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Thread: Cold Calling Agents/Telesales marketers

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    Gold Member Mark Atkinson's Avatar
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    Cold Calling Agents/Telesales marketers

    Hi guys,

    Just wanted some quick estimates on what you think I could end up paying per targeted lead should I have somebody cold-calling for me?

    This is a time consuming process and right now time is something I don't really have much of.

    I would probably be willing to pay around R200 per quality lead.

    I'm just looking for something to supplement my other marketing activities, such as my Adwords campaign (which is not cheap). I believe there is still merit in cold-calling applicable businesses.

    Perhaps I should employ an assistant to do all these things for me!

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    Mark, would this person be cold-calling on your premises, or would they be using their own phone line?

    I had a woman once asking R1000 per meeting setup. She calls at her own expense, and sets up meetings. However, it's up to you to close.

    But R1000, damn steep.

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    Mark Atkinson (15-Jul-11)

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    Email problem watermetersupplier's Avatar
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    sth about cold calling!

    sometimes cold calling works. Phone a company and tell phone answer-er what you really wanna do. Don't make non-stop introduction. You gotta check out if they really are in need of your stuff. You can persist if they physically have. Quit it if they objectively don't need any. Then follow up the potential customer. To acquaint them with your items. Make them believe you can offer items of their need at competitive price. Do it step by step, you can achieve more. By the way, i once worked for a telemarketing company.

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    Mark Atkinson (15-Jul-11), Nienke (01-Aug-11)

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    Moderator IanF's Avatar
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    Mark
    This Lady is the cold calling queen in the USA Wendy
    Only stress when you can change the outcome!

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    Mark Atkinson (15-Jul-11), Nienke (01-Aug-11)

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    Gold Member Mark Atkinson's Avatar
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    @Andrew - Thanks. I did read your thread about that. R1000 is way beyond what I can afford to pay per lead. The problem is that many of our customers are once off sales, as opposed to repeat business. It may be 2 or 3 years before a contact looks for a redesign of something. For repeat business, perhaps R1k a lead is worth it.

    @Ian - Thanks, interesting site. The problem, however, is not how to cold call - but finding the time in which to do it! I think I may hold back on this until we're employing a decent assistant/PA. That way, I can direct her to Wendy's site to learn more and we can have cold calling in-house. I am going to spend a bit of time on the site reading what she's got to say, though. Looks promising.

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    Diamond Member Justloadit's Avatar
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    Maybe set aside to do say 3 cold calls a day. This way you do not have to spend too much time, and also you get over the negative vibes you get from cold calling. Slowly you get into the grove and do this automatically, and before you know it, you may get a good lead every week. Hit miss ratio is about 3% on a cold call to a sale.
    Victor - Knowledge is a blessing or a curse, your current circumstances make you decide!
    Solar pumping, Solar Geyser & Solar Security lighting solutions - www.microsolve.co.za

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    Mark Atkinson (15-Jul-11), Nienke (01-Aug-11)

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    Diamond Member Blurock's Avatar
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    Cool

    I have always been against cold calling and prefer networking and prospecting. It is more focused and effective as you target a specific market whereas a shotgun approach may irritate people to the extent that they run away when you are in the area. (refer timeshare, credit cards, insurance and MLM).

    Do you intend employing a telemarketer or just pay a referral fee for introductions? The fee should be worthwhile to the introducer, but also cost effective to sustain your business. Reward existing clients, friends and family for word of mouth referrals.

    Cold calling statistics proves that it is the most ineffective form of marketing, as success rates may be as low as 0.1%. The average is about 7% if you have a good system. So, do you have a mailing list that you can prospect from? Have you defined your target market? Who will you be calling on? Do you have a follow up system?

    I recently came across some other discouraging data about cold calls: "...you have to speak to 100 people in order to generate 3 buying customers. And in our organization I track numbers and it takes about 10 Calls to actually reach and have a presentation with a live person." So how many of those 10 presentations will be converted to a sale?

    Research indicates that an executive will only be receptive to talking with you after seeing your message at least nine times, and since only one out of three messages will reach on average, it takes twenty-seven attempts to gain a qualified appointment with a prospect. No salesperson ever makes twenty-seven attempts to reach a prospect, and therefore no sale takes place. This is just more evidence that salespeople absolutely MUST get away from cold calling and integrate a solid marketing system into their overall strategy. Tools such as e-mail newsletters to prospects and automated autoresponders are absolutely essential to gain an edge over the competition.

    I love numbers because numbers don't lie. When someone tells me that cold calling works, I agree that it does indeed work... about 0.01% of the time.
    With acknowledgement to Frank Rambauskas.

    You can read more at Website: http://www.frankrumbauskas.com

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    Diamond Member Blurock's Avatar
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    I should maybe also define my perception of cold calling. Cold calling is when you do not know what you are doing. You then take the phone book or similar data and set out to irritate people who are trying to earn a living by wasting their time trying to sell them some useless information. (Satisfaction - the Rolling Stones)

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    Mark Atkinson (16-Jul-11)

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    Diamond Member Justloadit's Avatar
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    When you in a new place with no friends or referrals, this is the only option. And let me tell you it sucks, been there done that, but was fortunate to get 1 sale out of the 15 calls I made that day. I then packed up and left.
    Victor - Knowledge is a blessing or a curse, your current circumstances make you decide!
    Solar pumping, Solar Geyser & Solar Security lighting solutions - www.microsolve.co.za

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    Quote Originally Posted by Blurock View Post
    I should maybe also define my perception of cold calling. Cold calling is when you do not know what you are doing. You then take the phone book or similar data and set out to irritate people who are trying to earn a living by wasting their time trying to sell them some useless information. (Satisfaction - the Rolling Stones)
    I disagree with you on this one. I've done plenty of cold calling. Walk-in's. Not randomly opening the phone book. I target SME's. Not large companies. One of my most lucrative clients have come from this method, walk-in's. Cold calling is horrible, and if you don't know what you're doing then yes, you are wasting people's time.

    But useless information? I disagree strongly with this Blurock. A good businessman should stay on top of things. So if someone calls you wanting to sell you tupperware, he may be wasting your time THEN, but in 6 months time when your wife needs tupperware or you have a friend who wants to start a business with tupperware, would THAT useless information you got 6 months ago not maybe HELP the person in their current situation?

    My point is, certain information might be useless to you, but not to someone else. Cold calling is horrible, everyone hates it. But I take my hat off to the people who do it.

    Which reminds me, it's that time again for me to start doing it again. I think I just got excited & depressed all at once. :/

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