Telemarketing is a form of sales and marketing carried out on a telephone in which a telemarketing sales representative pitches a particular product to different customers. The customers may have shown some amount of prior interest in the product or may be completely unaware of it. Telemarketing work is seen as a viable alternative to the door-to-door form of sales and marketing as it saves valuable time, money and energy of the company and has thus seen worldwide success over the last few years.
Entry level professionals in this field are known as telemarketing representatives or agents. Similar to the hierarchical structure found in most sales related fields, other roles associated with this work are that of a supervisor, manager and director. Although telemarketing has faced a lot of criticism from the general public due to the unsolicited nature of most phone calls and other privacy related issues, it keeps evolving and continues to increase its relevance in the world of marketing.
Description
Although, the main job function in telemarketing work is to make calls and convince customers to buy their products and services, there are a number of different job profiles that handle the various aspects of this work.
Skills
Similar to professionals working in any other sales or marketing related fields, telemarketing professionals should possess excellent communication and interpersonal skills in order to perform their work efficiently. They must be able to speak fluently and change their intonation on the basis of the specific customer. They should have the ability to convince customers into buying their products on the basis of its features in comparison to the other competitors. Managers and supervisors must be good at personnel management and organizational skills. They must also possess good knowledge of computer programs such as MS Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook in order to create presentations, reports and charts.
Qualifications and Requirements
Although a high school diploma is sufficient for most telemarketing representative jobs, some technical processes may require the candidate to possess a graduate degree in a specific field. Having good sales skills along with prior experience in the field is generally considered more important than educational qualifications. Work related training is usually conducted on the job by senior representatives or specially assigned trainers.
Work Conditions
Most telemarketing professionals work in an office based environment with good working conditions. Representatives may have their own cubicles with some amount of sound proofing so that they can hear the customer clearly and vice versa. Strict deadlines and sales targets and being at the receiving end of irate customers on a daily basis may lead to large amounts of psychological pressure.
Earnings
The average salary of telemarketing representatives is around $25,000. Senior representatives earn a higher salary because of the added job responsibilities carried out by them. As this is a sales related field, additional monetary commission for achieving or exceeding set targets is also available in most companies.
Thus, telemarketing work is an interesting career choice due to its nature of work and the several job opportunities associated with it.