Hiring telemarketers through outsourcing is pretty popular in countries with big BPO (business process outsourcing) industries. You may have encountered job postings looking for such people on various social media platforms and job boards.
Countries like India, the Philippines, Malaysia, and China all employ this strategy, with multinational companies coming to their shores to outsource talents. Why do they do this, you ask? Let’s go into that later.
Have you wondered why outsourcing telemarketers remains a popular practice? This entry will discuss why companies continue to employ this hiring tactic.
Telemarketing Explained
Before we dive into the specifics of hiring telemarketers through outsourcing, let’s first define what telemarketing is.
If you’ve worked in the business industry for a long time, you may have learned about the concept of telemarketing. If you haven’t heard about it, telemarketing is a marketing tactic that markets services or products directly to customers/leads through phone calls. As Investopedia defines it, telemarketing is the act of connecting with your potential customers through outbound calls, inbound calls, and lead generation.
Telemarketing is also a lead generation strategy that allows telemarketers to list potential customers for future sales. It gets a bad reputation at times because it can get over-scripted and annoying, especially if an agent calls a customer at a bad time. But if you do it right, telemarketing helps your sales (and by extension, your business) grow and flourish.
Going by its name, telemarketing uses telephones to contact customers. Since its inception, telemarketers have gone on to use other mediums such as web conferencing—which has gotten significantly popular since the pandemic began. It’s not uncommon to see a virtual assistant make calls via Zoom nowadays.
Telemarketing is pretty common in the BPO industry. These companies usually assign a call center agent or customer service representative to do this job. An agent’s typical work day consists of the following: making cold calls, answering customer inquiries, tracking customer contact lists, and collecting payment information.
People often lump telesales and telemarketing together and use them interchangeably. However, the two are quite different. The former is an older concept, specifically referring to selling services or products, as seen in its name. On the other hand, the latter is a direct marketing tactic that aids new customer generation; going by that, it prioritizes building leads rather than sales.
Why Businesses Hire Telemarketers Through Outsourcing
Now that we’ve explained telemarketing’s concept, let’s get to the main agenda of this entry. Why do companies use outsourcing to hire telemarketers? Surely, having an in-house team making telemarketing calls and handling other telemarketing responsibilities would do, right?
Allow us to raise a few points as to why outsourcing is a preferred method:
It Keeps Customers Coming Back
Telemarketing doesn’t stop at cold calls and sales pitches. It aims for keeping a customer base too.
Expanding your customer list is well and good, but that should not be your only priority. Maintaining a loyal base with past customers is always an effective practice. One call can keep them curious and interested while you look for new leads. For them, it would be refreshing to hear an actual human talking to them rather than reading an email.
If they see that you’re still keeping them in the loop, they’ll most likely maintain their interest. Who would not want that? With outsourcing, you will expect consistent actions from your offshore team without breaking the bank. Telemarketers outside your country will do the repetitive tasks of calling potential customers to introduce your products or services—full-time. You don’t have to get someone onshore or in-house for just a short time.
Cost and Time Efficiency
In response to the question raised earlier, an in-house telemarketing team is not the be-all and end-all solution. Not only is hiring a taxing job, but it’s a costly one as well.
Businesses with telemarketing services are well-aware of this. To that, they turn to outsourcing. If you plan to pursue this route, go with legitimate and reliable third-party companies that will handle infrastructure, recruitment, and other relevant matters. It will help your business save tons of money that would have otherwise been spent on expensive operation costs.
Companies who use outsourcing save themselves a lot of time as well. Instead of having to do the training, they’ll get someone else to do that job for them. Also, work will get done quicker since most hires have relevant experiences and know what to do after initial introductions.
It Allows Flexibility
Hiring telemarketers through outsourcing allows flexibility in your workforce. Not every company needs a full-time telemarketing team. Some businesses hire seasonal telemarketers because of their nature. Let’s say your venture is a travel agency that gets flooded with opportunities during summers, but barely gets inquiries during winters. How can you work around that?
If your venture’s fluctuations occur during specific seasons, you may want to go with outsourcing as your hiring tactic.
If your seasonal business outsources telemarketers, you’re giving your venture some much-needed flexibility. Since you’re aware of your company’s needs, you’ll get quotes or packages that cater to them.
Results Become More Measurable
Outsourcing services make way for more tangible results. How?
Companies have KPIs (key performance indicators) that show how employees are performing. They also get to determine effective tactics from ineffective ones. They get these through investing in databases and other relevant equipment. There’s a reason teams tabulate them on spreadsheets.
Once they get the results, businesses can easily identify strengths, weaknesses, and areas for improvement. This should help them formulate better strategies to increase sales and enhance their customer service.
Experience and Expertise are Invaluable
As mentioned in the second point, most telemarketers have prior relevant experiences upon stepping into new jobs. That, along with their skills and knowledge, should never go unnoticed during recruitment.
If you chance upon applicants with such competence, do not pass them up and lose potentially invaluable assets. They could prove to be vital to your venture’s growth.
Getting outsourced telemarketers who know the ins and outs of the job makes way for more successful opportunities. Make sure your outsourced hires are well-versed in the profession to discern customer needs and win them over.
Conclusion
Hiring telemarketers through outsourcing is a practice that will not go away anytime soon—even in the face of a pandemic. It remains an effective tactic used by many businesses around the world. If you’re still unsure about pursuing this, you can read the benefits above, do further research, and make your decision from there. To top it all off, you can always start by getting free quotes from an excellent outsourcing marketplace, and get your excellent offshore team from there.
