[Home Services]

We have a product that is helpful to Seniors or anyone with limited mobility & sells for an average of $8000.00 + installed.

I am considering trying to find a telemarketing company to either set sales appointments or simply generate leads for my sales people to follow up on.

My question: Have any of you used/hired an outside telemarketing company to do what I've described or something similar?

If yes, what was your experience? Thanks in advance...

 

[DarrenS]

You could make it easy on yourself and do your own Google Adwords campaign and push them to an opt-in page for your sales people to follow up with. You could offer a free guide in exchange for their contact info. Trick is, don't get greedy with the info you try and capture, just get name, address, phone and email.

Hope that helps

 

[Home Services]

Thanks Darren,

We already have a google adwords campaigh running. Problem is, we are serving a mid-size market & our potential customer base (seniors & handicapped) is very limited.

On top of that, not as many seniors are even "online" or own a PC to start with. Telemarketing would be a pro-active way to generate leads.

If we depend on adwords (in this case), we will all starve.

 

[DarrenS]

Thanks Darren,

We already have a google adwords campaigh running. Problem is, we are serving a mid-size market & our potential customer base (seniors & handicapped) is very limited.

On top of that, not as many seniors are even "online" or own a PC to start with. Telemarketing would be a pro-active way to generate leads.

If we depend on adwords (in this case), we will all starve.

You are absolutely right that many seniors are not online, and maybe depending on an online campaign doesn't make sense. But don't discount it too much, because the kids of the SR's ARE online, and a lot of the time, they have the buying power. So, just something to consider.

 

[adwilk]

Telemarketing can be a decent method of getting leads, but you're salespeople will hate you. Closing ratios of telemarketed leads are abysmal. Even for really good salespeople. With a ticket item that high, you really need to get better at making people call you. Get it in front of old people.

Its too expensive to run leads you dont have an honest chance of selling. This group has had their entire life to build wealth and if they call, they can afford it. Thats important.

Is it a walk in tub or something? Prepare your sales people to sell it as a medical device and not a remodel. Fear of loss and "what if" selling will be a huge part of closing those deals. What you're selling may help us determine the best method of advertisement.

 

[Home Services]

You are correct on the walk-in tubs as well as other safety modifications for someones home, mainly bathrooms.

What we are finding is the children of seniors (45 - 65 yo) are our best advocates. The parents don't feel that they need the product ...yet, but their kids do - usually the kids will go to bat for us.

 

[BobsLandscaping]

Try Vista Print. I've had good success using post card mailings. You can select from a wide variety of criteria to target your mailings to a specific group of people. My mailings of 700 cards a month only cost $350 or so depending on how fancy I make the post card.

 

[Home Services]

Bob,

Are you saying that you (Vista Print) mail out 700 postcards & then call the post card recipients?

 

[pcplumber]

Try home shows and magazines

I haven't seen the walk-in tubs at any home shows and I think they would do fairly well. You will also pick up other services at the same time.

There are several magazines that cater to the elderly. In Los Angeles we have a magazine for elderly persons calles ARP. I think this is nationwide and many magazines customize ads for specific geographic areas.

You may also do well with business-to-business telemarketing and a personal visit to stores that sell walkers and wheel chairs and solicit their wholesalers.

Make a list of all the stores and suppliers that sell your tubs and constantly send them literature, business cards, coffee cups, calendars, and ink pens, so when a customer buys a tub the seller recommend you for installation.

Put ads in newspapers. Many manufacturers will pay you for advertising their equipment by giving you free tubs, or cash.

I did a two-day home show this past weekend and I stopped and visited every booth. The jacuzzi and swimming pool companies say they are satisfied with the number of leads they got at the show. One pool company said he got 18 leads and I think the jacuzzi company got over 50. One of the jacuzzis was selling for over $40,000. We got 30 leads for plumbing services.

 

[DarrenS]

You have a fantastic demo to work with. 70 million seniors with the largest pot of disposable income in U.S. history, even after the financial meltdown.

I would do some research online on how to sell to the elderly (I know you are already doing it, but more knowledge isn't going to hurt) and see if you can find anything specific on home services companies selling to sr's.

 

[DQSpec]

I have a question: Do you have the rights to sell/distribute this product or do you manufacture this product? That would give me an approach to selling your product.

Maybe your market is General Contractors or Remodelers instead of the end user.

 

[Home Services]

Thanks guys for your replies. If you'll read my original post, you will see that this thread has gone way off track.

We are a dealer that sells/installs to the final end user. Sales is not the issue. Our interests are in additional lead generation, telemarketing to set appointments for my sales staff.

We generate leads in various ways already - print, broadcast, website etc.

What I am asking is if anyone has outsourced their appoinment setting/telemarketing to an outside source/company & if yes, what were the results? Thanks again in advance...

 

[nlgutters]

Thanks guys for your replies. If you'll read my original post, you will see that this thread has gone way off track.

We are a dealer that sells/installs to the final end user. Sales is not the issue. Our interests are in additional lead generation, telemarketing to set appointments for my sales staff.

We generate leads in various ways already - print, broadcast, website etc.

What I am asking is if anyone has outsourced their appoinment setting/telemarketing to an outside source/company & if yes, what were the results? Thanks again in advance...

I posted this same question a while ago and no one on here has tried it. And if they did they never spoke up.

I read an article about the top 200 largest specality remodelers in the us(windows,siding,roofing,gutters,sunrooms).

They did a poll on lead generation. Of those 200 companies over 60% of them reported they did telemarketing.

Those companies that do telemarketing said that it accounted for 80% of their leads. Now i dont know what their closing ratios are on those but i would venture to guess that it acceptable or they wouldnt do it.

 

[nlgutters]

TRY This!

The last 2 weeks i have been picking up the phone when telamarketers call.

I listen to them talk and then try to sell me. About half way through i ask if i can ask them a few questions. I tell them that i have been thinking about telemarketing and wondered what they recieved for results.

The worst i have heard was 1 appointment out of 20 calls. The last person i just got off the phone with said they set 3 out of 10 calls. I also asked how many people are rude and just hang up and all have said its a very small #.

I say that if the biggest compnaies in the us do it why not us?

Where else can you go if you need 4 more appoitments for your sales rep by the end of the week.

 

[Carport King]

How About The Doctor Angle?

I first would find a list of Doctors that are in your area that deal with senior's.
See if you could put some tri-folds brochure in there office.

I would then try out the medical supply stores and talk to the owner for a display in his store. Give him a commission?

They do have senior home shows several times of year. Check Health expo's.

Try home health agency that take care of the elder clients.

Let your fingers do the walking in your yellow page book for more ideas and do some senior seo key words just to help you find more ideas.

Good Luck!

 

[BobsLandscaping]

Bob,

Are you saying that you (Vista Print) mail out 700 postcards & then call the post card recipients?

No, you pick your target market and Vista Print will mail a postcard to that market that you design.

The most recent one I did was for a Tile Tech paver patio for $20 a square foot installed. I sent out 324 post cards. Homeowners within 50 miles making more than $70,000 a year. Out of that I got 58 phone calls, out of that 45 people wanted me to come out and do a design for $50, out of those 45 I currently have 15 signed contracts. It's going to be a mad scramble to get them all done by the end of September. If anyone else wants to sign I'll likely bump them to April 2010 with a price gurantee and order the materials at this years prices and store them for the winter.

This may or may not work for you.

 

[nlgutters]

No, you pick your target market and Vista Print will mail a postcard to that market that you design.

The most recent one I did was for a Tile Tech paver patio for $20 a square foot installed. I sent out 324 post cards. Homeowners within 50 miles making more than $70,000 a year. Out of that I got 58 phone calls, out of that 45 people wanted me to come out and do a design for $50, out of those 45 I currently have 15 signed contracts. It's going to be a mad scramble to get them all done by the end of September. If anyone else wants to sign I'll likely bump them to April 2010 with a price gurantee and order the materials at this years prices and store them for the winter.

This may or may not work for you.

No f'n way. 58 calls out of 324 postcards? Can u show us the ad?

 

[naptown CR]

No, you pick your target market and Vista Print will mail a postcard to that market that you design.

The most recent one I did was for a Tile Tech paver patio for $20 a square foot installed. I sent out 324 post cards. Homeowners within 50 miles making more than $70,000 a year. Out of that I got 58 phone calls, out of that 45 people wanted me to come out and do a design for $50, out of those 45 I currently have 15 signed contracts. It's going to be a mad scramble to get them all done by the end of September. If anyone else wants to sign I'll likely bump them to April 2010 with a price gurantee and order the materials at this years prices and store them for the winter.

This may or may not work for you.

I find this hard to believe. the response rate was almost 18%. Direct mail gets a 1 or 2 percent response rate. for most markets and products a 1% response rate is considered a home run. Either your numbers are off or you are seriously giving the product away. If I got a postcard in the mail offering me a Mercedes S600 for $1,000.00 I would call too if only to find out what the scam was.

 

[HomerJ]

No, you pick your target market and Vista Print will mail a postcard to that market that you design.

The most recent one I did was for a Tile Tech paver patio for $20 a square foot installed. I sent out 324 post cards. Homeowners within 50 miles making more than $70,000 a year. Out of that I got 58 phone calls, out of that 45 people wanted me to come out and do a design for $50, out of those 45 I currently have 15 signed contracts. It's going to be a mad scramble to get them all done by the end of September. If anyone else wants to sign I'll likely bump them to April 2010 with a price gurantee and order the materials at this years prices and store them for the winter.

This may or may not work for you.

Clearly, I'm in the wrong business.

Are those results real? What's the avg ticket for a tile tech paver patio?

 

[BobsLandscaping]

I'm the only installer out here for Tile Tech. Figuring materials only it costs about $7 a square foot to build the patio. I'm not giving it away. I also use a lot of my own addresses. About half the people that called were ones I quoted a higher priced paver patio for in the past. EP Henry or Belgard. I sent them a post card advertising Tile Tech and they get a nice patio at a lower price.

It works for me and I ain't knocking it.