When people hear the word 'Telemarketing' they usually picture a call center full of robotic staff that have scripts in front of them and not much product knowledge. I was once part of that picture.
My first experience of telemarketing was for a telephone market research company and it was exactly as described as above, robotic and scripted (not to mention boring!). Anyways to cut a long story short I went from industry to industry to learn first hand about strategic and online marketing; to learn about what works and what does not. I have tried and I have tested.
One thing that has become obvious is that EVERY business should be using, or at least considering telemarketing as part of their marketing plan! No matter what the product or size of your company, speaking to prospects and existing customers still remains as powerful as it was 20 years ago, even with today's technology! Having said that, there is a secret to using telemarketing …
The secret of successful telemarketing lies in how you use it. Consider this; if you receive a call from another business asking you to spend your money with them, on a product you know nothing about, would you buy? Of course not! You do not know them or trust them! In my opinion, telemarketing is most effective when it is used as a supporting tool. Here's a good example …
I used to be the Marketing Manager for a Telemarketing company, who's primary services are Appointment Making and Lead Generation for the IT and telecoms industries. They do not SELL anything. They simply call on behalf of IT and telecoms resellers to gather intelligence, and identify projects, timescales and budgets. Even once that is done there is no selling involved. The next step is for their client to meet with the prospect and decide on a way forward. It's that simple! Had this telemarketing company decided they were going to close the prospect for a purchase, what do you think the income would be !?
So to sum it up for you …
1. Telemarketing is still one of the most powerful methods of reaching potential customers
2. Telemarketing is still the best way to identify qualified leads
3. Telemarketing immediately allows you to identify relevant contacts
4. Telemarketing works because EVERY business has a phone … And most importantly
5. Telemarketing will NEVER be replaced
