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Jinn · 07-01-2008, 09:06 AM

Inbound vs. outbound. When you're doing inbound, like I mentioned, people are at least partially sold on your product already. They wouldn't have called if they weren't.

Outbound (blind dialing) is a totally different game, where you're getting random joe shmoe who might not even own the phone line he answered, nonetheless want to spend the time buying something when he was probably in the middle of something else. Likewise, a lot of those calls would be answering machines, fax lines, etc. Not all 2500 were actual people. And of those 2500, most hung up before you introduced yourself.

"Hey, Customer Name, my name is ____ and I'm calling to save you some money on your *CLICK*"

Federal law required that we identify ourselves by name and company, so most people got the tip-off immediately that they should hang up on us.

I had people tell me they were in the middle of having sex, middle of having dinner, painting the kitchen, etc, etc.

I also worked in a division called HSN, where Home Shopping Network would sell us reams of numbers for everyone who called in to buy something. Our goal was 3 sales per week, but other divisions had different goals. There was another team called "Winback" who were calling people who had previously been our customers but had switched to another carrier. Their goal was like 12, because it's considerably easier to get someone who has already been your customer. They got all sorts of promotions they could offer if you switched, too.

And yea, selling phone lines telemarketing style is a lot like selling death.

We had mandatory suicide-prevention meetings every two weeks to remind people that the people you were calling were saying "not interested" to the company, not to you. It's actually surprising how much of an effect having 2500 people a week tell you you're a piece of shit, they're not interested or just scream at you makes you feel.

07-01-2008, 09:06 AM	#11 (permalink)
Jinn Lover - Protector - Teacher Location: Seattle, WA	Inbound vs. outbound. When you're doing inbound, like I mentioned, people are at least partially sold on your product already. They wouldn't have called if they weren't. Outbound (blind dialing) is a totally different game, where you're getting random joe shmoe who might not even own the phone line he answered, nonetheless want to spend the time buying something when he was probably in the middle of something else. Likewise, a lot of those calls would be answering machines, fax lines, etc. Not all 2500 were actual people. And of those 2500, most hung up before you introduced yourself. "Hey, Customer Name, my name is ____ and I'm calling to save you some money on your CLICK" Federal law required that we identify ourselves by name and company, so most people got the tip-off immediately that they should hang up on us. I had people tell me they were in the middle of having sex, middle of having dinner, painting the kitchen, etc, etc. I also worked in a division called HSN, where Home Shopping Network would sell us reams of numbers for everyone who called in to buy something. Our goal was 3 sales per week, but other divisions had different goals. There was another team called "Winback" who were calling people who had previously been our customers but had switched to another carrier. Their goal was like 12, because it's considerably easier to get someone who has already been your customer. They got all sorts of promotions they could offer if you switched, too. And yea, selling phone lines telemarketing style is a lot like selling death. We had mandatory suicide-prevention meetings every two weeks to remind people that the people you were calling were saying "not interested" to the company, not to you. It's actually surprising how much of an effect having 2500 people a week tell you you're a piece of shit, they're not interested or just scream at you makes you feel. __________________ "I'm typing on a computer of science, which is being sent by science wires to a little science server where you can access it. I'm not typing on a computer of philosophy or religion or whatever other thing you think can be used to understand the universe because they're a poor substitute in the role of understanding the universe which exists independent from ourselves." - Willravel Last edited by Jinn; 07-01-2008 at 09:10 AM..