So you’re paying for a B2B telemarketing campaign, and the company you’ve decided to work with have agreed that you only pay if they get results. Sounds good doesn’t it?
Not so fast.
Although this may seem like a more financially-sound ideal for your company on the surface, the end result may not end up being what you expected.
We look at some of the core reasons as to why a cost per appointment/lead campaign with a telemarketing or lead generation company could cause problems for your business.
Quantity over quality
Payment by results essentially means the payment rests on a call outcome. With so much riding on this, the appointments generated for your business might cause disputes.
Such differences or disagreements may arise because of questions over whether an appointment is genuine, where focus on number of appointments is more prevalent then a focus on quality.
Payment-by-results companies can provide a poor ROI, so you pay for expensive appointments that are a waste of both your time and money.
Often companies have been known to push a dubious prospect in to a ‘yes’ just to hit target and get paid. Consequently, you’re wasting time, money and potentially expenses on sales agents attending low quality appointments.
Not Paying for Time
Not paying for time can cause uncertainties surrounding the budgets for your campaign. And, with no time-based objectives set, when it comes to review the campaign you’ll be unsure on how and what to review when looking to seek further results.
So, if you’re paying a company for the time period that they’re spending calling for your campaign, you’ll see results knowing exactly what those results mean and knowing that this time is fully dedicated to your business. A good agency should allow you to stop if they’re not getting results so there’s still just as much incentive to get the results you need.
Difficult Projects
If the campaign ends up being particularly difficult, which could be for a number of reasons such as a competitive sector, complex products, poor data or the individuals on the phones are genuinely struggling to make an appointment, the agency may simply give up on the project altogether knowing it isn’t going to be highly paid.
Essentially, time is money. Time spent on difficult projects can mean that the agency is being underpaid and this will push your project to the bottom of their priority list. This often means that you stop getting appointments or leads.
Inaccurate Budgeting
As aforementioned, if you’re paying a telemarketing company for results, you will not be able to budget accurately when running a campaign, as all work is purely focused on the outcome of the calls or CPL (cost per lead). If the agency sets more, you have the debate of whether they’re paid for or not.
Lack of Transparency
If you’re getting charged on an hourly basis, rather than on appointments or leads, you’ll know exactly what’s going on.
Your supplier will be able to show you exactly what’s happened through clear and honest reporting. You’ll know how many calls have been made per hour, the conversion rate, how long it takes to book an appointment and much, much more.
Who Owns What?
From data to appointments, companies who sell based on the cost of a lead may not solely be selling that lead to just your business.
Additionally, you’ll have to check the terms and conditions to figure out who owns the data being used to source the leads.
Quality of Caller
Who’s making your calls? What is the call quality like? What these questions essentially ask is – how is your brand being portrayed? Working on a cost per lead campaign is leaving this entirely in the hands of the supplier, and leaves little room for transparency or dedicated callers for your campaign.
Air Marketing Group is a company based in Exeter, providing telemarketing services to companies in the UK and overseas.
Although many opt for a payment-by-results option for their telemarketing campaign, we see a strong ROI running campaigns that focus solely on quality appointments where our clients get the best return for their money with leads that are better prepped to convert.
If you have any questions about how our campaigns are run, you can check out our process page here or get in touch.
