Telemarketing can still be an effective sales tool in the lawn and landscape industry. Yes, the telemarketing universe (names and phone numbers you can legally call with an unsolicited offer) has diminished significantly since the inception of the Do-Not-Call legislation. Yes, the percentage of unworkable phone numbers as a percent of the available universe to call has increased, driving response rates down a little, but you can still generate cost-effective sales on the phone. Telemarketing has certainly become more of a challenge since the advent of the DNC legislation and it can be risky if you don't follow the rules.

No longer can you just look up someone's name in a CrissCross directory and give them a call just to tell them about your lawn company or the free lawn estimate you left them on their door. If that person happens to be on the national Do-Not-Call (DNC) list and they report you to the feds, you could be fined up to $11,000! If you happen to call another person on that list, that would be another $11,000! Get the point? And, there are state DNC files that may be different than the Federal DNC file and you must comply with the state as well.

Every list of names to be telemarketed (either outsourced or in-house) must be passed through the DNC filter and to do that, you must register with the federal government and secure a Subscriber Access Number (SAN). Even if another company does the telemarketing for you, you will need a SAN.

Please go to this address for additional info or to set up an SAN:

https://telemarketing.donotcall.gov/Profile/Create.aspx

Telemarketing Programs

There are two basic types of telemarketing programs:

Lead Generation
Sales

Whether you do these programs in-house, outsourced, or a combination of both, you will need to comply with all federal and state legislation. The responsibility is yours, not your vendors.

Telemarketing to Generate Leads – Generally the script used to generate telemarketing leads for lawn care is short and simple – “we’ll be in your neighborhood; may we leave you a free estimate?” Once you get a “Yes” response, you can then probe further to qualify the lead and help eliminate those who are just saying yes to get you off of the phone. For lead generation telemarketing to be cost-effective, you need a targeted list and enough names and phone numbers to call after DNC suppression to get to at least 100 hours for a reasonable test. If you burn through 100 names per hour, you’ll need 10,000 net names and phone numbers to get started. Once you have a sufficient and targeted list to call, it’s all about the numbers – Dialings / HR, Contacts / HR, Leads / HR, and Closing Rate. If you monitor these numbers carefully, and test and adjust the script and calling list as you go in order to hit numbers goals, you should be successful.

Telemarketing to Generate Sales – You can use the phone to generate sales (you already do when following up on estimates), but some programs have a much greater chance of success than others. Calling people with whom you have had a prior relationship – Rejects and Cancels – will give you much better results than cold calling people who may never have heard of you. For rejects and cancels, you have specific information – lawn size, price, and sometimes treatment history, previous lawn problems, even the name of the dog, how to unlock the fence, and a day time phone number where you can reach the homeowner. Plus, there’s a good chance they know who you are. Don’t assume that just because someone is or has been your customer that they know who you are. There are plenty of quality assurance customer surveys that have gone something like this:

Tech – “Hello Mrs. Jones, this is Joe Smith from ABC Lawn Care calling about your lawn service.”

Mrs. Jones – “No thank you, I already have a lawn service.”

Tech – “Yes ma’am, I know. We are your lawn service. I just wanted to make sure you are satisfied with our service.”

Mrs. Jones – “I told you. I have a lawn service.” CLICK

Just like in direct mail, special offers in telemarketing programs can help drive sales. Trying to generate sales by cold calling a prospect is difficult and rarely cost-effective, so test it before you plan on it being a big part of your marketing campaign. Whatever telemarketing sales program you choose to test, you will have better results with your in-house staff than you will by out-sourcing.

Yes Marketing can help you set up a telemarketing program or test to have the best chance of success and avoid many of the common pitfalls of telemarketing campaigns.