Setting Up a Cheap Calling Station in Your Office

Friends,

On the topic of hiring telemarketing help to improve your phone call follow-up with your contacts and leads, here are my best tips I can offer you based on my experience in our Vyral Marketing office.

(This is a longer email today, so bear with me - it's packed with excellent tips)

First, use Skype.

For $2.99 a month you get unlimited calling anywhere in the US and Canada. For an extra $30 a year, you also get a local phone number.


When you call, that's the number that shows up on caller ID - and when people call it back - it can ring to your Skype or forward to your mobile. This is the office line for each member of our staff. To get unlimited calling for 6 people, it costs us $18 a month total.

With Skype you can quickly and inexpensively set up on-demand calling stations anywhere for your sales assistants without investing in expensive traditional phone systems.

The quality is excellent as long as you're connected to a hardline Ethernet cable, not wireless.

I've made up to 50+ dials a day on Skype without any problems - I've never been flagged or banned for "telemarketing". So if you're using traditional phone lines in your office ($$$!), ditch them and get Skype.

(FYI - the Skype terms of use are for personal calls only and they say you're limited to 50 calls a day and 2 hours of talk time per call. This hasn't been a problem for me, as my calls are always permission-based lead follow up. Google Voice also offers free calls as a backup to Skype if necessary.)

Second, get a nice headset that plugs into your computer via USB.

To call anyone, you simply type in the number and presto, you're connected to any landline phone or mobile phone via your computer. Skype will also allow you to access a report of all your calls that day and if you don't want your office calls forwarded, it will take messages and notify you via email when received.

There's also a "click to call" add-in that allows you to click a phone number and Skype will auto-dial it, saving you a ton of time from manual entry. This will increase your dials per hour significantly.

The goal in our office is 12 dials per hour with voicemails and email follow-up, reviewing all contact notes for two minutes before each call to prepare. Calling is from 9:30am-1:30pm daily, with a goal of 48 dials.

Third, you need a virtual "audio splitter" for live training.

When you're training your sales assistant, you need a second headset to plug in so you can listen to their calls next to them. Windows only allows you to play sound through one device (such as your speakers or headset only).

You can't use a traditional phone splitter on a USB computer connection.

So, download Virtual Audio Cable and this will fix your problem, allowing you to hear the conversation with two headsets plugged into your computer. Watch this training video I made on how to use it. >

If your sales assistant is virtual (meaning they are not in your office), here's how to train them. Have them call you on Skype. Mute your microphone. Then they simply add a third person to your live call.

You'll sit there on a 2-way call as your sales assistant starts 3-way calls. When they hang up and call their next lead, your 2-way connection is kept live - it's great. This way you can listen to their calls - hearing both sides of the conversation - as they hang up and dial the next person.

I also recommend you both share a screen on Join.me so you can watch them in real time as they type follow-up emails and enter call notes into your contact management program.

I've learned all this the hard way here at Vyral (and I'm still learning). Hopefully these are helpful tips. If you have questions, just email me back.

I want to make sure you have all the tools and systems you need to call the people who are clicking the call-to-action links and educational videos in your emails, which we report to you every two weeks on the Vyral Marketing program. It's your fastest way to more sales without breaking the bank. Get the details here. >

I'm off to speak in Washington DC to 200+ people on social media on Thursday this week! If you're in the area, let's connect.

Until next week,

Frank Klesitz

PS: Click here to listen to this week's podcast with Vyral Client Jeff Quintin on time management. He's able to follow up with his contacts on the phone for 4 hours every day. You'll learn how he manages his staff and personal time to make sure this happens daily without fail. Click here for the full transcript >