They’re call centre agents, and because most of their clients are on the other side of the world, the night shift is their busiest time.
Last year, with more than 600,000 call centre workers, the Philippines officially overtook India as the world’s call centre capital.
If you phone up to book a flight, buy a theatre ticket or complain that water is cascading out of your washing machine, you’re now more likely to speak to a Filipino than an Indian.
The Philippines has a number of obvious advantages when it comes to call centres. Wages are low and most Filipinos speak English in an accent which, given the American colonial influence here, is easy for US customers to understand.
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]]>Used by B2B divisions of companies such as Hughes, IBM, Microsoft, Oracle, Autodesk and many more, CCI bills its telemarketing scripts as “The World’s Most Trusted Telemarketing Scripts.”
On offer are:
- Lead generation scripts: scripts written using client’s resources and drawing on nearly 20 years of campaign management
- Tested lead generation scripts: Same as the above, but put to the test with live calling
- Sales scripts: From one-call closing scripts to scripts & lead management systems for complex sales
While most heavily specialized in lead generation and appointment setting for the high-tech sector, CCI has also successfully written scripts for clients in the financial and medical industries.
Visit their service page here to learn more: http://cci-telemarketing.com/services/telemarketing-script/
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FTC settles suit over 2.6 billion illegal telemarketing calls
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Geoffrey James at Inc. Magazine’s blog posted an excellent article titled “How to Work the Phone: 6 Tricks” that highlights active listening skills
Here’s my take on his suggestions:
1. Expunge your verbal weaknesses.
While I agree with everything he says, I take issue with “Important: Never, ever turn a statement into a question by putting a little uptick at the end; it’s a huge credibility killer.”
While it’s telemarketing dogma to not end statements with a question mark, when scripted properly, it’s actually an effective technique to keep momentum going and getting early engagement from your prospect. The trick is to make the statement something the prospect has to agree with. Have two or three of these in a row so your prospect is saying or thinking “yes… yes… true.” Make sure your voice conveys confidence and energy- that will really help to build the momentum.
2. Always have an agenda.
This goes without saying.
3. Listen (really) to the other person.
The suggestion to “suspend” thinking about what you’re going to say next is laudable, but I would add more…
You need to mentally summarize what you’re hearing the other person saying and then give it back to them using one of three active listening techniques- parroting, paraphrasing, or feeling feedback (follow the links for more details).
4. Take a second before each response.
This makes sense… however, you don’t want to always do the exact same thing every time or it will become obvious. Vary your pauses.
5. Listen (really) to your own voice.
I don’t know about this one. I think this will most likely cause you to lose your train of thought. The time to listen to yourself is after the call (assuming you kept a recording).
6. Adapt your tonality to match.
Other than pacing my prospect on rate of speech, mood, and volume and then trying to lead them a little, I would never try to affect an accent I hadn’t already mastered. They will see right through you and it will seem like you’re mocking them.
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Fraud has globalised along with economies, a US federal trade commission official said Indian call centres were used to swindle millions of dollars out of Americans, say US federal officials. Callers from the Indian centres posed as “phantom debt” collectors who targeted people who had applied for small online loans.
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]]>An American call centre company is creating 600 jobs in Cardiff, it has been confirmed.
Conduit already employs more than 1,900 staff across three centres – in Cardiff city centre, Cardiff Gate and Swansea.
Its new centre in the Cardiff business district provides the homecare service for British Gas.
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I didn’t always plan on becoming a telemarketing consultant.
My interests in college where philosophy, history, and psychology (although I took a last-minute detour in to computer science).
Fresh out of college, I got my first taste of telemarketing back in 1991 as an independent legal services representative. Working from my home office, I used the White Pages and a telephone to set appointments for myself to close sales face-to-face. Despite several harrowing experiences with oddball prospects (I feared for my life in one instance), my efforts started to pay off- just as the company I represented closed its doors. Having decided I enjoyed sales, particularly telesales, I set out to learn more about the industry (as well as pay my rent!).
I went on to work for several telemarketing outfits; some were borderline questionable in terms of ethics and at least one, I later learned, was an outright scam. Exposed to the seamy underbelly of the telemarketing industry, I came to understand why this profession was viewed with such a mixture of suspicion and disdain.
Telemarketing Boiler Room Blues
I found my way to Time Life Books and Videos. At least here, I thought, I will be working for a real company.
Within a month or two I established myself as the top producer (by far) in a room of over 80 agents. Before I knew it, navigating my apartment became a challenge because of the pillars of books and videos I won in daily sales competitions. Even my friends and relatives got tired of all the books and videos I tried to pawn off on them.
One thing became clear though, I was not going to pay off my college loans with books and videos. The only upward path was to become a supervisor or manager.
One day, while watching my supervisor run up and down the aisles with a copy of “Fix-It-Yourself-Plumbing” held high above his head, yelling, cajoling, and all but begging us to close more sales to win this oh-so-precious tome of plumbing wisdom (of which I already owned 3 copies), I decided it was time to move on.
B2B Telemarketing Training Years
Fortunate to be one of just two selected from a group of over 25 applicants, I found myself telemarketing for a reputable B2B agency.
What a difference! Not only did they have a dress code, but I got my own cubicle and computer! I learned that telemarketing did not have to mean being sandwiched between four other agents with questionable hygiene and barely being able to hear yourself talk. Most of the other agents with my new employer had also worked in boiler room settings.
A top producer on almost every campaign I worked on, I collected many awards and letters of appreciation from clients during my nearly three-year stay with this B2B agency. One of the highlights of my years there was selling technical training to engineers as an Amdhal Education representative, closing at least $40,000.00 to $60,000.00 a month in sales before Amdhal quit the technical training business.
I Start My Own Telemarketing Company
Having paid my dues, it was time to strike out on my own.
I taught myself to build computers and computer networks, write my own software, and manage databases. With the high-tech boom still in full swing (1993), I had clients within weeks of making my first cold call to promote my telemarketing company.
Since then, I have managed hundreds of telemarketing campaigns responsible for millions of calls, thousands of leads and appointments, and untold millions in sales. My clients included the who’s who of the technology industry as well as many smaller companies in a variety of industries.
One of my more notable achievements was managing a cold-calling project for Oracle where my team closed nearly a million dollars in sales within a month- $2,000 at a time.
My main strength as a telemarketing consultant is a willingness to experiment and come up with new solutions. I am quick to admit mistakes, make amends and improvements, and learn my lessons. I am not afraid to ask “dumb” questions or question “dumb” assumptions. Our success is more important than my ego.
If you think I can help you with your marketing efforts, please contact me for a free consultation.
]]>After receiving thousands of complaints from consumers, the Federal Communications Commission clamped down Wednesday on unwanted robo-calling by approving sweeping changes to its telemarketing rules for wireline and mobile phones.
Even with the national Do Not Call Registry in effect — the initial effort to block those pesky calls — telemarketers have found ways around the rules. But the FCC’s latest effort is “closing a loophole,” said Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the nonprofit Electronic Privacy Information Center.
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Supreme Court Hears Arguments on Telemarketer Abuse Cases