Discuss telemarketing to many business owners and you are likely to see worry, doubt and panic. Many people mix up telemarketing with telesales. Telesales is associated with the cold-calling, pressure tactics used by some companies to sell anything from timeshare holidays to carpets and garden furniture.

The correspondence between telemarketing and telesales is that they both use the telephone as a communication medium.

Here are 6 reasons why you should be using telemarketing in your business growth plans.

1. Appointment finding - the overriding role of marketing is to create opportunities for your sales people. The best opportunities come from face to face meetings. Telemarketing delivers high quality appointments with pre-qualified decision makers.

In finding your meetings a good telemarketer will have had many contacts with a prospects' decision makers. The telemarketers will have built up a relationship and set expectations so that your appointments are prepared for optimum results before you get to meet the client.

2. Lead creation - telemarketing for lead generation is a less in-depth process than appointment finding. The goal is usually to contact a prospect, create interest in your services and capture contact details for you to pursue. You may follow up the contacts yourself or you may choose to commission a telemarketer to set appointments with the best prospects.

3. Database building and cleansing - overtime most companies acquire extensive lists of contacts and prospects. Telemarketing is a quick, cost-effective way to keep your database up to date. The odds are you will gain a few leads and appointments along the way.

4. Follow up - following up on every lead is vital. In business just about every one of your team will make contacts and maybe receive enquiries about your company. Every such contact provides an opportunity for a sale. Follow up has been shown to improve sales in every company that systematically applies itself. Telemarketing is a cost-effective route to effective follow-up.

5. Customer Information - most small business owners that think of telemarketing tend to think of it as a tool for accessing new customers. However, just about any marketing book you read will tell you it is 6 to 12 times more profitable to market to existing clients than it is to gain a new one. Telemarketing to people who already buy and like your products is an excellent way to inform them of all your offerings.

6. Customer reactivation - do you know why old customers have stopped buying from you? You should. Often it is simply because they have not had any contact with you for some extended period. Sometimes it is because they didn't know that you supplied the particular service they needed. So they look elsewhere.

And eventually stop buying from you altogether.

Telemarketing is a superb way to make contact with clients as soon as they stop being clients. Sometimes that is all that is required to bring them back. At the very least you owe it to yourself to know why your clients are leaving. It is the first stage of ensuring they don't leave you.

Telemarketing is the ultimate small business opportunity. All you need is some training, the right attitude and a telephone. You can instantly set up as a telemarketer. And if you are any good you can quickly use telemarketing to sell your own services.

Not surprisingly then, there are thousands of small telemarketing businesses - many of them absolutely excellent. There are, of course, others that are not so good. With that much competition you can get some outstanding telemarketing services for a very reasonable price.

Your real challenge is to find one that matches your own needs. Telemarketing is only one part of your small business marketing mix. We have hundreds more articles on telemarketing and every aspect of small business marketing mix on Telemarketing for Small Businesses.

Author: Art Man