What Does a Telemarketer Do?
Telemarketers are sales professionals who contact potential customers by telephone to sell products or services. They typically work on commission and are responsible for generating leads, making cold calls, and following up with potential customers. A script is often used to explain their services and persuade customers to purchase. Telemarketers usually either work within a large-scale corporate environment or for businesses that primarily focus on telemarketing. They may work in a call center setting or remotely in a home office.
Telemarketers must accurately record customer information and responses and maintain a high level of knowledge of the products or services they sell. Communicating effectively, both verbally and in writing, and building rapport with customers quickly and effectively are essential skills for success.
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National Average Salary
Telemarketer salaries vary by experience, industry, organization size, and geography. To explore salary ranges by local market, please visit our sister site zengig.com.
The average U.S. salary for a Telemarketer is:
$33,320
Telemarketer Job Descriptions
Crafting the perfect job description may be the key to finding an exceptional telemarketer. To help you with your recruiting search, our team has put together some examples from past openings.
Example 1
[Your Company Name] is seeking an excellent listener and outgoing telemarketer who enjoys talking to people. You will be required to study scripts so that you can best help the customers and fulfill your sales goals. It is crucial that you have a positive attitude as rejection is a daily occurrence when cold calling. Although difficult, if you can learn to not take rejection personally and instead learn from it to improve, then your progress will be fast-tracked, and you will quickly reach sales goals. We will provide all necessary training to ensure that you have the required tools necessary to be as successful as possible. Good customer relationship management skills and persistence are key to being successful as a telemarketer. An organized follow-up system will be crucial as well, as sometimes sales opportunities will not be closed on the first call and will require you to reach back out for a follow-up call. You need to be quick on your feet to respond appropriately to customers on the phone as you make your outbound calls. If you have an ambitious, positive, can-do attitude, outgoing spirit, and enjoy helping others, then this can be a fulfilling job for you.
Typical duties and responsibilities
- Accepting payment information from customers
- Explain products or services and prices to the customer
- Cold call potential customers
- Track your contact list provided by the company
- Persuade the customers to donate to a cause or buy the product being pitched
- Stay on top of your pipeline and follow up with customers
- Keep track of the customers who no longer want to be contacted
- Memorize scripts provided by the company
- Study the product or charity you are selling
- Understand the customers’ needs
- Meet your sales goals
Education and experience
- High school diploma or equivalent
- Experience in sales, customer service, or a related field
Required skills and qualifications
- Friendly, outgoing personality
- Ability to make friends easily
- Ability to deal with rejection
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills
- Computer and data entry skills
- High level of personal accountability
- Well organized
- Dependable transportation and punctual attendance
Preferred qualifications
- A year or more of experience as a telemarketer, retail sales, or other customer service jobs
- Bilingual
Example 2
In this role you will call prospective customers in designated market areas from qualified leads to sell our home delivered products.
Responsibilities
- Calls prospective customers in designated market area to qualify leads and explain type of service or product offered
- Informs current and prospective customers of current promotions and new or upgraded products
- Quotes prices and encourages customers to buy
- Secures and places orders with others for filling and arranges delivery date
- Enters names, addresses, purchases, and reactions of prospects solicited into computer database system
- Follows up with customers to solicit further sales
- Works either from Predictive Dial System or off of call sheets
- Prepares report on sales activities
- Regular and reliable attendance is a necessary element of this job
- Other duties may be assigned
Competencies and skills
- Must be able to type accurately while talking with customers
- Excellent oral and written communication skills
- Intermediate computer skills
- Ability to effectively present information in one-on-one and small group situations to customers, clients, and other employees of the organization
Education
- High school diploma or general education degree (GED); or one to three months related experience, and/or training; or equivalent combination of education and experience
Experience
- Previous telemarketing and customer service experience preferred
Work environment
- This job is remote from home using a company provided laptop. A required hour long sales team meeting lead by the Sales Director every Monday at 3PM to review results, reward top performers and share tactics takes place via Google Meets on camera. Employee must provide their own hardwire internet connection
Example 3
Responsibilities
- Present and sell company products to new and existing customers virtually via phone and email communications
- Prospect and contact potential customers
- Resolve customer inquiries
- Provide customers the latest program and promotional developments
- Educate clients on product and pricing
- Maintain record of client contact information
- Perform other administrative duties as assigned
- Personalized, friendly, and polite service to ensure customer retention and satisfaction by phone
Qualifications
- Previous experience in sales, customer service, or other related fields
- Familiarity with CRM platforms, basic computer skills
- Ability to build rapport with clients
- Detail oriented
- Effective phone skills: communication, interpersonal skills, organizational skills, and customer service skills
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills
Example 4
Responsibilities
- Make 500+ outbound calls in a day through an automated dialer
- Develop new sales opportunities by scheduling appointments through outbound calling
- Ability to warm and cold call/work with transfers from cold calls
- Hit targets and goals given to you
- Follow “scripts” when handling different types of calls
- Multi-tasking and managing time effectively
Skills
- 1-2 years of sales, call center, telemarketing, and/or customer support preferred
- Have moderate computer knowledge and ability to work on multiple tabs/screens at once
- Strong phone presence and the ability to work in a fast-paced environment required
- The ability to problem solve and think both dynamically and critically
- Possess the ability to work under pressure both supervised and unsupervised
Qualifications
- Must have excellent communication and customer service skills
- An upbeat, confident, and friendly disposition
- Must be willing to work nights and 2 Saturdays a month
- Must have a strong internet connection
- Applicants must be 18 years old or older
- Bilingual abilities are a plus
Candidate Certifications to Look For
- Certified Professional Sales Person (CPSP). If candidates happen to be struggling with sales, this certificate can help them correct current incompetencies and give them the confidence and inspiration needed to succeed.
- Customer Relationship Management Certification. This certification offered by HubSpot can increase a candidate’s knowledge of customer relationship management, which is extremely important for their pipeline in sales.
Sample Interview Questions
- Can you tell us about your sales experience?
- Please tell us about your previous telemarketing experience.
- What made you get into sales?
- What do you do when you encounter rejection or difficult customers?
- How comfortable are you with making cold calls?
- What are your goals here at [Company Name]?
- Can you tell me about a successful phone sales pitch you have made?
- In your opinion, what skills would you say are most important for telemarketing?
- How do you manage your time effectively when making calls and recording customer information?
- We believe planning your day can lead to more success. Can you tell us about your daily morning routine when you arrive at the office?
- Please describe a situation where you dealt with a customer’s objections and how you handled it.
- How are you able to remain motivated when making a high volume of calls?
- Which call center phone systems and applications have you previously used?
- Do you have any certifications applicable to sales?