20 Dec 5 reasons to outsource your telemarketing service

Telemarketing can be a funny old game.  To many the word conjures up all sorts of negative connotations – you only have to type #telemarketing into the search box in twitter to see that, in the main, the opinion of telemarketers – certainly in the US at least, is certainly not a favorable one.

And, to an extent that’s understandable.   If you’re not involved in the sales or marketing side of your business, chances are the only dealings you will have had with a telemarketer will be one of the awful, soulless, scripted calls selling PPI claims, loft insulation or solar panels – and that’s just in the business to consumer world.

In terms of the B2B environment, I’ve lost count of the amount of conversations I’ve had where potential clients of ours have uttered the phrase “we’ve tried telemarketing before and it didn’t work”.   However, I’ve never heard anyone say “we’ve tried sales before but it didn’t work”.

Somehow, one bad experience with an unsuccessful telemarketing campaign/company seems to tarnish their opinion of the entire method but, at it’s core, it’s simply a means of using the telephone to sell – if it’s done correctly, it will work and typically with a much lower time and financial outlay than many other methods of sales & marketing.

Choose the right company and, as long as there is a market for your product or service – telemarketing WILL provide you with a fantastic return on your investment.     So, why outsource when you could deliver your telemarketing in house?

Here’s 5 reasons

1. It’s more cost effective.    If you look at the hourly rate you’ll be paying a telemarketing company versus the hourly rate of an employed member of staff, yes it will be higher.   After all, it’s a business – it has overheads and, like all businesses, we’re in business to make money.     However, the hourly rate you’re paying an employee is not the only cost of employing them.  There are costs for recruitment (advertising, recruitment agency fees, the time and financial cost of interviewing), training & development, sick pay, National insurance, computer equipment, phones, stationery, ongoing training & management/supervision.Typically there’ll be a “bedding in” period of a good couple of months before that person is considered not only to be ready to get on the phone but also before it’s expected that they’ll even begin to sell anything.    Plus, if they’re not the right fit for your company – you’re pretty much stuck with them.    A reliable, experienced outsourced telemarketing company can be up and running – and generating results – far quicker than an employed member of staff
2. Experience.   Making outbound calls is not an easy job.   I recently met with a Director of a business who has some very experienced, high earning sales people on his team who, in his own words are useless at making cold calls.      When in front of a client they excel but, in the office, they’ll make every excuse under the sun to not get on the phone – the bottom line is, they’re scared.We make cold calls every single day and we’re excellent at it.    Every member of our team has been making outbound sales calls for 15+ years and that shows not only in the manner in which we deliver our calls but also in the results we’re achieving for our clients.      If you’re lucky enough to find an employee with that level of experience, you’re going to have to pay them very well to keep them.    With a lower paid, less experienced member of staff, yes the pay will be lower but so will their results.  You want experienced telemarketers?  outsource it!
3. Freeing up time.    Prospecting is a vital part of developing and maintaining a quality sales pipeline but, if you’ve got a team of well paid salespeople hurtling around the country in flashy cars, is it really the best use of their time, having them spending hours per week on the phone chasing new prospects?Besides which, going back to my point above, so few salespeople have the experience or discipline to make high volumes of outbound calls and will do all they can to avoid it so, if there’s a day per week when they’re expected to be in the office, making calls, you can guarantee the amount – and quality – of the calls will be nowhere near that made by the outsourced telemarketing company.    You want your salespeople to be using their time more effectively?  outsource!
4. Flexibility.   Outsourcing is a perfect option for many companies as it may not necessarily be financially beneficial to consistently carry out large volumes of sales and marketing activity every week of every month of every year.    Your business might be seasonal, you may have an exhibition coming up that you need a push on sales activity for, you might have lost a member of staff and need to ensure their pipeline is managed while you focus on hiring a replacement.   Whatever the reason, outsourcing gives you far more flexibility than you’d find with taking on a permanent employee
5. Greater return on investment – an effective telemarketing company should always ensure that the clients return on their investment is one of the main focuses of any outbound telemarketing activity.   Through consistent analysis it is possible to see, relatively quickly what aspects of the activity are proving to be most effective in helping to achieve this objective.     With a clear budget and an agreed length of campaign, you’ll have full visibility of costs versus return.   With an employed member of staff it’s much more challenging to equate the cost of their employment versus the return in addition to the return on the investment typically taking much longer to achieve with an employee versus outsourcing.