Offshore Outsourcing & Scammer

Blog about offshore outsourcing and scammer in the outsourcing industry

Outbound sales - products and promised earnings

The most of these products, which are getting offered in the outbound campaigns, are well known products from the formerly email spam (Pharmacy, Weight Loss, Enhancers, Casino, etc.). Since email spam filter are coming better with the time the email spamming does already not make any sense. For this the formerly email spammers try to hire call centers. 

All this products are useless, completely overpriced and for this reason very bad to sell. As the spammers don’t like to lose money, they are only offering a commission based contract. A hourly based contract or a hourly based contract in combination with a commission is too expensive for them, because they know their sales rate already from the email spam.

For this the call center should provide even the data for the people, which are getting called and dialer for reaching very much people in a short time. The called people get it too and are giving wrong data (address, email address, credit card numbers, etc.) to the call center, if they know the products already. This data are getting rejected by the client and the call center does not get paid for this sales.

I recommend to all call centers: 

  • Take a look at the product and not only at the promised earning per sale

  • Turn on your brain and think about the product if you would buy it by yourself

  • Speak with your agents and ask them about their opinion of the product. Even good salespeople can only sell products from which they are convinced. 

  • As higher the proposed winnings per sale is as lower is the sales rate will be

  • Compare the price of the product with normal and comparable offers at the normal market.  You will be able to sell a product where you get a commission of $50 if a comparable product can bought in the shop for $10

  • Let your client provide data for calling. Your client knows better which customer group will buy the product. If you cannot sell the product, then your call center or your data are bad. In any case you’ll be guilty for not fulfilling the sales rate and you are working for free.

  • If you got data from the client and you cannot sell something then inform your client early about this and comment why you cannot sell something. You can even provide the recordings for it. For the case the provided data are not good, then let your client decide to continue with this data or not. He is responsible for the provided data in this case.

  • If you like to provide quality services, then not use dialer. As soon as a called person get it, that you are using an automated system, he will hang up and block the provided phone number.

  • Never make anonymous calls. Very much people are blocking anonymous calls already.

  • Provide a phone number, where someone can call you back. There are a lot of people outside there, which are curious who has called them in absence and are calling back.

 

A translation of a promoted call center campaign at LinkedIn

Recently I found a call center campaign at LinkedIn, which has been looking good at the first view:

LOOKING FOR CENTERS FROM (INDIA, SOUTH AFRICA AND PHILIPPINES)

5 year old Tech Support Company based in Texas looking for "experienced" call centers to outsource our outbound tech support sales. We have centers in India working for us from more then 4 years and generating good profits.

Pay-out from $50 to $185 for per sale.

 

Analyzing the product:

The product is not really a bad idea. As the company is based in in a small city, with a population of around 40000 people, called Hurst in Texas, the local possibility for offering a computer service has not really a big chance. Remote service and support can be a possible income.

Negative aspects:

  • A remote service works only if the computer is still running and has a connection to the internet

  • It can be only a software service for optimization of the performance, virus removal (as long the virus is not blocking the Internet connection), spyware scan and malware removal.

  • The service is limited to Windows and Office

  • The offered service "Setup a new system" cannot get done from remote. A transport of the computer can result that the computer does not work when it arrives back to the customer. The reason is very simple: From the vibrations during the transport a card or a plug can lose the correct contact. For this is it better for the customer to visit a computer repair center locally.

  • The company exists already nearly 5 years. They are offering 4 different plans for home users and 2 different plans for business use. The monthly rate is with $15.95 the same for all plans. The initial price for home users varies from $195.95 until $349.95 only the contract time is different. At the website is no reason written why someone should make a contract for 3 years for $349.95 initial with additional $15.95 per month instead of a contract for 6 months for $109.95 + $15.95 monthly. The only difference is the initial price. What the benefits of the higher price and the longer contract time are is missing. Maybe they don't know it by themselves. In this case the telemarketer has no arguments to sell a higher priced plan.

  • Compare at Amazon the price of a new computer in the USA with the maintenance plan what the telemarketer should sell: a complete computer set including monitor, keyboard, mouse and Windows 7 is actually at Amazon for $160 (Dell) available. The setup can get done with the help of the Dell Hotline. An argument for the price is in this case really missing.

In sum is the product not really a runner. In the USA is it normally that the monthly price is coming less as longer as the contract is running.

 

I try now to translate this advertisement for you:

You need to know that the average call center agent in the USA gets $27000/year ($2250/month or $15/hour)..I have simple divided the yearly salary by 12 and the monthly salary by 150 hours like it is in Europe usable. This company is located in Texas, There is the average income for a call center agent even lower. It is there $26000/year, which makes a hourly rate of $14.45

The offered pay out from $50 - $150 per sale is looking at the first view good, but only on the first view.

Let's take the lowest offered commission per sale, which is $50. A one is not really realistic, because for this the arguments for selling it are already missing.

The company would be positive in labor costs if she would sell each 3 hours and 33 minutes one product per agent by having own telemarketers. The company itself does not believe in their own sales possibilities at such a rate. For this they try to find a call center from a low wage country, which even takes the risk of the product. Maybe the call center should even provide the data for the sales.

My opinion is that very good and very experienced agents will be able to sell in average one product per day as long as the marketing of the product will not get improved. If the marketing will reduce the sales price, the pay out per sale will go down too or the company will not be able to survive and pay you.

So centers think about how long can you work for $50. Maybe you sell one product per 10 hours per agent in average. Are you able to survive with this income?

The sentence "We have centers in India working for us from more than 4 years and generating good profits" is only promotion and for this I can say only: "Never trust a statistic which you did not fake by yourself"

 

Source offer: LinkedIn offer

Source product: www.fixmycomputerdude.com

 

The SCAM with the “Security deposit”

Call centers be aware from the “refundable” security deposit. All this offers are nothing else then SCAM. In the normal world a security deposit is given to this one, which gives a value, which cannot get retrieved fast (in leasing, rentals, etc.).

In the case of call center work the given value is the phone bill and the work of the agents, which cannot get retrieved. For this you are able to ask for a security deposit. Especially if the agreed billing period is longer than 1 week you should ask for a security deposit.

A security deposit should include the agreed counts of agents * hours of work during the agreed working time * hourly base + any payment for the broker! A security deposit can be done by an irrevocable bank guarantee, which needs to get accepted at your bank. Don’t start working if your bank does not accept the given bank guarantee. In this case you’ll never see your money.

Call center friends, don't get scammed, a contract should be only valid if you get your security deposit paid.

 

Definition of a security deposit from Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Security_deposit):

A security deposit is a sum of money held in trust either as an initial part-payment in a purchasing process (often used to prevent the seller selling an item to someone else during an agreed period of time while the buyer verifies the suitability of the item, or arranges finance) - also known as an earnest payment, or else, in the course of a rental agreement to ensure the cost of repair in relation to any damage explicitly specified in the lease and that did in fact occur.

In certain taxation regimes a deposit need not declared as part of the gross income of the receiving party (person or corporation) until either the depositing party or an arbitrator agrees the funds may be used for the intended purpose.

A 1990 United States of America ruling[1] provides that a deposit differs from an advance payment because the depositing party has dominion over the funds and retains the right to insist upon repayment in cash. On the other hand, the party making an advance payment retains no right to insist upon the return of the funds as long as the recipient fulfills the contractual agreement.

The rationale behind the court’s decision is that the recipient of the deposit does not enjoy - complete dominion - over the funds and is subject to an express obligation to repay so long as the customer fulfills his or her legal obligations. Additionally, both the timing and the method of refund are largely within the control of the depositing party, as he or she can choose to insist upon repayment in cash or apply the deposit to purchase services. The recipient’s right to retain the funds of the deposit is contingent upon events that are outside of his or her control.

An important note is that although the recipient may receive an economic benefit from the deposits - i.e. interest - the prospect that income will be generated provides no ground for taxing the principal. However, any income that the recipient may earn through the use of the deposit money is, of course, taxable.

 

In leasing

Security deposits are required most often by lessors of automobiles, apartments, and commercial real estate.

The security deposits required by many residential landlords of their tenants are the source of much dispute and litigation. Many states and municipalities have enacted laws that specifically regulate the landlord's ability to withhold tenant security deposits after a tenant moves out. Some states and cities require that interest be paid to the tenant as it is earned on the security deposit.

In some legal regimes the deposit has to be placed with an independent escrow agent or licensed deposit taker such as a bank so that the risk of fraud is reduced and the funds earn interest at a fair market rate.

In the United States of America, Washington DC, Alaska, Illinois, and Wisconsin have notably more tenant-friendly legislation in place than states like Indiana or Michigan, for example. The cities of Madison, Wisconsin and Chicago, Illinois have in place substantially greater protection of tenants' security deposit rights than the surrounding areas.

 

Is esperanzaconsultancy com a scammer or not?

Yesterday I got a call from Esperanza Consultancy. They have been calling my New York phone number by using a dialer, which even did not work correct. I have already picked up the phone and their dialer continued dialing. They have tried to open 17 lines at the same time.

Anyway, they asked me to remove my negative comment (I called them to be a scammer) from LinkedIn. They even offered me a project cheaper or for free if I do what they like. I’m not for sale, but I have reviewed their offer.

For the unbelievable case if they are really not a scammer by themselves, then they are getting scammed by themselves. I try to explain my result in detail now.

Someone, who has a real offer or is thinking that he got misunderstood, will not offer something for free or with a big discount. Such a person will explain why he/she feels herself misunderstood and try to solve the issues. On the other side Esperanza Consultancy is a young company. Maybe they have no experience in business and are learning by doing. In any case they have chosen the wrong way.

I’m coming from the technical and programming side to the call center business. For this I made a technical review about their offer. I have attached their offer at the end of this posting that everybody is able to comprehend my review.

The demo data, which Esperanza Consultancy has submitted, are machine readable and have 5 different datasets. Such a dataset can get transformed with tools into a complete resultset for the destination system.

The “Housing Loan Application Form”, which should be the destination, is a simple form consisting of 5 forms, which have a lot of fields. With another tool, the same which is used from forum spammers, you are able to fill out this form with the prepared dataset from the input in less than a second.  The open question is only how many forms can get submitted during one second without flooding the destination system. I have enough Internet bandwidth available, that I’m able to make a destination system unreachable. So I have to build in some waits for not flooding the destination system. We are directly connected to the international Internet backbone in Austria with our systems.

For this I need not waste manual power. I can use machine power, which can make around 10 complete conversions per second and per computer, if their own capacity able to handle this. In compare, they are saying that one agent needs 15 minutes for filling out one destination form set and the full process is planned for 3 years. Additional is an automatized transcoding error free and repeatable.

As the computer based process is up to 9000 times faster than the manual process, the work of an agent from 3 years can be done by using 2.9 machine hours. I have offered them this solution. A few days later I have seen the offer in the groups from LinkedIn again.

So make your own decision if Esperanza Consulting or their client is the scammer?

 

Demo data.html (524.98 kb)

email from esperanza consulting com.txt (5.16 kb)

Housing_Loan_Form_Details.pdf (62.73 kb)

Sample Form (Open in Firefox Browser).html (275.68 kb)

 

An repeated question from call center owners: How we can find business opportunities?

From time to time, I get the question: "How we can find business opportunities?" or "Do you have a genuine campaign for me?".

My answer is every time the same:

I'm not a campaign broker. It is easy to wait for a campaign broker rings you up and ask if you like to make some work for one of his customers. This is the way, where you get scammed too.

You own a call center and you have agents, which are only partly busy with work. Why do you not use your agents, which are not busy, for selling and promoting your own center? In such a case you need not pay a high broker fee, because your own agents are cheaper working.

Use the Internet and search at the job platforms like craigslist, elance, indeed, etc. Sell your own services by calling such companies, which are searching for telemarketers. Promote your own services by putting advertisments at such platforms. All that is called marketing. You are doing this for your customers too, do you not trust your own services? Don't wait until the brokers are knocking at your door.

www.craigslist.org: is one of the oldest Internet platforms for advertising

www.elance.com: Hire great frelancers

www.indeed.com: Click here to find millions of jobs from thousands of company web sites, job boards and newspapers. one search. all jobs.

You can find a lot more at Google.