I want to outsource our telemarketing services.

David, once you scope out your requirements, make sure to consider the cost of training the outsourced call center. You might have already thought of this, but depending upon the company you choose and what you're looking to do, what may look like a cost savings might not turn out to be in the long run. There are obviously situations where you can easily outsource, but depending upon your business needs, it may or may not be a cost savings to you.

If you choose to outsource, make sure to ask for customer references for the companies you are considering. Ask them for references for their customers similar to your business, as well as legacy and newer clients to gain a better perspective of their customer service.

May I make a suggestion? Please keep the outsourcing to within the borders.

Hi David,

I guess one of the first things you need to do is determine what type of teleprospecting services you're looking to outsource. I know you wrote that your current call center pre-qualifies, but are you looking to get appointments for your sales team or are you looking to put sales qualified opportunities in front of them? I'm just trying to dig a little deeper so that I can better understand what you're looking for. That would help me (in the words of Jerry Maguire) help you. Great question though!

Chris

Hello David,
Please think twice before making a decision for outsourcing this very important business. Why is it to expensive to do it yourselves? Take a good look at the processes and find out how and where you can save money. Hiring a good call center for your business is also expensive if you want to have qualified leads. The people who are going to call for your business, do not have any affinity with your company. They are usually paid per lead. So what will be the quality of the leads?
Good luck!

You can find a directory of domestic (USA/Canada) Call Centers to outsource your telemarketing calls to at http://www.atsi.org/assnfe/companydirectory.asp?SEARCH_TYPE=7&SnID=458599223

But before you consider sending your telemarketing work overseas - just ask your friends & neighbors about their Call Center experiences.

I’m sure that some of your friends will tell you that they’ve occasionally had the experience of dealing with a Telephone Sales Agent based in the USA who was clearly a poor fit for the job - and who delivered a poor caller experience.

But when it comes to describing their experiences dealing with a company that has shipped their Call Center work overseas - the vast majority of your friends will tell you that they generally have a hard time understanding – or being understood by the Agent – and that their call is typically being handled by a ‘script reader’.

The Telephone Sales Agent is your ambassador to your prospects. The human voice of the TeleSales Agent provides your company’s human face. If your prospect cannot understand the TeleSales Agent due to accent issues or communicative style - the problems are compounded. Your prospect can become agitated and your company may wind up losing a potential customer. In the present economic environment, just hearing a foreign accent could trip that trigger. Losing dollars chasing dimes is not a wise long-term Telemarketing Strategy.

Corporate Social Responsibility is considered an important factor in business success today. Companies are thinking twice about employing workers in countries with poor human rights records - or lax labor standards such as India.

Ask your friends what they think about the exploitation of Labor. Call Center workers in India experience abuse & exploitation to a degree and on a scale that would be viewed as criminal in some instances by North American Courts of Law. For example; Indian Call Center Agents are treated as 21st Century ‘cyber-coolies’. They work graveyard shifts - under high pressure – in work environments where liberal attitudes to sex and club drugs are encouraged and thriving. Colluding employers have set up “Blacklist” data bases - containing the details of their Call Center employees - so that “negative insider elements” can be detected at the recruitment stage. Workers in their hundreds are fired without so much as one cent in severance pay.

Overwhelmingly your friends will tell you that they want to speak with a Telephone Sales Agent from their region - who is typically better able to serve and communicate with them. Probe a little deeper – and they’ll also tell you that they’re opposed to shipping Call Center jobs overseas – and particularly to countries with poor human rights records - or lax labor standards such as India.

From the Jan. 2010 Issue of Site Selection: “Offshoring calls to India works in very limited situations. Interaction with clients and understanding the culture & environment of clients doesn’t work very well at all. The direction of the industry is to bring these customer facing jobs back to the USA.”

The latest Labor Market Outlook from the Chartered Institute of Personnel & Development in the UK: “UK companies are bringing back call centre operations to the UK from India. Most of the companies that we deal with are looking to keep call centre staff in the UK wherever possible because there is a significant increase in the level of service and customer satisfaction provided."

Top performing Call Centers drive their Revenue & Performance through superior hiring tactics. We help employers gain better insight & more accurate predictions as to which applicants from a pool of Candidates would perform up to, or beyond their established standards. You can find out about a Free Trial of SPAS Call Center Agent Pre-Employment Screening Software at http://www.telesoftsystems.ca/64201.html

before you decide to shut down your operation and outsource, make sure you understand the cost of shutting down and the ongoing cost of outsourcing your call center. you might be able fix your situation by solving inefficiencies with current processes.

Find an expert in the industry who knows the players and will connect you to the best in class - would be my advice. Based on my experience, going the RFI / RFP route is incredibly labor intensive and doesn't yield any better success rate than recommendation by a pro.

David, I agree with Jim. Don't start a bidding process until you've invested a day or two with an expert to scope your requirements and help you narrow your choices straight away. I suggest you contact Gerry Pike at gpike@dmsainc.com, as he been involved with hiring and firing several outsourcing resources. Best of luck to you!r

We operate a 100 seat, state-of-the-art call center in one of the Free Trade Zones in the Dominican Republic. If you are interested in having us discuss the opportunities and services that we can provide, please respond to my e-mail address.

Jeffrey Oberman
joberman@emarket411.com

He David,

We can certainly help you with that and if you are in the US you have a built in cost savings. We have been doing outbound cold calling, appointment scheduling and inbound customer service for 15 years. We are located in Canada. What is your business?

Please and thanks

Barrington

Good Afternoon David,

We hope you have yet to finalize your decision and will grant us the opportunity to take your call center business. We are insured and have been homeshoring since October of 2003. We have a virtual staff of ready to accept your calls. Please feel free to visit our website website at www.opendoormultiservices.com . We look forward to hearing from you.

Thank you,
Lexsine Mitchell
www.opendoormultiservices.com
ph: (888) 539-2340
fax: (888) 539-0224
Lexsine@opendoormultiservices.com

Hi David,
It sounds like a decision has already been made to outsource the call centre as its been impossible to maintain or reach the value return necassary to have a "call centre asset"- what you currently have represents a liability and there has been difficulty in getting internal agreement on the way forward/ out of this situation.

You probably agree that different results require different actions. If you agree with that you also probably agree that different actions are the result of different thinking based on different/ improved sets of beliefs.

Prior to receiving a pitch from a vendor who will use yourself/ teams current thinking/ belief sets to match and pitch according to "your specifications", I would first urge you to consider what would happen if you went to the Dr's with a range of symptoms you had diagnosed yourself. A law suit would probably occur if the Doctor prescribed medication according to your own diagnosis without making a thorough investigation as to the root cause of the issue in question.

I suggest you make contact with Sharon Drew Morgen who will provide the necassary insight/ perspective to make the best decision on behalf of yourself and team.

Sincere regards,
Robert

Hi David,
Leveraging the right outsource partner for pre-sales qualification with a well thought through strategy and metrics to measure has proven big yields for b2b firms. If you are still interested in a step by step process and metrics approach, feel free to look our way to see if there is a fit. Regards
Tom Judge tjudge@dirmkt.comwww.directmarketingpartners.com

I am a Tina Lund, Owner-Founder of Professional Business Leads, LLC, Award-Winning Professional and Lead Generation Expert.

I would love to talk to you about your goals and offer any advise I can.

724-212-3871
ProBizLeads--Twitter

Diorela,

Do you not think that having a Yahoo address will put off potential prospects from making enquiries??

Good Luck
Robert

Sorry to be late for the party but anges bordewijk and david filwood have the best answers. Look at other avenues for business lead generation. focus.com the site your on now offers targeted warm leads. Can give you some advice from my company perspective? We never pay for leads, but we pay for CLOSED leads. How we do that is through referral programs with our customers and it works great!

Hello David,

I can understand your problem, these days it is getting very difficult for many small and mid-size organization to survive in cut-throat competitive environment.Where profits are squeezing day-by-day.

First of all, i want to inform you that, you should consider the experience of everyone, but do not forget that every individual works under his or her circumstances(Mind set).

If you are really looking for good service with attractive cost(You might not have think of). Then, i can bet that, no one can provide you best service which i can.

Of course, there are many ways to implement the task.

I can help you in setting up your own BPO in Delhi ncr(India), if you want to. OR
If you want to out-source completely, even then i can help you in that situation.

If you think that this can be done, as i written above.Then request you please contact me or call me on following numbers and e-mail.

Jitendra gandhi
+91-9312009976
+91-11-43558367
jitendra_gandhi@hotmail.com

" Wish you good luck for your future"

I have run a very large customer service organization for a large company. I have hired and overseen two outsourcing operations, and I was COO for a very successful customer service outsourcing company with several complex and some simple programs. I understand outsourcing from both sides and was one myself.

You are not going to want to hear this, but you will not save any money by outsourcing. To duplicate the results you are now achieving, an outsourcing organization would need to make similar payroll expenditures and they will have a margin added, so your cost can't come down. The outsourcing company might utilize less qualified personnel to lower their cost, but do you want to entrust your customers to low level people who don't even work for you?

If you said that you wanted to improve results, that goal could be achieved with outsourcing, and that might ultimately increase your profits, but that's not what you proposed.

Before you do anything in terms of structure, you should get help analyzing your current operation including your personnel recruiting process, quality assurance process, pay and incentives you offer and the goals on which you are focusing and the attitudes of your people.

hi David...i guess i was very late in answering your question.Just wanna ask if you already find a solution to your problem.

hello ....
first of all i would like to tell you David BPO is business process outsourcing. it means outsourcing you internal inhouse process to third party. so that company can focus on his core activities . You cant focus on every minor things around you in a business because business is a wide term it include lots of activities beside production . In today's world if you want to grow you have focus on every aspects . if you want to keep your business to small scale than you can petty well manage every thing . but if you really want to grow you have to give customer satisfaction to the best level in doing this .... organization focus get divert in doing non - core jobs which at last give an harmful impact to business so in short i want to say .. that outsourcing is a good option !! when business want to grow so tat it can focus on its core activities ...
you can outsource your business to India , Bangladesh ,...
i mean to that country which can offer you the best in terms of "COST, QUALITY , SERVICE " and for that India is the best option to invest because India is a hub of call centers providing best quality service ..and rest is on you you can better decide because you are the decision maker...
and incase if you are still confuse with all these suggestions you should go ahead and research all outsourcing companies and look for the best deal
and if you need my help
feel free to ring me
+919650157018
garimadhamija@rocketmail.com

David, why not think outside the box on this one?

Is your ultimate objective to reduce the cost of outbound calling, or to reduce the cost of lead qualification?

If it's the latter, then why not consider other ways to generate and qualify those leads, such as web-based lead qualification and nurture program?

This may require some new skill sets and new technologies, but in the long run, can be more cost-effective than outbound calling.

Jim Watson

Hi!
Before shutting down your call center, you have first to realize what will be the impact of this action to your business. Also, you have to determine the following:
For Sales:
1. How many people do you have and what is your average sales per agent?
2. Can your agent performance cover up the expenses?
3. How many calls are they doing in a day? What is the success rate? I suggest do calls tag and call monitoring.
4. How often do you perform agent evaluation?
5. What are the incentives you're giving to boosts up sales. Remember that aside from strong management, appreciation, room for growth and money is a great motivator.
6. What are the reasons why your agent can't make a deal?
7. Who are your competitions and what are their weaknesses? (Knowing these will help you redesign and relaunch your product)

For Inbound:
1. How many calls are you receiving (Average) on a daily basis?
2. How long can an agent solve the problem or attend to the calls?

Knowing the answers on all these will help you find the main reason why from there you can easily determine whether you want to shut it down, decrease the number of your agents, improve your motivation programs or outsource your project.

I am hoping that my contributions help you on solving your problem.

In case you decided you need to hear more points of view from other person or assistance, please do not hesitate to send me an email. Here's my email address:
colesantosjr@gmail.com

Have a great day and God bless!

@David; hi
I began to skim the pages but was caught up by a remark about a lot of ads. Sorry: I don't have a call center and
I confess that I haven't read a single posted reply, so forgive me.
But, David, I have to ask you: WHY?! why would you want to give away what could be a valuable strategic advantage. Cost doesn't seem to be diagnostically complete as an answer.
Perhaps, if you reconsider the call center, and reframe it as the customer management center" ... where can you go with that? (and, yes: I guess that is one idea that I would like others to "buy-into" and accept. Call Centers as "Customer Management Centers": and if you would like I would gladly share what I hold that opinion, ;-)
Now it could be that I have become a curmudgeon, or been around too long (1st call center installation in 1978!) but even if some of those 2 things were even 1/2-true: I still must urge you to reconsider.
Happy to share ways to examine the evaluation you may already have performed to look for the side that says keep and leverage - don't outsource your call centers, especially in the B2B realm.
hope that helps. best, ngp

I recently took our sales calling to a telemarketing company. I really had no idea what I was looking to do either, but I knew I couldn't afford to have the appointment setting done in-house. I didn't know of any companies but got quotes from a few different ones through http://businesstelemarketingservices.com/sales-telemarketing.html It was pretty helpful since I could compare prices and pick the company who had the service that fit my needs the best.

Hi! There are so many ways to do it. And two familiar choices: 1st are home-based outbound agents. They may offer very low rates depending on the country you assign it to. India cost lower than Philippines. But these home-based agents (WFH) will not assure you of professionalism and sleeping issues during work especially in the Philippines where morning EST is night time in the Philippines. 2nd and the Better (BEST if you get the right company) are the back-office or Virtual Assistance companies (like PeopleLogIQ) . It's a hybrid of Homebased culture but working in an office with supervision to assure professionalism and responsibility.

you can read more about Hybrid VA office at http://www.philippineva.blogspot.com.
or call 1-973-786-3469 to get quotations of services.

I agree. Its not the place to offer your business card. Indeed, that's a mean way and tad too professional. However, its a social business network forum and we all come here to build professional contacts. Thus, we should propose business solutions that we have and not business cards.

Now coming back to the topic.
In my opinion, outsourcing of any function for any business is a strategic decision. Hence, we should take note of the below:

1. Because for customers, the telemarketer is a company representative and represents the company. The tele-agents should be well aware of the company, its products and services and should be trained accordingly
2. The BPO company should ensure Customer Service Delivery through the service marketing principles {yes, theoretical though its of utmost importance} i.e. physical evidence, people, process, etc.
3. The telemarketing company should ensure maximum reach and ROI for the organization. Build KPIs on per-defined elements.
4. The BPO should build proper and effective incentive plans for its agents that will motivate them to maximize throughput
5. The organization outsourcing should ensure timely feedback and review with its BPO partner. This will help them understand whether they have been able to meet the target for the organization and to make necessary changes to maximize productivity

Needless to say, proper remuneration and disbursement to the BPO will keep the committed and motivated always.

Now the business part, if you feel we can do business together, please mail me on jalanram@gmail.com, we have dedicated teams across sectors to deliver right solution for your company. We have processes that will ensure set-up best suited to your requirement.

All the Best for your Business.

Regards,
ram

Sir, I am Atul Tripathi from Ahmadabad, Gujarat India I am looking for an BPO so, Please Let me know about you and your call center so that i can decide to this work for you

David, my small B2B Outbound contact center does exactly what you're talking about. Maybe we could help you or at least offer some perspective. Call me any time next week, my direct office number is 330-686-0509, or e-mail me at dwbertsch@growsalesmarketinggroup.com. Thanks - Dave Bertsch, President, Grow Sales Marketing Group

David,

I represent a 2,000+ seat service desk provider who specializes in technical support, customer care and outbound B2B sales campaigns. We have facilities in the US (Tampa and Atlanta) as well as multilingual facilities in Romania (Bucharest and Brasov). Please feel free to contact me directly, or send me your information and I will setup an introductory call. I would love an opportunity to compete for your business.

Sincerely,

Scott McKinley
Vice President - Strategic Accounts
Computer Generated Solutions, Inc.
Office: 813-249-3281
Email: smckinley@cgsinc.com

Hello...We are locted in Dayton OH and have a 40-station call center and may be able to help you make the transition from an in-house operation to outsourcing these services. I have been in the B2B and Education Market since 1979, holding positions such as Telemarketer, Inside Sales Rep, Researcher, Lead Generator, Customer Upsell/Cross sell Rep, Trainer, Motivator, and for the past 27 years as Manager and Director of TeleServices. We are mostly an outbound calling company, but have the capabilities of doing large quantities of inbound call handling. See our website for details www.PeterLi.biz or www.PeterLi.com and click on "Telemarketing". Besides providing call services, we are able to troubleshoot existing operations and/or set up new ones through our consulting services. If you think we can be of assistance to you and your call center, please contact me at 937-293-1415 ext 1171, or at dslaton@peterli.biz. Thank you for your interest. Donna Slaton

Hi David; Would you be interested in outsourcing to a company that guarantees the leads/appointments that you contract for? You pay according to the qualified leads that fit the pre-defined lead profile that you have established. I represent a boutique revenue demand generation company that works for fortune 500 companies in Canada and the USA. We are the most unique organization you will ever work withl. We know high tech..we know how to deliver C-level leads and appointments. Please contact with your pipeline requirments.
Val Morgan, CEO, International Outsourcing Service, 519-709-9690

Hello David,
As Dibon-BPO, we have premiere on shore capabilities, and a new State of the Art call center in India to handle your requirements. We can also offer great flexibility to handle any size project. Please contact me so that we can discuss specifics, and determine if we are a good fit for your project.
Thank You,
Joe Gearon
Dibon-BPO
866.587.8555
Joseph.Gearon@callcenteroptions.com

Hi David,

After spending many years working with clients who use both inhouse and outsourced call centers, I suggest that before you shut your internal one down, you run a test with an outsourced vendor to be sure they can do what they say they can do. Once you see that a vendor is producing at least the same number of qualified leads at a lower cost, and you have a good working relationship with them, then you can shut your internal department down.

I've seen too many outsourcers promise the moon, and then come up short on the back end. That doesn't mean there aren't centers out there who deliver quality work, but you want to find one that's a good fit before you close down your internal center.

Best of luck!

Hi David,

I am sure you are off the problem that you were going through looking at the response that's here above to assist you.

If in case you still do have any such requirement would love to talk on it a little bit.

Please feel free to get back to me for any discussion.

Warm Regards,
Abhijeet Rai
www.chakrasystems.biz
abhijeet@chakrasystems.biz
Skype: chakrasystems

HI,

I’d like to touch base regarding your company’s current outsourcing requirements, and by way of this message, I’d also like to share more about PacificHub and open up discussions for a possible partnership with you.

We are a Philippine-based organization that is entirely locally owned and managed, but have over seven years of global BPO experience, operating as a strategic partner in delivering efficient, cost-effective, and flexible solutions to organizations worldwide. We serve businesses across a number of geographies that include North America, Europe, and Asia Pacific, and we support clients by applying comprehensive strategies in managing sales operations, customer service functions, lead generation, appointment setting, technical support, and back office requirements.
Should you find the need to discuss further or setup a meeting online or through the phone, I am also available at any time.

Thank you and I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Mae Kristine Viado
Business Development Officer
PacificHub Corporation
Office: +63 (02) 531 0290 ext 1563
Mobile: +63 (927) 833 6044
Email: mviado@pacifichub.net / krizztheen27@gmail.com / maekristineviado@yahoo.com
Skype ID: kristine.viado

Dear David,

I would love to speak with you to see if I can help. My company is a provider of a low cost, robust hosted call center platform and a hosted outbound IVR platform. Perhaps our low cost structure would allow you to keep your call center in-house? Otherwise, we have several outsourcers using our virtual platform that we can refer you to. The benefit to you of using an outsourcer on a virtual platform is that you are able to login and access real time reporting, call recordings, live call monitor and more. Essentially, it gives you more control than you would otherwise have with an outsourced provider.

Feel free to call me and I will be glad to help you any way I can. I also write call center related articles that might be of interest to you that you can read at http://www.managedserviceproviders.biz/topics/call-center/.

All the best,

Darren Prine
Director of Strategic Partnerships
Northwinds Contact Solutions
5425 E Bell Rd, Ste 141
Phoenix, AZ 85254
Work: 602.515.0395
Mobile: 480.251.9160
Fax: 602.515.0391
Email: dprine@thenorthwinds.com
IM: CallCenterHero (Skype)
My Blogs: http://www.managedserviceproviders.biz/topics/call-center/