Tele marketing, a powerful and cost effective marketing tool

The business or practice of marketing goods or services to customers by means of the telephone or of surveying consumer preferences in telephone conversations is telemarketing. Telemarketing provides immediate feedback and valuable information that can be quickly analysed.

Telemarketing consistently outperforms all other forms of marketing and is the most powerful, cost-effective marketing tool available today. It should be part of our marketing plan.

Telemarketing also called telephone solicitation is the only form of advertising that requires an immediate response. Since 1987, Custom Telemarketing Services has been focused on outbound telemarketing projects. Newspaper and magazine ads, radio promotions, billboards or direct mail demand little or no immediate attention. They can all be ignored. Not telemarketing. When the phone rings, the natural response is to answer it. Rarely do you just ignore it.

Telemarketing is a form of direct marketing where a salesperson uses the telephone to solicit prospective customers to sell products or services. The prospective customers are identified and qualified by various means, including past purchase histories, previous requests for information, credit limit, competition entry forms or application forms.

Names may also be purchased from another company's customer database, or obtained from a telephone directory or some other public list or forum. The qualification process is intended to find those prospective customers most likely to purchase the product or service being sold or advertised. Charitable organisations, alumni associations and political parties often use telemarketing to solicit donations.

Telemarketing provides with endless opportunities to increase and better the business. Telemarketing is the ultimate marketing tool. Some popular outbound telemarketing applications include appointment setting, lead generation, surveys, market research, list cleaning, database update, seminar registration, fund raising, phone sales, client reactivation etc.

Any company that wants to stay in touch with their customers or potential customers needs automated telemarketing. Communicating with other companies are covered with Business to Business (B2B) telemarketing.

The major strength and benefit of telemarketing is the high proportion of time that can actually be spent selling. Compared to a conventional field sales force for example, there is no time spent on travelling between calls or sitting in reception rooms waiting for buyers. Effective telemarketing campaigns delivered by web enterprise benefit the business with lead generation, targeted enquiries, raised profile and awareness and ultimately new business and contacts.

Telemarketing has gotten a bad rap from all the con artists trying to scam people, but one thing still holds true.... it still works. Some products are sold entirely over the phone still. Good telemarketing firms can help you hone down your pitch and increase profitability.

I. Yasokaran, Dept. of Management, Faculty of Commerce and Management, Eastern University, Sri Lanka.