You see, these seniors already had Medicare and/or Medicaid. Our goal was to get our insurance agents an appointment so they could come out there and see what kind of upgrades they could offer the seniors. These agents are from a private insurance company but they do work with Medicare and Medicaid recipients too.

And, let me tell you it's not easy to set up an appointment with a senior about their health coverage. They get a ton of calls about Medicare and Medicaid.

I can't blame the senior's for being cautious . . . they are major victims of telemarketing scams. A recent study conducted by the Consumer Law Center, Inc. (CLC) found that fraudulent telemarketers direct anywhere from 56 percent to nearly 80 percent of their calls at older customers. So, before even starting the project . . . we were in for a battle.

 

Here were the challenges faced by my client:

1- They were experiencing high turnover from their current telesales team. This was a part-time position so many reps were "stay at home" moms or full-time students. Once they got good at the sale . . . they would quit due to family issues or furthering their careers.

2- It was hard to get enough appointments each day for their agents. You have to sit at the phone all day and call . . . just to churn out 4-5 appointments a day. And, that's if you can get 4 appointments.

3- Getting quality leads. Getting the appointment was one thing...making sure the seniors would qualify was another thing. Also, we have to record their information and attach it as a .wav file to send to the client as back-up for each lead.

4- Patience. Each caller had to be patient . . . some seniors had a hard time hearing or were very defensive. Each telesales rep had to be patient and sometimes had to repeat themselves to the senior again and again for them to understand.

Now, I'm sure you're thinking . . . why the heck did you take this on? It seems like too much to deal with?

 

Well, you see that's where the benefits of offshore outsourcing come into play.

My team works for a fraction of the cost compared to a team based in the US. So, I could still pay them and make a decent profit for myself. Also, the insurance client was desperate for leads . . . so I was able to be a little creative and think outside the box in this situation.

Not only that, I was able to give her a team of 5 dedicated telesales reps and a quality control manager who were all dedicated to getting her the results she needed.

My costs were so competitive that I could give my client more than she could have ever imagined!

 

Here is what I was able to do for my client:

1- Start her process with no overhead costs- my team is located in Chennai, India.

2- Allow her to hand pick each caller after listening to their voice files.

3- Schedule conference calls with the team and provide training and support at no additional cost.

4- Send her daily reports on all call lists and appointments set at no additional cost.

Results:

We kept a close eye on the team for the first 30 days. Reviewed the recordings, tweaked the script, and held weekly meetings to address their issues/concerns.

Here is what happened in just 3 months:

Month 1: They actually started full force mid-way into the month. They were able to schedule 20 appointments. All of them were accepted by the Insurance client.

Month 2: This was my team's first full month on the job. They nearly doubled the number of qualified leads to 38.

Month 3: Now my team was in full swing. The process was down pact . . . .and we had scheduled nearly 70 appointments!



Today, we have 10 telesales reps and we are churning out more leads than ever before. Within just 3 months we were able to triple the number of leads for our client AND provide quality leads for the agents!

My project manager reports to me on a daily basis and I communicate with the client as needed. Now my client wants to give us more territories and expand our team. As of today, our team in India has booked nearly 500 appointments for the insurance agents.