The Third World Sales Myth

Inflation is a monster, and the quest for profits is more real than ever as people pivot to more aggressive marketing tactics in a last stitch effort to avoid raising your rates. Coupled with the need for greater deal flow is the mandate to cut whatever costs can be cut without damaging p/s delivery. Enter the outsourcing of call reception and telemarketing.

The average telemarketer outside of the U.S. makes $7/ hour; 50-60% of what the companies they work for will charge you. Their U.S. counterparts average $11/hour to start; and experience greater pay, and bonus opportunities according to their role (receptionist, appointment scheduler, or deal closer). Schedulers and Closers, like the team at GrowExpand, start at $20/hour plus bonuses tied to their performance. Which brings us to the big difference -hang ups!

While a call center abroad will cost you a fraction of the money; you can count on a fraction of the results as the leads they are calling are more likely to hang up the moment they encounter a language barrier. Never thought about it? What do you do when your phone rings and it is clearly someone who doesn’t fluently speak your language? A 25 year sales wizard, I never hang up because I am always interested in hearing different call scripts in action; I am definitely the exception to the rule. You hang up. Most Americans hang up on telemarketers, period; but, when the language barrier pops up, the road to ‘click’ is a speedy one.

In the final analysis, you need to decide between activity and productivity. If all you need is a specific number of dials then it doesn’t matter. If conversion of dials to appointments, or better, is what you’re after then the question is different; a buck now, or scalable revenue later (according to the sales cycle of your industry). I’m not here to make any form of judgment; there is a case for both arguments. In the end, you simply need to decide if you can afford frustrating calls to your lead lists. I’d love to hear your thoughts on this; comment below!

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