Still wondering how we gained sales in 2009. How did your sales force do? Last year was one of the worse ever in terms of companies and their budgets for lead generation. According to a study done by SCO Insights at the beginning of 2009 86% of companies were increasing the sales quota of their sales people while at the same time 67% of those companies were reducing their budget for lead generation. The result was what you might have expected as the % or reps making quote dropped from 58.8% in 2008 to 51.8% in 2009.
Why do companies put all the pressure on their salespeople and don’t give them the needed support they need to succeed? It has always been a wonder to me that salespeople are so many times put in a no win situation.
“Nothing happens till someone sells something” Those words ring out oh so true.
Larson Notes & Satire: We somehow grew last year and continue to do so this year (2010). Last year with our written businesses plan we instituted a new marketing plan that needed to be changed a few times as the year progressed but now as the economy comes out of our little (ha ha) recession, we are seeing not just growth but such a interest in our services that we are interviewing staff or will be in the next month.
It is funny or not but the same lead generation plan we use for our clients is the exact same one we use for ourselves. It is bringing us 5 new solid sales leads a week and 1 new client every week. If your leads generation plan is not getting those kinds of results, maybe it is time to pick up the phone and call us, for a change.
Howard Larson
Larson & Associates
Target Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisition
Making good businesses great and great businesses even better
847-991-0488
howard@larsonassociates.ws
http://www.larsonassociates.ws
http://larsonassociates.blogspot.com
http://member.merchantcircle.com/larsonassociates
https://twitter.com/LarsonAssociate
P.S. We make telesales for small business affordable by offering programs down to only 15 hours a week. Maybe you could add telesales into your marketing mix call today and find out.
P.P.S. An American Company, marketing American Companies! Call or email to get an appointment to pick my brain (a $125.00 value) for 30 minutes.
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Friday, May 7, 2010
Use Of Mobile Devices In Texting
Overall 49% of consumers use their mobile devices to test. A study by Merkle showed that the percent of opt ins drops off as age increases.
26% - All Respondents
30% - Ages 18 to 29
30% - Ages 30 to 39
26% - Ages 40 to 49
15% - Ages 50 to 59
7% - Ages 60 and older
Taking this down into racial ethnic groups:
36% - Afro-American
35% - Asian American
26% - Hispanic American
23% - White American
*Source Merkle of a sample of 3,281 adults ages 18 and older.
Larson Notes & Satire: Not too surprising here. Knowing how my kids would rather text than talk on the phone, rather than me who talks rather than texts. As for the ethnic percentages I would have had no idea, but looking at it I think we can see how different companies and what they sell can work mobile and text more to their advantage.
Note: If you’re reading this blog on a Ning that is “closing” or will be in (it looks like) July unless the owners want to pony up some cash. (Bad move on Nings part but it’s their system to do as they will) afterwards you can read our little blog @ http://larsonassociates.blogspot.com or join http://businesswarfare.spruz.com.
If you want to find out about our Bird Dog program call us at 847-991-0488 and put some money in your pocket or if you are a client actually reduce the cost of your service to the point of ZERO, NOTHING, ZILCHO.
Howard Larson
Larson & Associates
Target Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisition
Making good businesses great and great businesses even better
847-991-0488
howard@larsonassociates.ws
http://www.larsonassociates.ws
http://larsonassociates.blogspot.com
http://member.merchantcircle.com/larsonassociates
http://businesswarfare.spruz.com
https://twitter.com/LarsonAssociate
P.S. We make telesales for small business affordable by offering programs down to only 15 hours a week. Maybe you could add telesales into your marketing mix call today and find out.
P.P.S. An American Company, marketing American Companies! Call or email to get an appointment to pick my brain (a $125.00 value) for 30 minutes.
26% - All Respondents
30% - Ages 18 to 29
30% - Ages 30 to 39
26% - Ages 40 to 49
15% - Ages 50 to 59
7% - Ages 60 and older
Taking this down into racial ethnic groups:
36% - Afro-American
35% - Asian American
26% - Hispanic American
23% - White American
*Source Merkle of a sample of 3,281 adults ages 18 and older.
Larson Notes & Satire: Not too surprising here. Knowing how my kids would rather text than talk on the phone, rather than me who talks rather than texts. As for the ethnic percentages I would have had no idea, but looking at it I think we can see how different companies and what they sell can work mobile and text more to their advantage.
Note: If you’re reading this blog on a Ning that is “closing” or will be in (it looks like) July unless the owners want to pony up some cash. (Bad move on Nings part but it’s their system to do as they will) afterwards you can read our little blog @ http://larsonassociates.blogspot.com or join http://businesswarfare.spruz.com.
If you want to find out about our Bird Dog program call us at 847-991-0488 and put some money in your pocket or if you are a client actually reduce the cost of your service to the point of ZERO, NOTHING, ZILCHO.
Howard Larson
Larson & Associates
Target Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisition
Making good businesses great and great businesses even better
847-991-0488
howard@larsonassociates.ws
http://www.larsonassociates.ws
http://larsonassociates.blogspot.com
http://member.merchantcircle.com/larsonassociates
http://businesswarfare.spruz.com
https://twitter.com/LarsonAssociate
P.S. We make telesales for small business affordable by offering programs down to only 15 hours a week. Maybe you could add telesales into your marketing mix call today and find out.
P.P.S. An American Company, marketing American Companies! Call or email to get an appointment to pick my brain (a $125.00 value) for 30 minutes.
Thursday, May 6, 2010
IT Buyers Using More Social Media
In a recent study that was put out by Forrester Research, technology business decision makers are using more and more social media for business purposes. In the study called “Social Technographics: Business Technology Buyers” done in Dec 2009 thru Jan 2010 of 1,011 global business technology buyers 46% have now joined a social networking site for strictly business purposes. Last year the same group only showed a 29% activity level. Also sighted in the study 33% of these business tech buyers are now creating social media content for business purposes such as a blog or video compared with 27% a year ago.
In a separate study done by the “North America And European B2B Social Technographics in an online survey done in the 1st quarter of 2010, the factors that influenced their reason to join or participate in SM is:
56% ~ Quality of the discussion, relevance to the comments
46% ~ Topics discussed by the community
46% ~ Expertise and demonstrated thought leadership of participants
24% ~ Nature of problems issues the community formed around
18% ~ Interests expressed by the participants
15% ~ Volume of activity; frequency of posts and comments
12% ~ Breath of participation; the diversity of views expressed
10% ~ Size of the community
6% ~ Age or duration of the community
These are purpose driven people and communities. For high-tech buyers, social media is only a means to an end, one that more often than not involves researching a complex buying decision. Among the factors that most influence their decision to join a social network for work purposes, 52% cite the quality of the discussion and the relevance of comments, 46% cite the topics discussed by the community, and 46% cite the expertise and demonstrated thought-leadership of the participants.
Larson Notes & Satire: I did a double take on the number 46% when I read it. That is one big market share of a target for some lucky company located in SM. If you sell to the IT market segment you might just want to push your efforts deeper into SM but pick your spots carefully, as in all SM endeavors you need to know that your target market is there as well or you are taking to a vacuum.
I did some selling of IT for a few companies in the past. The money was good. Maybe I need to take another look it.
Note: If you’re reading this blog on a Ning that is “closing” or will be in (it looks like) July unless the owners want to pony up some cash. (Bad move on Nings part but it’s their system to do as they will) afterwards you can read our little blog @ http://larsonassociates.blogspot.com or join http://businesswarfare.spruz.com.
If you want to find out about our Bird Dog program call us at 847-991-0488 and put some money in your pocket or if you are a client actually reduce the cost of your service to the point of ZERO, NOTHING, ZILCHO.
Howard Larson
Larson & Associates
Target Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisition
Making good businesses great and great businesses even better
847-991-0488
howard@larsonassociates.ws
http://www.larsonassociates.ws
http://larsonassociates.blogspot.com
http://member.merchantcircle.com/larsonassociates
https://twitter.com/LarsonAssociate
P.S. We make telesales for small business affordable by offering programs down to only 15 hours a week. Maybe you could add telesales into your marketing mix call today and find out.
P.P.S. An American Company, marketing American Companies! Call or email to get an appointment to pick my brain (a $125.00 value) for 30 minutes.
In a separate study done by the “North America And European B2B Social Technographics in an online survey done in the 1st quarter of 2010, the factors that influenced their reason to join or participate in SM is:
56% ~ Quality of the discussion, relevance to the comments
46% ~ Topics discussed by the community
46% ~ Expertise and demonstrated thought leadership of participants
24% ~ Nature of problems issues the community formed around
18% ~ Interests expressed by the participants
15% ~ Volume of activity; frequency of posts and comments
12% ~ Breath of participation; the diversity of views expressed
10% ~ Size of the community
6% ~ Age or duration of the community
These are purpose driven people and communities. For high-tech buyers, social media is only a means to an end, one that more often than not involves researching a complex buying decision. Among the factors that most influence their decision to join a social network for work purposes, 52% cite the quality of the discussion and the relevance of comments, 46% cite the topics discussed by the community, and 46% cite the expertise and demonstrated thought-leadership of the participants.
Larson Notes & Satire: I did a double take on the number 46% when I read it. That is one big market share of a target for some lucky company located in SM. If you sell to the IT market segment you might just want to push your efforts deeper into SM but pick your spots carefully, as in all SM endeavors you need to know that your target market is there as well or you are taking to a vacuum.
I did some selling of IT for a few companies in the past. The money was good. Maybe I need to take another look it.
Note: If you’re reading this blog on a Ning that is “closing” or will be in (it looks like) July unless the owners want to pony up some cash. (Bad move on Nings part but it’s their system to do as they will) afterwards you can read our little blog @ http://larsonassociates.blogspot.com or join http://businesswarfare.spruz.com.
If you want to find out about our Bird Dog program call us at 847-991-0488 and put some money in your pocket or if you are a client actually reduce the cost of your service to the point of ZERO, NOTHING, ZILCHO.
Howard Larson
Larson & Associates
Target Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisition
Making good businesses great and great businesses even better
847-991-0488
howard@larsonassociates.ws
http://www.larsonassociates.ws
http://larsonassociates.blogspot.com
http://member.merchantcircle.com/larsonassociates
https://twitter.com/LarsonAssociate
P.S. We make telesales for small business affordable by offering programs down to only 15 hours a week. Maybe you could add telesales into your marketing mix call today and find out.
P.P.S. An American Company, marketing American Companies! Call or email to get an appointment to pick my brain (a $125.00 value) for 30 minutes.
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
Call Center Costs And Differences
We are in a worldwide economy. With the web, skype, and other ways to communicate, everyone on earth can be your competition. I almost don’t care what industry you are in. But today I’ll look at my industry of a piece of my industry, telemarketing or telesales. I will not be talking on the target marketing side of the business.
Who is my competition? Where are they, what are their costs and can they really compete in my area of expertise?
Let’s start with costs. For you hardnosed negotiators who beat on your call centers for the lowest cost, getting it and end up getting the trainees or the callers who don’t produce the best results.
Columbia - $10.80
India - $13.50
Philippines - $13.70
Argentina - $13.90
Mexico - $17.90
USA - $27.80
Canada - $28.60
In these there are all sorts of options form vendors whose agents work from home to US bull pen brick and mortar call centers.
Then there is the question of whether to use a call center outside of the US or North America. In 2007 17% of global companies used a call center outside the States. In 2009 that number had gone up to 18% and it is forecast by Datamonitor that in 2012 the % will grow to 20%
Now the upside is that as the statistics above show, an offshore call center can offer significant saves when looking at wages, benefits, taxes, technology and other costs But the down side is that the cultural aspect of going off shore. Customers can come away with two kinds of feelings, either have an experience in which they feel they are dealing with a call center that is only interested in the company and not their experience thus total frustration or they can have a good feeling that the company cares about them. But in trying to avoid customer annoyance is a major reason to keeping your calling done here in the States. There is a growing backlash against callers and companies that are shipping there call center work out of the States. You have an option, you can save money by off shoring or you can have an accent or custom problem going over the border.
If your running a 27/7 customer service center you might need to work the clock with one shift down somewhere else, but monitor activity closely for any backlash from your customers.
As for expertise, if you are a Printers, Advertising Agencies, Graphic Studios, Advertising Specialties, Trade Show Booth Builder, Sign Shop and other creative industry you had better hope your competition does not heir us. As for other areas we are good but cant back that up with hard cold statistics.
So use a State side caller or go offshore. You have more choices today than you did even just a year ago. That’s the good news, so now . . . choose wisely; they will become the voice of your business.
Larson Notes & Satire: Larson is and will be, a US based Call Center. I made that decision years ago when a client decided to off shore their work to save a few bucks and gave me a 2 week notice. That left me scrambling to fill up more hours of calling time than was humanly possible to achieve in 2 weeks. With 5 different payment plans from straight hourly to straight incentive (for selected industries) we can keep our clients in control of their costs (Side note “Gene the machine” if you’re out there I have a project I need you to work on!).
Calling on this side of the phone is not easy, the thought is all you do is sit around, drink coffee and talk on the phone, yet for those in the business every minute is accounted for. We can’t hop in a car and drive to the next appointment and stop at Starbucks along the way for a coffee. We just pick up the phone listen attentively, record as much information as possible hopefully make a connection... then off to the next call! A caller gets no respect, yet, as a group, is hit on from both sides of the selling world, management and customer. Ever get slammed on the phone? It’s not a nice feeling. Ever really had your total working time put under a microscope, every day? Do that for a few weeks and keep smiling.
Now if you need good solid sales leads we produce, and we can do it at under the industry benchmark of $89.00 a lead.
Note: If you’re reading this blog on a Ning that is “closing” or will be in (it looks like) July unless the owners want to pony up some cash. (Bad move on Nings part but it’s their system to do as they will) afterwards you can read our little blog @ http://larsonassociates.blogspot.com or join http://businesswarfare.spruz.com.
If you want to find out about our Bird Dog program call us at 847-991-0488 and put some money in your pocket or if you are a client actually reduce the cost of your service to the point of ZERO, NOTHING, ZILCHO.
Howard Larson
Larson & Associates
Target Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisition
Making good businesses great and great businesses even better
847-991-0488
howard@larsonassociates.ws
http://www.larsonassociates.ws
http://larsonassociates.blogspot.com
http://member.merchantcircle.com/larsonassociates
https://twitter.com/LarsonAssociate
P.S. We make telesales for small business affordable by offering programs down to only 15 hours a week. Maybe you could add telesales into your marketing mix call today and find out.
P.P.S. An American Company, marketing American Companies! Call or email to get an appointment to pick my brain (a $125.00 value) for 30 minutes.
Who is my competition? Where are they, what are their costs and can they really compete in my area of expertise?
Let’s start with costs. For you hardnosed negotiators who beat on your call centers for the lowest cost, getting it and end up getting the trainees or the callers who don’t produce the best results.
Columbia - $10.80
India - $13.50
Philippines - $13.70
Argentina - $13.90
Mexico - $17.90
USA - $27.80
Canada - $28.60
In these there are all sorts of options form vendors whose agents work from home to US bull pen brick and mortar call centers.
Then there is the question of whether to use a call center outside of the US or North America. In 2007 17% of global companies used a call center outside the States. In 2009 that number had gone up to 18% and it is forecast by Datamonitor that in 2012 the % will grow to 20%
Now the upside is that as the statistics above show, an offshore call center can offer significant saves when looking at wages, benefits, taxes, technology and other costs But the down side is that the cultural aspect of going off shore. Customers can come away with two kinds of feelings, either have an experience in which they feel they are dealing with a call center that is only interested in the company and not their experience thus total frustration or they can have a good feeling that the company cares about them. But in trying to avoid customer annoyance is a major reason to keeping your calling done here in the States. There is a growing backlash against callers and companies that are shipping there call center work out of the States. You have an option, you can save money by off shoring or you can have an accent or custom problem going over the border.
If your running a 27/7 customer service center you might need to work the clock with one shift down somewhere else, but monitor activity closely for any backlash from your customers.
As for expertise, if you are a Printers, Advertising Agencies, Graphic Studios, Advertising Specialties, Trade Show Booth Builder, Sign Shop and other creative industry you had better hope your competition does not heir us. As for other areas we are good but cant back that up with hard cold statistics.
So use a State side caller or go offshore. You have more choices today than you did even just a year ago. That’s the good news, so now . . . choose wisely; they will become the voice of your business.
Larson Notes & Satire: Larson is and will be, a US based Call Center. I made that decision years ago when a client decided to off shore their work to save a few bucks and gave me a 2 week notice. That left me scrambling to fill up more hours of calling time than was humanly possible to achieve in 2 weeks. With 5 different payment plans from straight hourly to straight incentive (for selected industries) we can keep our clients in control of their costs (Side note “Gene the machine” if you’re out there I have a project I need you to work on!).
Calling on this side of the phone is not easy, the thought is all you do is sit around, drink coffee and talk on the phone, yet for those in the business every minute is accounted for. We can’t hop in a car and drive to the next appointment and stop at Starbucks along the way for a coffee. We just pick up the phone listen attentively, record as much information as possible hopefully make a connection... then off to the next call! A caller gets no respect, yet, as a group, is hit on from both sides of the selling world, management and customer. Ever get slammed on the phone? It’s not a nice feeling. Ever really had your total working time put under a microscope, every day? Do that for a few weeks and keep smiling.
Now if you need good solid sales leads we produce, and we can do it at under the industry benchmark of $89.00 a lead.
Note: If you’re reading this blog on a Ning that is “closing” or will be in (it looks like) July unless the owners want to pony up some cash. (Bad move on Nings part but it’s their system to do as they will) afterwards you can read our little blog @ http://larsonassociates.blogspot.com or join http://businesswarfare.spruz.com.
If you want to find out about our Bird Dog program call us at 847-991-0488 and put some money in your pocket or if you are a client actually reduce the cost of your service to the point of ZERO, NOTHING, ZILCHO.
Howard Larson
Larson & Associates
Target Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisition
Making good businesses great and great businesses even better
847-991-0488
howard@larsonassociates.ws
http://www.larsonassociates.ws
http://larsonassociates.blogspot.com
http://member.merchantcircle.com/larsonassociates
https://twitter.com/LarsonAssociate
P.S. We make telesales for small business affordable by offering programs down to only 15 hours a week. Maybe you could add telesales into your marketing mix call today and find out.
P.P.S. An American Company, marketing American Companies! Call or email to get an appointment to pick my brain (a $125.00 value) for 30 minutes.
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