The recession has blown away any doubts about the importance of telemarketing and outbound sales calling, according to Mark Walton (pictured below), chief executive of specialist sales company Aquira.

Despite sales calling suffering years of poor press and negative public perception, Walton believes the economic crisis has shown it to be a critical lifeline for many leading companies.

“Telemarketing sales is increasingly a vital part of customer acquisition and retention strategy in every major business,” he said. “For many, the recession has brought into sharp focus the value that a well run telephone sales operation can deliver.”

Issuing an alert to all businesses, he continued: “The figures are alarming. Most businesses run telephone sales operations at anything from ten to 50 per cent below their optimum capability. This is largely because of a lack of specialist knowledge and understanding. They just need some expertise on how to achieve maximum results.”

Over the past six months, the call centre industry around the world has been knocked back as businesses rein-in expenditure – for example by moving operations offshore, restructuring and cutting jobs. However this trend does not appear to have had the same impact on successful telemarketing sales operations as it has on customer service operations: recent research by DataMonitor shows that companies have actually increased their investment in telemarketing hardware and software – indicating a need to support sales operations.

Walton says it is only poorly managed operations and the inappropriate use of telemarketing which leads to a bad customer experience and low sales results, but he warns: “Outbound sales practice and procedures need to continually improve in terms of both quality and results, to ensure that customer perception continues to move in a more positive direction. All companies recognise the need to maximise performance.”

Mark Walton