[sutchy]

Hi All,

Could anyone help me?

I've heard that telemarketing can be an effective way to generate new business and was wondering if anyone here is using it.

If so

- How effective is it?
- How do you approach the sale (sales/appointment angle)?
- What the average hit rate is?
- Whether it works all year round?
- Costs etc...

Any telemarketing scripts or advice would be extreamly helpful!


Thankyou 

[Dynafoam]

Suchy,

One piece of advice - Don't phone me!

Or for that matter anyone else who has registered with the Telephone Preference Service not to receive unsolicited marketing calls.

Prohibited numbers can be checked at: www.numbercheck.co.uk/Default.aspx

[sutchy]

Thanks for the advice John.

It was really helpful!

Although my question was really to find out whether it's effective or not and if anyone uses it to generate business?

[George-Reid]

Been their done that
Six months and broke even only.
2 girls working 5pm till 8 pm Monday to Thursday
Very low job average very little repeat business
generally poor result not worth the effort for me.
That was a 5 years ago I think it would be worse now.
Sorry no longer have script.

Cheers

George

[Ian Gourlay]

I have this method as one of my statergies.

Depends who you have doing it.

Do not like scripts,

Just woulds like Hello my name is

Im calling on behalf of         a local based cleaning company

You may have seen our vans about, we specoalise in

We generally get three apointments in one and a half hours.

If you dont want to qoute in person you can get two jobs if you throw in somthing for free.


We do not do it all the time.

You need to check telephone numbers you call are not registered with telephone prefrence service.

Then you won disturb John Bolton, Phil, etc.

[Len Gribble]

Can 0800 numbers be registered? I’m getting a bit tried of companies phoning me who what to sell me advertisement space.

Len

[Michel Roberts]

Len

Yes they can. I did mine a few months ago, but it does'nt seem to have made a huge difference. You would be amazed at how many companys who whem challanged says they have never heard of it!

Nice talking to you the other day

Regards Michel

[martin19842]

i used to work for a large cleaning company that had a full telesales appointment making dept,  a lot of money .

the argument is do you tread the streets, or phone around.

one solution may be for you to use an agency, they will target the area that you want.  you can then do a deal with them about how they will be paid, either by appt, quote or job accepted.

by using an outside company then you don t need to worry about staffing an operation, and running etc.  as that is the difficult bit.

i hope that helps

regards

martin

[Fox]

I have used outside agencies for telesales in the past (commercial cleaning)  the costs were £60 per appointment.

The problem with this was that not all of the appointments were 'genuine' the client had been harassed into seeing us so spent alot of time argueing with the telesales company that as it was not a workable appointment I would not pay.

The other thing that worried me was that I was never sure if they were marketing our company the way I wanted it doing therefore giving us a reputation of 'nuisances' rather than 'helpful' and 'professional'.

Not convinced that telesales would work when selling to domestic clients but done properly it will bring in commercial.

Fox

[sutchy]

Thanks George, Ian, Martin & Fox

Was it residential or commercial you were contacting and did it work out more expensive than leafleting.

I know it probably depends on who you have on the phones and maybe the time of year and the approach your using, but just on average.

[martin19842]

i hav only ever used telemarketing for commercial work.

regards

martin

[Ian Gourlay]

Hi sutchy,

My example was for domestic carpet cleaning.

Like Fox I had a qoute from an Agency of £60 a lead for commercial work.

As I am not a cleaning contractor but a carpet cleaner it would have been totaly unprofitable foe me to us that method

[Londoner]

I know that telephone sale are used a lot in America to promote business for carpet and upholstery cleaning but I can't imagine it working out over here.
Anyone know if they do it in Australia?

[George-Reid]

Mine was only domestic carpet and upholstery cleaning.
I have also employed a full time sales person for commercial carpet cleaning but thats another story.

Cheers

George

[Ian Gourlay]

When I first started using this method I tried to find out the American method .

The best I came up with is from a JP rival  who said their was no need for fancy scripts its a numbers game if people our interested they will express an interest.

Personally there are two good examples of door to door and I believe the methods described in those examples are the best way to carry out canvas marketing.

Tele Sales is good for wet afternoons or dark winter nights when you need some more customers. Dont call after 8pm