The perfect cost per appointment

How much should you pay per appointment from a telemarketing firm?

Unfortunately, the answer is..."it depends". Primarily it depends on one piece of information: the value of a customer to your business. Of course there are many ways to calculate that value...net profit, gross margin, etc...but what really matter is that you just pick one, know why you did and then stick with it.

Here's an easy-to-use method for calculating customer value in this article.

Once you know your typical customer value, decide how much of that you are willing to spend acquiring a new customer. This is usually a percentage of the customer value and varies widely between industries, depending on typical gross margin and market maturity. We've had clients pay anywhere between $150 and $1,200 per appointment and in every case the number represented a reasonable percentage of customer value.

Most important, realize the cost per appointment will typically increase as your appointment-setting program matures. Your telemarketing firm should be able to explain when this will happen and what can be done to keep the cost from jumping substantially.