Would a telemarketing job build fastlane skills?

[VexX]

So I just got offered a job at some insurance company where I'd be expected to do telemarketing to generate new clients.
Obviously getting a job is not very "fastlane", but I'd still be able to continue with my fastlane business in my spare time.

As far as I know being good at sales is something very important to be good at to help you get far in business, but I'm not so sure about whether telemarketing builds sales skills.

Anyone with any experience in that kind of field?

 

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[Darkside]

So I just got offered a job at some insurance company where I'd be expected to do telemarketing to generate new clients.
Obviously getting a job is not very "fastlane", but I'd still be able to continue with my fastlane business in my spare time.

As far as I know being good at sales is something very important to be good at to help you get far in business, but I'm not so sure about whether telemarketing builds sales skills.

Anyone with any experience in that kind of field?

Telemarketing will not teach you good sales skills as it applies to business. The reason being that telemarketers are taught to be pushy and to continuously/quickly talk to convince people to buy their products. But, if you're cold calling businesses to offer them something, you need to have the opposite skill set.

You need to listen more than you talk and you need to avoid being pushy, because people naturally back away from pushy salesmen. They want to feel like they're making the decision on their own, and not being pressured into it.

 

[VexX]

The job I've been offered is not 100% cold calling. The secretary mentioned that you are phoning existing clients and asking them for referrals. So no actual selling is done over the phone. I'll be working in the lead gen department, thought this could be pretty cool since I'm involved in lead gen through websites.

 

[theag]

It will teach you persistence and maybe some sales skills, but Darkside is right, telemarketing skills differ from real sales skills.

I did telesales (cold calls) for my own service and will continue it after my summer exams and I can tell you: it sucks.

 

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[Stam]

Hi!

I run a telemarketing company now. It could be a road you go down later on.

Telemarketing has teached me a lot of psycology behind humans, sales and so on. But we focus a lot on it in my company, and it works.

What have telemarketing done for me?

1. I was a introvert, its teached me to more to extrovert in my personality, which has huge benefits in this society.
2. It helped me get an apartment for rent, $200 under listing price, because I sold people out of the idea of having the apartment and sold myself in to the property manager.
3. It helped me build this company.
4. Keep going even if hundreds of people say NO to you. There is always someone out there willing to listen to you and what you got. Persistence.
5. Don't take NO for an answer, a NO is just an indicator for you, maybe they dont want your product or they dont know about the benefits, try to tell them before a final no, but always make sure you value their time.

And it landed me a job in door to door sales. But I did learn alot afterwards to, from books, seminars, courses, and so on. If the company provides that to you, take it, will help you further.

Could be a good experience, and if it is on a commission basis, there is no limit to what you could be able to make. I have had people make $10k+ a month on consitent basis. But hey, when you are that good, why not go into something you could sell yourself? and make 100% commission. Then employ people, or fund your business.

Good luck in your decision!

 

[wadza]

It's a great learning ground for sales and will teach you the basics. Remember that all sales is psychology based and telemarketing is a great way to learn. Other types of sales, account management etc follow different processes and techniques but at the end of the day it's all about allowing the customer or prospect to connect the value of your proposition to their needs. The thing is most of these customers can't or won't do this on their own, this is where the sales-person comes in: to 'paint the picture' for them.

Telemarketing also teaches a high level of mental toughness which is required to succeed in business. When it seems like everyone out there is telling you NO or P*** OFF you need to have a pretty unshakeable self-belief and mental toughness to keep getting up and trying... In business you may go for a long time of struggling to get things off the ground and hit a lot of 'dead ends' before you eventually crack your systems & processes and start to grow or get more/bigger orders, etc...

 

[Jake]

Yes, it would or should I say it CAN. Here's a good thread on building a business that revolves around tele-marketing.

https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/your-goals-your-fastlane-plan/29468-diary-opening-new-business.html

 

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[JEdwards]

Do it, Love it, live it..

As with anything, as long as you do not have to follow the script word for word and involves at least some form of up selling, up-selling etc.... you will learn more in 6 months than 99% of people in sales today.

Plus, if you can, try to do b2b, that way you get comfortable talking to business owners.

I have seen on this forum, time and time again, people afraid to pick up the phone, they say maybe if I email 10 owners a day.. email.. laughable..

I would have no problem picking up the phone and calling anyone at anytime, if I needed to figure something out or if I thought I could add value to their business.

Good Luck.

 

[VexX]

So I went in for the job interview today, they explained to me that it involves basically capturing the addresses of referrals from current clients. It's not really sales, you just ask them about their address then they send a package to the people.

Seems pretty lame, there's no actual selling involved.

 

[andviv]

It's not really sales, you just ask them about their address then they send a package to the people.

Wait, do you have to convince them to give you their address? or they already willingly give you this info as you work for a trusted entity to them?

I don't know about you, but I do not give my home address to anybody just like that on the phone....

That is probably harder than have you selling me something I don't need...

I say, take it. If you don't like it or learn anything you can always quit, no?

 

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[VexX]

You get referred to them by a current client, then in the call you tell them "your friend xxxx referred us to you and we would like to send you a complimentary gift pack, please can I get your address for that?"

 

[LamboMP]

Instead of getting a telemarketing job, you could always just pick up the phone and sell your own service? You get good at any kind of sales by DOING.

You learn what works, what doesn't. What approach is best.

Your not going to be perfect the first time you try and sell something. You improve your skills by taking risks and getting out of your comfort zone.

 

[Lionhearted]

This is my weird way to pay it forward. Just a little English constructive criticism. The proper way to say ,"its teached me" should really be "it's taught me" and "has teached me"should be "has taught me". Thanks for the great response.

 

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[DennisD]

Any job you take, will give you new skills. I just wrote a post on it here: Dennis Duty » Employment isn but here's the summary:

You're going to learn to be a little more confident talking to strangers. You're going to learn how a call center environment works, in case you decide to start one or work with one. You'll learn the mentality of the people who work in one, the mentality of their bosses, and the mentality of the random people you're calling up: all of which is useful.

You will earn money, which will help you to building your fastlane business. MJ scrubbed toilets and drove limos while building his fastlane business. There's no reason you can't talk on the phone while building yours.

I worked as a coldcaller. It sucked, but I took the job so I can learn to talk with more clarity and enthusiasm. It didn't help my speaking SKILLS much, but it did increase my overall confidence in life. My fear of failure dissipated, since I failed every 2 minutes rapid fire.

Every job you take you're going to learn a life skill from. Take the jobs that apply to your weaknesses specifically.

 

[melup]

Hey,

I worked for a pretty big telemarketing company and it certainly taught me a lot. It taught me to be persistent, it built up my confidence, it built up my sales skills, I learnt how to speak to people professionally through calling businesses, it improved my communication skills and it made me tougher! Sure, it's not for everybody but if you can cope with it you will learn a lot and can make some good money!

Mel