Business Telemarketing Strategies

Outsourcing to Firms vs Sales and Marketing Employees

Basic telemarketing strategy comes in two forms – the first involves having employees in sales and marketing contact customers. The other, more widely used method is to outsource the actual calls to a marketing firm.

Having employees call directly from the office can have a much more customer-oriented feel, where the product or service being offered is advertised by someone with direct tie-ins. However, the major drawback lies in overusing manpower, time mismanagement, and in a company not having the right personnel for direct sales. Outsourcing to a firm also has its drawbacks in the actual sales process. For example, having an outside company interface with customers potentially increases the chances for miscommunication and damage to your brand and its image.

On the other hand, outsourcing also has its selling points. Firms that are familiar with the calling and sales process already understand the laws and regulations that apply to a telemarketing campaign and also already have the adequate equipment and manpower established to handle lead generations.

This can save in long run of having to train or hire specifically for telemarketing services, especially in cases where the advertising is for a seasonal promotion or a trial product.

In addition, telemarketing firms have much more experience in the field, and have expertise in creating and filtering customer lists, drafting scripts, and managing campaigns with tracked results. Telemarketing firms have a much more established process of testing and monitoring new programs and offers within small groups.

Also, firms have effective ways of taking your service across time zones and even taking your campaign global, where the firms themselves often have international branches that can communicate in multiple languages.

Typically, a telemarketing firm will be based out of a warehouse-type call center with stations divided by cubicles or tables with their employees processing and placing calls throughout the day. These employees will oftentimes be the first point of contact between your business and your potential buyers, so it is important for you to pick a firm that you feel that you can trust to represent your brand effectively. Good firms should have high satisfaction rates from their own employees. Doing a bit of research on these firms yourself can also help in the long run firms with employees with long work histories tend to have employees that are more experienced salespeople who can motivate buyers and represent your product better. Many of these firms pay commission to their sales staff, so the firms with high employee retention rates also have higher sales.