Is Telemarketing Advisable for Us?

Yesterday I was over at my uncle’s place hogging my cousins Sony Playstation 2. The past few times that I’ve visited, he’s asked me how’s business and has any new business come in. Being a small company trying to build its foundation and create awareness of essential website value, we don’t get project every day and I sure don’t want to overburden my colleagues. We’ll just leave it as that.

My uncle then asked if I’d like to grab some of his namecards of clients and ring them up. When I asked him why (doh!), he said it’s obviously to call them and ask if they’d like a website done by us. I answered that it’s alright and continued playing my game.

Then he asked me the reason and informed me that I can’t wait for clients to knock on my door. I know that is true since I was freelancing for a short period before recruiting some help.

However, the main reason I didn’t want to call these people is because I didn’t want to sound like a telemarketer. As expressed by Viceice in his comment when I last asked Would You Consider This SPAM or Promotional?, he said:

In telemarketing, they know who you are, they address you by your first name, they know your background, they offer you a personalised sales pitch (in the sense that you fall within their target demographic).

I get iritated enough when people interrupt my day to shove advertising at me, I get angry when they know my name and my details and I always make it a point to sternly demand they company never contact me again.

Though the prospects might not know who I am, I’m still invading their time by saying I’m Danny Foo and I’m a website designer from Websites Made Simple and I’ll ask if they’ve got a website, then I’ll continue with me recommending my services to them.

Of course there’ll always be argument if this works because I remember taking a survey through the phone when in Melbourne and I took it because I had time to spare as a student, not to mention the caller was polite and respectful.

In other words, it could work if communication (process) was done right or it could fail terribly if we became too persistent and kept on pushing like some die-hard direct salesperson.

But other than email, do you think it’s advisable for us to call up my uncle’s clients directly and speak with them over the phone regarding our services?

Comments

Have something to say? Leave a comment