In my many years of doing lead generation and sales work, I’ve experienced various work environments. I worked from home, in an office suite I rented, from behind a closed door in an office at my employer’s location, and in a open cubicle environment. Of all of these environments, cubicles were the worst by far. If you’re considering building an outbound call center in a cubicle environment, consider these four reasons it could hurt your business’ outbound calling efforts:

1. Distraction – Working with consistency in a cubicle environment can be challenging. Interruptions such as small talk, listening to people who vocalize thoughts after a call, and impromptu meetings can decrease the number of outbound dials made on a daily basis. Personally, I like to get in a rhythm when making outbound dials but distractions can often ruin that flow. Waiting for a time to dial when there are no distractions can lower the amount of calls I can make in a day. Salespeople should have the freedom to make as many dials as possible.

2. Background Noise – Have you ever received a telemarketing call at home? You probably knew it was a sales call before the rep even said a word. Why? The background noise gave it away. When prospects hear background noise such as other reps reading the same script, cheering, or laughing it can make selling difficult.

3. Public Rejection – Getting rejected on the phone is bad enough without several other people hearing it. When salespeople must work where they are rejected publicly, it decreases their confidence, deters them from making subsequent calls, and it can lead to employee turnover.

4. Lowered Speaking Voices – Salespeople who lower their voices on sales phone calls can come off as sneaky or timid. Since many salespeople would prefer to be respectful of other staff, they tend to speak softer than normal when working in cubicles. Salespeople need the freedom to speak loud, proud, and with confidence.

Are there solutions? Sure. Business owners may consider providing sales staff a more quiet work environment, including offices with doors, the opportunity to work from home, or even more quiet cubicle environments where ceilings are higher or desks are spaced further apart. Of course there are advantages to a cubicle work environment, including cost-efficiency, the ability to learn by listening to others, and better team building. The question is, are the advantages worth what is lost?

Warm regards,

E. R. Carpenter

E. R. Carpenter is a sales professional and writer whose work has been published by Little, Brown, The Midwest Book Review, Forest Wade Press, and AALBC.com. The Air Force veteran and Capital University graduate lives in the Cleveland area. His latest book on cold calling, “Dead Guys Don’t Buy” is available at http://www.cold-call-selling.com.

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Outbound telemarketing is a sales technique employed by companies in order to try and promote their products or their services. By direct calling over the telephone, the telemarketers engage consumers directly in order to get their sales pitch across as quickly and efficiently as possible. Good techniques will allow the caller to finish before the receiver has had any time to object.

Most aspect of sales can be done over the telephone from that initial call, and that is what makes telemarketing a viable proposition for companies. It is possible to run and entire business from a telephone. Not only does the initial sales lead get chased up by a promotion call, but follow up surveys such as customer satisfaction an also be done, and this helps the company engage the customer again and find out more about what they may want in the future.

Some people do take unkindly to being disturbed by a Telemarketing call. Receiving one can produce feelings of anger and frustration, but it is important to realize that it is just people doing a job, trying to make a living by selling products. It is no different from sitting through a commercial in between your favorite TV shows. Telemarketing grabs the attention of a caller, by using a friendly and calm demeanor, for they want to keep the receiver as calm as possible.

Therefore, calling at times of the day when a consumer will feel more put out, should not happen. Those early morning calls should be a no-go, similarly calls made during the evening hours when people are sitting down to dinner are not prime sales call times.

Telemarketer works because consumer’s often find it hard to be impolite over the phone and put up a stern objection to what the caller is saying. It is rude to interrupt someone who is talking, even ruder to hang up mid-conversation, and this is how the Telemarketer reaches out to you. Hearing a friendly voice will usually mean that the consumer listens to an entire spiel before getting a chance to say no.

Telemarketing is an art and what is said by the Telemarketer is, of course, the all important element of the call. The dialogue will be well scripted in order to get the sales point across quickly, as well as affording the telemarketer the best opportunity to get the desired response from the consumer. Being paid by commissions for a sale, time is of the essence and responding to any questions in an efficient manner will help the telemarketer net their catch. Having listened to an entire sales pitch, it is more than likely that something will have caught the consumer’s attention.

A consumer can be a hot lead because of purchases they have made in the past, or because some company has been tracking their spending habits. Store cards all record such information and that is how they know what promotional offers to send out. Companies pay for hot leads in order to try and push the chances of making their own sales.

The main point of an telemarketing call is of course to get a return for having made that call. How much time is spent on the sales pitch, how much a lead costs, what percentage of leads turn into sales, are all elements which a Telemarketing business has to consider. There will be no sales if there are no contacts. Outbound Telemarketing is a good way for companies to survive and make money, and can often prove to be cheaper than advertising or employing on-the-road salespeople.

Go to VSA Prospecting for more information on outbound telemarketing and business to business prospecting and sign up for their newsletter for more Tips and insights.

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One of the newer ways to make money from home is though outbound telemarketing. Up to around a few years back many telemarketing jobs were sent to other countries such as India, and the Philippines since labor is much cheaper there and businesses saved money by outsourcing their call centers.

Today however things have changed and businesses are fast realizing that they can get much better results by hiring English speaking locals. This is the biggest reason why people are getting so many work from home jobs in the United States relating to telemarketing.

Some telemarketing companies will only be willing to pay you a commission which is usually a percentage of the product’s sale price. Other businesses might also offer you a base salary and a commission to motivate you to sell more. You can also get yourself an appointment setting campaign which usually does not require much effort and sales skill and is recommended if you are new. There are many more campaigns from which to choose from.

Many people often consider telemarketing to be a sales only thing that can be handled by seasoned and hardened sales people. This is not entirely true since in the world of telemarketing experience in sales definitely counts but it will not determine if you can really do it or not. Telemarketing is like riding a bicycle i. E. Once you get used to it you have no problem. Also many businesses choose to train their new recruits which in your case might be a good thing.

Cold calling or outbound telemarketing as it is called usually means that you need to call a list of numbers also called leads. Many times people simply hang-up the phone when they hear the voice of a telemarketer. So success really depends on your ability to be persistent and self motivated to achieve what you want i. E. Make a sale.

Before you can become a work from home telesales person there are a few things you should have in order to qualify. One of the most important requirements for most businesses if for you to have access to broad band internet. You might also need to have a phone with unlimited call minutes. Businesses will sometimes be willing to pay your monthly phone bill but that will need to be worked out prior to singing the agreement.

Companies who hire telemarketers will at times require that you attend their training sessions. Many times these sessions are compulsory. These sessions are meant for both pros and newbie’s and give an overview of the work ahead and a summary of the product.

These sessions can last anywhere from a few weeks to a few days depending on what type of training it is. If you are one of those people who can keep themselves motivated every day and can perform no matter what in home telemarketing is certainly their cup of tea. There is a lot of money to be made for the right person. You need to be willing to step in and stick to working until you achieve what you want to.

Go to VSA Prospecting for more information on outbound telemarketing and business to business prospecting and sign up for their newsletter for more Tips and insights.

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