Thoughts on Hiring An Appointment Setter / Telemarketer For Your Business
When we hear the words telemarketer or cold caller... We get vision of someone pestering us or bombarding us with unwanted phone calls while we are relaxing, out with the family, driving, shopping or even worse sleeping.
Just imagine for a moment. You have a need and a person calls you out of the blue and is able to meet that need perfectly. What if the person knows how to listen well and can build a rapport with you with something you are interested in learning more about or even purchasing.
What if you have a new business venture or maybe even a small startup?
My name is George and I have been working as a telemarketer for a very long time. I have massive amounts of experience with helping companies grow worldwide. I am writing this to be a help to you with your current business aspirations.
If you did not know by now. Many established companies and new startups are using such websites as Upwork (formerly ODesk) and Freelancer.com to find help with their businesses.
Such help as web developers, designers, creatives, writers, virtual assistants, customer service agents, sales, marketing experts, accountants and consultants to name a few.
I am not writing this to endorse any company. I am just giving you some words to ponder and then you will be the one to make the final decisions.
Today I will focus on telemarketing or appointment setting.
Many business owners are looking for callers to help promote their business and I have noticed there is a trend in looking for entry level workers who might have some experience with making calls but maybe they are not from the country that your target prospects are from. After all, it is natural to want to save money and get someone at the lowest possible price.
Let's look at an example here of why this might not be the best idea to help your business grow.
Say your business is a real estate company in Arizona and you hired someone at a very low cost to call potential leads or prospects that you paid for with your hard earned cash. You hired this particular telemarketer because being from another country with a nice sounding voice. They can make the calls at a rock bottom hourly rate. Sounds good so far but I want you to imagine the actual call and conversation.
Let's say Viven, the telemarketer is talking to a potential prospect and the prospect asks them to explain why they should use your service over others or just to engage in some conversation. Well, the American culture is very different than a place like, let's say, Argentina or the Philippines. The agent will not understand the culture or the meaning of the language from a deep level at all. If the person says, I am tired of getting these calls. The telemarketer might say. "I am sorry about that or I apologize for that one." That is the cultural response. Where as, a person from the same culture might say something like this: "I understand you have been getting a lot of calls and I know your time is valuable but when would be a good time to talk for a moment about a cash offer for your home. I understand you might be interested in hearing an offer." The person from America would probably also put some emotion into the call. Now this is just one example but I think you get my point.
Also, I am not a prejudiced person and I think it is good to give people from all over the world a shot at proving themselves but when it comes to your target prospects you need someone who is from the same country and understands the culture and language from a very deep level. You really don't have time to monkey around with this point unless you don't care about growing your business.
This leads me to my last point. Building an emotional connection or some type of rapport with the prospect one phone call at a time.
When a person is experienced, knows how to talk over the phone and can build some type of rapport. Well this is the ingredients for success and future business growth for you or your company. As far as telemarketing goes. This is a must. Hi Jim, this is Ed and the reason I am calling you is I believe you own the property on 123 Nan Lane and I wanted to see if there was any chance you might consider an offer on your home.....
The telemarketer will get all kinds of reactions from this pitch but if they are from the same culture with a deep understanding they have a good chance of turning the prospect into an appointment and possible a sale. There are a lot of variables involved including right timing and motivation but I think you understand my meaning.
The bottom line:
As a native English speaker, I would be lost in trying to understand the culture in say Iran and I would be at a major loss in trying to have a business conversation with a business owner from Tehran. A business owner there would expect me to have knowledge of the culture and language so It should be the same for all business owners. To get the most out of the telemarketer that you hired at a reasonable price. That person should be from the same country or have lived in the country long enough to understand the language and culture. If you follow this simple guideline. You will save a lot of money, time, and energy but above all you will be able to grow your business like you deserve to do...
If you want to read more interesting articles follow me @georgef7