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penpusherWe're continuing the examination of the workings of telemarketing, and now we're up to a very important and very controversial element of the process: Where does the money go?
Occasionally, a patron who I have called will ask me, "what cut do you get of my money?" It's a somewhat fair question to ask. I understand why they might want to know that, because when you are speaking with an anonymous person calling from some other state, it feels a little dangerous to not have at least as many facts about them as they do about you.
This is one of the really big issues that people cite as a reason to never give to telemarketers! They feel as if their money is going to the company that is harassing them by calling every other day to ask them to give funds to a cause, and then wind up keeping it for themselves! Nobody wants to support that.
For example, THIS STORY from the Huffington Post points out that a telemarketing company called InfoCision managed to keep a ton of money that people who were trying to help support the American Cancer Society donated through their phone calls.
There are a couple of problems with this story that I wanted to point out right away. The first is the headline.
N.Y. Telemarketing Companies Kept 62 Cents Of Every Dollar Raised In 2012
That really sounds like EVERY telemarketing company in New York got more than half of the return on the calls they collectively made, for any purpose! That is absolutely untrue.
Second, charities are a different case from the clients that my company works for. We don't handle any charity calling of any sort. We only dial for non-profit companies, some political committees and artistic organizations.
The article reads as if the telemarketing company is holding this charity hostage and that there is some sort of electronic mugging going on.
The more accurate truth is that the charity and the telemarketing company both have their reps sit down at a table. They discuss the fees, they may haggle a bit back and forth, but in the end, both sides agree to a contract that states how much money the telemarketing company is getting for its pay, based on several factors: man hours and cost of calls being most obvious, but can sometimes include things like difficulty of reaching patrons or other such efforts.
But the fact is, the charity has agreed to whatever the terms were BEFORE the calling begins. To come back and make a statement like the ones being made in the article really isn't fair to anyone.
Really, it feels like this is an attempt to try to force the telemarketing company to lower their rates on their own, instead of the standard American "Fair Market Value" efforts that run most areas of business. If a telemarketing company is charging an outrageous amount for their services, find another one! Don't prove how silly you were for paying the one that took the bulk of everything just to make those calls!
The problem for the business of telemarketing as a whole is that people already group all telemarketing together into one greasy, disgusting, annoying and questionable practice. They assume that emails they get are also issued by the same people placing calls. (They're not.) To the patrons, all of this probably feels like invasion of privacy after a few days and weeks. And with a story like the HuffPo one, it's just another reason for people to get angry and hang up.
Let's clear this up a little.
Here's how it works for a lot of telemarketing companies around the country. The contract that is arranged with the client typically says that the telemarketing company will be paid by the "CONTACT" (a "Contact" is a patron who says either "yes" or "no," to the offer presented). And the TM company typically gets paid exactly the same amount if it's a yes or a no. This amount paid by the client can range from a couple of dollars, up to something closer to twenty dollars per contact, depending on varying factors/agreements.
This also explains why telemarketing companies will continually call, even if someone answers and tells them to stop. You see, if it isn't the patron on the phone, the specifically named person in the call list, that isn't really a "no." And that means the telemarketing company, depending on how tightly drawn the contract they signed with their client is, will likely not get paid for their efforts to reach the patron if they don't get a "no" from that patron on the call list.
When you understand that point, you now understand the incentive to get the patron on the phone! As previously stated, an answering machine with a message saying "I don't take solicitation calls, please remove this phone from your call list" accomplishes nothing, least of all stops the telemarketers from dialing over and over to get the person on the list to say that to them, directly. A recorded message will never stop the calls because telemarketers need contacts!
Now, the client is hoping for yeses. That means money for them. So, the telemarketing company is tasked with trying to get them the most, on every call. That's the point of "asking high" and "three asks."
Getting a lot of yeses will bring in money, but ultimately it's the nos that will get the telemarketing company ITS payday. More people will always say no than yes, and that needs to happen for the TM to earn their 2 or 5 or 10 or 15 dollars per contact.
That is what happened to my company last year, when we didn't quite cover our costs! Yes we did well for our clients, but no, if people don't answer, letting the phone ring on or go to voice mail, or hang up before telling us no, or have someone else tell us no, it means we didn't get enough patrons to say no, so not enough money to the telemarketing firm!
Of course, some people are still annoyed or offended that telemarketing companies are getting any money at all for making these calls. But the truth is, pretty much none of these clients do their own printing and stationery work. So just as they would farm out that element and hire and pay a printer for their mailings, they do the same for this work.
And these really are more green, since no papers or glossy brochures are getting wasted or recycled, and more cost-effective for the client. Plus, you can ask for clarification about the work, ask about whatever issues or problems you might have directly, have a conversation about the company and even provide valuable feedback that can help the client. All of that is a lot better than snail mail, or even email, which requires someone to go into an inbox and read through every piece of correspondence, and then fashion responses to send back. With a call, it all happens in real time.
I can't speak for every telemarketing company out there, but I do know the one I work for earns its dollars and its reputation!
Occasionally, a patron who I have called will ask me, "what cut do you get of my money?" It's a somewhat fair question to ask. I understand why they might want to know that, because when you are speaking with an anonymous person calling from some other state, it feels a little dangerous to not have at least as many facts about them as they do about you.
This is one of the really big issues that people cite as a reason to never give to telemarketers! They feel as if their money is going to the company that is harassing them by calling every other day to ask them to give funds to a cause, and then wind up keeping it for themselves! Nobody wants to support that.
For example, THIS STORY from the Huffington Post points out that a telemarketing company called InfoCision managed to keep a ton of money that people who were trying to help support the American Cancer Society donated through their phone calls.
There are a couple of problems with this story that I wanted to point out right away. The first is the headline.
That really sounds like EVERY telemarketing company in New York got more than half of the return on the calls they collectively made, for any purpose! That is absolutely untrue.
Second, charities are a different case from the clients that my company works for. We don't handle any charity calling of any sort. We only dial for non-profit companies, some political committees and artistic organizations.
The article reads as if the telemarketing company is holding this charity hostage and that there is some sort of electronic mugging going on.
The more accurate truth is that the charity and the telemarketing company both have their reps sit down at a table. They discuss the fees, they may haggle a bit back and forth, but in the end, both sides agree to a contract that states how much money the telemarketing company is getting for its pay, based on several factors: man hours and cost of calls being most obvious, but can sometimes include things like difficulty of reaching patrons or other such efforts.
But the fact is, the charity has agreed to whatever the terms were BEFORE the calling begins. To come back and make a statement like the ones being made in the article really isn't fair to anyone.
Really, it feels like this is an attempt to try to force the telemarketing company to lower their rates on their own, instead of the standard American "Fair Market Value" efforts that run most areas of business. If a telemarketing company is charging an outrageous amount for their services, find another one! Don't prove how silly you were for paying the one that took the bulk of everything just to make those calls!
The problem for the business of telemarketing as a whole is that people already group all telemarketing together into one greasy, disgusting, annoying and questionable practice. They assume that emails they get are also issued by the same people placing calls. (They're not.) To the patrons, all of this probably feels like invasion of privacy after a few days and weeks. And with a story like the HuffPo one, it's just another reason for people to get angry and hang up.
Let's clear this up a little.
Here's how it works for a lot of telemarketing companies around the country. The contract that is arranged with the client typically says that the telemarketing company will be paid by the "CONTACT" (a "Contact" is a patron who says either "yes" or "no," to the offer presented). And the TM company typically gets paid exactly the same amount if it's a yes or a no. This amount paid by the client can range from a couple of dollars, up to something closer to twenty dollars per contact, depending on varying factors/agreements.
This also explains why telemarketing companies will continually call, even if someone answers and tells them to stop. You see, if it isn't the patron on the phone, the specifically named person in the call list, that isn't really a "no." And that means the telemarketing company, depending on how tightly drawn the contract they signed with their client is, will likely not get paid for their efforts to reach the patron if they don't get a "no" from that patron on the call list.
When you understand that point, you now understand the incentive to get the patron on the phone! As previously stated, an answering machine with a message saying "I don't take solicitation calls, please remove this phone from your call list" accomplishes nothing, least of all stops the telemarketers from dialing over and over to get the person on the list to say that to them, directly. A recorded message will never stop the calls because telemarketers need contacts!
Now, the client is hoping for yeses. That means money for them. So, the telemarketing company is tasked with trying to get them the most, on every call. That's the point of "asking high" and "three asks."
Getting a lot of yeses will bring in money, but ultimately it's the nos that will get the telemarketing company ITS payday. More people will always say no than yes, and that needs to happen for the TM to earn their 2 or 5 or 10 or 15 dollars per contact.
That is what happened to my company last year, when we didn't quite cover our costs! Yes we did well for our clients, but no, if people don't answer, letting the phone ring on or go to voice mail, or hang up before telling us no, or have someone else tell us no, it means we didn't get enough patrons to say no, so not enough money to the telemarketing firm!
Of course, some people are still annoyed or offended that telemarketing companies are getting any money at all for making these calls. But the truth is, pretty much none of these clients do their own printing and stationery work. So just as they would farm out that element and hire and pay a printer for their mailings, they do the same for this work.
And these really are more green, since no papers or glossy brochures are getting wasted or recycled, and more cost-effective for the client. Plus, you can ask for clarification about the work, ask about whatever issues or problems you might have directly, have a conversation about the company and even provide valuable feedback that can help the client. All of that is a lot better than snail mail, or even email, which requires someone to go into an inbox and read through every piece of correspondence, and then fashion responses to send back. With a call, it all happens in real time.
I can't speak for every telemarketing company out there, but I do know the one I work for earns its dollars and its reputation!
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no subject
Date: 2014-03-19 05:35 pm (UTC)That's generally not a fair complaint because they're not going to donate directly to the customer anyway.
And even if that company was going to call you itself, it would probably be doing it with paid staff.
no subject
Date: 2014-03-20 02:00 am (UTC)Usually when we get a campaign to do, some representative from the client will come and meet with us, go over the important issues and provide the script that we will eventually throw away, since most of us don't use scripts.
But frequently we know a lot about the client because we visit their website, we read previous material. We do the research so it's almost like dealing directly with the client for the patrons we call!