Is Telemarketing an Obsolete Sales Technique?

Telemarketing is a telephone based form of direct marketing. Over the past 20 years, telemarketing has grown by leaps and bounds. Telemarketers take sales calls, answer consumer's questions, generate sales leads, and make follow up calls for generating business. Teleservicing is a strategy that services more customers and geographic areas than businesses were able to in the past. It allows for personal communication between clients and businesses without having to meet face to face.

Advantages

The one big advantage of telemarketing is the interactive and personalized way of communicating. Customers are able to speak to representatives with their inquiries without having to travel to the business. They can ask about a specific product from the telemarketer who takes the time to personally explain all the options available to the consumer.

Usually, telephone salespeople work from a pre-determined script when making the sales call. The advantage of telemarketing is that it allows the salesperson the flexibility of changing the script to the needs of each customer. Telemarketing also allows the salesperson to give the customer other available offers and choices while speaking on the phone.

Telemarketing is a relatively inexpensive form of marketing that reaches targeted audiences. It also offers new businesses a way to get immediate sales and customer base. As a promotional tool, telemarketing gives the entrepreneur a form of emphasizing the benefits of the new business and how it will benefit the customer.

Disadvantages

Even after realizing all the benefits of telemarketing as a means of generating business, there are disadvantages, as well. Today's market requires business to set realistic goals and proper execution of the telemarketing medium. A telemarketing plan needs to be developed in order to have success. Training telemarketer personnel in presenting the scripts, answering the customer's questions, and how to follow up on leads is essential for success. Many businesses don't develop or analyze their telemarketing campaigns which results in failure.

Many consumers consider telemarketing to be intrusive and annoying, especially when calls begin from early morning until 9:00 at night. As telemarketing gained popularity as a means of conducting business, consumers were deluged with unwanted calls. With the onset of caller ID, many sales calls go unanswered or the customers register on the government's 'No Call List', enacted on June 27, 2003 by President George W. Bush, which prevents telemarketers to contact registered phone numbers.

Future of Telemarketing

As with any marketing business that grows in popularity, so do the scams. Telemarketing has been saturated with disreputable businesses and scams since its implementation. According to the Federal Government, scammers use telemarketing to cheat consumers out of billions of dollars each year. These con artists have given the telemarketing business a huge blow. Because of the many scams victimizing the public, the federal government has stepped in with legislation that requires the telemarketing industry to register their telemarketers in each state.

This legislation adversely affects telemarketing because of the stringent qualification required by the government. Some of the legislated requirements include: bonding, submitting the scripts used by the telemarketers, the names of the telemarketers, and devices for tracking the phone calls. Other legislation requires telemarketers to limit the hours in which they are allowed to make calls.

The future of telemarketing looks bleak in today's economy. People are struggling with everyday necessities and do not have the money for making purchases from a telemarketer who calls with non-essential products. Not only that, but most consumers are aware of all the scams that take place and are not willing to give out their credit card information or make purchases over the phone.

Another negative tactic that the telemarketing industry utilizes is predictive dialing which programs a computer to dial the calls, assuming a phone salesperson will be available when the customer answers. More often than not, when the customers answer the phone, they hear only dead air and hang up. After a few of these predictive dialers, people no longer answer the calls. Predictive dialing is rampant and has transformed telemarketing into an impersonal marketing strategy rather than the personal communication method it was originally designed as.

According to Walter Mossberg of the Wall Street Journal, (May 8, 2002), "Telemarketing is one of the banes of modern life. The volume of unsolicited sales calls pouring into the average American home is so irritating that many folks would do just about anything to stop it."

Rebuilding Telemarketing

The old ways of telemarketing are over. Customers react negatively to cold calls, scripted sales pitches, and pushy salespeople. If the telemarketing industry expects to survive in this economy they need to rebuild the consumers trust, following all regulations to the letter and even making their own regulations for further protecting the consumer.

Businesses implementing telemarketing as a sales technique need to protect the customer's privacy by researching ways to make the consumer's security their number one priority. Utilizing technology that is cutting edge in the field of security of all customer's information and data is needed for telemarketing success.

The world of telemarketing has changed but remains a useful tool if organized, improved, secure, and trusted by the public. As with all industries, change is good and can lead to better business practices for both the telemarketing industry and the consumer.

Resources:

"Direct Marketing." Encyclopedia of Small Business. Ed. Laurie Collier Hillstrom and Kevin Hillstrom. 2nd ed. Vol. 1.

"Telemarketing." Encyclopedia of Small Business. Ed. Laurie Collier Hillstrom and Kevin Hillstrom. 2nd ed. Vol. 2.

Grafica: "The Future of Outbound Telemarketing"