Need help Setting up a Telemarketer

I just recently did exactly what you're looking to do so will share my input.

I hired a couple reps from the Philippines. I interviewed about a dozen and hired two; the ones that had the most relevant experience, sounded good on the phone, and I was comfortable with. I set up a skype manager account and created accounts for them under it. Doing this enabled me to see the calls that they were making to verify they were doing the work, but if you are able to record, I was not able to figure out how. I asked skype support and was told this is not possible.

Based on the experience, I would say expect to pay ~$5 an hour and make ~300 calls in a ~8 hour day.

Overall the experience was... eh. Not bad, but not great. Made a couple sales, but not enough to make it worth doing again.

PM me if you have any other questions on any specifics, would love to chat and help out any way I can.

Very interested to hear what others have to say on this as well.

Very interested in this thread. I am interested in finding a quality appoint-setter as well.

I am also following this thread closely. My current situation is that I don't have a situation where I will commit to a 'trial program' of 40 hours per week for 2 weeks. It would be completely counter productive to my business. If there was an option to do 8 hours per week, that'd be awesome.

Ken's advice is spot on.

I've wrote about this before and is something I think that a lot of business owners 'don't get.'

The worse thing you can do is expect your agents to just sell right after you hire them, you need a business process in place that trains, manages and leads your agents. Even v. experienced callers have a learning curve for whatever they are selling.

The first thing you should do is learn how to set appointments yourself, show them your script, and most importantly how the script should flow and your delivery. Some people just need to see first that it's possible. I think it all comes down to being a leader.

I have four agents that set up my warm callbacks and in every case it has taken them at least 40 hours of consistent effort to generate the volume and quality I expect. You can't rush this gestating process, you have to let the agent move at their own pace.

If you can't afford that then you have way bigger problems than hiring a telemarketer.

Gotta agree with Ken and Pantera. Hiring TMs short term doesn't give them or you a chance to figure out the selling process for your product. They need to learn about it...get comfortable with it...understand the niche they're calling into and the problems those people experience.

You are far better off to find someone local who you can sit with...pay them $10/hr for 10 hours, and really hear what they are doing. Be there in the same room with them, so if they have technical questions you can answer right away. Maybe you'll have to jump on the phone or conference in to be the tech guy...I have clients who do this all the time, conferencing in when needed to give technical answers (we set this up with the prospect beforehand, so that there isn't any surprise about a third person on the line).

You will learn a lot more and be able to react much faster to the hiccups your TM faces.

However, as a business owner, you will need to learn How To Sell. That is your job, not hiding away. Y-O-U are responsible for your business, not your subs.

I definitely agree.

Train and mode them to the person you want them to be.

I currently have 3 full time VAs for my business so far and I had to go through about 10-15+ others. It took me awhile but I'm satisfied. Took some investment to pick and choose who's best for the job.

I'm sure its about the same, and I agree its better to train them when you have experience yourself. That's a trait of good leaders.

But, I rather delegate this to the Philippines, not only they only work for less but I heard they can handle appointment setting. It's going to cost for the investment to find that person I'm looking for but I know it's something have to do. Investment. If this don't work, I'll do local. We'll see what happens...

Everyone's situation is different and my circumstancial situation doesn't change the reality of the experience others have, but I will give my experience.

I have hired part-time telemarketers for two different tasks. In both cases they were 'appointment-setters' and not 'closers'.

The first time I did it I hired people who sounded good and had some decent experience. I paid them $4-5 per hour. They were able to produce a lot of calls, but didn't do great in setting quality appointments. After a few weeks I abandoned the project. It just wasn't working.

The second time I also did it for just a few hours. I am only paying a telemarketer for 10 hours of work a week. This time, however, I am paying $8. This is because I choose callers with much greater feedback history, better feedback and better phone and selling skills. This has been much more successful and has lead to 2-3 appointments being made per 2 hour shift. This works well for me as I couldn't handle many more appointments.

Now, to validate some of these guru's point: I have actually had two callers. My first one was excellent, but had to quit because he was stretched too thin. He took on my job as extra work. He was already working full time for a company in Australia. I pay good bonus's on top of the hourly wage, but he was starting to get sick from lack of sleep.

The guy I have working now is in a similar boat, just a bit younger and more able to deal with the lack of sleep. He is a go-getter, but he has another full time job. This has caused a struggle for me because I want to ramp it up and he can't do it.

So, there is my experience - take it for what it is worth.

This is my process:

1. In the interview process I 'pre qualify' them. Did they follow basic instructions for the application? If not, they are DONE. More importantly, when I am speaking with them in a phone interview I end the conversation with a discussion on price. I always ask if they will be willing to work for less (usually 25-35% less or more) than their quoted price

Note that I am NOT BEING CHEAP here. I don't care what the price is (within reason) - I want to see if they are actually SALES people. The sales people will use SALES tactics to justify the price they quoted. The run of the mill discount telemarketers will be willing to accept almost anything. If they use classic sales tactics to justify their price, then I will hire them. If they say they will work for less without a fight - I move on.

Anyways, that is my experience and my two cents.