I have an idea-would you do this?

emsywoo123

Riiiiiiiiiiight I have a little busines. Teeny really. But it's doing ok.
Want to build it up with a small group of telesales people.
It's selling stationery directly to businesses (not a plug, I do not sell to individuals, just building the picture )
I was thinking of looking at self employed people, work from home, commision basis only (I am checking the legalities of this :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:)
But theoretically, is it something you would do?
All opinions welcomed. Honest would be good. Shouty angry ones less so :rotfl:

emsywoo123

emsywoo123 wrote: »

Riiiiiiiiiiight I have a little busines. Teeny really. But it's doing ok.
Want to build it up with a small group of telesales people.
It's selling stationery directly to businesses (not a plug, I do not sell to individuals, just building the picture )
I was thinking of looking at self employed people, work from home, commision basis only (I am checking the legalities of this :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:)
But theoretically, is it something you would do?
All opinions welcomed. Honest would be good. Shouty angry ones less so :rotfl:

Am I to assume that the 66 people that viewed this just thought........No Way! :rotfl:

shelovestobuystuff

By commission only I take it you mean you wont be covering the cost of the phone calls these people would be making?If thats the case then I dont think anyone would be interested.
Maybe try e-mail marketing as its free or even direct mail as that would work out cheaper than phone calls.

qw3rt7

Im sure it is legal, i have seen other companies advertising similar things. Whether its viable is another matter though!
How much can you afford to pay your sales reps? Bearing in mind you will have to spend time training them, and purchase your data (you cant just ask them to use the yellow pages!) and ensure they follow cold calling regulations etc.

EDIT as mentioned above, you would probably have to include reimbursement for call charges as well.

emsywoo123

shelovestobuystuff wrote: »

By commission only I take it you mean you wont be covering the cost of the phone calls these people would be making?If thats the case then I dont think anyone would be interested.
Maybe try e-mail marketing as its free or even direct mail as that would work out cheaper than phone calls.

What if I was able to cover the cost of the phone calls?
Previous experience shows that for this particular line of sales, phone yields better results!:D

emsywoo123

qw3rt7 wrote: »

Im sure it is legal, i have seen other companies advertising similar things. Whether its viable is another matter though!
How much can you afford to pay your sales reps? Bearing in mind you will have to spend time training them, and purchase your data (you cant just ask them to use the yellow pages!) and ensure they follow cold calling regulations etc.

EDIT as mentioned above, you would probably have to include reimbursement for call charges as well.

Ref paying them, it would be commission only.
Training time not a problem, and will have to investigate data!:D

shelovestobuystuff

emsywoo123 wrote: »

What if I was able to cover the cost of the phone calls?
Previous experience shows that for this particular line of sales, phone yields better results!:D

Well then I dont see any problem with that.I did telephone marketing once for a charity and had to keep a phone log and also had to highlight the calls I made on on behalf of the charity on my own fully itemised phone bill and copy it to the charity to recoup my call charges.
Something like that would work for you.
Re training the sales staff,I am not sure what legal requirement are thesedays but I will tell you what I remember from when I did it(it was a while ago).
I responded to a local newspaper ad requesting charity workers.My initial interview was over the phone.I recieved an info pack with a sales script and info on the charity etc.Someone called me and went over the training pack and script.I was given a few test numbers and had to call charity staff and go through the sales script with them to check I was up to scratch.I was reimbursed for my call costs via a phone log and that was backed up by a copy of my phone bill.
Everything then was done via forms and post but it would be easier nowadays I think to set up an online system.
I was sent lists of names and numbers to get through weekly and at the end of each week the results of my calls were passed on via phone to a main office(they called me at a set time).Others would then follow up on my calls,post donation envelopes or direct debit forms out to interested people etc.

qw3rt7

By paying i mean what level of commision could you offer? If its say 10% (pulls figure out of thin air) then what would that be in real money on average sales figures? If you normaly sell 1 product @ £5 per 10 calls, average 1minute per call, then they are looking to make around £3 p/h, so not very attractive.

emsywoo123

qw3rt7 wrote: »

By paying i mean what level of commision could you offer? If its say 10% (pulls figure out of thin air) then what would that be in real money on average sales figures? If you normaly sell 1 product @ £5 per 10 calls, average 1minute per call, then they are looking to make around £3 p/h, so not very attractive.

This is what I posted on another thread about this:

You see I was think a percentage of profit from sales that they make.....I do not know what seems sensible? 30%? In which case, on a £2-3K profit month, then £600-£900. Know this does not sound much maybe, but £2-3K profit would be relatively easily achieveable. (I was doing this part time, 5 hours per day, with no sales exp after 2 months)
Or maybe I need to offer a higher percentage?

Hope is makes sense?

emsywoo123

shelovestobuystuff wrote: »

Well then I dont see any problem with that.I did telephone marketing once for a charity and had to keep a phone log and also had to highlight the calls I made on on behalf of the charity on my own fully itemised phone bill and copy it to the charity to recoup my call charges.
Something like that would work for you.
Re training the sales staff,I am not sure what legal requirement are thesedays but I will tell you what I remember from when I did it(it was a while ago).
I responded to a local newspaper ad requesting charity workers.My initial interview was over the phone.I recieved an info pack with a sales script and info on the charity etc.Someone called me and went over the training pack and script.I was given a few test numbers and had to call charity staff and go through the sales script with them to check I was up to scratch.I was reimbursed for my call costs via a phone log and that was backed up by a copy of my phone bill.
Everything then was done via forms and post but it would be easier nowadays I think to set up an online system.
I was sent lists of names and numbers to get through weekly and at the end of each week the results of my calls were passed on via phone to a main office(they called me at a set time).Others would then follow up on my calls,post donation envelopes or direct debit forms out to interested people etc.

That is really helpful thank you.
And do you mind me asking if you were paid per call, or commission or per hour etc?:D

qw3rt7

Paying a % of profits is a nice idea, but pretty unworkable without making your margins available to your reps, as they will want to know how much they will make upfront. You need to work out a % of total sales value really. Also, the more i think about it, what are they actually doing, generating leads of actually making sales. If the latter, how will you deal with payment processing?

Also, you say training isnt an issue, but do you realise how high 'staff' turnover can be for sales, especially com. only work.
Not being negative, just thinking of the issues involved, having worked in sales.

The other thing is monitoring your reps, as people doing this kind of work can be quite desperate and dishonest. You could have your reputation easily damaged if someone decides to lie or just get angry or rude.