Telemarketing: Generating Leads

Of late telemarketing has become a popular method by which businesses can generate leads. Such lead generation through telemarketing usually uses prerecorded messages and is of two main kinds. Inbound telemarketing and outbound telemarketing, in the first the system dials up any number and in the second it sticks to a given list.

Telemarketing is a more effective technique of generating leads, because though mails or other forms of advertising may be ignored by the recipient, a telephone call is usually answered, thus giving the telemarketer a scope to get a lead. Also this technique is adaptable to various kinds of circumstances; the telemarketer can answer the various queries of the potential customer on spot.

In the case of inbound lead generation it is the customer who evinces interest by calling up the company, and inquiring about the goods or services they have to offer. It is obviously the preferred lead generation type. The prospective customer has shown his interest first and it is the telemarketer’s duty to answer all his questions and sustain his interest in the product or the service. Sometimes people call up to ask about discounts and other offers, here too the telemarketer has to perform the role of informant.

In case of outbound telemarketing it is more difficult. Because the telemarketer who is calling up the potential customer is doing so uninvited, so it may result in a case of cold calling. The recipient of the call is not expecting the call, so they do not always welcome such calls and behave rudely. Only the best telemarketers can deal with a cold call successfully. Outbound callers are often supplied with a list of people who might be interested in the product or service and then its their job to single out customers.

Lead generation system is an alternative for telemarketing nowadays. Thee are machines which can dial random phone numbers, and then a prerecorded message is played. These machines are cheaper though sometimes people hang up before listening to the message. If lead generating machines are provided with a list of numbers of people who might potentially be interested it might prove more effective.

Lead generation telemarketing is the field for young people who can communicate well. It is a cheap, cost effective, fast method of generating leads and increasing sales. It is also easy to adjust this type of telemarketing to various situations.

Telemarketing And Telesales

Although several companies find the idea of using telemarketing or inside sales people to boost their business ridiculous, there can be no doubts about the effective nature of telemarketing in the present age, as has been proved by several big companies. Telemarketing is especially effective when it comes to increasing the sales and contributing towards the overall growth. It’s a highly productive way of doing the job when compared to employing professionals for outside sales strategies.

Telemarketing or inside sales people come in useful when it comes to filling up the fissure that forms between marketing, lead generation and people involved in field sales.

Most companies apply telesales and telemarketing techniques in the following ways:

• For lead generation qualification or to follow up on the leads that are provided by the marketing programs.
• For executing inside sales functions and closing deals-which can be done over the phone.
• This is a model which combines the above idea. Here, companies qualify opportunities, close the appropriate deals over the phone and transfer bigger relationship based sales opportunities on to the outside sales personnel.

If you’re considering increasing sales field personnel or introducing a new sales field department, then remember that through telemarketing or inside sales, you can improve your sales efficiency without having to spend a bomb on it.

The things that you need to remember once you’ve decided to introduce inside sales or telemarketing personnel within the company are the following. If you don’t have enough experience in this area, then it would be a good idea to secure the consultation or outsourcing powers of trained individuals who can help you set this up. An outsourced pipeline or telesales development consultant with adequate experience can influence your company in a positive way, thus ensuring your success.

However, the absence of knowledge regarding this area could affect the company in a negative rather than a positive way. Many companies have realized this the hard way with the failure of their telemarketing or telesales projects, simply because those controlling these projects did not have sufficient management skills. It is thus necessary for you to hire good managers when you hire the personnel who are slated to do the actual telemarketing. An able telemarketing professional can help you with every aspect of the job, even those which you could easily discard as petty. A professional will be able to guide you through the various aspects such as the target, the way to approach individuals, and of course, the all important message and the selling proposition that can set you apart from other businesses in the same field. He/she can also guide your telemarketing force through the necessary details such as the script and the call flow.

An able professional consultant will also help you to make the right decisions when employing telemarketing professionals for the job. Thus, telemarketing can easily help you tap outside resource if you’re seeking to put additional sales resource on the job.

Telemarketing Myths

Telemarketers are considered, most often these days, as people who would pest your life forcing you to listen to every word they have to utter, any time of the day. This is what telemarketing has boiled down to. And things will get worse if such myths are not busted as quickly as possible. For most part, certain telemarketers are surely to blame for creating such an impression of the entire industry as a whole. There are, however, others who practice the most ethical and genial technique of telemarketing. Their callers do not infest your life at critical moments. They respect the privacy of others. If they as asked never to call again, they simply stop.

However, in order to help bust the myth so as not to miss out on anything important, even the customers called must follow certain practices. Here are a few things they must keep in mind.

• If you are being called at a wrong time, do not abruptly snap the caller away and give him or her a piece of your mind without first listening to what he has to say. For all you know, he might be offering you a good deal on something that you were really looking for. Give the caller a chance
• If you are still being pestered even after you have shown no interest or the product the caller is calling for is of no interest to you, you may politely tell the caller that you are not to be disturbed and that you are not interested. Good telemarketing agencies respect the privacy of customers and pursue only those who might be interested.
• Conversely, some people have a habit of appearing enthusiastic to everything giving a false impression that they are actually considering the deal, which may not be the case. The least you can do at first is just listen to what the caller says, ponder over it if it catches your attention and get back to them. Or, wait for them to call you.
• You can also choose when to take a call. If you are busy you do not necessarily have to answer the call. You can choose to ignore it and take it when they call again at some later point. Ignoring these calls indefinitely is not a good idea either. You can take it when you are free, see if had anything interesting to offer you, and politely decline. They will automatically put you off their calling list!

Telemarketing: The Advantage

Telemarketing is gradually becoming the most popular and the most effective way to market a product these days, so much so that it is even leaving television, radio, and newspapers far behind. The following article aims at giving you a brief introduction to what are the implications of telemarketing and what its advantages and disadvantages are.

What is telemarketing?

As the name suggests, any marketing done over the telephone can be categorized under telemarketing. What one required\s for this purpose is the telephoning resource and a staff that will make and take these calls. Telemarketing can be of two types. First is the inbound telemarketing which entails being a part of the customer care where customers can call in and clear their doubts about your product, etc. the second is the outbound telemarketing which means aggressively advertising and marketing your product by calling up people and talking about it to them.

Knowing the Advantage

• The first and basic premise on which telemarketing works is the use of the telephone. This, in the sense that a ringing telephone is something that one just can’t ignore. You may miss an advertisement on television or on the radio. You may skip through an advertisement that you see in a newspaper. But if someone calls you, you listen to that person to see what he or she has to say. This can be more effective than other forms of marketing.
• Telemarketing makes the potential customer’s relationship with the company more personal and interactive. An ad on TV can easily be forgotten. Plus there is a sense that it is there fore everyone to se, whereas a call is made personally to only one person at a time by one caller.
• Telemarketing establishes a platform for dialogue right away. If the customer finds your product interesting, they may have a question they’d like to ask you. Your telecallers can immediately satisfy their queries, building trust with the potential customer.
• Such telemarketing call centers function all through the day and also in the night. You can call a customer at a time that they prefer most so that you do not catch them in the middle of something very important or infringe on their privacy. your staff must be trained to determine the best time to call a particular customer at. If the customer is free, chances are that he will pay more attention to what the caller is telling him than when he is busy.

Telemarketing: Use It Effectively

Telemarketing has grown to become the one of the most effective means of marketing if utilized in a proper way. The following are some of the ways in which telemarketing can be executed to get maximum benefit out of that or your organization

• Make a list of all those things you would like to achieve using telemarketing. For instance, if you wish to increase your sales, make new clients, build on your office staff, etc, you will need to delineate these requirements to decide which of these you want the telemarketing portion to handle. Everything can basically be handled by telemarketing; you will just have to decide what exactly you want it to do.
• Train your telemarketing staff well, both on voice and off voice. This is important because they must be clearly briefed about what exactly is expected of them and how they are to go about it. Your company’s motives must necessarily be reflected in how they approach the clients when they call them.
• It is also a good idea to divide the telemarketing staff according to the kind of personality and age group they belong to. College students turned telecallers are more likely to strike a chord with students and youngsters rather than professionals and lawyers, for whom the more mature and concrete telecallers will be required to convince them.
• You also need to make sure of the technology you are using and whether it is, at all, suited to your telecallers. This is because your staff needs to be adapted to this kind of technology so that they may successfully exploit them
• You also need to constantly keep motivating your staff. You must realize answering calls all day is not an easy and exciting job. But if you manage to make it so by motivating your staff, your customer care unit, for example, can function extremely well and help you retain customers.
• Try and get your staff to develop an intuition regarding the people who they are to follow up. Only the person who makes the call can judge whether the person will at all be converted to a customer. This is important because you do not want to waste time and resources pursuing someone who wouldn’t convert.
• Keep a constant check on the progress you are making using this form of marketing so that you can work on the areas that are not bringing in fruitful results.
• Finally, make sure the person being called is listed with either Telephone Preference Service (TPS) or Corporate Telephone Preference Service (CTPS).

Telemarketing: Hiring A Firm

A professional telemarketing firm is one of the major requirements of any business that wishes to expand its client base using telemarketing techniques. For a business that has just started, the owner himself can dial up a few numbers and talk to t6hem about the product to see if they are interested. But once the business begins to roll, responsibilities and work increases in many folds and services of an agency or a firm providing telemarketing services becomes inevitable.

Here are some reasons why you will require the service of such a telemarketing firm

• You, on your own, have managed to generate some leads. These leads, however, will have to be followed up and pursued with care so that you don’t lose those leads. However, you cannot do this on your own because the time you have at hand does not permit you to get into it. Hiring a telemarketing firm at this stage is what you will require.
• You will also need someone to manage the large number of inbound calls that you get. If people and customers are constantly ringing you up inquiring about the product, or about the order they have placed, or about feedback, you need a staff to take those calls and see to it that everyone’s queries are answered. Sometimes, the traffic of this call is very large to be handled within the company alone. A telemarketing firm must necessarily be hired, which charges on the basis of inbound calls you anticipate within a given period of time.
• If you want to pursue advertisement and marketing though the telephone ideally you would want to reach to as many people as you can in a day. Therefore, going in for a professional telemarketing firm to make these outbound calls for you, you gain the opportunity of being able to contact hundreds and thousands of persons in a day.
• Since a telemarketing firm is a professional organization, their staff will know when to contact what kind of customers. People do not appreciate being rung up any odd time of the day. A telemarketing firm’s staff is trained to judge that so that potential customers are not put off by calls from your company.
• Internet marketing is gaining ground to which telemarketing is losing. Telemarketing firms actually put in a lot of research into this to come up with new ways of using the telephone as an effective tool to market. Hiring such a firm is a good idea.

LEGALITIES & TAX ADVANTAGES IN A HOME BUSINESS

Every year, several thousand people develop an interest in "going
into business." Many of these people have an idea, a product or a
service they hope to promote into an income producing business
which they can operate from their homes.

If you are one of these people, here are some practical thoughts
to consider before hanging out the "Open for Business" sign.

In areas zoned "Residential Only," your proposed business could
be illegal. In many areas, zoning restrictions rule out home
businesses involving the coming and going of many customers,
clients or employees. Many businesses that sell or even store
anything for sale on the premises also fall into this category.

Be sure to check with your local zoning office to see how the
ordinances in your particular area may affect your business
plans. You may need a special permit to operate your business
from your home; and you may find that making small changes in
your plan will put you into the position of meeting zoning
standards.

Many communities grant home occupation permits for businesses
involve typing, sewing, and teaching, but turn thumbs down on
requests from photographers, interior decorators and home
improvement businesses to be run from the home. And often, even
if you are permitted to use your home for a given business, there
will be restrictions that you may need to take into
consideration. By all means, work with your zoning people, and
save yourself time, trouble and dollars.

One of the requirements imposed might be off street parking for
your customers or patrons. And, signs are generally forbidden in
residential districts. If you teach, there is almost always a
limit on the number of students you may have at any one time.

Obtaining zoning approval for your business, then, could be as
simple as filling out an application, or it could involve a
public hearing. The important points the zoning officials will
consider will center around how your business will affect the
neighborhood. Will it increase the traffic noticeably on your
street? Will there be a substantial increase in noise? And how
will your neighbors feel about this business alongside their
homes?

To repeat, check into the zoning restrictions, and then check
again to determine if you will need a city license. If you're
selling something, you may need a vendor's license, and be
required to collect sales taxes on your transactions. The sale
tax requirement would result in the need for careful record
keeping.

Licensing can be an involved process, and depending upon the type
of business, it could even involve the inspection of your home to
determine if it meets with local health and building and fire
codes. Should this be the case, you will need to bring your
facilities up to the local standards. Usually this will involve
some simple repairs or adjustments that you can either do
personally, or hire out to a handyman at a nominal cost.

Still more items to consider: Will your homeowner's insurance
cover the property and liability in your new business? This must
definitely be resolved, so be sure to talk it over with your
insurance agent.

Tax deductions, which were once one of the beauties of engaging
in a home business, are not what they once were. To be eligible
for business related deductions today, you must use that part of
your home claimed EXCLUSIVELY AND REGULARLY as either the
principal location of your business, or place reserved to meet
patients, clients or customers.

An interesting case in point: if you use your den or a spare
bedroom as the principal place of business, working there from
8:00 to 5:00 every day, but permit your children to watch TV in
that room during evening hours, the IRS dictates that you cannot
claim a deduction for that room as your office or place of
business.

There are, however, a couple of exceptions to the "exclusive use"
rule. One is the storage on inventory in your home, where your
home is the location of your trade or business, and your trade or
business is the selling of products at retail or wholesale.
According to the IRS, such storage space must be used on a
REGULAR Basis, and be separately identifiable space.

Another exception applies to daycare services that are provided
for children, the elderly, or physically or mentally handicapped.
This exception applies only if the owner of the facility complies
with the state laws for licensing.

To be eligible for business deductions, your business must be an
activity undertaken with the intent of making profit. It's
presumed you meet this requirement if your business makes a
profit in any two years of a five-year period.

Once you are this far along, you can deduct business expenses
such as supplies, subscriptions to professional journals, and an
allowance for the business use of your car or truck. You can also
claim deductions for home related business expenses such as
utilities, and in some cases, even a new paint job for your home.


The IRS is going to treat the part of your home you use for
business as though it were a separate piece of property. This
means that you'll have to keep good records and take care not to
mix business and personal matters. No specific method of record
keeping is required, but your records must clearly justify and
deductions you claim.

You can begin by calculating what percentage of the house is used
for business, Either by number of rooms or by area in square
footage. Thus, if you use one of the five rooms for your
business, the business portion is 20 percent. If you run your
business out of a room that's 10 by 12 feet, and the total area
of your home is 1,200 square feet, the business space factor is
10 percent.

An extra computation is required if your business is a home day
care center. This is one of the exempted activities in which the
exclusive use rule doesn't apply. Check with your tax preparer
and the IRS for an exact determination.

If you're a renter, you can deduct the part of your rent which is
attributable to the business share of your house or apartment.
Homeowners can take a deduction based on the depreciation of the
business portion of their house.

There is a limit to the amount you can deduct. This is the amount
equal to the gross income generated by the business, minus those
home expenses you could deduct even if you weren't operating a
business from your home. As an example, real estate taxes and
mortgage interest are deductible regardless of any business
activity in your home, so you must subtract from your business
gross income the percentage that's allocable to the business
portion of your home. You thus arrive at the maximum amount for
home-related business deductions.

If you are self-employed, you claim your business deductions on
SCHEDULE C, PROFIT(or LOSS) for BUSINESS OR PROFESSION. The IRS
emphasizes that claiming business-at-home deductions does not
automatically trigger an audit on your tax return. Even so, it is
always wise to keep meticulously within the proper guidelines,
and of course keep detailed records if you claim business related
expenses when you are working out of your home. You should
discuss this aspect of your operation with your tax preparer or a
person qualified in the field of small business tax requirements.

If your business earnings aren't subject to withholding tax, and
your estimated federal taxes are $100 or more, you'll probably be
filing a Declaration of Estimated Tax, Form 1040 ES. To complete
this form, you will have to estimate your income for the coming
year and also make a computation of the income tax and
self-employed tax you will owe.

The self-employment taxes pay for Social Security coverage.
If you have a salaried job covered by Social Security, the
self-employment tax applies only to that amount of your home
business income that, when added to your salary, reaches the
current ceiling. When you file your Form 1040-ES, which is due
April 15, you must make the first of four equal installment
payments on your estimated tax bill.

Another good way to trim taxes is by setting up a Keogh plan or
an Individual Retirement Account. With either of these, you can
shelter some of your home business income from taxes by investing
it for your retirement.