Cheap Telemarketing – Compare Costs and Options
Most companies will have a minimum number of hours that you need to hire them for in order to contract outbound telemarketing services, although that minimum is much smaller with some companies than others. A good general rule is that you can expect to pay around $36 per man-hour worked on a telemarketing campaign, however, this is a very general guideline only, and many things can shift this price up or down.
Common telemarketing services included:
- Cold Calling
- Appointment Setting
- Lead Generation
- Cross-Selling / Upselling
- Informational Services
While there are certain quality issues regarding the work of some offshore services, their rates can get as low as $10 per hour, or in certain cases, even less. However, with offshore companies, you can expect to lose out on quality and clear communication with English-speaking people in the USA. By the same token, there are certain top-tier onshore services that rely on highly skilled sales professionals, sometimes with specific experiences in selling in certain niches. In these cases, your returns are likely to be higher when using the service, but so will your initial costs. Some of these services may charge $65 per hour or more.
There are other pricing models available. If using telemarketing services to funnel leads to your sales, team, you may be interested in a model that charges per-lead, rather than per-hour. This model can be very effective, as it means that you’ll only be paying for successes, but the overall cost tends to be on the higher end of the range that people pay for telemarketing services.
What is an Outbound Telemarketing Service?
A telemarketing service is a company that another firm hires in order to market their products or services via inbound or outbound calling. This is different from a call center, which primarily handles inbound calls for technical support or customer service issues. A telemarketing service instead actively calls potential customers in order to either make sales or document qualified leads for the client company. There are also inbound telemarketing services that handle calls made to specified sales lines that the client company has designated.
TELEMARKETING DOESN'T HAVE TO BE EXPENSIVE!
Usually, a telemarketing firm will train its agents to call potential customers (or to receive calls from potential customers) and then deliver a script that you have provided or developed in consultation with the marketing company. The agent will then attempt to achieve the desired goal, whether that be setting up an appointment with one of your sales executives and the qualified lead, or closing the sale themselves. Usually, in addition to the flat fee charged for telemarketing services, there are also commissions or bonuses paid to agents who successfully close sales.
The benefits of a telemarketing service include:
- Increasing overall company profitability
- Decreasing time spent on handling unqualified telephone calls with in-house staff
- Testing new sales tactics
- Finding an audience for new products
- Widening the market penetration of a product or brand
What to Look for in Low-Cost Telemarketing Services?
The first major decision you need to make whether you are hiring an inbound or outbound telemarketing company is whether or not you are willing to go offshore for your hiring. Offshore hiring has advantages and drawbacks which both need to be considered:
Advantages:
- Economical cost
- Easy setup
- Agile contracts
Drawbacks
- Lower success rate
- The potential impact on corporate image
- Lower return on investment
The truth is that although you will pay more upfront for a domestic call center service, the trade-off is usually that you get better returns for your money, and your brand reputation avoids the damage it can take when using offshore services. Just because a service is cheap doesn’t mean it is the best option. Keep in mind the reason you’re hiring a telemarketing service in the first place is to grow your company, which often makes a domestic option the better one.
In that vein, it is important that when shopping for a low-cost b2b telemarketing service you make sure that the company has experience in that particular field. Marketing a product to other businesses is much different than selling to consumers, and you should only use telemarketing services that have agents trained in the particular type of sales that you want them to engage in. Using a consumer telemarketing firm when you should really be using a b2b telemarketing service is likely to yield very low conversion rates for your callers, ultimately affecting your bottom line.
Finally, you should choose to work with a company that has excellent reporting features, ideally those with which you can interact online at any time. Being able to get real-time reports about the success of your telemarketing campaigns allows you to agilely respond to the reception your campaign is being met with, something that can help you maximize your ROI moving forward.
Bargain Telemarketing Service Companies with Discounted Prices
It is possible to find low-priced telemarketing services without going offshore. When you take the time to shop for a bargain within the country, you balance the benefits of an affordable service without the drawbacks that often come with doing business with an offshore firm. If you can’t find an option you’re happy with in the country, it is also worth looking outside of the country but closer to home than the multitude of call centers located in Asia. For instance, there are a number of telemarketing services based out of Canada which may provide a similar level of service to what you can find at home, but at a lower price. The following two suggestions are just leaping off point for researching high-quality potential providers of telemarketing services.
Grindstone: Grindstone is based out of Maryland, and focuses its efforts on b2b telemarketing. Their services extend beyond simple telemarketing and include a wide array of direct marketing efforts to help increase sales to business clients. Their services include lead generation, appointment setting, direct telesales, and more.
DialAmerica: DialAmerica is another domestic service. Based out of New Jersey, this company has sales options for companies targeting both consumer and business markets. They allow you to track analytics and modify your campaigns as they are in motion in order to help ensure the best possible results.
The best way to evaluate a given inexpensive telemarketing service is to just schedule a meeting with them. Don’t get blinded by promises of cut-rate fees, and instead, look for discounted rates among companies with proven track records. Telemarketing services become an extension of your own brand, so it is important to select a provider that you are proud to have to represent you.