinney View Post

          This thread is a 14kt gold bar laced with platinum.
          You bet. Powerful stuff. John has dropped gold nuggets all over the thread. I can picture that Nerf ball being thrown around as I write this :p
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      • Profile picture of the author RentItNow
        Originally Posted by Centurian View Post

        Yes, John's on the money. I've secured decent $8-$10 hour appointment setters on elance. Then offer a bonus or incentive based on some criteria. You can get them to pre-qualify as well once your system gets going.

        I've had them setting 3 to 4 appointments a day. Then you can just run with the wind.
        Centurian, do you have anyone in mind you can pm me?
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        I have no agenda but to help those in the same situation. This I feel will pay the bills.
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  • Profile picture of the author RentItNow
    John, how many appointments do you think someone can average per hour?
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    • Profile picture of the author HypeText
      Paying per Appointment definitely needs to be watched VERY closely as it does encourage the Appointment Setter to potentially book fake appointments for a few extra bucks.

      I prefer to go with hourly Wage plus a piece of the sale as it not only kept costs down but further incentivized the Appt Setters to actually book REAL Appointments.
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    • Profile picture of the author John Durham
      Originally Posted by RentItNow View Post

      John, how many appointments do you think someone can average per hour?
      Depends on the variables John. For instance individual health leads can be set up at a rate of 1-2 sometimes even 3 or 4 per hour. But life and annuity's you may only get three or four per DAY at times...

      I'd have to see you describe your offer.

      Edit:

      On another note, you can create a project (seed to sow) that pays you $800, and seed it into two telemarketers at 20hours per week and get two weeks of testing until you find the right tms, and learn your numbers.

      We can create projects that are specifically designed as seed for other projects.

      In any event, one $800 sale can fund two telemarketers at 20 hours per week each, for two whole weeks.

      Thats enough time to test some people and get it into profit.

      If you are doing it in house.

      Take another $100, and tape a $20 to the wall and tell them whoever wins everyday gets to take it down. I did that with fifties once.

      I had designed a script that was synergistic with the advertising ... Gave my TMS the pitch, the leads and explained it to them on the first day we opened , I think there were 3... And I taped some fifties to the wall and said "The first person to write a $300 credit card gets to come take this off the wall"... and it wasnt 20 minutes before sales started popping and we never looked back.
      Note: I also let them TO the closes to me at first. They would get the prospect to the close and then say "let me transfer you to processing"... then they would mute for 30 seconds and waive me down, and I would jump in their seat and say "Hi Bob, this is john with processing...I see you are going to be taking advantage of our ______package today? Great..." And read the 1 minute closing pitch.

      It got us started.

      This may seem like trouble but not when you are doing 6 or 8 per day. Within a couple of weeks I had trained them to close for themselves. I gave each telemarketer a reasonable goal of selling one website in the morning and one website in the afternoon. 2 per day. They cost Up to $1-200 per day each and they grossed no less than $600. each day in/ day out... When one had a bad day another had a good one so it always averaged out. The pistons dont all fire at once...


      Also, if you are doing it inhouse....

      Dont put them on an autodialer unless you have 5 people or more...

      Its too much headaches and downtime ...blah blah....Just print out some leads , give them a landline and supervise them.

      Remote dialers are good for managing larger groups, or virtual workers.

      They can be cool for small groups too but wait till they learn the pitch and you have a basic core team established, so you dont have to train a new one on the technology every day.

      A hundred phone numbers from a phone book and 100 from an autdialer arent that different when you are flying... Except that you can anticipate someone answering doing it manual and greetings tend to go smoother which is a plus IMO, there is alot of debate about this...
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  • Profile picture of the author Jason Kanigan
    That idea of seed funding one project with another is great! I do that all the time. Even with WSO bumps. Nothing moves unless it or something else pays for it.

    The $50s taped to the wall is plenty of motivation for most people. Highly recommend. Wonder if one $100 or two $50s would be more motivating...haven't tried that yet.

    John also gave some useful advice for what level you have to be at to make autodialers worthwhile. At the start, keep it simple. Make growth pay for itself.

    And he gave you a version of the "higher authority" close that will get your TMs past the opening jitters. That is one valuable post right there.
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  • Profile picture of the author John Durham
    We also use to put a slit in a nerf football, and stuff it with a unknown amount of cash then tape over it, and whoever had the most recent sale yelled "Cup" and you would have to throw the ball to them, and it would stay on their desk until someone else yelled "cup" (will explain that in a minute...) The the admin assistant would write down a time of day that no one knew, and whoever's desk the ball was on when she yelled out "Time" would get to keep it. That can keep sales poppin.

    Fun and motivation. These things count.

    We called it cup because at first we didnt have a nerf... so we taped a lid on a coffee mug and threw that around...which hurt alot of times...lol

    Ps. Jason, I think it was 4 50's we had on the wall that first day, but they only got 50 per sale.... first come first serve.
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  • Profile picture of the author RentItNow
    Man these are some GREAT ideas. Can really envision things better.

    The offer is at SERVICES AND PACKAGES - Media*Mart|Canada's Marketing Solution Experts! (not fully functioning yet). It is basically a 5 page site, mobile, qr, blah blah package that I could sell all day long door to door but am tired of doing door to door. I want a destination and interested party at my destination.

    What I want to do is appointment set in my city for two months till the summer break and I go sell the people on it or the TM can even close them on the phone and start the process there. I do not know which to use yet.

    The script I was thinking was close to what John said. "Hi, I'm with Media Mart Canada, perhaps you have heard of us....blah blah, we are new in <my city> and offering a special this month only....we can send our local expert out to you...is thurs 2pm or friday, 1pm better for you...

    Pretty simple...

    I can sell these at 25% of the businesses I walk into once I warm up.

    This is the first phase. Then it's on to the bigger city where I will have appointment setters here and sales people there.

    Cant wait!

    I love these methods to motivate people. When i did systems design for companies the incentive was you got to keep your job!
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  • Profile picture of the author ryanmckinney
    This thread is a 14kt gold bar laced with platinum.
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  • Profile picture of the author dropbear
    all depends on the data and how many transfers you are expecting..I pay a base (min wage) with $5 per qualified transfer. It must be really qualified or they dont get credit. I expect at least 1 transfer per hour minimum. So my average guy can make $13/hr, my top guys can make $20+/hr..
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  • Profile picture of the author candres79
    First, I have been in sales, telemarketing, and direct sales for over 10 years... Most "serious" sales positions are commission only. I know I have work quite a few of them.

    I pay my appointment setters... 100% commission!

    I pay $20 per "VERIFIED" appointment and 10% of the sale.

    I mostly do SEO services for local businesses but I do webdesign as well.
    The key here is to VERIFY the appointment and make sure its not B.S.

    I personally will follow up with the appointments within 10 minutes or less, I personally verify the appointment with the prospect and make sure it's good to go before I pay any commissions.

    So if the appointment is good... I pay all commissions on a weekly basis. So say I go out to the appointment and close an SEO deal on a 1 year contract.... I will give that 10% commission to the appointment setter every month for the life of the contract.

    So If I go to the appointment and close a $800 a month deal on a 1yr. contract I pay him... $80 a month for the life of the contract.

    This has been working out well for me, as long as you make sure to verify the appointments there is no way you can lose... I will pay $20 all day long for solid appointments with qualified prospects!
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  • Profile picture of the author marksolis08
    If you are in need of telemarketers i could definitely help you out. I own a call center based in the Philippines. pm me your contact info if interested.
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    Call center or web design service anyone? website click here

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    • Profile picture of the author djbarker74
      Originally Posted by marksolis08 View Post

      If you are in need of telemarketers i could definitely help you out. I own a call center based in the Philippines. pm me your contact info if interested.
      Hi im looking pay per qualified interested gauranteed appointment
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  • Profile picture of the author emrom
    Great information, we need more help like this.
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  • Profile picture of the author Jay Rhome
    BTW, is this is a good idea to maximize results, get the intensity to the max, and keep everything fresh, to only hire for 3 days a week, Tuesday to Thursday? Mondays and Fridays aren't as successful from my experience, but mine is not extensive as many of you.

    It might be my own excuses I'm projecting, but I do feel these 3 days are better overall, callers can really rip in these 3 days, myself or my manager can keep the pressure on better in a short time frame too, and I can focus on service delivery and other parts of the bizz the other days. With summer coming people still have 4 days off. The sales rep (who I want present to take interested parties right away and do some prospecting of their own) have 2-3 more days to do face-to-face selling, etc. We can organize of few "parties" on Thursday if the week went well, etc.

    What do you guys think?
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    • Profile picture of the author Butterfly1177
      Very Interesting conversations taking place in this forum. I just have a quick question and I'm hoping to get some good responses. I am looking to go into business for myself and really don't know why I waited so long. Anyway. I am looking to set appointments for Business Insurance Brokers. I have worked for a few different companies that have done this, so I am experienced in that market. How does it work best to set up the payment arrangement between Broker and Business Developer. If by Campaign, how are they charged? How do I setup? What are the going rates currently? If by appointment, what is the average amount charged?
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  • Profile picture of the author bsummers
    We are a marketing firm that specializes in lead generation and appointment setting. PM me if interested.
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    Need help in LEADS for your business? Ask me on how to generate qualified and targeted leads from appointment setting and lead generation campaigns through calling, social media and email marketing.
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