Sixth in a series of articles, well discuss various issues and practices associated with modern ways of selling over the phone.

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The New Telemarketing is a set of selling practices designed to accomplish several things:

(1) To sell more goods and services than its predecessor, the traditional style;

(2) To be less offensive than its predecessor to buyers;

(3) To be consistent with a customer service style of communicating;

(4) To help in recruiting and retaining qualified phone representatives and managers; and

(5) To repair and reform the image of telemarketers in business and consumer communities.
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Traditional telemarketing is a burn out for most reps that dont have the personality, drive, or physical constitution to stomach its challenges.

It requires call after call be made to people who respond, by and large, antagonistically.

The average non-salesperson finds this regimen daunting, and continuous rejection is alien to his or her experience and sensibilities.

She doesnt communicate in an adversarial way with her friends or family, and she probably hasnt been required to do it in other business contexts. So, why should she put up with it in a phone environment?

The negatives we associate with traditional telemarketing arent inherent, theyre matters of choice and design. The scripts we use are talk-a-thons, one-way monologues that invite incessant rejection.

If we change the communication content of calls, well change their impact not only on clients, but on reps, as well.

For example, traditional telemarketing is geared to telling. It tells prospects about a products features and benefits, and it tells its way to a close.

The New Telemarketing is consultative, and it asks its way to a sale. Its much more in keeping with the relationship values we expect from friendship, family, and customer service; its egalitarian, and not dictatorial.

Reps like to communicate in a give-and-take manner, which is the model upon which The New Telemarketing is built. It is low-key and not high-pressure.

This wears well on everyone.

If you train reps, as I have, in both styles, and give them a choice, theyll opt for TNT, time and again.

In a future article, well discuss the fact that with The New Telemarketing traditional objections and rejection become much less of a concern.