The pros and cons of using telemarketing

Telemarketing can be an effective means for a business to make sales and increase profits potential. This sales method allows small businesses to expand outside of the local business area. Despite giving businesses the opportunity to reach out to more prospective customers, telemarketing can take longer to get positive sales results, according to Entrepreneur. However, connecting with customers generates leads, some of which eventually turn into sales. Telemarketing can be an effective tool for your business and it can be an easy and effective way to increase profits and promote your product or service. However, it does have some disadvantages that you should also consider.

PROS

The main benefit of using telemarketing to promote your business is that it allows you to immediately gauge your customer’s level of interest in your product or service. Additionally, it allows you to do the following:

• provide a more interactive and personal sale service
• create an immediate rapport with your customers
• explain technical issues more clearly
• generate leads and appointments
• sell from a distance to increase your sales territory
• reach more customers than with in-person sales calls
• sell to both existing and new customers
• achieve results that are measurable

CONS

There can be as many negatives using telemarketing as there are positives. You need to consider that:

• telemarketing can be resented – particularly when dealing with business-to-consumer customers, and when calls are made in the evenings
• customer lists may not always be clean and opted-in – this leaves you with a potential risk of breaking the law
• customer lists can be very costly
• telemarketing has a negative image that could damage your business’ reputation – if carried out poorly
• telemarketing has the potential to replace a sales team and this could lead to negative feelings among employees
• training staff can be time-consuming and costly
• an outside service provider can result in your losing control over your sales processes because the people doing the work aren’t your employees