It is difficult to pinpoint a specific market rate for hiring a telemarketing firm. Costs depend on a myriad of factors, including the type of project, skills and expertise required of TSRs, technologies needed, and even the time and day calls are generated. Using a telemarketing services comparison tool is a good way to get a sense for the different services telemarketing firms offer.

Many large telemarketing firms require a minimum work order. These minimum orders can range from 1,000 to 10,000 person hours per project. Most firms charge an hourly rate and bill by the actual time spent on calls. This rate is more commonly in the range of $25 to $60 per hour, but can be can be as low as $10 per hour for discount-priced offshore companies. As the number of hours increases, the cost per hour drops.

See what other BuyerZone users have paid for telemarketing services.

The payroll structure of your telemarketer also affects the bill. For companies that do not offer commissions to TSRs, you can expect the base hourly charge to be relatively high. Companies that pay commission charge relatively less per hour. Depending on the cost of your product and the base salary of TSRs working on your project, commission charges may range from as little as 1% to as high as 10% of the revenue generated.

There are many other fees to consider beyond the basic charges. You should expect a setup fee of up to several thousand dollars to launch your campaign, which should cover configuring their software for you, basic script preparation, and initial training. Other costs, such as additional training, programming, and reporting fees, may be covered by your per minute or per hour charges - or may not. Make sure the provider spells out exactly what additional charges you will incur.

Contracts, metrics, and SLAs
A telemarketing contract needs to define more than just the contract term and pricing. It should specify exactly what standards and procedures the call center is expected to follow, how their performance will be measured, and what penalties can be applied if they fall short of the requirements.

We recommend that you include non-disclosure clauses in your contract. NDAs make sure the provider doesn't take the lessons they learn with your business to one of your competitors. This is especially important if your choose a provider who specializes in your industry.

One typical approach is to define a minimum percentage of successful sales. If you have run similar campaigns in-house, you will have good benchmarks to start from; if not, you may have to work with the vendor to refine the goals after the program is launched.

Other contract options include exclusivity, translation services, secrecy/confidentiality, monitoring rights, and more. When creating contracts of this magnitude, almost anything is negotiable, but remember that you will pay more for special requests.