Sunday, December 7, 2008

confessions of an outrsource-alholic

It has been around 4 months since I got a call from a "Zaldy" who referred to himself as "Dwight". He told me that he was calling from a company called "Buy The Staff" .. It was a discount outsourcing company located in Cebu, Philippines. He was persistent and called me around 3 times within the same week. At first he told me that his rate was 8.50 cents an hour... " $8.50 AN HOUR?" I shouted...

"I can get a college student to make cold calls for that amount of money", I shouted back....

"O.k.O.k.O.k" He trembled... I could hint out the desperation for a sale in his voice...
" how about you pay us based on commission... for every qualified lead you should pay us 15 dollars... "

" Yaah, but what constitutes a qualified lead" I barked back..

Zaldy thought for a second and said: " any lead that is a good lead..."

" what a sucker..." I thought to myself.. " I can pretty much charge this guy whatever I feel like..."

"Ok fine...lets start tomorrow" .. He excitedly responded back...

Thus was the beginning of my love affair with outsourcing.... Everyday 2 or 3 Filipino workers would be doing one of my most hated tasks ( and most sales peoples hated tasks...) . The task of "cold calling" .. Calling up total strangers..Getting hung up on...Getting sworn at.. Doing that repetitive and monogamous task that only required a few brain cells to do... Who could ask for anything more?