Week 3: Sales from an Organizational Perspective - Discussion

Week 3: Sales From An Organizational Perspective - Discussion

Telemarketing (graded)

According to the text, business-to-business telemarketing is experiencing significant growth.

a) What are some of the reasons for this accelerated growth? b) What are some of the challenges associated with increased use of telemarketing?

Responses

Response Author Date/Time Class 7/22/2012 1:22:49 PM Professor Dervis

Consider how the business consumer is responding differently.

Thanks!

Jocelyn

RE: 7/25/2012 10:16:35 PM Class Joseph Rossi

A) Some reasons for the accelerated growth:

Major applications of business-to-business telemarketing include selling to existing accounts, outbound new account development, inbound order processing and inquiry handling, customer service, and supporting the existing field sales force. As the costs of field sales continue to escalate, businesses are using telemarketing as a way to reduce the cost of selling and give more attention to marginal accounts, In that it involves human interaction. The telephone is still very intimate and personal. It is individual to individual. Some of the roles telemarketing can be used to fulfill include: selling, generating leads, gathering information, and improving customer service.

B) Some challenges associated with increased use of telemarketing:

In making such a consolidation between a direct and inside sales force, the company must be careful in determining which accounts should stay with field sales and which should be handled by telemarketing. Some businesses start their telemarketing operations with just small or inactive accounts, gradually increasing the size of accounts handled. In addition, experts agree that companies must be careful in forming telemarketing goals and objectives. Some of the most important factors for success include: developing a complete marketing plan with built-in criteria for accounting and analysis; writing scripts, sales outlines, and presentations to be performed; establishing training and hiring procedures for both supervisors and sales personnel; analyzing and evaluating campaigns, personnel, and cost effectiveness; having support and commitment from management for the telemarketing's role in the overall marketing effort; establishing reachable goals; and placing a continuous emphasis on follow-up. Additionally, Legislators, on both the state and federal levels, have debated a number of proposed laws that could affect telemarketing in the future. For example, some proposed laws would require registration of telephone solicitors in a state. Registration often includes bonding requirements, submission of scripts and/or names of employees, and other administrative devices designed to create a paper trail to track fraudulent marketers. Another type of proposed legislation, known as "asterisk bills," would require the telephone company or state government to keep a list of people who object to receiving unsolicited phone sales calls. Marketers would be required to obtain the list and not call these people. A similar law passed in 1996 mandated that marketers remove from their calling lists the name of anyone who requests that the marketer not contact him or her again. A number of other proposed bills seek to restrict the hours available to telemarketers, generally limiting calls to no later than nine o'clock in the evening, local time. Still other laws under discussion would prohibit the completion of some types of phone sales unless a written contract is signed and returned by the consumer.