Does anyone used a telemarketing or appointment setting company?

Great first post Roger allways good to see a maiden poster promoting a business which is more than likely his own.

No i have never used a appointment making service nor would i ever do so in the future.
If you cant get referals from word of mouth or recommendation you wont go very far in the finance world.

I fail to see how ringing someone and tryiing to flog them finance on the phone (which of course under NCPP you can do) is ever going to get you business.

Only my opinion.

Cheers

Yours in Finance

I have worked for companies that used appointment setting. It is a big hit and miss- that is the spiel that is used on the phone- kind of gets the potential client in- they are not really interested in what you have to offer when you get there since they have been kind of “persuaded” to get you out.
Yes, there are organisations out there who do bulk telemarketing- you can try “virtual assistants” to get started.
As Derek and Qlds have said- build your data base and look after your clients that you have and you will have referrals spilling over!

I used to do this kind of work, yep it works. But, you need to do a lot of calls to find a good prospect. Cold calling is a very time consuming prospect, you are better off buying some fresh leads to prospect through, or run a competition.

We purchased leads from survey companies, targeted to people who said they were in the market for x product or whatever. Those leads were a much better uptake. You can generate leads at an expo, or even just off the street.

We also ran competitions and got pretty girls to stop business men in the street, and enter them in a competition.

If you can do some legwork like that yourself then you're making life a lot easier for yourself and you are directing the whole process before you expect an appointment setter to yield results.

You can expect to pay $20/hr to people off fo seek or job sites, they are usually looking for jobs and money rather than being focussed on your business though, it is hard to find good people.

A friend of mine ended up doing this professionally, and still seems to be http://www.appointment-setter.com.au I'd certainly recommend contacting them.

From my experience it is about finding someone that will represent you well, but will stop at nothing to making sure the business comes in the door. That doesn't come from just making calls, you have to really want it.

Telemarketing is a hard, hard slog – and while it can deliver, it aint for the faint hearted.

Barry

I am constantly receiving emails and phone calls from these types of services boasting "No more calls!" and "Proven Lead Generation"…

Where has the personal touch gone in this world? If someone called me to arrange an appraisal at my home, I would want it to at the very least be the person I would be meeting because at the end of the day I want to ask them questions about their business before making any appointments.

What you'd be doing is paying someone to spruik something they don't believe in… and people see that. If you believe in yourself and what you do and are willing to back yourself then do some research and some cold calls to build up a database. Then put all your efforts into servicing those people and you'll eventually get referrals and build your business that way.

I work on referrals and from leads generated through general things I do like this forum, blogs, newsletters, Facebook and word of mouth. They're the best clients to work with because you don't need to sell yourself like you would turning up at an appointment someone set up for you.

If I'm looking for a lead I call. Because I'm a person (and I like a good chat) and that's what doing business is all about, trusting a person with your asset/finance/tax return/dog/cat… anything.