What is Telemarketing?

Telemarketing is a method of direct marketing in which a salesperson solicits prospective customers to buy products or services, either over the phone or through a subsequent face to face or Web conferencing appointment scheduled during the call. Telemarketing can also include recorded sales pitches programmed to be played over the phone via automatic dialing.

There are 2 types of telemarketing:

Outbound is proactively contacting both the prospective and existing customers

Inbound is the reception of incoming calls/orders.

Telemarketing is categorized according to target audience:

B2B or Business to Business which means that one business makes a commercial transaction with another.

B2C or Business to Consumer which targets individuals or residential customers. Consumer goods and/or services to customers through multiple channels of distribution to earn a profit.

Telemarketing provides the following services:

Lead Generation which is gathering of information

Appointment Setting either by phone or office meeting between a client and an interested prospect

Data Profiling includes cleansing, verification, deduplication and management of contact details

Call-to-Invite is inviting and registering prospects to an event

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Setbacks

After over a couple of decades of success, Telemarketing started to face setbacks as regulatory bodies like the US Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991, ACMA (Australian Communications and Media Authority), and Singapore’s PDPC (Personal Data Protection Commission) imposed DNC (Do Not Call) and DNE (Do Not Email) policies. A list of contact details in a secure database where individuals and organisations can register, check or remove their telephone, mobile and fax numbers to opt out of receiving most unsolicited telemarketing calls and faxes.

Scams and frauds, robocalls, spamming emails, high pressure sales techniques (being too pushy), telephone slamming (swapping service without the customer’s knowledge) and off-timing calls (calling prospects early in the morning, late in the evening or even during weekends) were common complaints among prospects which caused implementation of the said restrictions.

Related: Lessons Learned from a Robot Telemarketer: Samantha West

Is Telemarketing still at its best?

Improved processes and technologies helped telemarketing surmount challenges and made it still one of the many preferred marketing strategies by businesses. The prospecting process has grown into a smarter scheme, designed to help you get at the foot door of your target prospects at the best time – when he is most ready and interested.

Technology advancements like platforms integration of marketing automation tool and the crm, auto dialers, and data washing tools effectively deliver multi-touch, multi-channel marketing programs that could power up efficient lead management, campaign monitoring and lead nurturing.

While seasoned and skilled sales and marketing people continue to acquire new experiences and learn new knowledge to stay competitive in the field. Below are simple, condensed reminders they tell themselves before making telemarketing calls:

Have the target list washed to get rid of dnc and dne listed contacts

Set up an automation scheme that will deliver the right message to the right prospect at the right time

Maximize all the marketing channels like voice, email, social, web and mobile to generate sales-ready leads to scale up sales numbers.

Each call offers an opportunity to succeed.

10 years ago, telemarketing was predicted to disappear from the business realm

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Reference:

Wikipedia, www.donotcall.gov.au, www.pdpc.gov.sg

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