Telemarketing Services

Outbound Telemarketing Services in this millennium have seen its share of changes, most of them revolving around the Do Not Call list as well as federal regulations to keep consumers safe. With all of these regulations and a harsh public opinion, many analysts assumed that the telemarketing channel would wither and perhaps one day fall to the wayside. Although changes have impacted the channel, the reality is that telemarketing is still a strong force in the direct marketing industry. Savvy direct marketers are using these changes to really refocus their telemarketing efforts by creating target lists that are keyed in on a select group for a better conversion rate. Long gone are the days where companies could successfully run a full-throttle, all-inclusive mass telemarketing program. These programs are no longer cost effective, nor are they productive.


Choosing the Right Buyer

List services can give people the right respondents and those respondents that have purchased from telemarketing in the past. List rentals can give companies the type of list that is not only more productive, but also more responsive to this channel. Catalog companies for example are aware of the fact that only a select few individuals actually purchase from catalogs. They purchase lists carefully based on catalog buying habits and areas of purchasing and can find out if the right person is a catalog clothing buyer and what level of buying they are at. This type of direct research is key to really finding the leads that have a good chance of buying. When purchasing a telemarketing list, it can only behoove the buyer to buy a list of people that have responded to telemarketing in the past and then further narrow that list down to people who have made similar purchases to the product being marketed.

In addition to buying lists, companies can be equally selective in choosing lists from there personal CRMs and databases-- tracking where consumers buy, their frequency, and their preference, to significantly change the result of a telemarketing campaign. If a buyer usually purchases in selective increments offering them a continuous monthly even if more profitable may ultimately affect the bottom line of the program. Offering these same customers a more customer focused plan where they can choose the increments may in fact save the sale. Even offering this selective plan as a second effort may significantly increase the overall performance of the list. Additionally, offering a large ticket item to consumers that typically buy on payment plans may be more effective with a reduced payment option. Or conversely offering that same ticket item with a plan that offers a reduced price if they pay all at once to consumers that typically chose a one time payment option can increase the overall response rate along with the rate of instant payment.


List Size is Important.

The more a list is focused, the smaller it gets. That is just a reality in the list selection process. However, it is important to make sure that these narrow list sizes are still productive for dialing. Telemarketing service providers will always outperform anyone manually dialing in an office. This is the reality of the technology that they are using. However, the larger the list size, the faster the dialer can process the leads and the more contacts per hour the agents on the floor receive.

Telemarketing service providers enter numbers into a file and agents call these numbers over a given period of time. This means that each lead is called back about once every 25 hours or so, with an answering machine, it may even be a shorter period of time. If a list is too small, the call back percentage time can be too short and the performance will drop.

SANS Codes for Telemarketing Services

So you have the list and in theory it is ready to have a telemarketing program run with it. The list provider may have even told you that the list has been scrubbed for telemarketing services. However, the reality is that there is one key legal requirement that is missing and that is the SANS code number that needs to be applied when dialing a B2C telemarketing program. SANS Codes are government codes that are given to companies performing telemarketing programs and outsourcing to third party telemarketing services providers. These codes are given based upon zip codes and they can be purchased on an individual basis or they can be purchased nationwide for about $14,000 annually. These codes are a very important consideration when looking at a telemarketing list.

Penetration is an Important Consideration

List penetration is a very important consideration when looking at a telemarketing program. Most telemarketing services clients will use the industry standard 75 percent penetration. However, penetration should only be relative to the success of the program. Many penetration levels are set with the idea of making sure everything possible is squeezed out of a list. There is a certain cut off point where the list should be laid to rest, and that is when it stops performing. When using a telemarketing services provider, maximizing the most out of a data base can be a priority; however, it can come at an extreme cost. The key to meeting in the middle is to match an ROI and find out at what point the database quality creates a negative cost for the telemarketing campaign. Finding this magic number is the key to making sure a compromise is met for both the penetration of the list and the overall success of the campaign.


Max Attempts and Telemarketing Services

Maximum attempts or the maximum amount of times a record is called has a big impact on the overall success of a program, and it is a big consideration when looking for list success. Maximum attempts are the number of times a telemarketing service provider will have telemarketing agents attempt to reach a DM by calling that number. Also this will include attempts when an answering machine is reached which is an important consideration. Max attempts insure that a record is called a certain number of times, and when mixed carefully with the penetration level it is vital to ensuring that a list is dialed to its maximum level and that each contact is attempted a certain number of times. Max attempts can also drag the lifecycle of a list out further making the penetration level more difficult to reach. Setting a high max attempt level works to ensure that each record is contacted enough times to ensure they most likely will not respond to telemarketing services or that they have been contacted.

The tradeoff comes when the max attempt level starts to significantly impact the overall success of the telemarketing campaign. Much like the penetration levels, it is important to find a common ground, where the max attempts and trying to make the most of the list does not keep the telemarketing program from being successful.

Considering Geography

Some lists have a wide variety of geographical differences. It is often best to try and think of what can be done to maximize the contacts of the list. For example, metro areas can be great for calling in the mornings for both B2C and B2B telemarketing. However, in the evening most would assume that after 5 would be the best to reach residential telemarketing prospects. However, in metro areas the optimal calling window is actually reduced to 7pm. In addition, it is good to consider major events that are happening such as disasters, which may affect the overall calling results.

Dialer Considerations

If you’re looking at using a telemarketing services provider, then you’re looking at using a telemarketing predictive dialer to truly maximize the total success of the campaign. This predictive dialer has complex algorithms that are used to maximize the amount of calls being made. It is important to understand that this activity is going to have a massive effect on success.

List Management

The final consideration when looking at a telemarketing services list is the management of the file. For example, if a list is being max attempted to 10 and penetrated to 75 percent, then it is important to make sure that the calls are being called at varying intervals and that the list is being dialed at its maximum production levels. Proper list management can increase overall sales floor productivity by 15 percent, and if monitored correctly, the right list dialed at the right time can make or break a telemarketing program.

 

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