You have to tell them they are Not telemarketers? Probably a reason for that. Duck. Quack, etc…
See, there’s this thing called the Thread Title: **Are the people who work for me “telemarketers” as you mean the term? **
Baloney right back atcha.
So…‘How many people think customer support is telemarketing’ is the real question, apparantly. Damn you, Skald, for making it so obtuse!
If that’s the case, I suspect most people here believe I’ve done telemarketing at just about every job I’ve ever had. I guess I am good at it!
I guess we need a new term for those idjets who cold-call you about things you aren’t interested in, just when you’re least interested in answering the phone.
A lot of the job is proactive customer service. That is, anticipating a difficulty the customer may have (like the aforementioned changing federal regulations thing) and initiating a solution, and also getting the customer to think of that rep specifically as their problem solver. The idea is that doing so disposes the customer to come to us when expanding operations and isn’t simply shopping on price. Lynn’s already observed why hard selling is generally counter-productive.
Also, it’s not already purchased items; it’s an ongoing service. Somebody who uses the company just once and doesn’t have an account number is never going to get a call from us. See missred’s post.
We tell them that because we don’t want them doing telemarkety things like objecting when the customer wants to get off the phone to work, or relentless pushing of a product, or offering phony sales, or thinking they have to close a deal on the first call. It’s retraining people who are used to giving a hard push every time.
Textbook reps call to tell me about new editions, ask if I’m changing classes, offer discounts, etc. it’s not telemarketing, it’s just part of the dance.
You almost lost my truthful answer b/c shortcake sounds soooo good right now. But no, they’re not what I consider telemarketers and I’ve done the soul-crushing job.
You sure?
This sure sounds like dressed up telemarketing to me. What percentage of the time are they servicing existing accounts vs what percentage of the time they are ‘probing new opportunities’?
Just because you carefully don’t call them that, don’t make it so. One person’s ‘personal assistant’ is another person’s ‘secretary’.
I vote telemarketing, as I take calls from such people all the damn time, and it’s just as annoying at a business as it is at home.
Being really pushy isn’t the defining characteristic of telemarketers, nor is attempting to lengthen the call. Using the phone to ‘probe for new business’ is telemarketing, by definition, I think.
I chose both 2 and 3. I definitely think it is telemarketing, but whether it is soul-crushing (as I understand the term) is not her issue; it’s the morality of it.
I don’t think you could chop it up like that. A good rep probes for opportunities by servicing accounts. The unartful question “do we have all your business” rarely works and if asked indicates that the rep probably hasn’t established the relationship necessary to close business in the first place. The notion is to keep the business we already have by solving problems, and putting the notion in the customer’s head that when he’s opening a new Noldo Torturing Center and thus requires a supplier of racks, he should call us to let us know so we can make it happen.
ETA: Also, how are you defining “account rep” as distinct from sales reps, telemarketers, and customer service reps?
I work in Purchasing. I’m pretty sure that what you’re describing are the kind of people who call me. Personally, I like those calls. Not every single one of them, but the ones from people and companies that I have established a relationship with. Mostly because the people who call me are nice, and helpful and have been there to help me when I need it. So calling every so often to see if everything is ok, or let me know about special offers or promotions is not an unwelcome distraction from my real job, it is part of my job.
I think your acquaintance is foolish to turn down your help in getting a job with your company, but that’s her loss. I sure wouldn’t be sitting on my high horse if I was looking for work and you offered what you described.
Okay, that right there, that bolded bit, your insistence on the fact that people not use the term telemarketing (even though it is) and your assumption that I don’t know what my inside sales rep does? I would drop your company if any of this conversation took place on the phone. Your only hope would be if you were the sole source of an application that I could not live without, and then I would demand a new “sales rep”.
FYI - I provide compliance consulting, so I know about my customer’s needs at the point that some stupid congressman starts advocating for it, since I often help them craft public statements to counter most of the idiotic regulations that different companies think should be levied against them just because they have some new-fangled device that they want to be made mandatory by congress.
Clearly I read enough of this thread. I wish your friend the best of luck in finding a job that doesn’t involve telemarketing.
As the manager of a department who does a lot of purchasing of equipment and services, I can say that a GOOD customer rep is worth their weight in gold.A salescritter who understands the business I am in, and can provide me with the exact information I need BEFORE I need it, allows me to do my job better. A bad rep will lose my business so fast it would make your head spin.
Just to take an example, about fifteen years ago, I needed some network switching equipment, and called the market leading vendor. I discussed our needs with the representative, and asked for a specific configuration. A week later, he delivered the wrong configuration. I contacted him he finally got me the config I had originally asked for after another week. After reviewing it, I called back and asked a number of questions. He said he’d get back to me. Two more weeks went by.
Just after I placed my first call, I contacted the representative of a competing company. The next day, he got back to me with the exact configuration I had requested, plus four alternate configurations. The alternatives were more expensive – in some cases, significantly more expensive – but they were a much better fit for our needs. Again, I had a couple of questions, and the rep got back to me the next day with complete information.
I finally got a call from the original rep, asking when I was going to place an order, having completely forgot about my additional questions. I had the pleasure of telling him that I had already placed an order with his competitor, and that it was entirely his fault.
Those switches stayed in service for over ten years. While we have since replaced them, we still have a couple on the shelf for occasional special projects.
A nice example: by helping me do my job better, he both took business from his competitor and got a larger order than originally planned.
Telemarketing is defined as The business or practice of marketing goods or services by telephone. It absolutely applies to calling established business customers, and is frequently referred to by the subcategory business to business telemarketing. It also applies to taking calls from customers to place orders or ask questions, usually referred to as inbound telemarketing.
To say it only applies to sleazy boiler room operations cold calling random people and trying to hawk goods or services of dubious value is like claiming broadcasting only applies to sleazy shock jocks.
The only reason I don’t answer B is because telemarketing and soul-crushing are not mutually inclusive terms.
I voted for the second option because I believe the term “telemarketing” applies here, but I don’t agree with the soul-crushing characterization. Beyond that, I don’t really have anything to add here that hasn’t already been said.
When the phone company calls me trying to sell me on their TV services or the cable company calls me trying to sell me on their phone services, that’s telemarketing (regardless of the fact that they ask me “Are you happy with your current service?”). It might be different if I were running a small business, depending on the product.
Skald, I have a simple mind, so I ask simple questions.
Who do I call when I have a question about the product, a problem with my bill, a delivery issue, or just want an industry perspective on something?
Will that person stay on the phone with me as long as it takes, or do they have a quota of contacts they have to meet that day.
Is that person going to be my go-to all the time, or will my next go-to just happen to be whoever answers my call?
If my satisfaction and the continuing maintenance of my account is that person’s responsibility (and the person is actually evaluated on it), then it’s account managment, of which “enhancing client value” is a key part. If not,then it’s inside sales, no more, no less.
In my company, we have inside and outside regional sales reps. The inside reps mainly take and enter orders. They may call a regular customer who hasn’t ordered recently, but they don’t cold call, as far as I know. They actually don’t do too many sales calls - it seems like most of their business is incoming calls. If we don’t have exactly what the customer needs, we will tell them what equivalent stock we have or tell them who they should call to get exactly what they need. Sometimes that’s a sister company, sometimes a competitor. The inside sales team will occasionally call customers, particularly if there’s a spiff in it for them, but it’s still existing customers, most of whom they know by name and ask about the kids, etc. I don’t think of them as telemarketers.
StG
There should be an option of “Don’t call me, I’ll call you” rather than having to opt out after the rep calls. The sales rep’s name and number should be on the brochure, which also lists the additional services available. I’m a bit hard of hearing, and understanding someone on even a cordless phone is sometimes problematic, and cell phones can be nearly impossible for me to understand. So I’m gonna need that brochure, and probably some quiet time with a cup of tea looking over the options, and figuring out what suits my needs.
Your sample spiel, in addition to getting me irritated because I didn’t want a telemarket call in the first place, also has many of the hallmarks of social engineering/phishing. It’s how a lot of scammers get businesses to buy toner (does anyone use toner any more?). Again, it will make me reconsider the wisdom of doing business with this particular company.
The fact that you keep insisting that it’s NOT telemarketing is also a fishy sign. It’s marketing. Over the telephone. And I’m gonna bet that your company insists on having a phone number for the customers, so they can’t just leave the field blank.
Like I said, it’s not as sleazy as Rachel from Card Services, but I would regard it as not particularly desirable in a company.
“Business to business telemarketing” includes a lot more than calling established customers. There are important distinctions within that which apply to what I think most people refer to as “telemarketing” in the colloquial sense, which is mostly cold calling.
For example, if I fill out a form asking for a company to call me with product info, that’s not telemarketing in the way most people mean. It’s more service-oriented. If they mention a different product based on that discussion, do they suddenly become telemarketers like the guy who’s calling you peddling aluminum siding out of the blue? Not really.
That said, even the “account rep” area has some telemarketers in it. If it’s a company you’re actively doing business with in one area and there are legitimate service reasons to call, great. I get a lot of “account reps” who call my company and say they’re our “vendor for <x>”, but ask for an employee who quit years ago. I drill 'em a bit and ask when our last order was, and it turns out we bought a sub-$100 computer part or something from them, from the website, back in 2003. That’s not a service call, that’s basically a cold call at this point, and in the category of “telemarketer” that means “people who call to annoy us with a sales pitch”. Same with “we make you fill out this form to download our software trial, then badger the hell out of you even after receiving a no”.
A bit of a tangent, but you should consider yourself lucky that she isn’t interested in the job you were willing to help her get. She’d likely be terrible at it.