A lot of companies and agencies may believe they have the expertise to run effective telemarketing campaigns and activities in-house. In some cases this may well be true with staff knowing the products and services intimately.
However it’s often worth considering using a professional telemarketing company and especially one that is willing and able to get into the heart of your business and really understand the strategic objectives and style of how you work.
Writing a strong brief will help such an agency to get things right first time, so work through this step by step guide to make sure you have everything covered.
Your selected agency should challenge you about the strength of your marketing messages and work with you to ensure they are as strong as they might me. They will also write a clear and succinct ‘script’ that will help the callers to deliver these messages and secure a high proportion of appointments. Make sure you are totally comfortable with the script before the campaign begins.
Whether you decide to run your telemarketing in-house or use an agency, make sure you set clear and measurable objectives at the outset and have regular reviews and updates as you go through the campaign. Most importantly, make sure you tell everyone in your business what’s happening so that any enquiries that come in are effectively and professionally handled, by whomever receives the call.
The simple tasks – updating customer lists, maintaining contact with old clients – can be done in-house. You can use an outside agency to handle research work and book appointments, but you may have less control over the quality of the work. It all comes down to costs and whether you have the skills to do it yourself.
A skilled agency can be much more effective when actual selling is involved. Selling on the telephone for call after call is not a skill easily learnt, when the chance of rejection is so high. You can organise the work on a trial basis: if you have, say, 5,000 names, they will trial 1,000 in the hope of winning the contract for the rest. They want success, not a poor response rate.
Before handing an assignment to an agency, ensure that you are happy with the script and personnel they will use. Also confirm how many times a number will be called before they give up.
An agency will either call ‘on your behalf’ or disclose their identity. The former will generate a better response, if done well.
An agency will usually charge a daily rate of around £250-£350 per day or £10-£30 per operative per hour. The number of calls made during a day will depend on the number of questions to be asked. A one-off set up charge, of perhaps £250, is also to be expected. This will cover agreeing the script and reporting back with a complete listing of numbers called and the response – even if it was ‘get lost’.
The cost of telemarketing will depend entirely on the scale of the campaign. Once you know what you are doing, you can calculate the cost based on the number of staff employed and the telephone costs. You also need to allow for the costs of setting up the operation (eg recruitment and developing a sales ‘script’).
Costs will be offset by the savings you make on other aspects of the sales process eg travelling time, travelling expenses, fewer dead-end leads, etc. You can also improve the likelihood of good value by asking the telesales provider to price your arrangement according to results rather than according to the time it takes.