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Direct Marketing
Effective telemarketing depends on choosing the right telemarketers, training them well and providing
incentives to perform. Telemarketers should have pleasant voices and show enthusiasm. Women are more
effective than men for many products. New telemarketers may, at the beginning, train with a script and
eventually advance towards more improvisation. The opening lines are critical; they should be brief and
lead with a good question that catches the listener’s interest. The telemarketer needs to know how to
end the conversation if the prospect seems to be a poor one. The call should be made at the right time,
that is, late morning and afternoon to reach business prospects and evening hours to reach households.
The telemarketing supervisor can build up telemarketers’ enthusiasm by offering prizes to the best or
top performer or the first one who gets an order. An accurate and adequately selected telephone list is
very essential in telemarketing.
CONSULTATIVE SELLING: the technique of consultative selling would be useful to a telemarketer.
Consultative selling technique puts an emphasis on what the customer needs and wants. It involves
listening more than talking; objections are addressed, not overcome.
The seller asks a series of questions to find out if and how the seller’s product, service or idea will help
the prospect. The questions are probing and open-ended. The telemarketer looks for needs and desires
that are not being met or that can be met more fully, a greater part of this process requires that the
telemarketer listens actively. Telemarketing programme can be used to assist business in its marketing
functions. Benefits that a firm can derive include:
• Increased potential customer sales
• Sales upgrading
• Encouragement of multiple orders
• Old accounts reactivation
• Support for the current sales teamADVANTAGES OF TELEMARKETING
- RECEPTIVENESS: most prospects are more receptive to telephone calls than to personal
contact. - IMPRESSIONS: unbiased first impression can influence sales success. The telephone can
help reduce many of the prospect’s biases because prejudgments can be based only on the
caller’s voice. - MORE PRESENTATIONS: a conscientious field salesperson may obtain one quality prospect
out of five calls, but he would be able to make at least close to three calls per day, thus
making the interest of contacted prospects. - WIDE GEOGRAPHIC COVERAGE: telephone salesperson can penetrate markets anywhere
in the world where telephones are available.