Telemarketing FAQs
August 20th, 2008These are a list of frequently asked questions relating to the Telemarketing Sales Manager position, Telemarketing position and the sponsorships that Telemarketers are selling.
Telemarketer Sales Manager FAQs
- Where can I get more info about the Telemarketing Sales Manager position?
- Check out the Telemarketer Sales Manager Steps page for details.
- Is this a salary position?
- No. It is a 100% commission position. You are rewarding for performing.
- What will I be doing as the Telemarketer Sales Manger?
- Managing a team of telemarketers that are selling sponsorships
- Will I be an employee?
- No, you will be an independent contractor.
- How will the telemarketers be working?
- My initial vision was that they would be working out of their home offices. I have had more than one person ask if they could use an existing telemarketing call center they own or run to have the telemarketers work from there. That is fine, but I will not start, create or pay for a call center. If you choose, at your own expense and initiative, to do this from a call center that will be completely your decision.
- How many telemarketers will I be managing?
- When I initially envisioned this, I thought you might need about 5 telemarketers to manage (give or take a few). Some people I have talked to want to grow a larger team. Some think it can be done with fewer.
- Will you be starting a call center?
- No. I envisioned this as a home based opportunity for telemarketers.
- Is there a limited number of sponsorships to sell?
- Yes, there are 280 markets that you can sell one time each. Each market is an exclusive sale (meaning you can only sell it once) but… there will be normal attrition (some people canceling their sponsorship over time) that will need to resold AND I do plan on expanding our network beyond investors. I will be making at least another network for first time home buyers after this one gets close to be sold out. I may make additional ones as well, so there is room to grow beyond the 280.
- Can I start a call center on my own if I want?
- Yes, but it will be at your expense.
- Where can I see a list of the280 markets you have that you are selling?
- See the list of the 280 Real Estate Resource markets that we cover.
- Who pays for the telephone bill?
- Our commissions that we pay include all expenses for the telemarketers. So, all expenses including the telephone bill is paid by the individual telemarketer. There are very inexpesive VOIP or even unlimited long distance plans available from the telephone company today. That is what I would recommend.
- What do I do to start?
- You can follow the steps outlined in the Telemarketer Sales Manager Steps page.
- When do you want to get this started?
- I am ready to start immediately.
- How often do you pay?
- We pay weekly.
- How do you pay?
- We pay by check. If there is a really compelling reason to use another method, let me know and we can explore that as well.
- How long have you had this system?
- It is brand new. We will be creating together from scratch. I started selling sponsorships, I believe, in mid June, 2008.
- How long have you been advertising to find a Telemarketing Sales Manager?
- I started advertising to find a Telemarketing Sales Manger on August 5th, 2008. You can see a history of the Telemarketing Sales Manager Marketing Test Results on the Ruthless Accountability blog.
- Will I have an exclusive territory? Will there be more than one Telemarketing Sales Manager?
- Ideally, I’d like one Telemarketing Sales Manager to run the entire marketing campaign. However, since it is impossible for me to tell if a particular Telemarketing Sales Manger will ultimately be self motivated and tenacious enough to actually get the job done, I will likely be hiring more than one to start. Each Telemarketing Sales Manager will be assigned a state to start with. If they sell the state, they will be given more. If it looks like a Telemarketing Sales Manager is succeeding I will NOT bring on any new ones. I will not fire someone that is selling either though. So, it is possible, although very unlikely, that I could get more than one telemarketing team. If this is the case, I will immediately begin work on expanding to other niches (see other FAQs for info on this) to accommodate the need for more areas to sell.
- What if the agent or broker is not sold on the first call?
- Our system is designed so that, if you as the Telemarketing Sales Manager decide to include in your script, a secondary sale of “let’s just get you signed up to get referrals while there is not a sponsor” then those get linked to the telemarketer (and therefore to you). If they upgrade to sponsorship at a later time, you get full credit for that sale in our system. In other words, if you register the agent in in the system using your sales page, even if they upgrade later from that account you and your telemarketer get credit for the sale. If you like, you could follow up with those agents and brokers as well with a secondary phone call. We do follow up with them with a weekly newsletter once they are in the system.
- Why do you quote our earnings as a percentage?
- From time to time, to create promotions, excitement for calls or follow up calls and to ultimately increase sales I may run a sale on sponsorships. It may include, but is not limited to, reduced setup fee, reduced monthly fee, premiums or bonuses. For example, we may run a 2 day only half price setup fee that you may offer on your calls. As I see it right now, you, as the Telemarketing Sales Manager, may choose to use this promotion of continue to sell at full price. Since your earnings are a percentage of the setup fee and monthly fee, this will affect the gross amount of your commission. Our system tracks all of this automatically.
- Can I see my sales?
- Yes, I am putting together the final touches on a payment summary page for your sales (and the sales of your team) from your account on AnalyzedDeals.com
- Can I make calls and sell the sponsorships myself and how would that work?
- Yes, but as I see it, you really should be managing your telemarketing team and training them to make sales. You do NOT earn double the commission for sales you generate, so it makes sense to have your telemarketers make sales with your help.
- Can you help me find telemarketers?
- Yes, I can help put up some marketing on CraigsList for finding telemarketers. You will need to talk to them, train them and manage them. You can also put up your own free ads on CraigsList. I do not recommend ads in newspapers or other paid advertising at this point.
- What can you provide to help?
- My background is real estate investing and technology (websites). If you need help with FAQs, doing a training call and recording that for the telemarketers and things of that nature, I would be happy to help. I am not qualified to write telephone scripts or manage a telemarketing team. That is why I am trying to hire you. I do have a 2008 roster of real estate agents and brokers that I purchased that we can use as a call list for making the sales calls. I will also provide the service you are selling to the agents and brokers.
- What do you expect me to provide?
- I expect you to provide management, motivation, training, telephone scripts for the outbound telemarketing to agents and brokers. I expect you to be the liaison between us and the agents and brokers you are selling (that is one of the reasons why you get part of the monthly fee… to make sure they are not oversold and have a point of contact for them to tell us about problems, challenges or areas to improve with the system).
- There is something unique about me or my situation: I would need a salary.
- We will be doing this as a commission only position. If you require a salary, this is not the position or company for you. Our company culture is based on rewards for work done well and payment for performance.
- What does the position pay?
- It pays 25% of the setup fee (setup fee is usually $400) for sales you or the telemarketers reporting to you make and 15% of the monthly fee (monthly fee is usually $197 per month) for as long as you are with the company and they are still paying.
Telemarketer FAQs
- What am I paid for this?
- As a telemarketer you are paid 25% of the setup fee for the sales you make (the setup fee is usually $400) and 10% of the monthly fee (monthly fee is usually $197 per month).
- You paid weekly.
- You will be paid by check.
- Will I be working from home or from a call center?
- In most cases, I anticipate that you will be working from home, but some Telemarketing Sales Managers will have their telemarketing teams work from a Call Center that they setup.
- Am I going to be an employee or an independent contractor?
- This would be as an independent contractor only.
- What can I expect to earn?
- Since the program is brand new and it relies solely on your ability to perform, I really can not say.
- Can I do this part-time? Full-time?
- While each Telemarketing Sales Manager may have different policies, it is my understanding that you should be able to do it full-time or part-time.
- Who pays the telephone bill?
- The commission you earn on each sale includes all expenses you may incur, so you will be responsible to pay your own expenses from your commissions earned. There are inexpensive Voice Over IP (VOIP) and unlimited long distance plans available from most telephone companies now. I would recommend that.
- What will I actually be doing?
- Calling real estate agents and brokers and selling the the sponsorship for their area.
- Do I need to follow a script or can I say what I want?
- You absolutely need to follow an approved script to avoid over promising or misrepresenting what they are buying.
- The script isn’t working, can I adapt it?
- You can and are encouraged to give feedback to your Telemarketing Sales Manger of problems you are having with the approved script, but you can not adapt it on your own. They can modify their script and resubmit it to get it approved. The approval process is to ensure that we are not over-promising or misrepresenting the sponsorships.
Sponsorship FAQs
- What is the sponsorship?
- You can read about sponsorships, but they are basically the right for a real estate agent or broker to exclusively advertise as the preferred real estate agent or broker to work with from a given website. The website covers one of about 280 US markets that we have websites for.
- How many markets do you cover with the sponsorships?
- We cover about 280 US markets with the sponsorships. For a list of the markets we cover, you can see a list of the Real Estate Resources websites. Each one is a market that can be sold.
- What happens when someone stops paying for their sponsorship?
- When a sponsor removes their CC or has their CC fail several days in a row, they forfeit their sponsorship and it becomes available for sale again. If you had sold the original sponsorship, since your agent or broker stopped paying, you stop receiving the monthly commissions on that sale
