Working as a Telemarketer

MegaKushMegaKush Regular
edited March 2011 in Life
So i just called some telemarketing company and the boss wants me to come fill out an application tomorrow. the pay is hourly, with added compensation for sales. Has anyone worked as a telemarketer before, could you give me some tips?

Comments

  • CitizenUziCitizenUzi Semo-Regulars
    edited July 2010
    Unless you shit on the floor and kick the bosses' daughter in the cunt, you should get the job. I would consider telemarketing to be on par with fast-food work in terms of shittiness (that is to say - bottom of the barrel), but I would personally rather work at McDonald's.

    This isn't to say there's not money in it.... you'll get payed your wage plus bonus differential for however many chumps you get to actually subscribe/buy or whatever. The biggest problem is that usually whatever you're pitching is not something that is in demand (thus the need for telemarketing), and 9/10 people (if not more) are simply annoyed by your phone call. I would dare to say that 90% of people who try this job burn out within a few months at the most.... it just fucking sucks.

    In an attempt to actually be kind of helpful (other than saying to look for a different job), I suggest that you be straightforward with the customers as to why you're calling and what you're pitching (you'll likely be working off a script anyway but meh) and just disregard the uninterested people rather than trying to convince them of anything. It's easy to tell the difference between customers who are willing, simply lonely, disinterested or outright hostile.
  • stresstres Regular
    edited July 2010
    I would say the work conditions are below that of fast food. Fast-Food, for the most part is in the public eye and your expectations and conditions reflect that. Management varies from firm to firm but yeah ~ don't get too excited for the position unless you can pitch like gekko and will be up the ladder in less time then it takes to smell the mold in the carpet, that's an extreme example ~ there are many firms that are more then bearable but there's definitely some shit ones too..

    Most positions are available to anybody who can speak un-broken English, ergo, the employee turn-over must be pretty frequent to warrant such small expectations. Pay is either commission or hourly wage, or both. Hourly wage is usually above that of fast food and sometimes on par with most retail positions. I wouldn't suggest the commission option; don't make your quota ~ you get fired.

    Apply for the position, just don't stop looking for work.
  • Pill PopperPill Popper Regular
    edited August 2010
    MegaKush wrote: »
    So i just called some telemarketing company and the boss wants me to come fill out an application tomorrow. the pay is hourly, with added compensation for sales. Has anyone worked as a telemarketer before, could you give me some tips?

    You will become a hated man

    Enjoy
  • Big baby jesusBig baby jesus Regular
    edited August 2010
    Make up a funny voice to talk to people with. Sometimes people really wanna talk to the dude with a funny voice, it should help.
  • JackJack Regular
    edited August 2010
    Your customers will hate you and you'll hate yourself. Get at least an inbound call center job before you break and can't bear to wear a headset again.
  • OnTheFringeOnTheFringe Acolyte
    edited August 2010
    You will become a hated man

    Enjoy

    telemarketing is a great job if you like pissing people off, it's like trolling over the phone.

    you will usually be fired within a month or so if you can't keep up 3-10 sales a week.

    Just have fun with it and piss people off, don't take anything personal. I had two telemarketing jobs and I can't remember how many times I felt like bursting out laughing because how badly telemarketing pisses people off.

    You will atleast get a couple of paychecks out of it.
  • FrYFrY Regular
    edited August 2010
    telemarketing is a great job if you like pissing people off, it's like trolling over the phone.



    Exactly, maybe its the weed talking but I feel like becoming a telemarketer all of a sudden.
  • VickyVicky Regular
    edited August 2010
    I work in sales and I spend most of my time on totse/zoklet/playing games. It's a great, but mundane, job. I'm just grateful to have work unlike most of my friends.
  • fanglekaifanglekai Regular
    edited August 2010
    I'm going to apply to do this shit if I get desperate. I really need a job. Hopefully I hear back from the restaurant and other places I've applied to. If I remember right the telemarketing place here actually pays pretty well. I might do it if I get desperate. Even if I only last a couple months it's better than unemployment.
  • MegaKushMegaKush Regular
    edited August 2010
    ^indeed

    are u browsing craigslist too? ive been turning in application after application...


    but that telemarketing place didn't hire me cuz they are a bunch of incompetent tards that wont let me talk to the boss when i call them
  • fanglekaifanglekai Regular
    edited August 2010
    I've done 13 applications. Had 2 interviews but no luck getting a job with them. I'm seriously overqualified for the jobs I'm trying to get. Having an M.A. does not help when you want to work as a cashier for a year :facepalm:
  • JackJack Regular
    edited August 2010
    fanglekai wrote: »
    I'm going to apply to do this shit if I get desperate. I really need a job. Hopefully I hear back from the restaurant and other places I've applied to. If I remember right the telemarketing place here actually pays pretty well. I might do it if I get desperate. Even if I only last a couple months it's better than unemployment.

    If you have a choice between sitting in a call center or running around a restaurant, take the call center job. They both kind of suck, but you're going to get no end of shit from customers in either job and you can at least (sometimes) hang up on the call center customers. Working at a restaurant will beat your ass, anyway, too much moving around and being piled with tasks to do, and a lot of places will give you bullshit to do just so you aren't idling on the clock.
  • fanglekaifanglekai Regular
    edited August 2010
    Jack wrote: »
    If you have a choice between sitting in a call center or running around a restaurant, take the call center job. They both kind of suck, but you're going to get no end of shit from customers in either job and you can at least (sometimes) hang up on the call center customers. Working at a restaurant will beat your ass, anyway, too much moving around and being piled with tasks to do, and a lot of places will give you bullshit to do just so you aren't idling on the clock.

    Yeah I used to know a bunch of people who worked at the call center. They all drank heavily. Was pretty funny. The restaurant is a sushi place and it's not very big. Honestly I don't give a shit what I do at this point. I'm looking for a slacker job for a year. I just need to make $250/week and I'll be fine.
  • edited August 2010
    Make sure when you call you say "Hey (persons name here), how you been man?"

    I just fucking love it when telemarketers do that... no seriously, I lol hard when that happens.
  • OnTheFringeOnTheFringe Acolyte
    edited August 2010
    make sure its one where you work on a computer, you can go onto the internet and change peoples names in the system for fun.

    its really all based on luck, and a little bit how hard you try to make a sell. think about how many people actually need the service your selling.

    telemarketing is so much better as a scam anyways, just set up a fake charity and telemarket that shit , get peoples cc's and real donations.
  • VizierVizier Regular
    edited January 2011
    Yes, all thise year I was in and out of call centers because the pay was rather decent for a rather mediocre job which I was quite underqualified for.

    It'll drain your life away and make you a chain smoker and/or alcoholic but it's a decent job for the meantime while you find something better. Jobs seem to be pretty scarce these days though. Fucking overpopulation.

    It's nice to troll once in a while though but you get caught you'll be fired pretty much immediately. I was fired once for calling some asshole a nigger and I was also fired because I gave some kid free programming or credits like for a year just because he was blasting Mastodon in the background during the call.

    Being a drone, enclosed in three walls with your eyes stuck to the computer screen and your head being tortured by a headset for 8 or 9 hours sucks donkey dicks though.
  • DysgraphiaDysgraphia Locked
    edited January 2011
    Advice: Don't sound like a monotonous fuck.
  • dr rockerdr rocker Regular
    edited January 2011
    Jack wrote: »
    Your customers will hate you and you'll hate yourself. Get at least an inbound call center job before you break and can't bear to wear a headset again.

    That. I have worked in both.

    Outdoor labouring is better if you can get it. Work hard, but dont over work - other labourers will get pissed off because they might get sent home as the job will be over to quickly and site project managers get twitchy when too many labourers are smoking. Work finds it own pace - sometimes hard, sometimes easy.

    Anyway - if you want to be a telemarketer, be able to speak clearly and so anyone can understand. Know your phonectic alphabet but do not laugh when someone does not and says 'erm E for elephant' like they were reading from the poster on the wall back in nursery school.

    I worked in call centres much more than telemarketing and although it was people calling us, you have to deal with the most stupid people on earth. People should need to pass a test before they own a phone.

    Be prepared to hate what your life will become. You will hate telephones and you will hate people for being stupid and all of your illusions about the world will be blown away.
  • MayberryMayberry Regular
    edited January 2011
    I might give this a try just for the 'fun' of it :p Do I just call up a centre and ask if they're hiring?
  • JackJack Regular
    edited January 2011
    Yeah, you could do that. They'll usually make job postings on Craigslist or your local classifieds, or if you've worked in a call center before you can probably get recommendations from ex-coworkers.
  • starfox223starfox223 Regular
    edited March 2011
    I've been thinking of doing telemarketing myself.
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