Telemarketing has become a new trend in the world of business as a way to directly market products and services to customers. Telemarketing is popular because it involves the use of information technology applied to the development of businesses.

Telemarketing forces marketing professionals to learn more about the specific areas that this new trend affects in the sales world. In order to improve sales, marketing professionals need to understand how telemarketing works, what and how it is used for, and what its main advantages are.

Telemarketing applies existing and innovative communication technologies into the sales and marketing of products and services.

Telemarketing is founded on the grounds of communications. It has applied one of the oldest inventions, the phone, and given it a new meaning and purpose. It is a tool that allows sales people to communicate with customers and potentially change the behaviors of clients. New inventions are important when they have an incidence in the change of behavior.

By this we understand that it is necessary to leave the doors open to any other instrument (innovative, original and practical) in order to improve the effectiveness of telemarketing activities.

For example, in call centers nowadays some of the representatives use instant messenger systems to chat directly with their customers on real time. Some support technicians also provide assistance to customers through chat from the company’s web page.

VoIP is another new application of technology. It allows people to place phone calls through the computer to any land line or cell phone around the world. VoIP allow companies to save money doing internet calls.

We can say that Telemarketing falls on the realm of retail sales technology. Saying this has two implications. One of them is that it requires the direct communication with customers because he or she is the foundation of a sales relation.

The second implication is the close relationship between the sales representative and the customer. Telemarketing is not a substitute for direct sales and should not be taken as such, it merely complements those functions. Telemarketing will save companies money when you a sales person can close a sale on the phone, or when customers can get technical support through instant messaging instead of having to send a technician over.