There is no denying the efficacy of the telephone. Everything from following up on open homes and cold calling to finding new landlords; the list of activities that can be conducted on the phone is endless. And ask almost any top performing agent or trainer and telemarketing will often be a cornerstone of their marketing system. Director of AgentMail, Carl Quested, explains.
What’s the problem with cold calling?
The simple answer is that agents aren’t doing it enough. Whether it’s due to work overload, not knowing what to say or general frustration from rejection and voicemails, agents don’t enjoy cold calling.
This impacts every other piece of marketing they do. If they are not following up open home attendees, checking in with enquiries three months later or chasing their other marketing activities, money is being left on the table.
We understand that agents are most effective in a face to face meeting, so AgentMail decided to offer a solution. An Australia-based call centre.
What does the call centre do?
The idea is that the call centre becomes an extension of an agent’s team. We can make calls to follow up open homes, farming calls on a new listing, or simply cold-call people you have never spoken to before. ‘Call centre’ is the industry term, but our service is different in that we do not have a hundred staff in the Philippines making calls.
So who makes up your team?
We deliberately have a small team of operators who all have a background in real estate. They are real estate certified and are based in our office in Queensland. We only let one or two operators call on behalf of an agent, meaning that the relationship is more like a PA than a generic service provider.
Why wouldn’t an agent simply do it themselves?
First and foremost, agents have many tasks to complete in a day – telemarketing is one of the first to be pushed to the side. Using AgentMail’s team simply means that your calls still get made, regardless of how crazy your day gets.
The second reason is scale. AgentMail has invested in complex phone systems that allow us to reach a much larger number of prospects in the time an agent could. For example, depending on script, we are able to connect with anywhere between 40 and 60 prospects per hour.
Most call centres have large minimum commitments
Yes, usually call centres want clients to commit to 40 hours or more so that one operator can call full-time for a week. However, having worked with agents for over five years we understand the budgetary constraints and the changing landscape of real estate. As such, we have NO MINIMUM commitment of hours. Agents can simply use the service as and when required. Of course, we can provide better pricing for larger commitments, but the option is there to use it for as little as one hour.
What’s the process of getting started?
First, we would check whether your suburb is available for calling. We are committed to the highest service for our clients, and as such will only call on behalf of one agent per suburb. When available, we go through a scripting process where we look at your agency, your call objectives and your time frames to come up with a bespoke script. We then go through a training session with our team to bring them up to speed on your agency, the calling style and the script. You provide the names and numbers you wish to be called and we get under way. You will get a dashboard update showing the process of your calling. Any appraisals or ‘hot’ leads will immediately be emailed through to you for actioning.
What about privacy and The Do Not Call Register?
All numbers provided are screened against The Do Not Call Register. If it is an existing client database, we will seek your approval to call them; if it’s a cold database, we will simply remove them and not call.
All data is used for the purposes of the telemarketing campaign and then deleted from our systems once the campaign is completed.
What is the cost of the service?
The cost does depend on the number of hours you commit to on a regular basis. As mentioned, you can simply use the service for an hour at a time. All our pricing is listed on our website.
Where can we get more information?
Our website www.agentmail.com.au/telemarketing is where you can find all the details. You can also get in touch with me directly on 0420 747 210 if you wish to discuss the service further. Quote the code EAM2015 to get 10% off your first order.
