Can Telemarketing Deliver?

If you want to gain a lead in the market, then perhaps it’s high time for you to use the most reliable marketing method employed by businesses – telemarketing. It’s cheap, the results are fast, and the prospective customers are most likely the ones who would want to take advantage of your offers.

As for the question above, yes, telemarketing can deliver. As a form of marketing, it has developed into a special profession where people spend most of their time on the phone, whether they are going to sell or merely set appointments. These people, aptly called professional marketers, are at the forefront in the marketing game, using all possible tactics to convince customers to buy what they had to offer.

Why does it work? Well, that’s because there’s nothing that can attract more attention than a ringing phone. Whether you like it or not, you or someone else will have to answer it. If those marketers at the other end of the line are skilled enough, you might just be persuaded to listen to what they have to say. Besides, you might be the type who prefers talking directly to the sellers instead of just watching some commercial. At least you can tell them directly what you think of their offer. If you’ve got any complaints about it, then you can be sure of a swift and efficient solution from them.

So if you want to stay on top of your game, think about getting some telemarketing firm to do the job for you. Not only will this save you time, this will give you the advantages you’ve been looking for.

Of Telemarketing and Fraud

“Blood sucking vampires…” That’s just one of the most common descriptions you might hear from people when they talk about telemarketing and telemarketers in general. It’s not nice, but it can’t be helped. With complaints about abusive, fraudulent, and misleading telemarketers creating a virtual mountain, it won’t be hard to understand why this industry is usually seen in a bad light.

That’s also the reason why legislators have exerted a lot of effort to regulate and control telemarketing call centers. Laws and regulations have been passed that often restrict the actions of telemarketers. Often, this pertains to the interaction between the telemarketer and potential customers.

The most notable of these is the Do Not Call list maintained by the Federal Telecommunications Commission. People who do not want to receive calls from a telemarketing company have their numbers included in the list. Another restriction imposed is the time permitted to call. Telemarketers will have to take note if the number on their list is either too early to call or too late to call. Lastly, in some places and states, additional permits and licenses are required before a telemarketing call center can be setup and operate.

Despite these restrictions, telemarketing continues to flourish. It can’t be denied that telemarketers have what it takes to get products or services sold, leads generated, customer concerns dealt with, and appointments set. There are businesses who still believe in the power of a well-placed telephone call.

Besides, these regulations are just meant to protect people from lecherous and fraudulent schemes. After all, what’s there to hide if there’s nothing bad to show?

The Basics of Telemarketing

You are probably already familiar with the words telesales, telemarketing or cold-calling – and like most people, you probably associate these words to people calling at inopportune times to sell something. On the other hand, there are also several people who can attest how effective telemarketing or telesales is in terms of making a business profitable.

There are two existing types of telemarketing. One is business-to-consumer (B2C) which refers to any company that markets or sells primarily to end consumers or individuals. The other one is business-to-business (B2B) which refers to any company that seeks business opportunities from other companies. B2C telemarketing usually involves hard-selling methods for the purpose of converting individuals into buyers while B2B telemarketing is a more conservative way of turning prospects into loyal customers which typically entails longer sales cycles.

These two types of marketing can be carried out in two ways – inbound and outbound. Inbound calling is generally used for customer service while outbound calling is used commonly for lead generation, appointment setting and market research.

There are several companies that integrate telemarketing with other forms of marketing such as direct mailing and online advertising to maximize their marketing efforts. In most instances, salespeople make follow throughs or follow up calls until they have secured a sale.

In order to acquire new business, companies use different phone-based sales or marketing methods. Two of the most commonly used telemarketing strategies are hard-selling which requires a significant amount of persuasiveness and soft-selling which is ideal for getting repeat business.

Below are the steps in a typical telemarketing call:

• Opening. The telemarketer introduces to the prospect the company being represented and the product or service being offered.

• Presentation. This is where the caller briefly demonstrates the benefits of the product and asks probing questions to the prospect to identify how the service or product can be an advantage to the person or the company.

• Objection handling. At any point in the telemarketing call, a prospect may object or decline what is being offered. Skilled telemarketers know how to handle such objections with efficient rebuttals.

• Closing. This is where the telemarketer is expected to complete the process and secure a sale or set an appointment.

A script or call guide is necessary in all telemarketing calls in order for telemarketers to deliver efficient, conversational statements about the service or product. A good script should cover various telephone marketing scenarios that agents may encounter.

Now that you know what telemarketing is and how it works, it is up to your intelligent decision-making to consider its possibilities and start increasing your business' profits.

Telemarketing: Proving It Works

The plethora of fraudsters and scammers nowadays trying to pass off as legitimate telemarketing companies, is evidence enough that telemarketing works. Either that, or you could find an abundance of companies out there, each with their own unique success story on how telemarketing helped them with their sales and marketing. Whichever way you look at it, there's absolutely no doubt that the system, techniques and methodologies of telemarketing works. But with so many worries about legal action, to ensure the success of your telemarketing campaign, some necessary steps has to be undertaken.

Picture the prospective customer's face upon answering the phone during dinner – not a pretty sight. But that 'minor inconvenience' for you is exactly the kind of 'inconvenience' that could tarnish your business' reputation. That's why laws are in place regulating business to business telemarketing services to be familiar with specific time frames for calling as well as having a list of individuals who have said they do not want to be called (Do Not Call List). Initially, these laws may strike you as unfair as it seems they're only intended to protect the consumers. But look at it this way, it's also a good way for the telemarketing industry to maintain the most highest of standards and maintain an aura of professionalism.

A couple of years earlier, and it happens you came across an article like this saying that telemarketing works and that you should try it, you would probably dismiss it as BS and frankly, I wouldn't blame you. It would be challenging to convince any respectable business that the telephone can trump the automobile and the salesman's own two legs as far as increasing sales and being profitable is concerned. But for those businesses who blindly yet boldly went where no other businesses would – and became marketing success stories, they'd probably say it was a 'leap of faith'.

For whatever it's worth it, 'leap of faith' or whatever reason they may had at that time, one thing is for certain – telemarketing works. It worked before and thanks to some tweaking in the methods and techniques used, it continues to work still.

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.

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.

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.