Telemarketing often gets a bad name due to the fact that many companies use telemarketers to inundate the wrong people with phone calls to try and get them to sign up to something or pay money over the phone for a service they do not want.
However, when used correctly, businesses can benefit hugely from telemarketing due to the targeted lead generation it provides. The main aim of telemarketing is to make connections, contacting prospective customers and implementing a marketing strategy that is advertising products and services to those who are interested, not the cold calls you are used to hearing about.
What is telemarketing?
Telemarketing or telephone marketing is a communication strategy which consists in contacting potential customers by phone or mobile to offer them services, products or promotions. Different companies leverage telemarketing through a contact center.
There are two main types of telemarketing which are inbound telemarketing and outbound telemarketing. Both of these are extremely important in the prospecting process. Outbound telemarketing is when existing customers or potential prospects are contacted at random thanks to a call list or call registry, whereas inbound telemarketing occurs if a customer has already contacted the company and you are providing a follow-up call to secure a sale.
How does telemarketing work?
The telemarketing industry has evolved since its inception in the 1970s as the entire process has become increasingly more efficient. Although a lot of the time telemarketing sales representatives still operate out of large call centers, it is also becoming more common for them to make telemarketing calls and sales calls from home.
There are two main ways in which customers can be called. Sometimes, a company will simply have an extremely large database of phone numbers and the telemarketer will be randomly assigned numbers to call. Other times, there is a more methodical system at play and data analysis is used to create a narrower pool of potential customers who are more likely to be interested in what you are selling. Usually, once the initial phone call has been made, the telemarketer carries out multiple other follow up calls to attempt to secure the sale.
Main telemarketing activities and types
Despite the fact that telemarketing might seem like people just randomly call potential customers there are actual objectives and specific activities that occur within telemarketing. Below are some of the most common telemarketing activities and types.
Outbound telemarketing
This is when customers are contacted at random as telemarketers use a vast database of phone numbers to call individuals in the hopes they can sell them your good or services
Inbound telemarketing
This is when telemarketers follow up on a customer’s interest in your company’s goods or services. It means that customers have expressed an interest in your company and you are trying to sell them something in reaction to that interest.
Lead generation
These calls are done in order to gather information about potential customers. During these calls, telemarketers are trying to establish things such as the interests and demographic data of customers.
Sales
Sales is usually the ultimate goal of the telemarketer. As soon as they get onto the phone with a potential customer, their objective is to seal the deal and sell the person whatever goods or services they have to sell.
Business to business
This is a form of telemarketing in which businesses call other businesses in order to make sales. This is a way for businesses to make commercial transactions directly with each other, cutting out the middleman.
Business to consumer
Business to consumer occurs when businesses try to sell directly to consumers. These are the kinds of phone calls that the average person gets at home from a business trying to sell them something.
Functions of telemarketing
Although closing the deal and making sales is one of the most frequent functions of a telemarketer, their job is not all just about cold calls. There are actually a few different functions that operate within the world of telemarketing. Here are some of the most common:
- Take incoming calls
- Process orders
- Accept payments
- Generate sales leads
- Confirm calls
- Answer questions about products and services
- Update information databases
- Increase brand awareness
- Follow-up calls
- Create lists of potential leads
- Investigates sales issues
Telemarketing is far more than just making calls to random numbers, and there is a lot that goes into being a successful telemarketer. If you think your company could benefit from a telemarketer that can do all the above and more, Telup can help you grow your business thanks to its telemarketing services.
Telemarketing vs. telesales
Despite the fact that telemarketing and telesales are similar, there are some key differences that distinguish the two. Telesales is what the average person would recognize as cold calling. It is the people who are hired by a company to make calls to random people in order to try and sell them a product or service.
On the other hand, whilst sales is an integral aspect of telemarketing, there are also numerous other roles within the telemarketing field that set it apart from telesales. Telemarketing is more calculated and skillful and is a legitimate marketing strategy. In addition to selling to people, telemarketing helps businesses identify and generate leads, collate and analyze data as well as carry out market research that help to make the telesales aspect of the job more successful.
Inbound and outbound telemarketing services
There are numerous ways in which telemarketing can benefit your business, from boosting sales, to increasing your company’s exposure and from gathering analytics to lead generation. If you have a client list that you want to expand and a product or service that you are looking to sell, telemarketing is the perfect solution for you.
Hiring a company like Telup to elaborate your telemarketing strategy is the perfect way to reap all the benefits of telemarketing without having to do the hard work yourself. Our aim is to stimulate business growth, which we do through prospecting, appointment setting, sales and customer retention. We also offer a service to outsource front office tasks that might otherwise be time consuming to allow companies to focus on key aspects of their business.
