“Hello sir, I’m speaking from ABC. I want to tell you about this scheme made especially for you...” – an average person receives at least one such call per day. Also, on an average, the chances - that the person will listen no further and disconnect the call with “Sorry, I’m not interested.” - are pretty high. Telemarketing over the years has persevered as one of the most persistent and hated marketing methodologies. Consumers love to hate it and yet marketers love to stick to it.
For the marketer, the advantages of telemarketing are that it is direct, interpersonal, delivers immediate results, has quantifiable outcomes and most importantly is very cost effective. No wonder then that for the marketer, telemarketing as a method to boost sales has withstood the test of time. Only recently, the impact of telemarketing was seen in the hugely successful telemarketing campaign of Barack Obama.
Then why do consumers hate telemarketing? Is the concept in itself flawed? No. Telemarketing evolved as a mutually beneficial and convenient form of product/services advertising and sales. However, with too many firms engaging in “unsolicited” telemarketing, in spite of telemarketing’s inherent convenience to the consumer, it has proven detrimental for the concept as a whole - a classic case of ‘too many cooks spoil the broth’.
Yet, it is not beneficial for a firm to increase sales by pulling out of telemarketing. It has been statistically proven that irrespective of the number of firms, telemarketing as a practice boosts sales. It is a Nash Equilibrium, wherein, even if a firms pulls out, it only ends up reducing its sales and boosting that of its rivals. The firm’s economic pay-off is further lowered by the fact that the consumer perception is negative about telemarketing and not for individual firms.
Thus, we firmly conclude in favor of the use of telemarketing to boost sales.
Anish Sinha & Hitesh Mathur
For the marketer, the advantages of telemarketing are that it is direct, interpersonal, delivers immediate results, has quantifiable outcomes and most importantly is very cost effective. No wonder then that for the marketer, telemarketing as a method to boost sales has withstood the test of time. Only recently, the impact of telemarketing was seen in the hugely successful telemarketing campaign of Barack Obama.
Then why do consumers hate telemarketing? Is the concept in itself flawed? No. Telemarketing evolved as a mutually beneficial and convenient form of product/services advertising and sales. However, with too many firms engaging in “unsolicited” telemarketing, in spite of telemarketing’s inherent convenience to the consumer, it has proven detrimental for the concept as a whole - a classic case of ‘too many cooks spoil the broth’.
Yet, it is not beneficial for a firm to increase sales by pulling out of telemarketing. It has been statistically proven that irrespective of the number of firms, telemarketing as a practice boosts sales. It is a Nash Equilibrium, wherein, even if a firms pulls out, it only ends up reducing its sales and boosting that of its rivals. The firm’s economic pay-off is further lowered by the fact that the consumer perception is negative about telemarketing and not for individual firms.
Thus, we firmly conclude in favor of the use of telemarketing to boost sales.
Anish Sinha & Hitesh Mathur
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