Uses of Telemarketing

Like any outsourcing decision, retaining outside telemarketing services should be subject to cost/benefit analysis. Less readily quantifiable are the benefits. Comparing the cost side of in-house vs. outsourced telemarketing operations is relatively straightforward. It is on the benefits side of the cost/benefits analysis that things get a little trickier. A review of ten tactical uses of telemarketing services can help shed light on those broader potential benefits.

For a start-up, assembling a telemarketing team would represent an extremely costly upfront investment in personnel and technology. Being able to outsource telemarketing reduces this barrier to entry. With outsourced telemarketing services, sales resources can be ramped up and scaled back down at any time. Besides leveraging expertise, outsourcing telemarketing can provide financial leverage by converting a fixed cost into a variable cost. Having access to expandable sales resource in the form of an outside telemarketing company allows a firm to run parallel sales campaigns to test new tactics. Telemarketing companies are specialists in what they do. There has been a series of legislative restrictions on telemarketing activities, which can represent a potential legal liability to any organization with an in- house telemarketing operation.

Cost/benefit decisions are usually discussed as trade-offs, where lower costs are exchanged for lesser benefits, or higher costs are invested in return for greater benefits.