Telemarketing Prices
When you hire a telemarketing company you’re hiring a voice for your business. A telemarketing company will speak to potential customers on your behalf so choosing the right company is of high importance. Price is obviously a critical factor in this decision but telemarketing prices are difficult to pin down due to varying price structures and the huge range of telemarketing firms out there.
While this pricing guide can’t give you many concrete figures we will attempt to give you the lowdown on different types of pricing structures and how the prices are derived. This should provide a good basis for comparing the options on offer from different telemarketing companies.
Telemarketing Price Structures
These vary greatly between different telemarketing companies but broadly speaking they fall into two main categories:
- Flat rate. Paying at a fixed rate per day or per hour. This way the costs don’t vary and planning your budget is easier. However, there is no performance incentive. This method of pricing is therefore better for working through large lists of data to assess tentative interest in a product or service.
- Pay per lead. Here you pay a fixed amount for every lead or appointment the telemarketing company generates for you. There is an incentive for the telemarketing company here – the more leads they generate, the more they earn (though you can cap the amount). This method is better where a greater degree of selling is required e.g. generating appointments for salespeople from a list of warm prospects. The price will vary depending on the difficulty of generating leads/appointments for your particular product and could be anything from £20 to £150 per lead. A fixed set-up and monthly admin charge will also usually apply.
As stated, there may also be other ways of pricing your telemarketing campaign. A lower rate may be offered for a trial campaign of fixed length – a kind of loss leader to entice you into using a particular company. If you’re only looking for telemarketing over a fixed period a company may quote you a fixed price for a whole campaign which will make planning your spend a lot easier.
NB: Paying commission only is almost never an option. This would essentially involve a company going into partnership with you as they would be risking the time and money invested in your campaign with the potential for no reward. You should look at telemarketing as purchasing a service – if you’re concerned that a company won’t deliver then trial the service before committing.
How Telemarketing Prices are Derived
When you get a quote from a telemarketing company their charges may be broken down into the following categories:
- Hourly call rate: Primarily the cost of wages of the staff employed to make the calls. The best rough guide as to how much telemarketing will cost as there’s no way around this. Expect to pay £10-£30 per hour per operative.
- Set up fee: There will inevitably be expenses involved in setting up your campaign, such as training staff to make calls for your particular product or service (during which time they are unavailable for other campaigns), writing a script and refining the sales pitch. Probably at least £250.
- Cost of calls: Will usually be rolled into the hourly call rate but there may be a surcharge for international calls.
- Cost of data: If the telemarketing company needs to source the lists of names and numbers used in the campaign then you’ll pay an extra fee for this.
- Campaign management: Admin and managerial fees for setting up and overseeing your campaign. At least £50 per month.
When you’re comparing quotes from different telemarketing companies try to get them to provide as much detail as possible in their price breakdowns. This will make it easier to compare what’s on offer from different providers and where savings can be made.
Potential Cost Saving Areas
There are a few ways in which you can minimise your outlays for telemarketing. Sometimes these will run the risk of compromising the quality of the leads or appointments gained, but they’re still worth thinking about.
- Source your own data: If you’re in a position to provide your own lists of prospects, or to buy a list yourselves, this will cut out one set of charges. You may however need the expertise of the telemarketing company in sourcing quality data.
- Go regional: Wages are higher in London and the South East. A telemarketing company elsewhere will therefore have lower overheads and be likely to charge less. This might not be appropriate if you’re solely targeting London and the Home Counties with your campaign though.
- Set appointments yourselves: Telemarketing companies will charge a higher rate for setting appointments as they require more selling than simply generating a lead. If you’re comfortable you can convert sales leads into appointments yourselves, why not have the telemarketing company just do the initial part? This will also help you retain more control over the sales process and your contact with potential customers.
