Telemarketing Success for The Small to Mid Size Firm

Book excerpt: It all begins with a phone call. The idea behind this book is to offer the reader a step by step point of reference on telemarketing. A “how to” guide, if you will on the finer points of telemarketing for small and mid sized firms. Although this book is geared towards a specific market, any firm will be able to come away with some useful tips on business development and telemarketing. Who is this guy? And why is he an expert? As a telemarketing consultant for over 20 years, I have had the honor of working with a variety of firms, both large and small. I’ve spent a great deal of time consulting and educating them on the ”art of telemarketing and business development. I’ve sold everything from radio air-time (PSA’s) to setting appointments for life insurance agents. I’ve paid my dues. The two things every firm had in common was a) need for someone to set appointments or generate leads and b) an unwillingness to do it themselves. I’ve made a nice living on these two facts. While working as a telemarketing manager for what I thought was a go- nowhere job, I came to a realization. I became extremely frustrated with the way most telemarketing firms were ran a “boiler room” high- pressured phone room. Most people don’t want to be “talked into” a sale they want the opportunity to think about it and decide if they have a need for the product or service. I was also frustrated with my salary. At that time no telemarketer was making over $6.00 per hour. And managers were only making $2.00 more. After one time two many of having it out with my boss about “procedure” I decided that I could do this myself. I could actually contact firms that needed a telemarketer and work strictly as an independent contractor, with my own business savvy and rules. I was very naïve then. I was 21. In any event I had the epiphany that there must be a huge market for small firms that needed someone that they could keep on retainer and wouldn’t have to pay them as an employee. The firm could sign up for whatever contract that they wanted 1 month to 1 year. And I could charge whatever I felt comfortable with so long as the market could bear it. (I later understood this to mean whatever most clients will pay for my services. And so my firm, Telemarketing Consulting Services was born. In the beginning I had no idea what to charge so I decided to charge just slightly more than what I made as a telemarketer, $6.66 per hour. Again I was 21, I didn’t know nuthin!!! Pretty soon I was signing up everything from contractors to janitorial services to computer- based companies. After awhile my clients referred their clients to me. For a long while I couldn’t keep up with demand. What I enjoyed most, was the diversity in clientele. No two clients were the same and the ironic part was that I was working in industries that I knew nothing about. Insurance, graphic design, printing it didn’t matter. Over the years I was pretty content to simply handle the clients and make the money (I had given myself substantial raises since that first year) until one of my clients had some specific interest in learning how to do what I do. So he hired me to train not only himself but also his staff. (Naturally I charged more for this service) I finally started to wise up and became a consultant. Along the way I began to realize, yet again, that there was a great many people looking for information in a written form. Some of them were already clients and others were simply interested in learning the art of setting the appointment. So once again necessity being the mother of invention, The Telemarketing Newsletter was born. This became a real way for me to get information across to the masses, satisfy a long standing dream of mine (publishing) and maybe pick up a few extra clients along the way. “Telemarketing News” became a monthly resource of information to get the tools on needed without signing up for a lengthy (and costly) telemarketing seminar. And while the