In today's competitive market place, whether you are marketing goods or advertising your services, the telephone provides you with a great way to directly reach your existing and potential customer base. That is a big advantage, as any direct marketer will agree, and it is called telesales. As part of your direct marketing mix, telesales involves contacting people on the phone. But, it may or may not involve closing a sale. In fact, smart direct marketers exploit their telesales efforts to generate leads, make sales, or gather marketing information as part of their system process.

Typically, your telesales team will use a call to explain who you are, the purpose of the call, and to learn more about the customer's needs and requirements. Importantly, they will take this opportunity to make the customer the same offer that your direct mailer would make to its reader.
Needless to say, like any other direct marketing technique, to make a success of telesales, you must first select a defined target group, identify their needs, and then work on an offer that will not only satisfy their needs, but which they will find irresistible! A properly prepared and managed telesales campaign helps you to produce results and market information.

That's because you are able to directly reach your existing client base and create loyalty. Plus, it helps you to proactively generate sales leads and pursue these new opportunities. Telesales is perhaps the quickest and most inexpensive direct marketing method to reach prospective clients, when you are trying to generate instant income or raise awareness of your product, service or income plan. That's because, it is easier, quicker and cheaper to make a call than to print and distribute direct mailers. Plus, when you talk to someone you are immediately able to measure their interest, based on which you can ask questions to assess their needs and/or explain technical or complex messages more effectively.

Love it or hate it, telesales is a great direct marketing strategy to find prospective customers. And some of the major reasons why direct marketers prefer telesales are because it:

1. Puts you in direct, personal contact with new prospects

2. Helps you generate qualified leads for your sales team

3. Is a cost-effective direct marketing technique

4. Enables you to stay in contact with your existing customers

5. Allows you to follow up on other direct marketing activities such as Direct Mail campaigns

6. Because the reaction / feedback is immediate, its effectiveness can be easily measured and monitored.

Interestingly, whether it is for appointment setting, lead generation, list cleaning, market research, inquiry/sales follow up, or direct mail follow up, more and more companies are turning to telesales. That's because by conservative estimates, a good telesales campaign can generate positive response rates between 10%-15%!

Source: Guy Artuso link