First Contact, Part 6
The actual cost of a sale, which is the cost of the call center
person’s hours and his bonus, can easily be over $200 and
even as much as $300.
It may be interesting to note that there are often as many people
making calls at the call center as there are salesmen.
The U.S. based call center person gets a minimum wage of about
$80 a day plus the bonus of maybe $100 if he's good. His boss
gets a six figure salary plus performance bonuses.
The purpose of the call is to get the salesman in the door, whatever
that takes.
The telephone call can be as varied as the manager’s imagination. The script used has
been polished and honed over weeks and months to near perfection and is designed to
push every possible button with the fewest words and in the least amount of time.
Every word in the pitch has been purposely selected for its impact. The fewer words
uttered to get the appointment the better. Remember, these people will call 1,000 to
2,000 people a day and talk to about 200 of them.
The “pitch” can have nothing to do with the product being sold. “Hello Mr. Jones, I’m
calling to see if your electric bill is too high. The City Power Company is offering a rebate
on your electric bill only for this month and you might qualify for that rebate. We’re
sending out someone to check your house and see if you can get that $600 rebate for an
efficient home. How about 11AM tomorrow?
In reality the rebate is maybe $3.00 - three dollars - and only
if you buy something to replace something you already have and
there is no real time limit on it and the salesman will be doing
everything he can to sell you windows or exterior coatings - for
$20,000 - or more. And he has about one chance in three or four
of doing exactly that.
Canvassers
Some companies use teenagers to prowl the streets in sophisticated
gangs to ring doorbells and to then get people to take a brochure.
These leads are better than call center leads because there was
someone who actually cased the house and who has learned quite
a bit about the house and the interior and the homeowner. As stupid
and smiling as this teenager may have seemed, he had a job to
do and he did it. All of his information is then computerized
and sent to the sales office. The canvasser will tell the homeowner
whatever he has to tell them to get an appointment for
the salesman. The
