Telemarketing is concerned with making sales over the telephone. These telephone calls go both ways, meaning that there are situations when companies initiate calls in order to sell their products and/or services, and there are situations when consumers are the initiators of such calls, with the purpose of purchasing something. The request on the part of the consumer to make a purchase may come as result of a form of advertising that he or she has encountered, such as mailings.



Telemarketing is maybe one of the most controversial ways of marketing, simply because just as they are many legitimate businesses conducted in this way, there are also many cases of abuse, when con artists take advantage of unsuspecting individuals. The amount of money that fraudulent telemarketing supposedly robs consumers off annually has reached $40 billion. But although fraudulent telemarketers are those breaking the law, it is after all the consumer's responsibility not to buy a product that seems suspicious, because no one can force another person via the telephone into making a purchase.

Telemarketing, in its broader sense, is not a complicated process, as it involves no more than three components. These are identifying the customer, executing the call, and follow-ups. The last component is the most critical of this entire process, as it determine whether or not telemarketers have reached their goal. There is no doubt whatsoever that the systematic use of the telephone was once a very good sales and marketing strategy, as it offered probably the most direct way of reaching potential customers. However, there is a very thin line between convincing clients to try your products or services and irritating them. This is the main reason why telemarketing laws are more strict now than they used to be a couple of years ago.

The huge mistake that telemarketers made was to call just about any number on any list, hoping to achieve something, instead of carefully targeting individuals who would have been most likely to make purchases. The job of a telemarketer is now all the more difficult, as any campaign must fulfill two important conditions in order for companies to get results. The conditions are that the campaign be professional and highly targeted, otherwise the risk of damaging your business reputation and wasting resources is very high.

In the United States for instance, the restrictive telemarketing laws go as far as forbidding calls between 9 pm and 8 am, giving consumers the possibility of registering with a national do-not-call list and of suing telemarketers when they have broken these restrictive laws.

It is extremely important that your business be in the hands of telemarketing companies or callcenters whose service capabilities are proven and who are reputable. This is an essential condition when it comes to the prosperity and reputation of your own business.

As you well know, telemarketing companies operate based on a callcenter. Its management is vital to the success of a business because no caller wants to wait for hours before having his problem solved or finding the information he or she is looking for. In order to maintain high service quality, sufficient staff must be provided. However, staff costs are sometimes too high, which leaves the management with two options. One refers to minimizing the number of staff present., while the other is concerned with acquiring cheaper labor. This, in fact, was one of the most controversial strategies in the telemarketing industry, because at a certain point callcenters were installed in prisons. You can imagine the violent reaction of potential customers at hearing their names, addresses and phone number were in the hands of convicted criminals!

Fortunately, this is not the case with reputable telemarketing companies, and the services they provide are excellent for both businesses and consumers.