Did you know that telemarketing and telesales are two different things? Don’t worry if your answer is ‘no’ because a lot of people do not know the distinction between these two. In fact, these two terms have been used interchangeably that many have just accepted them as the same thing.
However, these two are actually different. Telesales is an older word that is often used to mean selling products or services directly. Telemarketing, on the other hand, is a method of direct marketing with the goal to generate or create new customers, so it’s focused more on gaining leads rather than sales.
In this article, RepStack, your best source for telemarketing services for small businesses. will shed some light on the differences between telesales and telemarketing:
What Telemarketing Does
Telemarketing is also done via phone but instead of directly selling something the agent creates opportunities and works on generating leads. A telemarketer’s job is to get you on prospects’ radar and get them to gain essential information about your products or services. They also perform surveys on customer satisfaction as well as market research, among others. In a way, it’s making people aware of what the company has to offer.
The usual goals of telemarketing include:
- Building brand interest
- Identifying leads for the sales team
- Informing existing customers of new products or services
- Getting info and opinion from existing customers
- Getting customer feedback
What Telesales Does
Telemarketing lays the groundwork for telesales. Now sales executives will call the leads that the telemarketer has provided them and push for a sale. That’s how they make money for a business.
There are inbound calls in telesales, too, where representatives talk to existing and potential clients who have called specifically to know about your products or business. These are called “warm leads” as they already show interest by calling you.
Now, more than ever telesales teams play a big role in your business success as there is not much opportunity for field representatives to travel given the current pandemic. That means the travel costs are reduced significantly but also that there’s higher pressure for telesales teams to perform really well.
They should be able to always provide top-notch customer service during the calls even if their main goal is to sell. They should still be able to provide support and transfer them to the right team if the call is unrelated to sales.
Skills a Telesales and Telemarketing Rep Should Possess
Whether it’s telemarketing or telesales that a representative will do, they must possess the following skills to do their job:
Communication
Excellent communication skills are necessary for a representative because they’re doing their job via phone, so not only should they say the right words but also use the right tone and still provide a personalized experience despite not interacting with the customer face to face.
Experience in Marketing or Sales
It would greatly help if the representative has prior experience in the industry. Understanding marketing and the sales process will surely help them do their job well, such as being comfortable in using call scripts.
Tech Savvy
While they don’t need to have a specialist level of expertise, a telesales rep needs to be able to use all the software used by the company as well as VoIP systems.
Conclusion
As you can see there are certain differences between telesales and telemarketing, depending on the needs of your company, you can have teams handling both or just one of them. You might think it’s too tedious to train two separate teams, but you actually don’t need to do that yourself if you decide to outsource them. Yes, you can get telesales and telemarketing services for small businesses from a reliable source like RepStack.
RepStack is among the best telesales and telemarketing companies for small businesses in the United States that can provide you with expert representatives who will work hard to help you achieve your business goals. Contact us today to know more!
