Telemarketers: You cant live with them, and you cant kill them!

Seriously, starting and running an effective telemarketing unit is costly, more time and effort consuming than you ever imagined, and a grind, even when youre getting positive results.

And when youre failing, and it feels youre pouring resources down a widening sinkhole, it is like a near-death experience, each and every shift.

To put a stop to the madness, management often thinks outsourcing is the answer, and on paper, it looks pretty good. First, these workers are never on your books, so you dont run afoul of a lot of labor laws if theyre hired and fired in record time, which happens frequently in this field.

You dont have to put up with the cultural clash that tele-people bring to an otherwise staid and starched environment. (See my article: Having Telemarketers Aboard Will Create CULTURE SHOCK!)

And usually, youre quoted an all-in-one fee for their services, ranging from about $25 per hour, and up, providing you sign a minimal pilot program contract. Compared to your own costs of hiring, training, supervising, compensating, and housing these folks, the dollars seem to match up very well.

So, whats the downside?

Thats easy: In my experience, most telemarketing outsource companies are barely capable of making dumb calls. And theyre almost all incompetent to make smart ones.

A dumb call is one aimed at preliminary lead development, in which the caller asks for some basic intelligence, such as Who is the person who buys your office supplies? or What kind of sales software are you currently using?

It could also be a call to residences that asks: Are you thinking of selling your home, refinancing, or buying a new home in the next 6 months?

These calls are then harvested for more experienced people to re-contact.

A smart call, typically, is business-to-business, that would sell consulting services via appointment. So, the phone rep has to (1) Get through screening or voice mail; (2) Determine and arouse needs in the decision maker; and (3) Get that person to agree to a meeting at a definite time; one that will not cancel.

Smart calls take linguistic, thinking, and persuasive capabilities, and most people who work for these outsource firms just dont have these things going for them.

One of my former trainees at Xerox, who has developed outsource tele-units in the United States, India, and elsewhere, agrees with me. Theyre fine for some basic calls, but they just cant do others, he says.

So, take a hard look at what you need, and be realistic. Who do you really need to have working for you, to get the job done, and done right?