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Telemarketing is a method of direct marketing in which a salesperson solicits to prospective customers to buy products or services, either over the phone or through a subsequent face to face or Web conferencing appointment scheduled during the call. Telemarketing can also include recorded sales pitches programmed to be played over the phone via automatic dialing. Telemarketing has come under fire in recent years, being viewed as an annoyance by most people.

But Telemarketing is the fastest and most cost effective way to generate more sales. Telemarketing is like any other fact of the sales process. When it is undertaken properly, by highly experienced professionals, it should yield high results.

The two major categories of telemarketing are Business-to-business and Business-to-consumer.

Subcategories:

* Lead Generation, the gathering of information
* Sales, using persuasion to sell a product or service
* Outbound, proactive marketing in which prospective and preexisting customers are contacted directly
* Inbound, reactive reception of incoming orders and requests for information. Demand is generally created by advertising, publicity, or the efforts of outside salespeople.

Business-to-business is a term commonly used to describe commerce transactions between businesses

Business-to-consumer describes activities of businesses serving end consumers with products and/or services.

Telemarketing may be done from a company office, a call center or from home. It may involve either a live operator or a recorded message.

An effective telemarketing process often involves two or more calls. The first series of calls determines the customer's needs. The final series of calls motivates the customer to make a purchase.

Charitable organizations and political parties often use telemarketing to make donations. Marketing research companies use telemarketing techniques to survey the prospective or past customers experience satisfaction of a brand, product or a company.

Telemarketing has been negatively associated with various scams and frauds and with deceptively overpriced products and services.

Their calls are often considered an annoyance, especially when they occur during the dinner hour, early in the morning, or late in the evening.

But every now and again you get the write call that saves you money. For instance I received a call where I was told they could beat my current mobile phone contract which at the time was costing me around £65 a month. I decided to listen to what they had to say and I am now on a contract where my phone bill is around £30.

I believe their are good IT Telemarketing companies out there but they cant be the cheap offshore agencies in India, Prague & Turkey. You need the companies who are committed to delivering good quality sales leads.