Telemarking Companies in Australia and Offshore

Telemarketing can be a powerful way to grow your business. It normally involves calling customers via the telephone to introduce a product or service with the intention of making a sale.  

Typically, telemarketing involves obtaining a list of potential customers, former or existing customers, to whom you would like to sell a product or service.

The list of potential customers can be provided by specialist list suppliers, or it might be an old list of your own customers or even a current list of customers you already have and are actively engaged with. 

The most common forms are:

• B2C - Business to Consumer (your business selling products or services directly to consumers)
• B2B - Business to Business  (your business selling products or services to other businesses)

Types of Telemarketing

Call centre telemarketing is usually defined using three key terms:

• Cold Calling - Cold calling is when you don't have any prior relationship with the customers. 
• Warm Calling - They may have been a previous or existing customer, so there will be some awareness of your brand when the call centre agent makes contact.
• Hot Calling - This is best defined as when a customer has specifically requested contact with the intent of learning more about the product or service to purchase.

Is Telemarketing right for your business?

There is no question that telemarketing can produce results, but it's also not easy with a range of factors that can contribute to a successful telemarketing campaign, including the quality of the customer data, the skill of the agent, the perceived value of the product or service.

Rest assured, there are specialist call centre telemarketing companies that can help improve the odds of your telemarketing campaign being a success. 

Just a word of caution, though—many businesses seeking telemarketing solutions are looking for a 'commission-only' model, where the telemarketing provider is only paid on sales.

Unfortunately, this is a very high-risk strategy for the telemarketing business.

Whilst not a preferred model for many, telemarketing companies may be open to it if it includes a trial period on a fixed-price model to determine the expected conversion rates before agreeing to the commission-only models. 

Best Locations for Telemarketing Companies

With call centre resources significantly cheaper overseas (e.g. Philippines, South Africa and New Zealand), one of the key decisions you need to consider is whether you engage a telemarketing company in Australia or use one overseas.

There is no blanket rule, and it ultimately comes down to what you want to achieve for your business.

Some key points you may want to consider:

• Data is expensive, so you need to make the most of it. 
• There are also different quality levels of data - ringing random phone numbers will provide a far lower conversion rate than a highly-targeted telemarketing list. 
• Whilst offshore call centre labour is cheaper, ultimately, the conversion rate will determine the best result, and as a general rule, when customers speak to customers in their local area, the conversion rates are higher.
• Telemarketing doesn't always provide a good Return on Investment. As a general rule, if the product you are selling is low in value and has a limited profit margin, it's harder to achieve an ROI.
• There is no industry average on conversion rates (read further below for more info). 

How much do Telemarketing companies charge?

Offshore locations can be anywhere from 20% to 70% cheaper than running the same telemarketing campaigns here in Australia.

If you were looking at a commission-only model, they would seek a lot more money (as it’s a higher risk).

There are many ways telemarketing companies charge for their services, including:

• Straight hourly rate
• Lower hourly rate with a higher commission
• Higher hourly rate with a small commission 
• Commission only
• On-costs can include call costs, provision of data, script development, supervision, agent training, compliance checks, quality checks etc. 

What is a typical telemarketing conversion rate?

Ultimately, the conversion rates typically come down to four things:

1. The value proposition of the product or service (the best telemarketing company in the world can't sell water at $100 per litre)
2. The skill of the call centre agent
3. The script (or lack of one)
4. The quality of the data 

Typically, as a rule, good telemarketing conversion rates vary between 2% and 7%. 

Read our free Guide to Contact Centre Outsourcing >

To display call centre outsourcers who offer telemarketing services, select a specific country below or use the filters to find suppliers of other outsourcing solutions. 

You may also be interested in viewing suppliers with other outsourcing specialist skills:

• B2C Lead Generation Specialists 
• B2B Lead Generation Specialists