Skeleton on the phone

A Call Center Horror Story

The Frights of Relying Solely on Call Centers for Your Sales Leads

One blustery fall afternoon Glenda, the marketing director for BooTech got a call from his VP of Sales. “Leads, we need leads!” he screamed through the phone. “We’re $3 million short of our sales quota for Q4 and my bonus is in jeopardy!”

“How many leads do you need?” asked Glenda. “More, more, more! And they better be good!” bellowed the VP as he slammed down the phone.

Skeleton on the phone

So, Glenda began to scramble. First, she called her ad sales rep at Info-Target. “How many SQL leads can you get me by Halloween?” she stammered.

“SQLs? By Halloween? Maybe 50 or 60 and that’s if we go all out.”

“Not enough,” thought Glenda. Who else can I call?

Next, she phoned her pal Chris over at Red Dolphin Leads. “I need SQLs in 3 weeks. What can you do?”

Chris was quiet for a moment then said, “Glenda, the only magic I can conjure that fast would be 500 MQLs. Does that work?”

Glenda thought for a moment. “Chris, do we know how these leads will be generated?”

“In 3 weeks? Well, I’ll wave my magic wand of call center sorcery. They’ll dial, dial, dial and push those enchanted whitepapers every witch way.”

Glenda imagined her Sales VP haunting her office while bellowing bloodcurdling epithets about lost sales, missed quotas, and the cauldron of woe that would befall her if she failed to ‘fill the bucket’ with the needed number of leads for his crew of sales wraiths.

“Do it, Chris. Cast your spell and make it rain!”

Then Glenda waited… and waited… and waited.

On All Hallows Eve, Glenda heard the Sale Exec yelling across the office. “Where are my leads, you witch?” At just that moment, her phone rang. It was Chris at Red Dolphin Leads.

“OK Glenda, I’m sending over 600 MQL leads. Our guys in Bangladesh pushed really hard and cajoled 600 IT pros to accept your blackpaper. Good luck with them.”

Glenda rushed to her inbox and found the lead file attached. It wasn’t even a DropBox link; just a regular attachment, oh the horror. No matter, she had leads to distribute.

After an hour of slicing the leads and importing them into SalesWeak, she set her computer to sleep, and left the building just in time to get home to hand out candy. What a win!

Once home, Glenda put on her spooky costume and waited for the trick-or-treaters. Just then her cell phone rang. The number said it was her Sales VP. She sat down, preparing herself for the expected adulation and congratulations.

“Hello,” said Glenda. The howling scream on the other end of the line shocked poor Glenda into a fright.

“You stupid broom rider. These leads are total garbage! My guys called the first 50 and most of the people aren’t even there. We looked them up on LinkedIn and a few of them have been dead for over a year. The ones we did talk to didn’t even know what a blackpaper is. Some of them are computer science students, a few were faculty who can’t buy anything, one guy face-timed us dressed up as Shrek! What the hell, Glenda. Where did you get this pile of dung?”

Glenda stammered, “They said they called them all. The guys in Bangladesh promised that they were good. Curse you, Chris.” And she expired from fright dropping her phone to the floor…

And now you know, don’t buy sales leads from call centers. Use Solution Publishing and our email newsletters with real content or this nightmare could happen to you Boo!

by: Byron Crowell, CEO and Founder

About Byron: After growing up in Tampa and playing college football at Virginia Military Institute (VMI), Byron ventured West and spent 20 years in the heart of California’s technology startup scene. In 1998, he built the first internet-based mystery shopping company. In 2002, he co-founded RetailEyes, which was sold to a UK-based conglomerate in 2011. However, his first business love has always been always B2B marketing and technology via Solution Publishing, which he founded in 2001. Byron moved his family back to Tampa and is on a mission to bring West Coast venture startup energy and experience to his hometown. He loves the Buccaneers and Lightning and is an active youth hockey supporter.