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What is Telemarketing? Definition, Benefits & Skills

What is Telemarketing Definition, Benefits & Skills l NeoDove

It takes an average of 8 cold call attempts to reach your prospect.

Reaching new customers is the most crucial way for the survival of any business. 

For better conversion of leads for businesses, there is a need for various marketing strategies – especially, an effective telemarketing strategy. 

A popular way to reach more people is through telemarketing. It is a sure-shot method of selling goods and services to customers. 

For better lead conversions, you need to employ various marketing strategies and successful telesales strategies

Telemarketing helps small to large businesses to accomplish their entire selling process. In fact, person-to-person communication is known to be a proven way to acquire leads. 

In this article, we are providing you with in-depth information about telemarketing and how to build your own telemarketing strategy.

What is Telemarketing? 

Telemarketing or a telemarketing strategy is not a new concept. It has been used for many decades by many businesses to generate leads through the phone. Just like in the past, telemarketing comes with ample benefits in this day and age too.

What is Telemarketing_ - NeoDove

A telemarketing sales process is a simple process of generating leads, selling products or services. It is especially useful for gathering customer information over the phone. The telemarketing sales process techniques can work as a valuable tool for small businesses.

In fact, it saves you money and time as compared to personal selling. Moreover, telemarketing offers the same benefits as a business gets from direct contact with leads. 

Although it’s expensive compared to mail, it tends to be more efficient and effective to close deals. Alongside this, it also offers great revenue. 

Why is Telemarketing important?

A telemarketing strategy is the best tried-and-tested marketing strategy for small businesses. This is especially true if you’re looking to sell your goods and services in hard-to-reach locations. 

Why is Telemarketing important_ - NeoDove

Telemarketing usually comes in two scopes, they are inbound and outbound. 

Inbound telemarketing is all about you receiving calls by leads generated through direct mail and other ways. Outbound telemarketing is a great way to contact your end consumer. It is aimed directly at a lead. 

Representatives working in outbound telemarketing require training about product knowledge and upselling techniques to generate more leads. 

Major applications of B2B telemarketing strategy consists of various aspects. For example, selling to existing customers, inbound order processing, outbound new lead generation, customer service, and more. 

A telemarketing sales process is an in house marketing way to generate leads and sell goods or services. Using your telephone professionally is a cost-efficient and flexible medium to reach customers. 

Telemarketing is a perfect replacement to face-to-face interaction and selling with your existing customers. 

Read: Difference between telemarketing and telesales

The Benefits of Telemarketing 

The advantages of a telemarketing strategy are immense. A telemarketing strategy can help to lift a business to a new level. Since it is an efficient method to get more contacts, it’s known to be an effective marketing tool. 

The Benefits of Telemarketing - NeoDove

There are several benefits of a good telemarketing strategy. Here are some of the main benefits you should know:

1) It works 

The main positive of telemarketing is that it simply works well for every business, regardless of type and size. It creates a vast range of opportunities for your business to target a market. 

The most effective method of creating successful telesales strategies is updating existing customers. Besides that, acquiring new customers is the crux of  telemarketing. 

A telemarketing strategy is flexible and effective and helps your business to change the strategies as per its needs. The method works great for lead generation, promoting products and services, getting feedback, and more.

A telemarketing strategy can be well integrated with the on-field sales team to get better results. Telemarketing creates great opportunities to compete and provides a unique way to understand customers’ needs.

2) Reduces operational costs 

Telemarketing is one of the cost-effective methods for a business to generate leads, update customers and get feedback. A telemarketing strategy is cheaper to implement than other marketing ways, especially when it is outsourced. 

Telemarketing does not require many costs as there is no constant requirement of resources. All a business needs is a team of telemarketing representatives, telephone, good internet connectivity, and various simple tools. 

Apart from cost, a business also tends to save time with a telemarketing strategy. One can sell products or services to many people in less time. 

3) Boost sales 

Telemarketing is all about selling. With the help of a telemarketing strategy, your business can easily boost sales efficiency. 

Telemarketing gives a business the benefit of getting immediate response through instant sales. 

During the call, a telemarketer can immediately close the deal. As every customer is different, successful telesales strategies and their implementation are dependent on the ability of your salespeople. 

Telemarketing can increase sales as long as the company is doing it the right way with the right strategies. It is the job of a representative to convince customers over a call. This is the reason training is a vital aspect of telemarketing. 

Training helps a person to get maximum product knowledge about the product or services they are selling. 

4) Offers better interactive sales service 

With the help of a telemarketing strategy, a business representative can create an immediate rapport with customers. Here, humans have direct contact with customers. 

As such, telemarketing has a positive impact as most people prefer buying products from a person. 

During telemarketing, salespeople are able to have interactive conversations with their customers. This way they can easily build trust and relationships with prospects. The best part of telemarketing is it is available 24×7, offers great sales services and customer support.

5) Expands business reach 

Another proven benefit of telemarketing is it helps in expanding your business reach. It gives you an opportunity to reach our customers who are even located at a long distance. 

Telemarketing increases sales territory and allows a business to reach more prospects. It offers a significant advantage for a business to get more business opportunities. 

When there is an expansion of business reach through telemarketing,you can focus on new customers. Not only does telemarketing help in that, but it also helps you deal with existing customers. 

You can always follow up with existing customers and keep them updated about new offers, regardless of their location. In this way, telemarketing is effective no matter where your customer is located.

6) Gets immediate feedback on products and services 

A telemarketing strategy helps you understand whether your customer is interested in your business. Telemarketing is an effective way to gather information or feedback about the product or services you offer. 

Telemarketing also allows you to discover more about the experience of the client with your brand. 

Along with this, a business can easily get feedback or ask for comments through a simple call. This greatly helps in building a strong relationship. In this way, customers can feel you care about their feelings. 

Asking for suggestions and comments helps a business to start working on improving your products or services. Direct contact with customers through telemarketing gives the benefit of getting instant responses from existing customers. 

A telemarketing strategy further helps in moving ahead of your competitors.

7) Creates an effective database 

Telemarketing allows a business to have an effective database. A telemarketing strategy helps in determining the demographic of customers. 

Additionally, you also need to ask relevant questions to make an effective database. This gives you details about common problems of customers.

Furthermore, databases help in identifying some patterns for your business that reduce operational cost and save time. With the help of an effective database, a business can easily boost sales. 

Your sales representative just needs to gather the right information about customers and competitors. 

8) Helps in connecting with decision-makers 

This is a part of B2B telemarketing. It helps in connecting decision-makers with businesses. 

The chances are higher when the boss is busy or not around. In these cases, telemarketing allows a representative to connect with the second-in-charge before they make their own decision. 

Telemarketing helps in speeding up the process of making decisions by going straight to the top. All a business needs is to contact the right person.

By having a telemarketing strategy, a business can save time and money and even help in closing the deal quickly. You can do this by convincing decision-makers why your services are beneficial for customers. 

9) Leads to face-to-face meetings 

Always remember if a customer is ready to hear you on call, they will probably be ready for face-to-face meetings. Telemarketing helps in setting personal meetings. 

This is important as it allows a business to show the demo of their products or services. Instead of waiting for your customer to be proactive, it’s always better to set an appointment on call.

A face-to-face meeting is very important for closing the deal. With telemarketing, your customer builds trust in your business. 

10) Keeps track of results 

When we talk about the results of telemarketing, they’re highly measurable. A business can get a detailed report of its telemarketing strategies by analyzing every step of the process. 

This analysis helps in knowing which methods are efficient and which are not. Also, if a business is keeping a track of sales, it helps in the growth of the business. 

Track reports help in knowing when and where your products or services are in demand. This data helps in improving your business’ telemarketing strategies.

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The Disadvantages of Telemarketing 

Now that we know more about the benefits of telemarketing, let’s examine some drawbacks. Let us now take a look at some disadvantages, like:

1) Training telemarketing representatives increases the operational costs and is time-consuming. 

2) It has a negative impact on the on-field sales team, which gives a negative feeling to employees. 

3) Customer data or lists can be costly which further increases the cost of the business. 

4) B2B telemarketing comes with a high risk of losing control of the sales process. This is especially so when an outsider service provider has opted. 

What is the importance of telemarketing in lead generation? 

As we know there are four types of telemarketing. They’re inbound, outbound, B2B and B2C telemarketing. However, the main importance of telemarketing lies in lead generation. Let us discuss why it is important. 

1) Information 

We all know that telemarketing helps in creating databases. More importantly, all successful businesses function with the use of databases. 

They contain customer numbers along with information like their buying pattern, pain point, and more. 

The database is used by representatives to generate leads. It is important to increase the number of leads/ existing subscribers. Alongside this, there are multiple uses for the database. 

Along with storing information for telemarketers, it guides representatives on their work path. 

2) Helps in raising brand awareness 

Telemarketing helps a business to expand its name all around. Building customer relations can help in spreading good words about your business. 

This creates awareness about the products and services the business is selling. Word of mouth is still the best way of spreading brand awareness. 

So, when your existing customer gets great quality from your side, they surely spread the word. Thus, implementing this in your telemarketing strategy increases your sales. 

3) Helps in marketing goods and services 

Telemarketing plays a vital role in selling goods and services that a business provides. It also helps market your business.

4) Gives a chance to follow up 

If you don’t want to give up on existing customers, telemarketing allows for follow-ups. Following up with customers keeps them updated about the changes or new offers. 

Moreover, it is important to close the last call on a happy note. As such, it is perfectly fine to call the customer for the next follow-up. 

5 Tips for Successful Telemarketing

Telemarketing is quite a useful skill when you want to connect with more prospects. 

Tips for Successful Telemarketing - NeoDove

Here are five effective strategies your business can incorporate to do well in telemarketing: 

1) Combine telemarketing with social selling 

It’s good when a business is working on combining inbound and outbound marketing strategies. This method creates a great impact by the business and helps them reach your target audience. 

The best way to do telemarketing well is by combining your strategy with social media. 

Using social media platforms to reach prospects is the best way to get their attention. For example, social media channels like Facebook, Instagram, direct mail, and more. 

They make it easier to connect with customers in intervals. Furthermore, when a customer is aware of your business, they’re always ready to talk to you on call. Having a perfect pitch on social media channels and on-call makes it easier to close the deal. 

2) Leave a voicemail 

Usually, many businesses think the rule of thumb is not to leave a voicemail. However, this practice should not be overlooked. It is important to always leave a voicemail. 

Leaving a voicemail informs the customer about why you called. In addition to this, it convinces them to call back to know more about your product, services or updates. 

Leaving a voicemail also helps your prospect be clear about what they want from you. 

3) Make the cold call lukewarm first

Both strategies stated above help in turning your call into a cold one. Any conversation that you have with a customer is not unnecessary and helps form better relationships. 

Make the cold call lukewarm first - Gisella

People being well acquainted makes conversation relaxed and informal that allows you to speak to prospects at ease. 

Remember it is important to stay confident on your first call. Don’t rush things, and convince the prospects to believe you. Having confidence and patience will help everything go smoothly. 

4) Do not forget the call to action 

As per studies, it’s important to have a call to action at the end of every content. However, this isn’t only true in the case of writing, but in calls as well.

Being a telemarketer, one must know what has to be the desired outcome. As such, you must then convey the same to the prospect at the end of the call. 

Here, a call to action has to be the next step. This applies whether it’s a sales demo, a follow-up time, meeting schedule time or anything regarding the next step. 

5) Follow up with personalized email 

Whenever possible, it is always effective to leave a personalized email after a conversation. You can follow up with a thank-you email or recap a point you discussed on the call. 

Following up with a personalized email leaves a professional impact on your customers. Sending an email helps in clearing misunderstandings, solidifying the exchange, and more. 

Personalized messages are a perfect way to go with telemarketing. They strengthen your relationship with your customers. 

Being good at telemarketing means that you are a sales professional. But to improve your strategy, it’s never a bad idea to incorporate the above-stated methods. 

What are the basic skills that a Telemarketer needs? 

If you’re looking for a telemarketing job, check the best platforms for telemarketing jobs, to find the right fit. Before you get to work, here are some skills that you must develop to do any telemarketing job effectively:

1) Friendliness 

An effective telemarketer should have a positive and friendly attitude on the call so that customers feel comfortable. Moreover, they’re also likely to open up in conversation more. 

This creates a positive impact on your business image as well as on customers. A personable nature and good listening skills are a must for a telemarketer to close deals quickly. 

Important Tip

Avoid mushy conversation as it risks losing potential customers. A kind approach with an understanding attitude establishes trust between your business and a customer.  

2) Good communication skills 

Many telemarketing companies focus on hiring employees who have good communication skills. As such, it’s important to be a fluent speaker.

Strong communication skills are vital for the success of any telemarketer. A telemarketer must be able to read, speak and listen to a particular person fluently. 

Good communication skills help you respond in a positive manner to customer queries. 

Important Tip

Clearly articulate information, listen actively, and adapt your communication style to connect effectively with diverse customers.

3) Product knowledge 

Regardless of what type of product or service you are selling, you need to have product knowledge. All telemarketing companies are willing to employ people who are ready to get and understand products quickly and effectively.

This is because they can then offer the same knowledge to their customers. A perfect telemarketer has to be well versed about product lines and trained well to answer customer queries. 

A telemarketer who does not answer customers’ questions quickly tends to lose leads. Thus, product knowledge is an important skill to be a successful telemarketer. 

Important Tip

Deepen your understanding of the product or service you’re promoting, to address customer queries confidently and convey its value persuasively.

4) Persuasiveness 

A successful telemarketer is able to persuade potential customers about the need for products or services they’re selling. 

There comes a need for a persuasive attitude and ability to demonstrate the product or service virtually on call. As a telemarketer, you must stand firm and overcome objections to close deals effectively. 

Important Tip

Craft compelling messages that highlight the benefits of your offering, tailor your pitch to address customer needs, and use persuasive language to guide them toward a positive decision.

5) Resilience

Telemarketing often involves facing rejection or objections from potential clients. Resilience means not being disheartened by these challenges. In fact, you should be bouncing back from setbacks, and maintaining motivation to continue making successful calls.

Important Tip

Embrace rejection as an opportunity to learn and refine your approach, turning setbacks into stepping stones for success.

6) Active Listening

Beyond just hearing, active listening involves fully comprehending what the customer is expressing. Telemarketers must grasp the nuances of each conversation, allowing them to respond thoughtfully and address customer concerns effectively.

Important Tip

Focus intently on the customer’s words, ensuring you understand their needs and concerns before responding, leading to more meaningful conversations.

7) Customer Service

Telemarketers act as ambassadors for the company, and exceptional customer service skills are crucial. This involves not only addressing current needs but also anticipating potential issues.

Important Tip

Anticipate customer needs by being proactive, and go the extra mile to exceed expectations, building long-lasting positive relationships.

8) Positivity

A positive demeanor is infectious. Telemarketers who convey positivity create a more enjoyable interaction for the customer, fostering a better impression of the business.

Important Tip

Infuse your interactions with optimism, creating a pleasant experience for customers and enhancing the likelihood of a favorable response.

9) Problem-Solving

Telemarketers encounter a variety of situations that require quick thinking. The ability to analyze issues on the spot, devise creative solutions, and navigate unexpected challenges ensures smooth communication and successful outcomes.

Important Tip

Cultivate a solution-oriented mindset, swiftly adapting to challenges and finding creative resolutions to address customer inquiries effectively.

10) Determination

In the face of inevitable rejections and obstacles, determination keeps telemarketers focused on their goals. 

Important Tip

Stay persistent in pursuing leads, maintain a strong work ethic, and use rejections as fuel to drive continuous improvement and success.

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    Conclusion

    As you can see, telemarketing can either break or make a deal. If it is done in the right way it can grow your business. However if not done effectively, it can lead to loss of potential customers. 

    Ensure that you only use the best telemarketing strategy for your business with the best telemarketing platform. NeoDove gives you the flexibility to implement good telemarketing strategies all in one platform. 

    Give your business a much-needed sales boost with NeoDove. 

    Book a demo today!

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