WE CAN HELP YOU RUN YOUR TELEMARKETING TENDERS

Building supplier-buyer relationships
As well as obtaining the basic company information around their address and account details, you want to look at other areas which will help you judge their experience and potential risks.

Make sure you think about their experience and what type of organisation would best fit your current and future needs.

Ascertain what systems they use.  Is it a spreadsheet, customised CRM or bespoke system?  This will help put together an understanding of how they work, and an idea about what data will be captured.

Managing Success
During the campaign, you will want to be kept up to date on the progress.  What we would suggest is that you look at daily, weekly and monthly reporting.

On a day to day basis you want to be informed of any ‘appointments’ or ‘successes’.  You should be updated weekly on the current situation with regards to redundant data, untouched data, in progress data, refusals {soft and hard} and success, and given an excel data return monthly which you can then examine, use and potentially update your systems with. You will need to understand in what format the data can be returned.

Managing Success (continued)

If you are just paying for calling with no KPI’s then you will ultimately be carrying all the risk. A fair set of KPIs should be examined.  What happens if they over succeed? Most likely a small bonus increase in fees (~10%) otherwise what you may find is that they ramp down until the next month.  If they underperform below a minimum criteria could highlight the need for a ‘crisis meeting’. If they largely underperform, will they put the time in to recover? How the agency tackles this will really show you their desire for the business and the willingness to form a real partnership.

Understanding what the short, medium and longterm expected ROI’s can be will help. Find out their typical success rates for various campaigns to help base them on. Obviously, you will look at the high-level successes but what other KPI’s can you use. The number of dials a day isn’t such a useful metric but the number of DMC’s (Decision Making Contacts) that are spoken to does help a lot.  How easily can these stats be reported on?

Payment and sustaining the partnership

The cost is obviously important although try not to focus solely on this.  A Win-Win is the desired outcome here and much can be mitigated through KPI’s.

Ideally paying for the caller by the month is the simplest calculation with payment at the month end.  However, there may be a setup fee and other charging options such as per hour or per contact. Also, will there be a need to be break clauses?

You would definitely want to meet any provider.  Ideally at their office to gauge the atmosphere and set up.  Ultimately you are looking for a desire to work together and create a real partnership. As already mentioned, it is just as important to sell yourselves to them to help create enthusiasm for the relationship.

Footnote:
Find out more in our 8 Things to Consider if You’re Running a Telemarketing Tender blog here.