Telemarketer A.k.a. a Thief Like a Lead Company; what to Do?

[honestagent]

Hi I have a situation and need some advice. Please.

Can we as agents prevent telemarketers from taking our scripts and or clients and churning them to a different agent who may compensate them more?

I know telemarketers who do this and this is no different than a lead company taking your mail piece (say if you designed your own) and sold it to X number of other agents - which as you know, now your lead is no longer unique nor exclusive.

Besides having them sign a contract (which in theory works, but in reality doesn't because who's got time and $$$ to hire a lawyer to pursue legal action if or when this occurs), what else can we do to protect our marketing scripts and clients?

Thanks much in advance.

I have a situtation and need your expertise if i can prevent this from happening.

 

[senior-advisor-indiana]

I doubt there is anyway to prevent that. That's why you should sell your prospects the best thing out there and follow up like you should. There really isn't anything special about scripts, the only thing I would be concerned about is leads. I would never give a telemarketer a lead though or client information.

 

[Stephen]

Hi I have a situation and need some advice. Please.

Can we as agents prevent telemarketers from taking our scripts and or clients and churning them to a different agent who may compensate them more?

I know telemarketers who do this and this is no different than a lead company taking your mail piece (say if you designed your own) and sold it to X number of other agents - which as you know, now your lead is no longer unique nor exclusive.

Besides having them sign a contract (which in theory works, but in reality doesn't because who's got time and $$$ to hire a lawyer to pursue legal action if or when this occurs), what else can we do to protect our marketing scripts and clients?

Thanks much in advance.

I have a situtation and need your expertise if i can prevent this from happening.

The best way to prevent this from happening is to compensate your telemarketers fairly. Not to imply that you aren't. but you know what your telemarketer is worth, an agent that has never worked with him/her does not.

 

[honestagent]

Okay so thank you both for your advice.

Here's a story. I'll make it short. A while back ago, i went captive for a while. During this time, the call center I trained (which ended up getting a national account after we gleaned X numbers of prospects converted to clients at a very low acquisition cost) the owner of the call center got really greedy, turned around and utlized the same script with other agencies/carriers! Several of her callers followed bad behavior as well with independent agents working deceptively after hours from their homes.
(learned all of this after i quit from a viable source). So i know it to be as true as true as the hair on my head is naturally dark... okay so...

The scripts aren't appointments; they're very tactfully crafted pre sold appointments. In other words they're already sold. The agent just needs to go out and take the app. it's a smarter way of working esp. with gas, time, etc. etc. It's less appointments but def. a more qualified and guaranteed sale.

So, if and a big if I decide to work with a marketer, i do NOT want to encounter this again!

That's just a disaster i want to avoid and besides calling myself, i really don't know any other way to protect the scripts and clients besides a contract and or if i pay them well but even paying them really well I fear at some point they'll turn on me.

Take for example we as indy agents, ask yourself this. if you can get a higher contract writing the same carrier, you're only going to stay with X (fmo) for so long before you make the jump b.c. you want / need more. It's human nature, call it greed or whatever, it is what it is. So we as agents always have to plan for a divorce, sadly. The marriage with bz. partnerships is never indefinite - at least that's been my story so far in my life.

i wish it were different.

Any other advice?

Thanks again for replying; greatly appreciate it!! : )
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Who is the company? Please share with us.

The telemaketing company is no longer in bz. LOL.. The owner ended up having a heart attack shortly after i resigned - that i also learned. Witch! i won't say she deserved that.. but apparently i also learned that the irs was auditing them so that is what motivated her to take the scripts and flip the clients too (That were all stored in their CRM system) to rid the audet and IRS.

From what i learned now, she went back to her former profession: nursing.

 

[Stephen]

Hire a professional , have them sign a non compete protecting your IP as a deterrent, and pay them a fair wage for their market value, and make money together.You are the boss.

 

[senior-advisor-indiana]

Okay so thank you both for your advice.

Here's a story. I'll make it short. A while back ago, i went captive for a while. During this time, the call center I trained (which ended up getting a national account after we gleaned X numbers of prospects converted to clients at a very low acquisition cost) the owner of the call center got really greedy, turned around and utlized the same script with other agencies/carriers! Several of her callers followed bad behavior as well with independent agents working deceptively after hours from their homes.
(learned all of this after i quit from a viable source). So i know it to be as true as true as the hair on my head is naturally dark... okay so...

The scripts aren't appointments; they're very tactfully crafted pre sold appointments. In other words they're already sold. The agent just needs to go out and take the app. it's a smarter way of working esp. with gas, time, etc. etc. It's less appointments but def. a more qualified and guaranteed sale.

So, if and a big if I decide to work with a marketer, i do NOT want to encounter this again!

That's just a disaster i want to avoid and besides calling myself, i really don't know any other way to protect the scripts and clients besides a contract and or if i pay them well but even paying them really well I fear at some point they'll turn on me.

Take for example we as indy agents, ask yourself this. if you can get a higher contract writing the same carrier, you're only going to stay with X (fmo) for so long before you make the jump b.c. you want / need more. It's human nature, call it greed or whatever, it is what it is. So we as agents always have to plan for a divorce, sadly. The marriage with bz. partnerships is never indefinite - at least that's been my story so far in my life.

i wish it were different.

Any other advice?

Thanks again for replying; greatly appreciate it!! : )
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

The telemaketing company is no longer in bz. LOL.. The owner ended up having a heart attack shortly after i resigned - that i also learned. Witch! i won't say she deserved that.. but apparently i also learned that the irs was auditing them so that is what motivated her to take the scripts and flip the clients too (That were all stored in their CRM system) to rid the audet and IRS.

From what i learned now, she went back to her former profession: nursing.

Why would you give telemarketer client info? I'm always paranoid about ppl taking that info. I didn't even tell my TM, when I used one, what appointments I sold usually...

 

[honestagent]

Hire a professional , have them sign a non compete protecting your IP as a deterrent, and pay them a fair wage for their market value, and make money together.You are the boss.

That goes back to my original concern. Thanks so much, however.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Why would you give telemarketer client info? I'm always paranoid about ppl taking that info. I didn't even tell my TM, when I used one, what appointments I sold usually...

They have complete access to the crm and can copy down all leads and clients who were converted over and that's how they steal.

: - /

 

[rousemark]

Hi I have a situation and need some advice. Please.

Can we as agents prevent telemarketers from taking our scripts and or clients and churning them to a different agent who may compensate them more?

I know telemarketers who do this and this is no different than a lead company taking your mail piece (say if you designed your own) and sold it to X number of other agents - which as you know, now your lead is no longer unique nor exclusive.

Besides having them sign a contract (which in theory works, but in reality doesn't because who's got time and $$$ to hire a lawyer to pursue legal action if or when this occurs), what else can we do to protect our marketing scripts and clients?

Thanks much in advance.

I have a situtation and need your expertise if i can prevent this from happening.

Not much you can do to protect clients but if you actually write the script or lead pieces, you can copyright them. This would give you a course of action against anyone who used it without your permission should you decide to pursue it.

 

[honestagent]

Not much you can do to protect clients but if you actually write the script or lead pieces, you can copyright them. This would give you a course of action against anyone who used it without your permission should you decide to pursue it.

Great idea! Thank you so very much for this!!

 

[Cory]

Sorry for you plight honest agent, but short of having a supervisor there looking over their shoulder the entire time. TMs can recycle that script and even get your leads i.e. print the lead, take a pic with cell phone, write it down... IF they really wanted to and know way to track what goes on after work. But, I think you can get a feel for a person and karma will get you (I mean them) every time...good thread.