Would emarketing and cold calling benefit me as a designer?

A small company called Your sales manager contacted me. They deal with very small businesses like myself. I am a freelance exhibition stand and interior designer. They offer the service below, which is something I am no good at as my telephone sales skills are not brilliant. Do you think it is a useful service or would I end up annoying the potential clients in my industry?


"If you would like to test e-marketing then we could develop an email and distribute to approximately 120 contacts. We will then follow the email up with a telephone call and pass the feedback and any leads onto you. I appreciate budget is tight therefore Your Sales Manager will provide this service for £150. As you can appreciate this is a very competitive rate considering the list building, script developing, e-marketing and also telemarketing that is to be undertaken"

Many Thanks

 

Hi Claire

I'd worry more about what return you'd get than annoying people. How good are they? Do you personally know someone, or can you speak to someone, that has used them successfully? What kind of success rate can you expect? £150 is a lot to lose if they don't turn up a single lead.

Also why do you need to use them? A lot of clients feel more comfortable talking to 'average joe' than a slick salesperson, so don't let that an initial lack of confidence put you off, just be you but make sure you write down what you want to know before you dial the number. Contact details can also be found on the net, or via local directories.

You could then just do a few calls each week. That way you know exactly what the response was so you can either adapt what you say or offer, the data is yours to call again anytime you wish and you've opened the dialogue personally.

Not sure if that helps?

 

An old company i used to work for used a similar service to try and get new business.

They called about 300 people and we ended up with about 5 meetings. From those 5 meetings, no work came about from it.

I'm not saying this company would be anything like the one we used but their staff obviously got bonuses for each meeting and the meetings we had were just people after free advice.

Do they have any guarantees in place or is it just £150 no matter what the outcome?

It might work, you never know! Cold calling can work but it's more luck with a specialist service like yours - not everyone will have a show on the horizon!

hth

Matt

 

HI

I am a freelance telemarketer. I work with email marketing companies who don't provide the data but charge £20 per 1000 emails you send which allows you to track to see who has clicked on your email and read it, who has clicked through to your website etc.

I would think for £150 you would want double what they are suggesting if it's just emails. you wont find a decent freelance telemarketer for under £150 a day either, trust me, I have tried and I know the ones who don't charge much dont charge much because they aren't that great.

 

I’m sorry I just have to jump in there and defend the role of telesales a little bit here:

1) Getting 5 appointments from calling around 300 people is actually not that bad
2) Assuming the appointments were halfway qualified - then it is down to the person attending the appointment (and not the telesales person) to actually procure some business

The job of the telesales person in most cases is to open the door and identify opportunities – not to actually close businesses for you (if it were that easy we’d all be rich!)

 

Hi Claire,

I'm Stephen from SL-Freelance.

Some people are just too shy to phone for new business, so I understand why you've looked for help. I think people are shy because they've never been trained by an expert on what to do.

Unfortunately, there are also lots of people out there offering telemarketing and email marketing who don't have a great deal of experience either. I'm not suggesting this is the case here, but you do tend to get what you pay for in life.

I'm a business development expert - so I'm an all-rounder on all forms of marketing, especially Consultative Telemarketing. If you want to go down the emarketing route because your telephone skills are not brilliant - why not have a look at ezemail and think about doing your own email marketing at about 2p an email?

I hope this helps.


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Very high chances are that you will just be annoying your potential clients..

 

I have worked with some 30 clients combining Email marketing and telemarketing for clients. We have been measuring it and can see that telemarketing productivity increases between 25% - 75%. This is dependent upon the product maturity. Early adpoter technology have the highest results.


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Keyword that your website that advertises your company should be based around

Hi Claire,
I have done a little digging into just 1 of your services you provide, I believe those who are looking for the service you provide may search online for...

Exhibition stand
banner stand
banner stands
trade show stand
exhibit displays
retractable banner stands
trade show displays
panel stands
portable displays
display stand
trade show displays
panel stand
booth design
pop up displays
trade show exibit
trade show booth
portable stand

and that is just off the top and my research tells me that those keyword are "ALL" searched for more that 1500 times a day! Is it not better direct the people looking for your service to you, rather than go out hunting for them

Hope that helps