Direct Mail: Call center vs Voicemail vs Answering Call Yourself

[Miles Stanley]

Setting up to launch a direct mail campaign ASAP and i am contemplating three ways to handle the incoming leads:

1. Answer every call myself
2. Set up and pay for a call center
3. Let each call go to voicemail and call back later

Answer every call myself

This is not ideal for me bc i work an 8-5 so i cant just step away every time the phone rings just to get rejected 90%+ of the time by tire kickers.  i can see where this could yield a higher conversion rate, but it just isn't feasible.

Set up and pay for a call center

This seems very appealing bc they receive calls and pre-screen leads with a script and send me just the filtered leads with the pertinent info i can use to analyze the property.  Yes its a paid service, but would allow me to focus on work without running out every so often to answer a call.

Let each call go to voicemail and call back later

This seems like the best approach, its free and i can deal with leads on my time.  BUT i still need to filter through and qualify leads and determine true motivation.  My hope is that making them leave a voice mail will help filter out most tire kickers bc i would think a truly motivated person wouldn't mine leaving a message.  Plan is to use google voice so i get a transcript and notification when this happens.

Does anyone used or swear by any of these methods?  I'm not trying to overthink this process, but i want to do it "right" from the beginning and not waste money.

i appreciate any input!

Thank you!

[Ryan Dossey]

@Miles Stanley

**Disclosure. I own an answering service** 

First question that I have... How much mail are you sending? 

Answer calls yourself: If you can commit to actually picking up the phone. Even when you're out to dinner, late at night, early on Sat, etc. Great! This gives you awesome rapport with the sellers. 

Word of caution: Have you ever heard the term telephone tough guy? If someone is pissed off about your marketing... And they get the cause of their pissedoffness on the phone... They're going to tell you just how they feel about your (insert favorite sentence enhancer) marketing tactics. (Even though chances are you're doing nothing wrong.)

Set up and pay for a Call Center: This is personally my preference if you have folks with a REI specific background. When you have someone who doesn't know how REI works try to pretend to be your assistant it can get awkward and cluncky. You want to make sure that you're not slamming sellers through a 50 point questionnaire. You'll hear the typical "you mailed me you should know" response.

My experience: I make more off of REI than owning an answering service will ever pay me. I personally haven't had to take a call in years. I'm buying houses every month and I can run my business from anywhere in the world. I've literally spent time in Italy, Spain, France, Portland, Nashville, Saint Louis, and others while running my business just this year.

Let calls go to VM:

We're actually going to be releasing a formal case study. But we're currently calling We Buy Houses companies all over the country who have spent the time to set up a website and do SEO. You know what we're finding? Right at 3% of them actually pick up the phone. If you want to dominate your competition actually pick up when folks call you. If I'm a motivated seller who needs to sell and you don't answer... What do you think I'm gonna do? Call the next guy!