I was chatting with a client the other day and they told me something that hadn't occurred to me previously.

They said that one of the things they liked about us is that we're not based in London.

Why? Because they found that london-based telemarketing agencies have trouble retaining telemarketers as their people are more transient in nature, only taking the job for a while before moving on.

And that does make sense, because when you think about many of the large call-centre or volume telemarketing agencies are located in areas outside London, usually lured there by local grants to boost employment.

But, beyond that, what does it really say about telemarketing agencies?

It says that most people will only work in one either if there is no alternative or they are "between" jobs.

Someone, who used to be a "team leader" in such an agency in a previous life, once told me how they used to literally drag people off the streets to put "bums on seats" and then bank on a few of their top performers to bring up the average and rescue the campaign.

So, why is this? What's wrong with most telemarketing agencies?

Typically, it boils down to a few inter-related areas:

1) Retention or "churn" - call-centres and volume telemarketing agencies have the highest turnover of staff than pretty much any other industry. Why? It's simple: they are terrible places to work and not everyone is suited to telemarketing.

Now, I'm not sure whether this is a "chicken or egg" issue, since if they were better places to work would they have less churn? But the fact is that the volume telemarketing game is a soul-sapping experience. This means that they have to recruit more just to keep the numbers up (since their business model is essentially selling resource) which in turn causes the quality to drop (as outbound telemarketing isn't for everyone) and so on, and so on.

Which brings us to the second issue:

2) High-cost base - all that constant recruitment, training and management costs is expensive. Add to that the technology overhead to record and monitor everyone and you can understand why telemarketing agencies run on wafer-thin profit margins. On top of that consider that telemarketing is a mature, highly competitive and price driven market and what's going to happen?

Margins get squeezed and with all that fixed overhead can they really afford to pay to retain the best talent? Which leads to...

3) Talent Drain - what happens to the best telemarketers? Do they become managers? Well, there's only so many management roles available and, realistically, the best telemarketers don't want to be a "manager". In our team we have people who have been there, done that and never want to go back. Great telemarketers (believe it or not) like telemarketing.

Do you pay them more? Maybe you can make them a "team leader" and pay a little more but there's only so much margin in this game. All that overhead, recruitment costs, management costs and the fancy BMW's parked outside for the account managers soon rack up.

So, what happens is that they leave and go freelance. As a freelancer they can be selective about the work they do and, if they team up with an associate model like ours, they can get a steady flow of quality assignments without the hassle of dealing with other telemarketers, account management, etc.

More money, less hassle.

And the traditional telemarketing agency has to replace them, which brings us right back to the first point, "churn".

For me, the model is broken and it's why I didn't set up a traditional telemarketing agency.

We work exclusively with seasoned telemarketers of the calibre most telemarketing agencies would kill for. We provide them with a steady level of high-quality, ongoing work which they would struggle to secure as a stand-alone freelancer.

The value we deliver for our clients is through offering strategic input and ongoing campaign management without the overhead of a traditional agency.

Essentially, our model provides a higher level of resource and service for less cost than a traditional telemarketing agency.

Think of it like this. The only way a traditional telemarketing agency (by which I mean a bricks-and-mortar location, technology overheads, account management teams, etc) can charge lower fees than our model is if they pay their people less.

And you know what they say about paying peanuts...

Labels: freelance telemarketing, outsourcing telemarketing, telemarketing agency

I was chatting the other day to one of my team and she was describing a typical call-centre operation as a "battery farm".

Think about it...

There's this large metal shed in the middle of some field (there's always a regional development grant behind these things). Anyway, it's filled with row upon row of people in little cubicles. There they are, clucking away with their scripts, predictive diallers force-feeding them with their next call.

Everything's automated and the "farmer" runs the sorry show from a big office overlooking it all. Casualties are high and anyone who doesn't make the grade is culled and replaced with a brand new chick.

What a sad and depressing thought.

No wonder call-centres have the highest staff churn levels of any industry.

Surely it should outlawed!

Now, on the other hand, think about your "free-range" telemarketer.

Working from the comfort of their own home, free to create their own workspace and decide how they approach each day.

The free-range telemarketer lives a far longer and happier existence. Force-feeding is not for them, they use their natural talents to explore every available opportunity and only dig out the juiciest worms.

Ah, what a life!

I'm thinking of asking Jamie Oliver if he'll support the cause.

Labels: freelance telemarketing, telemarketing agency

With the spread of broadband, low-cost telephony and VoIP, there have been a growing number of experienced telemarketing & sales people striking out on their own as free agents.

Many are disillusioned with the large call-centres, or perhaps their job was outsourced overseas. Some have decided to take a career break, perhaps to raise a family, and want a new, home-based, flexible working arrangement. Whatever the circumstances, there is a growing pool of talented home-workers that you can leverage to expand your business.

Some key advantages of using freelance telesales & telemarketing people are:

Freelancers come pre-loaded with experience - on average most freelance sales & marketing people have at least 5 years experience. Using a freelancer gives you access to highly skilled knowledge workers on an "as needed" basis, which means they can hit the ground running and start delivering results for you.

In contrast, call-centres have large overheads. If you're paying 250 GBP a day per agent, they need to pay their agent less than 80 GBP per day to cover overheads, management, down-time, etc. This means they usually employ young and inexperienced people compared to a freelancer.

Freelancers are flexible - you don't have to use them full-time for large projects. In fact, they probably don't want to work full-time, that's why they're freelancing. Maybe you just want them to work a few days a month? If you're a small consultancy operating in a niche market, maybe you just want someone to target a short list of 50 companies.

A call-centre could never handle this type of work; they want volume. Call-centres, of 20+ seats, have overheads that dictate they need volume. All those people need to be fed regular work. If you're a corporate and need a campaign to hit 10,000 companies in 2 weeks, then you need a call-centre. Even a distributed freelance network like ours could not scale to handle that type of project.

Freelancers can operate as if they're part of your company - freelancers can send emails from your company domain, work with your marketing collateral, and operate as if they're part of your team. With collaborate online tools, such as Salesforce.com, or Microsoft's new Office Live, it's easy to share customer contact details, diaries, etc. Many freelancers operate like Virtual "Sales" PA's, setting up appointments for you and chasing quotes on your behalf. Because you engage a freelancer direct, you can build a relationship with them over time. They learn more about your business and develop as part of your team.

By comparison, whilst call centres can place outbound calls as if they're from your company, typically that's all they're set up for. They don't send information by email and call back, their model is all about crunching through high volume. Plus, they have terrible churn rates (employee turnover), which means building any long-term relationship with an individual is almost impossible.

Freelancers are doing this work because they want to - if you've ever been called by some 18 year old in a call-centre reading a canned script for the 100th time that day, you'll understand this point immediately. Freelancers do this work because they're good at it and they enjoy it. This point alone makes all the difference.

In summary, for directors of small businesses or companies operating in niche markets, hiring freelance telesales professionals can be an ideal fit. For most small businesses, as little as 30 hours a month can deliver real results. Their costs are comparable with most telemarketing agencies and call-centres, they're experienced, and can work on an appropriate scale for your needs.

If you need to feed a hungry team of 20 sales people with "leads" then, I'm afraid, you'll still have to work with the big boys.

Labels: freelance telemarketing, telemarketing agency

Recently, I was chatting with a client and he called me the "go-to-guy to get-you-in".

I must admit, being a "Go-to-Guy" is something I've always worked towards. It's about building a reputation for your expertise and delivery.

One of my favourtite films is Pulp Fiction. And one of my favoutire characters in the film (a personal hero, even) is the tuxedo-clad Winston Wolf a.k.a "The Wolf".

He's the "Go-to-Guy".

When Jules and Vincent are in a tight spot, having just accidently blown a colleagues head off, they are releived when their boss, Marsellus says, "Go back in there, chill them ... out and wait for The Wolf, who should be comin' directly."

From there on, what does The Wolf do?

He qualifies what his client wants, gets all the details, etc and then sets expectations that he knows he can deliver: "Expect a call around 10:30. It's about thirty minutes away. I'll be there in ten."

Next thing we see is The Wolf's car pulling up outside Jimmie's house with the caption: "NINE MINUTES AND THIRTY-SEVEN SECONDS LATER"

Now that's how to do it.

When Jimmie opens the door. We see, standing in the doorway, the tuxedo-clad Wolf. He looks down to his notebook, then up at Jimmie.

THE WOLF
You're Jimmie, right? This is your house?

JIMMIE
Yeah.

THE WOLF
I'm Winston Wolf, I solve problems.

JIMMIE
Good, 'cause we got one.

To me, this is my goal as a freelance sales & business development consultant. I'm the go-to-guy when a client wants help opening doors. Sometimes I work with clients on ongoing campaigns; sometimes it's just a one-off project.

If I can't get you in, I know someone who can.

Labels: appointment setting services, freelance telemarketing, sales, telemarketing services