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Anyone who has worked in direct sales knows that the environment can be tough. Generating new business each year can be extremely challenging and requires an ironclad plan – especially in a down economy. Companies like Ameridial have helped many in the field thrive with its inbound call center and marketing support.

With the help of Ameridial’s inbound call center, one of America’s largest lawn care franchises has been able to grow its business from 65 franchisees to over 185 in the 10 year period spanning from 1998 to 2008.

According to this Ameridial case study, the company was able to assist the client with its customer profiling efforts, which have paid off in the form of fresh contacts helping to generate 25 percent new business each year. The key to success has been the client’s ability to hone in on the target market and keep data pure. Franchisees are then provided with very specific and custom-tailored contact lists used for prospecting and direct marketing purposes.

The integration of highly targeted direct mail promotions and follow up has proved to be a successful strategy for the company. The client estimates that it has not only been able to reduce its costs by five percent with this model, its response rates have also doubled from .5 percent to nearly 1.0 percent.

Currently, the company is running a 10 percent conversion rate, and for each new customer that is acquired, approximately $12,000 is added in yearly revenue through contracted services. This does not encompass the many additional opportunities for add-on sales throughout the lawn care season.

This program is extremely effective as it helps create consistency across the board, no matter how new or small the franchise. With Ameridial’s inbound call center services and continued support, each franchise has the equivalent marketing muscle retained by any standard Fortune 500 company.

Ameridial uses its inbound call center services to allow prospects to call and set appointments at their convenience. It will also follow up with any prospects who don’t call on their own to try and secure an in-person appointment. Services also include placing reminder calls to prospects, letting them know that their appointment is two days away and improving the success rate of each in-person visit.

At the end of each face-to-face appointment, Ameridial gets in touch with franchise owners to find out how the process went. They are looking to ensure such details as lawn care reps were able to meet with primary household decision makers and that prospects were aware reps would be needing approximately a half hour of their time. This feedback is crucial to ensuring the continued value of Ameridial’s inbound call center activities.

The program allows franchisees to manage the quality control process from start to finish with the ability to set online calendar guidelines as well as review any calls placed to customers. Ameridial’s model frees business owners from the time consuming task of ‘pounding the pavement’ so that they can instead focus on successfully running their business.