Master Plumbers was formed in 1901 to protect, develop and promote the interests of the plumbing trade in New Zealand. Today, Master Plumbers is the brand name consumers trust. It tells them that their plumbing, gasfitting or drainlaying is done by a Quality Assured business and backed by the Master Plumbers Guarantee.

While the organisation typically gains 40-50 new members a year, it also loses some due to natural attrition as plumbers retire or sell up. Keen to expand their membership base, Master Plumbers decided on a telemarketing strategy to generate appointments with potential new members.

A hot referral

Master Plumbers purchased a contact list of plumbing company owners in New Zealand. At first, they considered working through the names themselves to identify prospects. But soon realised that their resources were limited, and the process would be too slow.

Following the suggestion of a business partner, Greg Wallace, Chief Executive for Master Plumbers, approached Hot Leads. “We had a glowing recommendation about how good Hot Leads were. Our partner rated them highly, so we decided it was well worth talking to them about how they could help us grow our membership.”

“The whole process was very professional,” said Margaret Dawson, Operations Manager for Master Plumbers. “We worked through our value proposition and provided information on why a plumber would want to join our organisation. We used Skype to meet the Hot Leads team and were impressed with their maturity, experience and organised approach. And we felt very confident that they’d represent our brand well on the phone.”

A brilliant pipeline

In just 60 hours, Hot leads made 1033 calls to New Zealand plumbing businesses. They talked to over 400 decision-makers and booked 125 prequalified appointments for Master Plumbers to follow up.

In fact, Hot Leads generated so many appointments, the Master Plumbers sales team had to reschedule some just to keep up with demand. “It would be fair to say that we were very surprised by the level of engagement,” said Margaret, “and probably a bit under-prepared for it!”

Hot Leads also identified a sizeable number of businesses who wanted to follow up by phone. As well as all the meetings, Master Plumbers now has a strong future-prospect list.

What’s next?

Master Plumbers still have another 1000 contacts they’d like Hot Leads to call, but this time they’ll take a staggered approach. Master Plumbers will also use Hot Leads to drive member attendance at the organisation’s next annual conference.

And does she recommend Hot Leads? “Absolutely, yes!” Margaret says. “It’s the best thing we did. If we’d tried to do the project internally, we’d never have got that level of knowledge or engagement. It would have been impossible.”

“I highly recommend anyone to use Hot Leads. They’re honestly top class.”