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  #21  
Old 12-01-2007, 08:53 PM
Layzie Layzie is offline
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Default Re: Ask darom03 about being a sucessful telemarketer

I work as a telemarketer and make good money. I don't call anyone, I close leads from the salesmen. We are basically renewing people's subscriptions to magazines on the premise that they're a preferred customer, and that this time around we're buying the magazines, they're just paying for the delivery cost, which ultimately ends up costing more than their original signup. People still seem to do this, I think basically because for participating we send them a gift certificate for 2 free round trip airline tickets (with alot of loopholes that they aren't aware of until they recieve the certificate). I've been doing a very good job closing deals, but my question is what kind of advice would you give me as far as demeanor in my pitch and such. I actually enjoy doing it but at the same time do feel some guilt based on the deal we're giving them not being a very good deal. I use a friendly approach while others use a more matter of fact, straight forward approach with customers. I guess my question isn't really clear, but i'm just looking for tips on how to be better handling people, and rebutting them when they say they can't afford it, or they're already getting too many mags. Any basic advice would be cool.
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  #22  
Old 12-01-2007, 09:24 PM
centaurmyth centaurmyth is offline
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Default Re: Ask darom03 about being a sucessful telemarketer

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?
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  #23  
Old 12-01-2007, 09:53 PM
darom03 darom03 is offline
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Default Re: Ask darom03 about being a sucessful telemarketer

[ QUOTE ]
Any basic advice would be cool.

[/ QUOTE ]

It's not easy giving tips like that, but one good advice is to seek as many a "yes" as possible before actual closing the deal.

"Have you ever read a magazine?"
"Would you read a magazine if it was about something that interest you?"
etc.

My line of work was different. I sold advertising space on different electronic media. I always used a combination of fear and greed in my approach with the potential sucker.

I'd asked them what would happen if they suddenly lost five of their biggest customers. I'd then stress out how important going after new clients is. Even if you think you are covered as of today. Then I would ask them if they were able to take in many more customers. I'd ask in to their expertise, as if I were evaluating them for some big job. Notice that I have yet to tell him specifically why I called...

Have I gone this far into my pitch, the sale is often automatic. It's just a question of how many adds I can sell him.
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  #24  
Old 12-01-2007, 09:58 PM
bigbootch bigbootch is offline
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Default Re: Ask darom03 about being a sucessful telemarketer

How much does a "successful" telemarketer make per year? I'm not trying to get private information about your specific situation, I'm wondering more what the income distribution in the field is. What would you say is the mean income, the 25th percentile, and the 75th percentile?

-bigbootch
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  #25  
Old 12-01-2007, 10:12 PM
darom03 darom03 is offline
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Default Re: Ask darom03 about being a sucessful telemarketer

[ QUOTE ]
Did you use a script?

[/ QUOTE ]

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.

[ QUOTE ]
How many calls a day did you average?

[/ QUOTE ]

Dunno. Depended on my mood.

[ QUOTE ]
Average closing %?

[/ QUOTE ]

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

[ QUOTE ]
Length of call?

[/ QUOTE ]

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.

[ QUOTE ]
Motivating factors: self/employees?

[/ QUOTE ]

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?

[/ QUOTE ]

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...
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  #26  
Old 12-01-2007, 10:16 PM
darom03 darom03 is offline
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Default Re: Ask darom03 about being a sucessful telemarketer

[ QUOTE ]
How much does a "successful" telemarketer make per year?

[/ QUOTE ].

I averaged a little short of $200k per annum.

[ QUOTE ]
What would you say is the mean income, the 25th percentile, and the 75th percentile?

[/ QUOTE ]

25th about 25 percent of 50th who makes about one third of the top dogs. If I understand your question correctly?

Top dogs make way more than the average guy because he usually get to make sales on existing customers. And you can imagine how easy it is to sell someone who already agreed in the first place.
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  #27  
Old 12-01-2007, 10:22 PM
darom03 darom03 is offline
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Default Re: Ask darom03 about being a sucessful telemarketer

And LOL at the custom title! I don't know if I should feel honored or embarrassed! [img]/images/graemlins/blush.gif[/img]
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  #28  
Old 12-01-2007, 10:27 PM
Rushmore Rushmore is offline
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Default Re: Ask darom03 about being a sucessful telemarketer

I started at Time-Life Books in DC in 1985. I immediately became Telemarketing Stud of the Universe. They used my stats in the newspaper ads the ran trying to lure other marginal humans into a degraded life of telemarketing. I made $30/hour. I was also an insane dope fiend and zany goth-punk-derelict. Remember, this is '85.

Ahem.

Later in life, much more desperately-situated (read: REALLY down and out), I took TM jobs raising funds for The Missing Children Fund (we were in San Francisco, and the owner actually dispatched guys on bikes to pick up the checks), sold US News and World Report, sold Art in America, dispatched for an escort service (not actual telemarketing, but it involved a telephone, and I ended up owning and operating the business), raised funds for the Republican National Committee, and eventually ended my telemarketing career in Clearwater, Florida, setting appointments for the dating service I currently own and operate.

I now employ 22 telemarketers in four cities.

But don't hate--we don't do any cold calling at all.
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  #29  
Old 12-01-2007, 11:17 PM
bottomset bottomset is offline
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Default Re: Ask darom03 about being a sucessful telemarketer

[ QUOTE ]
ever been pranked ala Tom Mabe?
link: http://howtoprankatelemarketer.ytmnd.com/

edit: or talked to someone hilariously crazy?
link: http://crazytelemarketer.ytmnd.com/

[/ QUOTE ]

both of those are priceless
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  #30  
Old 12-01-2007, 11:34 PM
fixed and broken fixed and broken is offline
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Default Re: Ask darom03 about being a sucessful telemarketer

[ QUOTE ]

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...

[/ QUOTE ]

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.
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