I'm Having Problems Hiring Telemarketers / Sales Reps

Sure, I have 2 U.S. based telemarketers that I pay $15-$20/hour + small bonus. Worth every penny!

- Ahmad

If you ask me, it's really just like any other debate over which way to do X is better. The truth is, a method is only as good as the one who uses it. It's the same here. If you're more comfortable and more skilled with using telemarketing for leads (or are at least skilled in handling telemarketers), well you're more likely to do well with it than using email or website creation because you're more familiar with using the phone than the internet. If you go around trying each different 'success' method, you'll just waste your time. It's something you have to learn, like any other method inside or outside business.

If you don't mind, can you share some numbers?

How many calls they generally make per day and how many sales per day are they producing?

I wouldn't mind paying the same rate for results but that is the stickler...results.

I have 2 Odesk Telemarketers just started today. I had to go through alot of bad ones to get here. I could use a good recomendation for CSM or CRM as I curently have a large Excel spread sheet and it needs to be spilt up for traking and sharing purposes. I leanred alot in last few days I can tell you I spent many hours chating on Skype and I kind of came up with a system that Im thinking of turning into WSO report from all I have learned.
Im affraid to admit what Im paying because these 2 are super stars and I got them for less than what you post your paying for 1

@JayRhome Wrote
My issue is with telemarketers closing for phone appointments with myself and the reps. They need to be paid by the hour PLUS bonus for quality and performance. But HOW do we track their actual working hours? They will work from their home, so I don't know how to track what they actually do, besides having at least 3 at the same time, and make them aware of what the others are doing to #1 stimulate them #2 keep them honest.

Jay, you've brought up an excellent point here. Ahmad's reply is spot on correct. He's right.... 1099 independent contractor or not, you must treat them like employees. They need training, supervision and management like all staff.

There's a perception that outsourcing is a push-button solution to get done what someone cannot do, or doesn't want to do, usually fueled by the low hourly wage aspect with overseas workforce like the Philippines. This just isn't the case in my experience, the paradigm is the same as hiring employees and its only possible because of virtual technology allowing you to hire someone offsite that makes it possible. Even with overseas workers, you should use same care and respect treating them like people, not a resource. All the normal things a business has with employees will be there except payroll issues

But Jay has drilled home the issue for 90% of those not using in-home telemarketers. Accountability, responsibility, stability and of course, performance is the objective... and you may never meet these people face to face.

Some background first. I live in Asia half the year, and in the US the other half. Following the good weather for one thing and many other reasons. But I have lived in the Philippines from time to time... hiring, training, and supervising team managers for Filipino call agents. Usually I was hired by larger companies to come in and overhaul the entire marketing campaign. Sometimes this was all on-site in a modern office call center. And I also setup Filipino in-home call agents phone to the USA using Skype or a hosted dialer service.

I could write volumes about this experience, but that's another story. For many reasons, I will just say that Filipino call agents were only suitable for simple qualifying work on B2B telemarketing campaigns for lead generation. That's my experience and your mileage may vary on that. We had a few superior performers, but not enough of them and stability was an issue. I think overseas call agents could be applied to calling B2B with webinar invitations and verifying customer data easily enough.

The call center industry in PH is huge, estimated 250,000 jobs. Probably 98% of that is consumer products/services not B2B. Even so, that provides a lot of people to be hired as in-home agents as they leave the centers, but there are numerous other problems and issues with in-home call agents. Internet ISP connections being the worse and power outages, And in the end, contrary to the conventional wisdom, the population speaks Tagalog 24/7/365. That's what's on TV, radio, newspapers and magazines too. English is taught in schools as a second language. Only those in metro areas seem to come close to proficiency. We tried to hire the best of the best. In the end, the phone work for B2B campaigns never reached the level you would expect from a native English speaker from UK or USA. There are also many cultural differences and unexpected expectations in the boss/employee relationship. No surprise, it is a foreign country to the US and UK. The expectation issues were usually with the US/UK companies. The call centers there usually provide accent reduction and grammar classes full time. UK classes, American accent classes, and even Australian accents. Cubicles often have signs saying, "Don't forget your American accent!!"

That was then a few years ago. I'm sure you could find marketers here on the forum successfully using filipino telemarketers, so give it a shot if it fits your business. Currently, I am the outsourced marketing department(their expert) for several small to medium bricks-and-mortar businesses in the US and a few other western countries. They have high value products and the profit margins to do marketing the way they want it done, and that includes US bases telemarketers for lead gen.

My work is all done virtually and never on-site. We use video conferencing, skype, video, etc. This could be overhauling their online funnels and PPC management, direct mail campaigns and also telemarketing for leads. I offer full service if needed from A to Z for marketing, using the proper tool for the job at hand. They usually find me from referrals by asking around for lead generation.

I'm repeating myself a bit here from that previous post above, but adding a lot more details. These details might encourage some to setup their own lead system.

For these clients, I use only USA in-home telemarketers, paying $20 to $30 an hour some with bonuses. the program takes some setup but once going the client has a constant stream of high quality leads for the sales departments. I do extensive training even though I locate and interview only experienced people. First step is an exorcism to deprogram their habits from sounding like telemarketers. As in "Hi, how are you today?"

We make business calls... straight-forward and to the point. My telemarketers are trained to qualify for interest, gather specific data to report to me, and get the best times to speak to the decision maker. I give them a carefully crafted script they read. They do not sell or give out specific product information. They are trained to stick with benefits only. The objections training I give them always takes them back to a "close" for the best time to call back for the sales team. That's all. My in-home agents manage their own callbacks if needed for getting the appointment and gather data as well. So, I don't have to give them hands-on management. They're good at what they do and produce.

Usually my clients have a medium length sales cycle with followups to a close. Takes some education, demonstration and presentations to make a sale. Lead generation with telemarketers is cost-effective and it maximizes the efforts of the sales team, freeing their time for the followups. I train sales guys too and they will make cold calls themselves and work referrals.

It's all down to the numbers. If the business model fits and the product matches the need, then skilled, trained USA telemarketers for lead generation changes everything for many companies.

As Ahmad has pointed, this is real investment in time, effort and money, but the ROI is usually stratospheric compared to the prior lead generation.

I see no reason that any offline marketer here could not do the same thing yourselves marketing of the common services such as websites, SEO ranking services, or SMS texting services. As long as you have the profit margins to support a lead gen progam.

Some tips on independent in-home telemarketers:

* Don't choose until you locate high quality candidates. Do without and keep looking if necessary.

* Take several interviews. Get to know candidates on a personal level during the hiring phase. Let the flakes fall out of the process. and build trust relationships with those you hire for long-term

* Use a good written agreement for the independent contractor relationship.

* Get your W-9 forms return before they start

* Use a good NDA or Non-Disclosure Agreement and get it signed and returned

* Use a first 30 day probation policy where either party can leave the arranglement for any reason without explanation.

* Be completely clear and detailed with all instructions, expectation, and give examples during training.

* Be lavish with praise for good performance. Correct mistakes and slips right away.

* Lastly, be careful with your own assumptions about the qualities of a good telemarketer. My current new star is a grandmother who sounds a bit like a stern librarian over the phone. She also says exactly what I ask her to say, running on auto-pilot and sending in hot leads for sales, while managing all the callbacks on her own.

BTW, I am not soliciting new clients for telemarketing here. My capacity is quite limited at the moment anyway. However, full disclosure... I am working with one person from here, but only because their business model and strategies fit the description for ROI.

My signature changed 2 weeks ago. For 4 years I had two links to my favorite charities and someone PMed me said I should have a signature with commercial links like everyone else if I was going to talk about my clients. Fair enough. So, there you go.

Best Regards
Jan


P.S. Those two charities are Charity Water charity: water They bring clean safe water to rural areas in developing countries. A few hundred bucks can save dozens of lives especially infants. And I encourage support for UXO. They remove unexploded ordinance from countries where wars left live bombs and mines all over the rural farm lands. A little known fact... 100's of millions of anti-personell bomblets were dropped into Laos four decades ago. Designed to injure not kill, these things leave 1000's of farmers legless every year. More tons of bombs than were used in the entire global war from 1940 to 1945 were dropped into northern Laos back in the 60's and 70's. MAG goes into the field and takes out 100's of thousands of mines and bombs yearly MAG | About us > About us

Hey Steve,

Are you looking to take on any more Telemarketers?

You can set the software to only record the microphone side of a conversation. That way your recording is only the voice of the telemarketer you hired. This recording method using the software is for accountability when you are paying an in-home contractor to make the cold calls prospecting for leads.

Regards,
Jan

Exactly!

I am NOT referring to a call center. We are not a call center, nor do we operate as one. An individual telemarketer is not and cannot be compared to an entire call room. So, the accountability factor is completely different.

Exaclty no mater if they are sub contracting ,working from home as a employee or in a office, there must be solid tracking and accountability "the trust me I will do the work " or you can fire me next week is a receipt for disaster