You may already be familiar with the words cold calling, telesales and telemarketing. Your idea of telephone sales professional may be very positive: someone who calls people on the telephone in unlikely hours to sell something. Let me give you a bigger and more realistic picture of what the telesales world is really like and what telesales professionals really do and see for yourself how wonderful it is. Who knows, you might one day carve for yourself a career in telemarketing, and a successful one at that.

Over the years, as the word 'telemarketing' became popular, it has evolved into two major areas: business to consumer - which refers to any business that sells mainly to the end consumer; and business to business - which refers to any business that deals primarily with other businesses.

Business to consumer telemarketing seeks to convert people into buyers in a targeted and aggressive manner while business to business telemarketing tries to turn prospects into loyal customers, which usually involves a longer process.

Both categories have two distinct functions: inbound and outbound. Outbound calls usually involve sales and surveys, while inbound is generally considered as customer service. If your job entails customer service, you are called a customer service representative (CSR). If you mainly handle sales, you are called a telemarketing sales representative (TSR).

Telemarketing calls are usually combined with direct mail and e-mail to increase its effectiveness. Most of the time, making follow up calls is necessary until the deal is closed.

Various strategies are employed to get new businesses. Some companies use hard selling, where aggressive selling is done, for prospective customers. But for repeat customers, soft selling usually works.

The steps below illustrate how the sales call would go:

Opening. The telesales professional gives his opening statement that lets the prospect know the company that wants to do business with him and what the product or service is that is being offered.

Presenting. After getting the needed information through a series of questions, a solution is being offered with all the features and benefits of the product/service.

Handling objections. Objections or rejections can come up in any stage of the sales call. Telesales professionals are expected to turn around objections with rebuttals.

Closing. This is the culminating part of your cold calling efforts and you are expected to ask for the sale.

Using a 'script' is a common practice for telesales professionals to be more effective in selling. A carefully written sales presentation that also deals with the different selling scenarios that may arise is best used as a guide instead of a verbatim script to make your delivery natural and conversational.

Source: Heinrich Churchill link