Telemarketing Ideas

Telemarketing' means telephone-based research, appointment making, or other information exchange. Telephone selling (or telesales) is where an actual sale can be made over the phone, such as advertising sales. I will use the term 'telemarketing' for the sake of simplicity. Using the telephone to sell is hard work, isn't it? If you have just agreed with this statement - I guess that you have had a go at telesales. Countless thousands of salespeople have 'earned their stripes' by selling on the phone. This happened to me when I tried selling life insurance, in the City of London (I lasted for a whole three days).


Telemarketing is expensive - on a cost per contact basis (because of the labour costs involved). However, money is a relative commodity, isn't it? Yes, teleselling is expensive - when you compare it to, say, direct mail. However, it is also extraordinarily effective. This is because it is a live medium, where objections can be dealt with, appointments made and decisions reached - just as in a face to face selling situation. BUT without the time involved in travelling, not to mention the training and experience which is required to become an effective salesperson.


As always in marketing - decide what your objectives are. Do you want people to request further information? Are you trying to organise sales meetings? Or can you actually take orders over the phone? Always set targets for the number of calls, and / or the number of Decision Maker conversations, or the number of 'successes' (appointments, direct sales, etc) which you will achieve for each session. It is amazing what people will achieve, if you set them a target.


In telemarketing, the research shows that you only have a few fleeting seconds to grab someone's attention, before they 'switch off'. They then immediately kick into defensive mode. Then all they want to do is get you off the line. So you have next to no time to say something interesting and attention grabbing. I have seen countless salespeople and so-called telemarketers waste this 'Golden Time'. Here is the key: establish that you have experience of helping other people with their job title, in their industry with a series of issues which they are probably facing right now.