Telemarketing Software Value

More than likely he is selling you the dialer software along with it, which you can rent by the day from companies online for 10 bucks per day or less and only be charged when you are USING it...

I wouldnt buy a chimney sweep business, just like I wouldnt buy a carpet cleaning business, or a janitorial business, or even a window cleaning business, unless they are giving you all the customers with it, pre sold accounts....

I would just buy the tools to do the jobs...or RENT them from an equipment rental company, then I would write a short script and start telemarketing residential. Thats all they are going to have you doing anyway.

You dont have to spend 100k to do that.

Take it or leave it, but you will be primarily buying a common IDEA, unless customers come with it built in, you could just as easily do it yourself.

Branding?

Who the heck cares what the name of a chimney sweep company is?

Do you know any major chimney sweep brands off the top of your head? Didnt think so.

I'd do it myself without buying the franchise, because you will be doing it yourself either way.

Hope this helps,
John

Are you buying a database of paying customers?
This may have a great amount of value...

Are you buying a database of prospects?
This may be worth $50-$100

Is the auto-dialer online?
Research the actual dialer on your own, since you would know what it is.
Then you can determine the price.

4 vehicles. You would have to do the research on these as well.
Fiind out what the resale value is. I don't know where you are but KBB may be able to give you an ides. (Kelly Blue Book)

You also have to account for equipment and other supplies.

Are you buying a franchise or buying him out?

whoa, back up.

You are contemplating purchasing business with 4 trucks, a dialer system with a phone list, but no clients? And for $25k?

You have got this thing entirely backwards.

The dialer is worthless. I'll explain why in a moment.

The leads are a commodity which you can purchase from any number of vendors for $xxx

The trucks, well, are worth whatever trucks go for. But without clients, I would think one truck is enough, no?

The dialer presents a liability. Especially if it is an older one. Here is the issue. If any of the leads you get are cell phones, it is illegal to call them from a dialer. This is the TCPA, or Telephone Consumer Protection Act. It is the same law used to create do-not-call lists.

Right now, attorneys and professional plaintiffs across the country are making a small fortune suing people who violate the TCPA. Ignorance of the law is not a defense. The penalties range from $500 to $1500 PER CALL. Class actions are common, which means your records could be subpoenaed and everyone you called would be approached to see if their number was a cell phone, and if so would they like to join the lawsuit.

Now, you may ask how is a dialer calling a cell phone any different than a dialer calling a landline? The answer is that there is not much difference today. But back in 1991, when the law was written, cell phones were MUCH more expensive to operate, and people did not appreciate being charged by their provider for the privilege of listening to a sales pitch.

Of course, people don't like sales pitches today either very much, but at least it doesn't cost them much extra, if anything, to take the call. And, of course, cell phones are now overtaking landlines as the predominant way for people to be reached.

Unfortunately, the law has not changed with the times and it still matters HOW you call people on their cell phones. So, how do you avoid calling cell phones from a dialer? There are some ways to do it, though they are not perfect (because nobody adequately keeps up with ported numbers) and it represents quite a bit of work to properly scrub your calling lists.

I guess the real question is this: what business do you want to be in? Telemarketing or Chimney cleaning? If it is chimney cleaning, don't buy a business name with no clients for anywhere near $25k. Start up yourself, and hire a telemarketing company to do the hard work and accept the liability.

If you really want to do your own telemarketing, don't use a dialer. Use a regular person on a regular phone.

Try SMS marketing -- it's much cheaper to reach everybody in your zip code, city or county. SMS messages get opened at a rate of 98% within the first 3 minutes of sending so you know your response rate nearly instantly.

I agree with these guys. It is like starting from scratch. It is much better if you do the marketing yourself.

I'm happy that most of what I told you in PM is here on the thread also...pull the dialer out of the deal and buy the business with the existing customers. The dialer holds worth to HIM, and you can't determine what that worth is for you at this point, so removed it from the sale. IF you want to get it, then make it a side deal...however, as I said and many others did, I wouldn't.

OK so I have decided not to buy the business. Me and my friend are going to start from scratch on our own. We are going to take one or two of the telemarketers with us as he is shutting down the business. Can any recommend a telemarketing/dialing software that does this speed dialing type of thing. Not sure of all my options to try and achieve this. How do go about getting leads or a database?Thanks

Google "sales leads database" and you'll find many options. You probably won't find much difference between them.

As for the dialer, if you are sure you want to go down this path, I suggest using a hosted service as opposed to buying a piece of equipment. Make sure they can adequately address the TCPA concerns I mentioned earlier. Again, a google search will bring you many options.

Good luck.

Telemarketing is become important part of the marketing perspective. Telemarketing is very effective marketing strategy the brings confirmed and desirable results.

Ok spoke to the owner today and he said he uses a hosted dialer from Y tell communications(spelling??? going on how he pronounced it). So he said for the dialer and his database/leads(he has no pre-existing customers) he is charging $15k. My gut feeling is that it is way too expensive although I am not completely familiar with any of this which is not good. Thanks.

If he is using a hosted dialer, what exactly is it that he owns???

I don't know if these guys will actually do the kind of campaign you want or not, but check them out. They bill by the minute of connected time only, and the rate is pretty low (cents, not dollars)

Global Connect - Voice Broadcasting / Emergency Notification System

If they won't do it, I'll bet there are other similar companies that will.

Hmm. I just visited their site. I don't know what the catch is, but I'm sure there is one. Keep digging, and good luck.