Ask darom03 about being a sucessful telemarketer

[centaurmyth]

Did you use a script?

How many calls a day did you average? Average closing %? Length of call? Motivating factors: self/employees?

Why'd you finally leave it?

[darom03]

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Did you use a script?

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Yes. Even after years of practice, I still used a script. But more for guidelines. I had written the script myself, so that it suited my approach.

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How many calls a day did you average?

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Dunno. Depended on my mood.

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Average closing %?

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Cold canvas. Close to ten percent, which is rather damn high IMHO.

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Length of call?

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I was a smooth talker. And smooth talking takes time. I often used upwards to half an hour per "customer". But I had the highest avg. $ per customer in the firm.

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Motivating factors: self/employees?

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My basic motivation was pride. Mind you, telemarketing was my first serious job experience. I just got out of the army, and I was looking for something to fill the gap until my studies started. I responded to and ad for telemarketers.

Imagine my surprise when I found out I was really good. The money were pouring in. I made more money than anyone I knew. At the age of only 19 mind you. The feeling was intoxicating.

So much in fact that me and a pal decided to start our own telemarketing company, doing exactly the same as my previous employment as chief of sales.



[/ QUOTE ]Why'd you finally leave it?

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I grew up. Or I remember one time I was selling to this really dumb truck driver. He was his own boss and made a living out of transporting live stock. I convinced him he would be ideal for transporting horses for riding schools (I sold adds for a cd-rom targeting the head masters at various schools, including riding schools) and he had to promise me not to say no when the school headmasters called.

A couple of weeks later, I got a notice from our incasso bureau that he had yet to pay the bill of nearly 1000$. I did my own incasso as I was better at it than the bureau, so they told me before they acted on it. It was his wife who answered the phone and I immediately explained how poor a payer her husband is. She broke into tears and told me her husband died a weak ago. I left my apology and quit my job the week after. I did, however, get employment at another telemarketing company some weeks later. But it was never the same and I only lasted a couple of month grossing below average. That spelled the end of a career spanning nearly eight years. Eight years of deceits, lies and a feeling of inexplainable pride...

[fixed and broken]

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It was his wife who answered the phone and I immediately explained how poor a payer his husband is. She broke into tears and told me her husband died a weak ago. I left my apology and quit my job the week after. I did, however, get employment at another telemarketing company some weeks later. But it was never the same and I only lasted a couple of month grossing below average. That spelled the end of a career spanning nearly eight years. Eight years of deceits, lies and a feeling of inexplainable pride...

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deja vu, darom03. i know that rush, repeatedly overcoming the fear of rejection does incredible things for the ego. it translates into confidence that women pick up on... well, that, and i was used to getting no for answer all day.

i dropped out of telemarketing early '06, mortgages at that time. the deal that soured it: the company's owner let some scraps fall off his 40/month loan plate 'cause i happened to pick up the phone at the "right" time. The mark: a chronically broke, over-spending single woman inherited a house from her parents while they were still alive, living there, and dependent upon her in some way.

she was looking for her 3rd re-finance in a little over a year. riding shotgun, my boss guided me on quick document gathering, immediate appraisal setting, and repeated assurances that we would get it done. a deal was jammed through New Century in less than a week. her home was now to be leveraged out at nearly 95% (under the most favorable appraisal circumstances). she was looking for an immediate $30k at the table, using her house as an ATM for an undisclosed need. so, my boss unwittingly pegged her commission @ 4.75pts.

when the $25,000 commission was disclosed for an other wise un-doable loan, my boss gambled that'd she sign: the company had unwritten policy/language to deftly skirt any pre-closing day inquiries into fee disclosure by the sub-prime community.

closing day: i stayed late that friday, and he did the deed. i was in my head all day about the loan, the commission, the business, and the impotent rationalizations... she received his basic sub-prime pitch: minimal prodding and a promise that this adjustable-rate, interest only loan (after being promised a low fixed rate, standard) would be re-financed again under more favorable terms in 6 months. he came out, pressed in armani silk as usual, and flashed the thumbs to me. cut me my largest commission check ever, and i was on my way out the door to do volunteer work for the weekend.

on my way out, i heard her laughing that she was happy to be picking up a new BMW with the proceeds. knowing her income, debt ratios, and family situation: i immediately knew that her house would be foreclosed upon within a year and that her parents would be turned out of the house they had been in for 30+ years. i showed up to collect a pay check for a few weeks after that, but i never really "showed up" again.

the only other deal in the pipe i had open closed a few weeks later, and an 87 year-old man living on social security got a no-doc/no-income verification 30-year mortgage for his unemployed son to get a house for his chronically unhappy wife. i convinced him we could get it done... we did. i don't see them there now, and i know the old man is broke from it, i convinced him that the deal hinged upon his life savings paying the closing costs.

can't see, talk, or think about the sub-prime mess without those 2 families lurking somewhere inside my soul... puuuuke.