Friday, September 24, 2010

Telemarketing Is Here To Stay

Insanity is defined as doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. Putting this into proper perspective, if your business has been in a financial slump for the longest time and yet you still choose to stick to your usual way of conducting your business expecting to pick up from your financial predicament, then something is fundamentally wrong. A different but smart workaround for that scenario is telemarketing.

At this point, you're probably thinking, 'why would I want to involve myself in something shady like that?' And it's a perfectly natural reaction. Nowadays, the word 'telemarketing' is chock-full with negative connotations that it would be counter intuitive on your part to get your business involved with it, and the reputation alone would be counter- productive to your business. Not entirely true.

A relatively simple reason you should always remember is, businesses big and small choose to turn to telemarketing to help promote their products or services because – telemarketing works.

The early 90's saw the World Wide Web as a new potential for businesses to grow exponentially in both consumer reach and profit. Everybody was jumping on the Internet bandwagon, turning to websites, email marketing and even SMS as the new marketing saviors which would render the telemarketing industry obsolete. For a time, this almost worked.

This was an alarming wake up call to the whole telemarketing world, prompting the industry leaders to act upon the growing threat by reinventing themselves, professionalizing their ranks and becoming full-time service call centers.

Relevance and innovativeness are but some of the reasons why telemarketing is still around. As a rule, people want to talk to people, regardless if it's personal in nature or business related. Questions and concerns has to be addressed real-time – taking down messages and relaying them, taking down orders and processing them for payment and delivery, whatever needs it may be. Telemarketers can immediately identify the needs of a prospective customer and suggest a product or service right then and there.

Whatever the future holds for the business world, telemarketing will always be there. After all, it's only thru telemarketing you can get directly into contact of your prospect with such immediacy.

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

How Can Businesses Save Money with Outsourced Telemarketing Services?

Companies everywhere are looking for ways that will allow them to bear the brunt of the economic crisis and help them move their businesses forward. This also means finding solutions that will enable them to trim down costs on domestic labor and extensively enhance their efficiency. This is where outsourcing telemarketing services comes into play. It can be a very effective and practical way to solve cost reduction and sales generation challenges that organizations all over the world are faced with today.

A reliable telemarketing service is less expensive than companies may think. Many business owners and leaders think that outsourcing at this time of economic crunch may actually increase expenses instead of reducing them. In actuality, outsourcing some functions like telemarketing can increase productivity significantly. Here's how:

Lead Generation – All companies require a steady flow of prospects in order to maintain their stability and competitive edge. A dependable telemarketing service is an excellent way not only to acquire more customers, but also to cultivate existing customer relationships. Lead generation through phone-based marketing is much more expedient over other marketing methods such as print advertising. The challenges with using this method, (with print ad being the example) include the high costs and low number of leads. With telephone marketing, companies have the advantage of producing more qualified leads with costs that are far less expensive than those produced through print advertising. This provides the companies' sales force with more opportunities to increase sales. Using a telemarketing service can help companies do away with painfully slow sales cycles that keep them from taking the process to the next level.

Reduced Training Expenses – Having an outside telemarketing team to manage sales calls, overflow calls, lead generation and appointment setting can contribute to reducing training fees for businesses many times over. It also gives the assurance that fully-trained sales professionals are handling the projects.

Increased Lead Conversion – Telemarketing service providers can help businesses in increasing the rate of sales conversion considerably. By employing highly-skilled and experienced salespeople, using well-structured scripts and providing industry training, telemarketing services can get rid of the difficulty that maintaining and strengthening in-house sales forces involves.

All size businesses have been trying to save on operational costs and a lot of organizations today have already been outsourcing certain functions to outside agencies. Aside from telemarketing, functions like customer service, data conversion, accounting/payroll and some other processes are consistently being outsourced onshore and offshore.

Outsourcing telemarketing services have helped companies develop their businesses and expand their client base and experts say that this will continue on for many years to come.

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Things Tech Companies Should Consider When Choosing An IT Telemarketing Firm

Computer business owners need a steady flow of IT leads for sustainable business development. With so many IT telemarketing firms to choose from, it is always possible to fall in the wrong hands. IT solutions providers should exercise extreme caution when deciding which IT telemarketing company they should partner with.

There are several factors technology firms should consider when choosing an IT telemarketing provider:

• Beware of business-to-consumer calling firms saying they also do business-to-business campaigns and they are good with it. There are several seasoned B2B agencies to choose from. You just need to make a careful a choice.

• It is important for the company to let you know who is representing your firm and if the cold-calling agent is well-qualified, fully trained and proficient to call on your behalf.

• They should be able to match your telemarketing requirements whether it be a short or long-term sales and lead generation campaign.

• They can illustrate the level of their experience contacting the same type of prospects you are targeting. You should be able to listen to recordings or be able to speak with the representative who will be calling for your campaign.

• The company must have a stable roster of people to manage your campaigns without interruption.

• They exercise well-founded and reasonable business-to- business practices and standards.

• The company employs the right kind of people to suit the types and levels of calling needed for prospects you like to reach.

• They utilize the technology that conforms to the kind of technology you have.

• The company should have a good reputation. That would be evident if their customers say good things about the company and their services.

Unsuccessful telemarketing partnerships between IT solutions providers and telemarketing companies happen all the time that is why it is important to be extremely cautious. Visiting the agency to see how they perform is also an excellent idea, and many of today's telemarketing firms offer a trial run. It is your company's prerogative to do all that is necessary to reduce risk and ensure success on all your telemarketing projects.