Your marketing strategy may call for selling some or all of your products and services over the telephone. Telephone sales, or telemarketing, is a widespread method for making contact with prospects and closing sales. Telemarketing can also be a way to sell new or additional products and services to existing customers.
While telemarketing has a bad image in many households, it encompasses more than those invasive phone calls that come during dinner. Telemarketing means any contact with potential or actual customers over the telephone. Handled right, it can be an efficient and effective tool in making sales.
Today's telemarketer, however, has to break through more communication clutter than ever before. You are not only competing with messages from other telemarketers for prospects' attention, but also with advertising, news broadcasts and a myriad of other marketing communications tactics. Consider carefully the advantages and disadvantages of telemarketing before commiting to a major campaign.
By its very nature, telemarketing creates a unique selling environment. You are solely dependent on your telephone skills to make the sale.
It's important to realize that telemarketing is not an entire sales strategy. Instead, it's just one part of the sales process. And, as is true with other selling methods, success in closing sales over the telephone is dependent on finding qualified prospects to call.
Some other points you might want to consider in using telemarketing as a sales strategy are:
Dealing with Gatekeepers
The Telephone Sales Presentation
Pointers for Successful Telemartketing
Your primary sales strategy may be to sell directly from a store location or with personal sales calls. Telemarketing, as one component of your sales strategy, however, can add to your sales success in these other venues. For retail stores, it is always nice to do a follow-up call with customers and, perhaps, mention an upcoming sale. And, for personal sales calls, it is certainly more efficient and cost effective to telephone prospects ahead to introduce yourself and make appointments for a personal visit.
Making these types of calls is also telemarketing. The goal might be to complete a task such as setting an appointment for a sales presentation, finding out who the appropriate person is to contact for a sales call, introducing existing customers to new products or services, or closing a sale.
Telemarketing can be a useful tool in your total sales process. Do not overlook its possibilities because of the negative image many over zealous marketers have given it.
