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My journey to becoming a successful telemarketer

by themoney222
26 replies
Well hey people,

Some of you may remember a thread I started quite a few months ago of me trying to start a daily case study of me making money by selling products as an independent distributor to restaurants.

Well for that I made it as far as making 150 or so calls, making about 5 or so leads and then giving up.

But with the power of belief I ended up getting a job as a full time telemarketer (appointment setter/live transferrer) for a credit card processing broker. I have been working for them for almost 1 month and I am now one of the top performing reps in terms of appointments being set.

I am making on average between 550 to 700 calls per day within 6.5 to 7 hours of work, and this is made possible with the predictive dialing program (I don't have to here the ringing, I just recieve calls when the people pick up the phone).

I am setting an average of 7 to 9 appointments per day, which is well above their quota, and now I can safely say I am no longer fearful of picking up the phone and hearing business owners say 'not interested' because of how many calls I made. I worked for almost 20 full time days and I am sure I made almost 10,000 calls so far and made well over 100 appointments for the company I work for.

The most important, critical aspect that allowed me to excel in setting in appointments is... TONE OF VOICE. In order to set appointments, you have to sound confident, positive, friendly, enthusiastic and passionate. As some of the experts say, success in telemarketing is 80% how you say it and 20% what you say.

I've been able to make an average of $20 to $30 in performance bonuses a day in addition to the daily wage of $70 ($10 per hour), so about $100 a day, which is great.

However, with the amount of skill and determination that I've improved by working there for a month so far I now plan on doing telemarketing for my own business.

So far I've been able to set about 2 to 3 appointments per 100 calls for my own business and estimate that if even 1 out of every 10 appointments turns into a sale, I will make an average of about $40-$60 an hour average or possible more per hour from sales, which is much better than my average income of 13-14$ per hour with my current job.


All I can say is this.. If YOU want to succeed in telemarketing, I highly recommend to find even an entry level job in telemarketing because once you make those calls and deal with rejection you'll eventually become a fearless telemarketing. Fear is the most important thing to get rid of if you want to become successful in telemarketing.
#journey #successful #telemarketer
  • Profile picture of the author John Durham
    Good goin!
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  • Profile picture of the author tryinhere
    Originally Posted by themoney222 View Post


    I've been able to make an average of $20 to $30 in performance bonuses a day in addition to the daily wage of $70 ($10 per hour), so about $100 a day, which is great.

    However, with the amount of skill and determination that I've improved by working there for a month so far I now plan on doing telemarketing for my own business.

    So far I've been able to set about 2 to 3 appointments per 100 calls for my own business and estimate that if even 1 out of every 10 appointments turns into a sale, I will make an average of about $40-$60 an hour average or possible more per hour from sales, which is much better than my average income of 13-14$ per hour with my current job.


    All I can say is this.. If YOU want to succeed in telemarketing, I highly recommend to find even an entry level job in telemarketing because once you make those calls and deal with rejection you'll eventually become a fearless telemarketing. Fear is the most important thing to get rid of if you want to become successful in telemarketing.
    While it is good you cracking out with some positive results, I also ask why bother ? The Sales God here himself explained that a telemarketer earns at best a quarter of what a salesperson does, and from what you describe, how hard you work, doing repetitive stuff to earn so little, try and challenge yourself to get out into real sales.

    $10 per hour and $20 - $30 a day in bonuses very basic, you can, if you take a challenge earn many hundreds a day in commission and then more again.

    Again if your happy where you are that's good, but it would become very limited and boring after a while, so if your game step it up and move on as your confidence grows.
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    • Profile picture of the author Barry Unruh
      Originally Posted by tryinhere View Post

      I also ask why bother ?

      I think he explained that brilliantly.

      He is using the experience to gain skills to build his own business, which can be even better than a "sales job".
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      • Profile picture of the author tryinhere
        Originally Posted by Barry Unruh View Post

        I think he explained that brilliantly.

        He is using the experience to gain skills to build his own business, which can be even better than a "sales job".
        Ok my error, missed that part.
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        | > Choosing to go off the grid for a while to focus on family, work and life in general. Have a great 2020 < |
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        • Profile picture of the author EricBernard
          Congrats on your success! I think cold calling or "banging it out on the phone" as I liek to call it is an important skill for all entrepreneurs to have as it gets you over the whole being afraid of rejection thing RRRREEEAAAALLL quick.
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    • Profile picture of the author John Durham
      Originally Posted by tryinhere View Post

      While it is good you cracking out with some positive results, I also ask why bother ? The Sales God here himself explained that a telemarketer earns at best a quarter of what a salesperson does, and from what you describe, how hard you work, doing repetitive stuff to earn so little, try and challenge yourself to get out into real sales.

      $10 per hour and $20 - $30 a day in bonuses very basic, you can, if you take a challenge earn many hundreds a day in commission and then more again.

      Again if your happy where you are that's good, but it would become very limited and boring after a while, so if your game step it up and move on as your confidence grows.
      The reason ,I think, is because he could get himself to telemarket under the pressure of his boss but he couldnt on his own.

      He is going to work to get paid for training at a skill he wants to learn,under the guidance of pro's, and also to develop the discipline he needs to do it on his own...His intentions are to do better for himself with that skill later on...

      He is getting traction,and most people can take it from there on their own once they get the wheels turning.

      I think this is a great way to do it. Take a few months and work for someone else in exchange for learning a skill and discipline that will serve you for life.
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    • Profile picture of the author Joe Stewart
      Originally Posted by tryinhere View Post

      While it is good you cracking out with some positive results, I also ask why bother ? The Sales God here himself explained that a telemarketer earns at best a quarter of what a salesperson does, and from what you describe, how hard you work, doing repetitive stuff to earn so little, try and challenge yourself to get out into real sales.

      $10 per hour and $20 - $30 a day in bonuses very basic, you can, if you take a challenge earn many hundreds a day in commission and then more again.

      Again if your happy where you are that's good, but it would become very limited and boring after a while, so if your game step it up and move on as your confidence grows.
      I'd like to point out that in many cases a telemarketer IS a salesperson. Appointment setters don't close deals, they simply make appointments so that others can do it. Is there a certain amount of closing involved with confirming an appointment? Absolutely! Still, it's not the same as asking someone for their credit card number.

      What you're doing is fantastic! Many kudos to you for having the courage to take that first step. Are you ready for the next one? That's where you can increase your income exponentially and even gain your freedom by doing it from home.

      By the way, if you're going to take that next step you have to get out of that "hourly pay" mindset. Start thinking about earning fat commissions, profit per sale, residual earnings, etc. That's where the money's at.

      Good luck!
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      • Profile picture of the author tryinhere
        Originally Posted by Joe Stewart View Post

        I'd like to point out that in many cases a telemarketer IS a salesperson. Appointment setters don't close deals, they simply make appointments so that others can do it. Is there a certain amount of closing involved with confirming an appointment? Absolutely! Still, it's not the same as asking someone for their credit card number.
        I understand a telemarketer can set appointments and or sell on the phone ( been around a little while ) I think where I have it wrong is my interpretation / my background / meaning of the terms may differ to others maybe and as such it's more of a understanding of how the terms are interpreted.

        For me a telemarketer, sets and or sells on the phone, and I think we all agree on that, but a telemarketer does not call them-self a sales person in the same way a salesperson does not call them self a telemarketer at least from my neck of the woods.

        Yes they do both can set or sell, but the way they go about it differs and it is the term, telemarketer, and or salesperson that defines which is which with no blurring of lines or terms that define each role.

        It has on a few occasions been on here, that many people see it the one and same, so for me rather than go against the flow or how people see it, I am happy to just say OK and move on, so my apologies for any confusion.

        Back on topic agree a gutsy move my the OP a big jump from dial tp setting up and running his own biz, so well done and back on topic with that.
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    • Profile picture of the author tenstiks
      I agree. I just took a job on October 1st as telemarketer/appointment setter, and although I'm making 15.00/hour for 25 hours of work per week, it is absolutely boring. I'm making about 100 calls per day with Skype, and it seems like nothing compared to this poster, but it is so tedious.

      I just left a job with a temp service making 10.00/hour as a customer service rep for 7 different eCommerce websites. It was constantly on the phone helping people with shipment problems and problems placing orders because they were technically challenged, and a lot of billing arguments and coupon code exclusions. It really was a nightmare for 10.00 per hour, but it was not boring.

      Now, I'm not so sure I made the correct decision by quitting the csr job, and taking this boring work at home job. I find it challenging to stay focused making the calls.

      Any suggestions?
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      • Profile picture of the author jamesfreddyc
        Originally Posted by tenstiks View Post


        Any suggestions?
        Yes. If boredom is your only issue then forget the hourly wage work and find a commission-only position that has a bigger financial reward.
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        • Profile picture of the author tenstiks
          Originally Posted by jamesfreddyc View Post

          Yes. If boredom is your only issue then forget the hourly wage work and find a commission-only position that has a bigger financial reward.
          Thank you,
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      • Profile picture of the author marketingfreak
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        Originally Posted by tenstiks View Post

        Now, I'm not so sure I made the correct decision by quitting the csr job, and taking this boring work at home job. I find it challenging to stay focused making the calls.

        Any suggestions?
        You are still lucky that they are not abusing you. I have seen some telemarketing friends and they are "used to" of receiving dirty and abusive comments. I think your past job was a better one as it can offer a lot of things to learn. so try switching back
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        • Profile picture of the author John Durham
          Originally Posted by marketingfreak View Post

          You are still lucky that they are not abusing you. I have seen some telemarketing friends and they are "used to" of receiving dirty and abusive comments. I think your past job was a better one as it can offer a lot of things to learn. so try switching back

          Most horror stories are from b2c marketing... it isnt generally as dramatic as you hear. Even so, in b2b marketing people are 100 times more respectful, and disrespect is rare.

          In other words; calling "residents" you experience more rudeness than when calling "businesses".
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  • Profile picture of the author Sebulba
    Admirable and brilliant.

    Thanks for sharing.

    Seb
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  • Profile picture of the author John Durham
    I did the same after having failed at several attempts at door to door sales. I became afraid of sales.Then I took a job as an appointment setter at a construction company, which gave me seven hundred chances per day to practice sales techniques through appointment setting. With no chance of getting out early or giving up every day... I couldnt walk away and drop it when I felt discouraged. I had to be there for 8 hours.

    That taught me that regardless of my feelings, from day to day, the principles worked on their own...and that confidence made me even better.

    It made all the "stick to it to it and you will succeed" messages alot less vague and more a daily personal experience.

    After that I was a sales monster and nothing could break my confidence. I even went back and whipped the door to door thing. It has been an enriching ,empowering journey since, and I cant thank God enough for that job. Not for the front end pay, but the back end pay, over the years, has been amazing, and even astounding at times.

    It's not "closing sales", but its close enough that once you develop appointment setting disciplines, sales isnt much of a stretch. A hundred times easier.

    9 leads per day says you are devoted to cracking the code.You are applying yourself to the principles and practicing diligently.The next level is awesome. You wont be sorry you did this at all. It will empower you for life!

    You cant call 600 people per day for months on end and not come out with some serious growth, "if" (caveat) growth is your aim, and you treat your days on the phone that way!

    It will even make you better at ONLINE sales!

    I highly recommend Og Mandino's Book "The Greatest Salesman In The World" while you practice these disciplines!

    Awesome!
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    • Profile picture of the author themoney222
      I am highly grateful for all of the kind and inspirational comments.

      This week went very well. I made about 45 leads in 33 hours of work and made $120 in bonuses/commission.

      The funny thing is that about 80% of the commission from live transfers versus next day appointments.

      Now that I'm all set up with my own VoIP calling plan and home office I'm ready to begin making 200-300 calls per day for my own business. I believe in my business I can make the same amount in one day as the amount it takes me 1 week at my current job ($400 to $450)
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  • Profile picture of the author laurencewins
    You say you make 550-700 calls? I have never heard of anybody doing that.
    Just so you know, I have been a full time telemarketer myself as well as a telemarketing and call centre manager.

    The average target for numbers of calls was around 150-200, depending on each job, of course. Yes, in some cases we used a predictive dialler.

    imho I wonder what you're saying that is putting many people off so you do get through such a high number of calls.

    Please don't get me wrong as I am not trying to pick on you.

    However, I would strongly recommend analysing your calls to see if you could have done something differently or better to have turned some of the nos into yeses. I know, as a manager, I would be far happier seeing a telemarketer making the 150-200 calls and getting a few more appointments and converting those to sales.

    Please feel free to pm me if you do want to talk about it more.
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    • Profile picture of the author themoney222
      Originally Posted by laurencewins View Post

      You say you make 550-700 calls? I have never heard of anybody doing that.
      Just so you know, I have been a full time telemarketer myself as well as a telemarketing and call centre manager.

      The average target for numbers of calls was around 150-200, depending on each job, of course. Yes, in some cases we used a predictive dialler.

      imho I wonder what you're saying that is putting many people off so you do get through such a high number of calls.

      Please don't get me wrong as I am not trying to pick on you.

      However, I would strongly recommend analysing your calls to see if you could have done something differently or better to have turned some of the nos into yeses. I know, as a manager, I would be far happier seeing a telemarketer making the 150-200 calls and getting a few more appointments and converting those to sales.

      Please feel free to pm me if you do want to talk about it more.
      With credit card processing, setting appointments requires a huge number of calls as it is a highly competitive industry. Most business owners are getting multiple calls a day from credit card processing companies, so once they hear the words "merchant account" or "credit card processing" they automatically say not interested or just hang up.

      Also, most calls that are made reach voicemail or the business owner/person in charge of the merchant account isn't available.

      Out of 600 calls I'm able to pitch about 40 decision makers and out of those 40 I'm now setting 10 appointments/live transfers. Mind you the sales conversion rate for a live transfer is about 3 or 4 times higher yet it is much more difficult as they are usually very busy and don't have the time for a 5-6 minute call.
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      • Profile picture of the author themoney222
        This Saturday and Sunday I will begin my journey towards telemarketing for my own business.

        In 20 hours of telemarketing (8 am to 6 pm) for both days I should be able to make 900-1000 calls and generate 25-45 leads.

        If even 8-10% of the leads turn into a sale that'd equate to $1000 to $2000 worth of leads in the 2 days, which would be 4 to 6 times my weekly salary.

        With the power of entrepreneurship I can live a 6 figure income lifestyle.

        Although my minimum wage telemarketing job offered very little in terms of income, it has taught me that there is no reason to fear to pick up of phone and to dial continuously no matter how many owners say they're not interested because for me 20-25% of them agree to receiving more information and to an appointment. This percentage has been consistent for the past 30 days of work out of about 15,000 calls that I've made.

        So if you're someone who's wanting to make a living telemarketing remember that it's inevitable that you'll succeed if you: never give up, move through the no's to the yes's, maintain positivity while filing (smile and dial), make a sufficient amount of dials (at least 250-350 per day, or more depending on your income goals), and make one dial after another after after another after finishing notes. At my job I have to make 550 to 600 dials a day since its for a credit card processing company, and we all know how many times business owners get those kinds of calls a day. 600 dials for this job usually yields me 8 to 10 leads. However for my business endeavour I was able to make 5 leads in 120 dials because of the unique value of the products and because of target marketing.

        Never give up!
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        • Profile picture of the author fancytop
          The reason why most telemarketers fail is, because they do not know (or they don´t understand) what is the meaning of conversion. As we all know, the conversion is the amount of YES we're supposed to get, for every X number of calls. Therefore a good telemarketer, instead of giving up is happier with every NO, because with each NO, very soon come a YES .
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          • Profile picture of the author clearglass
            You mention a predictive dialing software.
            What type of a setup would you recommend to an startup business to be most efficient at outbound sales?
            Should I invest in something more than just calling out on my iPhone?

            I was looking at Base CRM which has a autodialer built into a CRM platform but would like to get some ideas on what really works well.

            I have a list of 8,000 prospects to call in my niche, the service I am selling is new, most will never have heard of it before. It it a SaaS software that runs roughly $100 a month.
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            • Profile picture of the author Michael Nguyen
              Simple setup is needed but you WILL need to spend some money to do this fast and efficiently.

              Sign yourself up to a VOIP provider and get an account. I pay about £12 and it gets me 4000 land line minutes

              Get yourself a decent head set / mic etc

              Download Zoiper Softphone (FREE) and hook up your VOIP to that

              Open up excel and create columns and insert number, create another column to turn those into clickable links using:

              =HYPERLINK("tel:"&D24,D24) (put this in the column next to it, in this case E)

              Column D will be the number. Something like this - See attachment

              Now you can click to call and make notes.



              Originally Posted by clearglass View Post

              You mention a predictive dialing software.
              What type of a setup would you recommend to an startup business to be most efficient at outbound sales?
              Should I invest in something more than just calling out on my iPhone?

              I was looking at Base CRM which has a autodialer built into a CRM platform but would like to get some ideas on what really works well.

              I have a list of 8,000 prospects to call in my niche, the service I am selling is new, most will never have heard of it before. It it a SaaS software that runs roughly $100 a month.
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  • Profile picture of the author reliablecontent
    Kudos to you for taking the initiative to get out there and learn a skill that will help you get your own business going. I know it sucks to work for someone else when all you want to do is grow your business but I think you'll see it paying off in the long wrong. Good job!
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  • Profile picture of the author TheBigBee
    Originally Posted by themoney222 View Post

    Well hey people,

    Some of you may remember a thread I started quite a few months ago of me trying to start a daily case study of me making money by selling products as an independent distributor to restaurants.

    Well for that I made it as far as making 150 or so calls, making about 5 or so leads and then giving up.

    But with the power of belief I ended up getting a job as a full time telemarketer (appointment setter/live transferrer) for a credit card processing broker. I have been working for them for almost 1 month and I am now one of the top performing reps in terms of appointments being set.

    I am making on average between 550 to 700 calls per day within 6.5 to 7 hours of work, and this is made possible with the predictive dialing program (I don't have to here the ringing, I just recieve calls when the people pick up the phone).

    I am setting an average of 7 to 9 appointments per day, which is well above their quota, and now I can safely say I am no longer fearful of picking up the phone and hearing business owners say 'not interested' because of how many calls I made. I worked for almost 20 full time days and I am sure I made almost 10,000 calls so far and made well over 100 appointments for the company I work for.

    The most important, critical aspect that allowed me to excel in setting in appointments is... TONE OF VOICE. In order to set appointments, you have to sound confident, positive, friendly, enthusiastic and passionate. As some of the experts say, success in telemarketing is 80% how you say it and 20% what you say.

    I've been able to make an average of $20 to $30 in performance bonuses a day in addition to the daily wage of $70 ($10 per hour), so about $100 a day, which is great.

    However, with the amount of skill and determination that I've improved by working there for a month so far I now plan on doing telemarketing for my own business.

    So far I've been able to set about 2 to 3 appointments per 100 calls for my own business and estimate that if even 1 out of every 10 appointments turns into a sale, I will make an average of about $40-$60 an hour average or possible more per hour from sales, which is much better than my average income of 13-14$ per hour with my current job.


    All I can say is this.. If YOU want to succeed in telemarketing, I highly recommend to find even an entry level job in telemarketing because once you make those calls and deal with rejection you'll eventually become a fearless telemarketing. Fear is the most important thing to get rid of if you want to become successful in telemarketing.


    Yup. You can walk out of working in retail, put in the hours cold calling and bank $66,000 in one commission check (plus a bunch of other 4 figure ones) in a one month span like this guy. The cool thing about that commission check is that there is a 70% chance the guy will generate another one in 2016!
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    • Profile picture of the author themoney222
      Originally Posted by TheBigBee View Post

      Yup. You can walk out of working in retail, put in the hours cold calling and bank $66,000 in one commission check (plus a bunch of other 4 figure ones) in a one month span like this guy. The cool thing about that commission check is that there is a 70% chance the guy will generate another one in 2016!
      Thanks for the inspirational story. It has been almost 6 weeks for me at this telemarketing job and I'm already maintaining a position of the top 10% in terms of the amount of sales in bringing in out of a team of 45 telemarketers.

      Just like the story you quoted, I believe if I start telemarketing for my own business I can early multiple times more from huge commission checks.

      For example, I won't give too many details, but 2 days ago I brought in a 8-figure per year lead with over $1.8 million in credit card processing volume per month who is likely going to be switching over. And you do the math of what even 2% of that is per month in profit from credit card processing fees for the company I work for.

      I just have to do it and stop just talking about it
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      • Profile picture of the author bob ross
        Originally Posted by themoney222 View Post

        Thanks for the inspirational story. It has been almost 6 weeks for me at this telemarketing job and I'm already maintaining a position of the top 10% in terms of the amount of sales in bringing in out of a team of 45 telemarketers.

        Just like the story you quoted, I believe if I start telemarketing for my own business I can early multiple times more from huge commission checks.

        For example, I won't give too many details, but 2 days ago I brought in a 8-figure per year lead with over $1.8 million in credit card processing volume per month who is likely going to be switching over. And you do the math of what even 2% of that is per month in profit from credit card processing fees for the company I work for.

        I just have to do it and stop just talking about it
        Great job and story you've shared here. I have a team of callers for my own business and what so many marketers don't realize is that you're not going to make 20 calls and make a sale out of that, you've got to call some serious volume to see percentages you can rely on.

        You should probably PM TheBigBee about maybe generating some leads for his company, it might be a really good relationship for you.
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