Telemarketing has resulted in the development of inside sales forces. Some companies assign sales trainees to the inside or telephone sales force as part of the training program in preparation for an outside sales position. Other companies view the two positions as separate.
What functions would an inside (telephone) sales force perform?
How would these functions differ from those performed by the external sales force?
How would compensation plans differ if they differ at all?
How might social media and online tools best be used to augment telemarketing/inside sales efforts?
Initial/Original Post
Please post what you view as the appropriate responses to the above prompts. Your initial post should be 250 words. Please provide response with a clear, well-formulated thesis; sentence structure, grammar, punctuation, and spelling count. Support ALL posts with appropriate rationale and citations from readings; document sources using APA format.
REFERENCE:
Please use: Sales Force Management 13th Edition, Johnston + Marshall
After login, go to Sarahs Bookshelf and then to the Sales Force Management Book.
After, please provide responses to the following two prompts.
Responses to at least two classmates’ postings should be approximately 50 words and should be thoughtful, substantial, polite and more extensive than a simple “well done” phrase or “I agree” Consider points of agreement, disagreement, assumptions, and value judgments. You will be able to respond to others after you submit your initial post.
1) Telemarketing can be used to assist customers with quick or unexpected problems. Telemarketing allows customers to call when their are emergencies, giving them the opportunity to troubleshoot over the phone instead of making an appointment and waiting for someone to come to the location to help. Telemarketing also allows companies to reach new customers more efficiently as well as existing customers who may be in remote locations. You also have the opportunity to leave information about new products that customers may be interested in. The tasks of an external force would differ in the way that you have to go out and be active with the customer. Over the phone you have the chance to read from a book or reference some sort of information on the product you are trying to sell. However, when you are in person you have to be more knowledgeable about the product that way the customer trusts you, the company, and the product. You have to have exceptional networking skills in order to build genuine connections with your clients that way they continue to be your customer.
Compensation plans may differ just by the single fact that external forces have to take the time and use the gas to go out and meet the client in person. They go out and play the role of the company and build genuine connections with that person as well as their company. The sales employees over the phone may get paid less because they have more resources to rely on when making a sale or talking to customers and because they dont have to get up and go to a physical place to make the sale. Their sales target may even be higher than a physical sales teams target, due to a telemarketers ability to be more accessible and efficient. As far as the impact of social media on the two topics, I feel that social media has a bigger impact on the telemarketing side more than the physical sales side. I think it is easier to integrate into the telemarketing strategy than it is the physical sales strategy. In respect to telemarketing, one could use social media to stay ahead of trends and present new ideas/products to their clients. Whereas, if you were a physical sales team you would have to wait until your next meeting to present it to them or maybe they heard about it from someone/somewhere else because you were unable to make the phone call.
