Telemarketers are essentially sales persons who contact prospective customers via telephone calls, and persuade them to avail of products or services offered by the company they represent.
There are three categories of telemarketing
- Market Researchers- in charge of gathering information on prospective customers
- Inbound operators- receives calls from customers and provides information and support to regarding a purchase
- Outbound- persuades the customers to avail the company's product or service
Telemarketers may perform their job in a call centre, a company office, or at home.Telemarketers are required to be adept in the following skills
- People skills- in a telemarketer job, you have no physical contact with your customers, so your voice must always have a friendly tone. It is common to receive an irate customer calling so you must also know how to handle these types of situations. As such, you must also be a good listener. Some call centres and telemarketing firms also need telemarketers who are proficient in other languages such as Korean, German or Japanese.
- Computer skills- all data regarding your calls should be recorded in the computer for future reference. This must be done while talking to your customer, so you must be able to multi-task between talking and taking down information or instructions. Word processing and Internet applications are the basic computer skills needed for a telemarketer.
Telemarketer jobs are very popular among fresh graduates, since the job has proven to be a good starting ground for their future careers. Call centres and telemarketing firms often require a college degree from their job applicants, but even non-degree holders may be hired they have a talent for persuading customers in sales. Salaries range from moderate to high, because telemarketers may avail of bonuses if they reach or exceed the monthly or yearly sales targets.
