Career Advice

Telesales Jobs offer great opportunities for those with basic qualifications. In this profession the telesales person or telemarketer contacts a business or members of the public and solicits them over the telephone to buy goods or services.

The process may be done from a contact centre, a company office or from home and may include a pre-recorded message or a live operator.

Charities and political parties use telesales techniques to ask for donations. Marketing research organisations use it to survey clients and prospects to assess their satisfaction or acceptance of products, services and brands.

From the 1990s the call centre industry has been a massive UK success. Some large organisations moved their operations to countries with significantly lower labour costs and when one or two turned out to be unsuccessful, resulting in a move back, the shift was reversed. Helped by government incentives to open centres in former mining towns there are now over 5,000 contact centres in the UK, creating a large market of telesales and call-centre jobs and expertise. Typically a contact centre encompasses both inbound call centres and outbound telesales operations.

Specific marketing campaigns require additional labour from time to time and temporary work in telesales can be found on jobs boards. Many companies offer support and coaching in structured programs including nationally recognised qualifications. Initial training lasting about one week, sometimes including role play activities, and is targeted at school leavers at 16 and 18.

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The more junior roles in the profession are often allocated the work of making initial contact with the client. A pleasant telephone manner and gentle persistence are the main requirements. Hiring companies often look for people with experience but this could be minimal – such as a two or three months. In a business-to-business environment contact will be with senior people responsible for large procurements: directors and heads of finance.

Effective telesales processes may involve two or more calls. The first determine the customer’s need and the later calls motivate the customer to make a purchase or donation.

Companies value their lists of contacts and prospective customers. They may have purchased this information from a public list or consumer database and use telesales techniques to determine which customers are most likely to purchase the product or service – that is generate their own leads. Prospective customers are identified by assorted means: application or competition entry forms, previous requests for information, credit limits, past purchase history. In more senior roles you will be involved in establishing these filters and improving the quality of the information, organising and managing a telesales team.

The later stages of the process are selling, which require persuasiveness and a certain amount of preparedness to be able to discuss the prospects view or objections. Many people are happy to be approached over the telephone as long as the call is professional and courteous and so the challenge is to develop a technique which satisfies the needs of the company without alienating the prospective customer or donor. These can often be tough situations but they offer a chance to learn, grow and acquire self-confidence and very valuable communication skills.

Success in telesales can be very fulfilling, in particular when the value of the sales generated are high. Career progression is not restricted to managing a team. Increased commercial awareness, in-depth knowledge of the industry sector and the business and a clear understanding of customers needs are crucial to any organisation. Such positioning and knowledge may lead to your opinion being sought at the top of your company and roles such as business development director, head of marketing, head of sales.