Telemarketing

Definition: Telemarketing refers to a technique of two-way direct marketing wherein the telemarketers, promote, solicit and sell the company’s products and services to potential customers, over the telephone.

In simple words, telemarketing is the marketing by telephone, wherein telephone acts as the main channel to connect with prospective buyers. It does not involve a direct face to face contact.

Example

Think of the calls from retail enterprises encouraging you to come over and get the latest collection at a discount, it is nothing but ‘telemarketing’.

Objectives of Telemarketing

The objectives of telemarketing are listed below:

1. To create awareness about the products and services offered by the company.
2. To book orders.
3. To conduct market surveys
4. To invite the audience to visit the store.
5. To set up an appointment.

There are many companies that rely greatly on telemarketing include Internet Service Provider, Financial Services, Home Security Systems, Insurance Companies, etc.

Functions of Telemarketing

Telemarketing is the marketing tool which helps in advertising the company’s offerings. It is a marketing strategy used for targeting new and existing customers for:

• Generating sales lead,
• Audience acquisition,
• Market research,
• Customer satisfaction,
• Confirmation calls,
• Product launch invitations,
• Sales campaigns,
• Database cleansing and updating,
• Informing about sales and discount offers,
• Post-sales follow up
• Increasing brand awareness and so forth.

The objective of making the call is to be made clear in advance.

Who is a Telemarketer?

Telemarketer is a sales representative, who makes a call to the potential customers, with an aim of making sales. They are either employed by the company, whose product they solicit over the telephone, or by the third party call centre firms, which specialize in telemarketing services.

Kinds of Telemarketing

There are two kinds of telemarketing, discussed hereunder:

Inbound Telemarketing

Inbound Telemarketing is one in which the company advertises the product or services and they have a number for interested customers to whom the telemarketers have to call, either to place the order, to register, or to make an appointment, etc. Hence, in inbound telemarketing, the customer himself initiates the calls and shows their interest, with the company.

The best thing about inbound telephone marketing is that the customer reaches out, the company when it is convenient for them.

For example: If a customer sees an ad in the newspaper about the sale of electronic items and just want to have more information regarding the discount available, then the customer just needs to call the telemarketer, who will be there to answer the questions that the customer have.

Outbound Telemarketing

Outbound telemarketing is one in which the telemarketer employed by the company or the telemarketing firm calls the potential customers, and follows a proper script. In this case, the telemarketer contacts the customer directly with an aim of closing the sale. Everyone is aware of such calls, as it is related to our day to day lives.

For Example, Think of the calls received to update your internet plan to get faster and better internet, it is an example of outbound telemarketing.

What is Robo Calling?

Robo Calling is one of the highly intrusive versions of telemarketing, which involves the use of pre-recorded message, i.e. sales pitches, which are programmed to be played, by way of automatic dialling machine. The machine can contact many people in a single day.

As we all know, telemarketing sometimes sounds irritating and the calls are also reported as spam or fraud carried out over the telecommunication network, has prompted the need for the backlash to stop this marketing practice.