Telemarketing. At a distance: more ways to reach out to the client

In Guatemala, although telephone service is limited and demand has not been satisfied by the government, there are many national and international companies which offer resources for telemarketing. There are television programs promoting sales, and access to international markets through call-back services via satellite, which charge calls to a different location from the one where calls are made, have made it easier to communicate with potential wholesalers and consumers.

Raul Martinez Montt, a Guatemalan marketing and telemarketing expert and representative of Wunderman Cato Johnson, an international marketing company, prefers to avoid book definitions, without forgetting existing difficulties in our national telecommunication systems. He explains the concept according to national standards and a managerial point of view. "Telemarketing is part of a direct marketing concept: a tool that can be used specifically to reach a group of people known by name, address, phone number, age, sex, family patterns, occupation, hobbies, habits and many other demographic and psychographic characteristics which are part of a well established data base."

Martinez Montt recognizes that the term "telemarketing" is being used by many who have merely hired a group of telephone operators to sell a product by phone. Although he has no doubt that this effort can bring positive results, he also believes that many benefits are being wasted, since telemarketing offers much more potential as a management tool, or within a company's own telemarketing department.

The data base is much more than a simple mailing list; it is the key to any telemarketing strategy. "Data bases are the infrastructure of a direct mail system. Telemarketing must be used to add information to the data base, and to learn more about the market in order to target the the desired segments."

It is important to understand that personnel who participate in marketing strategies at a distance must be highly competitive and well trained. Telemarketers should be more than a voice on the other side of the phone. They must study dialogues, know what they have to say, and be prepared for any kind of answer.