Phone and Telesales, although two separate entities are, quite often confused. While Telemarketing and Telesales each requires a different set of skills and qualities, they also have much in common, and very often can be linked in many ways. Basically Telemarketing services are used to improve product awareness, and generate interest in a product or service. Telesales, on the other hand, is used to sell a specific product or service.

Telemarketing as a service, can include many different aspects; from appointment and lead generation, to a simple and professional company, product, or service introduction. Telemarketing is best used to raise company profiles and generate interest in a product or service. Very often the results from a good telemarketing campaign can create lots of valuable sales opportunities.

Telesales is a service which is a direct sale of a product or service, where as the telemarketer will make the appointment the Telesales team will then follow up and close the sale. Telemarketing requires a great good level of people skills, and a very good, experienced Telemarketer will be able to drive a campaign in a confident, perseverance, and professional manner without sounding sales oriented.

The main function of a Telemarketer is to build up a solid relationship with the client, and providing that the foundations have been built correctly by the telemarketing team, they can prove to be priceless to the sales team. Very often Telemarketing and Telesales are conducted by the same company, which in most cases proves to be very successful. All of the administration and communication is completed in house which makes for a very tidy and professional job.

Any campaign targeted sales promotion will benefit from the skills of the telemarketing or Telesales professionals, and both lines often leads to a record company to expand, and the greater profit of the company’s expansion. Usually the first representative of a company, it is important that you select the correct phone users to represent your company the way you want, and we all know that first impressions and confidence of customers is the best platform for partnership long-term business.

Now that you’ve made the smart choice and you’ve finally decided to migrate your sales and marketing efforts to Telemarketing, there’s definitely nowhere else to go but up. Of course, the time it will take for your company to get there will depend entirely on how you approach this matter and how efficiently you maximize the most out of your telemarketing efforts.

Will you do it in-house or will you outsource? If security is an issue for your company and you’re quite convinced not one of the many telemarketing call centers out there can assure you of your company’s data security or you think that you can give your company that unique advantage because it’s one of your company’s core competencies, you’d probably do your telemarketing campaign in-house. Naturally, there will be additional costs but if your company doesn’t mind shelling out more, then, it’s all good. A company who chooses to do it in-house must:

- Hire qualified employees
- Train the employee
- Pay employee wages and benefits
- Provide the employees their own workstations
- Provide the technology needed like a computer, software and hardware, phone, Internet access, copier, fax machine, etc.
- Pay for telecommunications costs
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Often times the company opting for the in-house approach incurs additional expenses on top of the existing one for certain events force majeure such as:

- Scheduled vacations
- Unscheduled absences
- Unscheduled sick days
- Unscheduled Family leave
- Maternity leave
- Amazingly with outsourcing, the company must only:

- Locate a reliable and high-quality vendor
- Pay the vendor for the services provided

Looking at the reasons listed above, it seems obvious why majority of companies switching over their sales and marketing to telemarketing, choose outsourcing as the most practical and cost-effective solution to increasing their profit. Management can focus more on resolving core issues without distractions because their outsourced services are being taken care of by the telemarketing side.

It’s important to know and understand that telemarketing is not the be-all end-all of sales strategies. Instead, it’s just one method of performing the sales process. Just like other tried and tested sales method, success in closing a sale over the phone is dependent on finding qualified prospects to call.

But let’s be clear, not all telemarketing programs are successful. Some fail due to improper handling and execution, unrealistic goals on a short time frame, oversimplifying important concerns, and lack of top management support. These reasons just to name a few have caused good telemarketing campaigns to fail just like that. Like any marketing strategy, telemarketing takes careful, well thought planning and development. It needs nurturing. It takes time to gain confidence in the process, identify areas for improvements, and to predict results.

Some of the most common mistakes telemarketing companies make:

- Telemarketing wasn’t even considered as an option
- The lack or absence of total commitment
- Failing to develop a proper database and lead generation
- Improper human resource planning and allocation
- Not having proper scripts and call guides
- Lack of quality control

Identifying the most common reasons why telemarketing companies fail and learning from them should be a good start for you and your company. Hopefully, we’ve also established that outsourcing your sales and marketing endeavors is the only choice if success is to be guaranteed. These should put you a little closer to being a mature, marketable and profitable company. Be a step ahead of the competition, in a manner of speaking. Now that you know all these, it’s time to act, sit back, relax and let the gears of telemarketing turn and work to your advantage.