Discuss the use of telemarketing in sales

Discuss the use of telemarketing in sales

Although telemarketing has been the centre of some controversies, the industry continues to grow. American Telemarketing Association found that, during the mid-1990s, telemarketing accounted for more than $450 billion in annual sales, a figure that is expected to continue to rise through the foreseeable future (Catherine 1998, 31-34). Telemarketing is defined as “a direct marketing method, which is concerned with selling products and services to prospective customers via the telephone (Bolick 1996, 33).”

Telemarketing can be either inbound or outbound in scope. Inbound telemarketing is any incoming sales or service from viewers and listeners who want to order the advertised product or ask for more information. Representatives working in this type of telemarketing program normally do not need as much training as outbound telemarketing because the customer already has shown an interest by calling in. Some inbound applications are order taking, customer service, help desk, and many more (Simon 1991, 65).

Conversely, outbound telemarketing is the practice of making phone calls to prospects or existing customers done by a marketing person. Representatives working on this side of the industry generally require more training (Mohebi and Hechter 1993, 36) and product knowledge, as more actual selling is involved than with inbound operations. Some outbound telemarketing applications include phone sales, appointment setting, and lead generation (Mills 1988, 31).

Telemarketing can offer companies a number of benefits over other forms of direct marketing. First of all, telemarketing can be a particularly valuable tool for businesses, in that it saves time and money as compared to personal selling, but offers many of the same benefits in terms of direct contact with customers. Another advantage of telemarketing is that it is more cost effective than performing direct sales. It makes selling more efficient because company can get more selling done in less time. It is easy to generate leads using this method and lists of people's phone numbers and other contact information can be purchased (Judith 1999, 34-37). Eventually, firms can attain competitive advantages by defeating competitors to the customer by using outbound telemarketing to increase the number of contacts firms make with each customer (Laure 1993, 168).

Although, telemarketing can be an effective tool for companies, but it does have some disadvantages. A main disadvantage of telemarketing is that it is considered a nuisance by many people. The negative image of this form of selling may tarnish the reputation of your business. More people are using technology to screen out telemarketers and other unwanted callers (Karasik 1994, 20). Moreover, telemarketing can be costly both monetarily and in manpower hours. Customer lists can be expensive and most of the contact information on them could be useless. For example, most of the people on a contact list may have no interest or use in what you are trying to sell. Company may be making a lot of calls but not getting any new customers. It may be time consuming to train their staffs on how to sell your product over the phone and you may need to prepare a well-written script (Jordan 1983, 30).

In conclusion, by using telemarketing, it will not only help firms to save a tremendous amount of time, but their cost of sale will drop dramatically and improve their sales ratio too. Even though, there are some disadvantages of using telemarketing, but if company can use it correctly and by professionals, it can be a very invaluable weapon for company in this modern marketing era.