Professional Telemarketing – Professionalism Goes Both Ways

Many people dread the prospect of professional telemarketing whether they're being the ones called or they themselves have to do the calling. May it be the former or the latter, there are just times when businesses feel that the process has become too stigmatized. The fear of getting (as well as giving) angry responses haunts the minds of marketers everywhere.

However, on that note, maybe this fear isn't so well-founded as you might think. Professional telemarketing is called 'professional' for a good reason. Not only that, the context of B2B telemarketing also means that this professionalism goes both ways. Therefore, if you're still either afraid of getting cussed out or feel tempted to rage at a telemarketer, you might want to read about this research recently cited by Forbes. Just from the title of that article, you can already tell that dirty words reflect badly on character when it comes to business. It denotes a lack of professionalism (as stated directly by the quote below):

“It found that employers tend to think less of an employee who swears at work for a variety of reasons. A majority of hiring managers said they believe that the use of curse words brings the employee’s professionalism into question, while others are concerned with the lack of control and lack of maturity demonstrated by swearing at work. More than half said using dirty words at work makes an employee appear less intelligent.”

If such a majority has a negative view on swearing in the work place, why continue to fear being on the end of it? In the worst case, a raging response will only say more about them than they will about you. And since that a majority of managers and decision makers don't have high regard for such people, you probably wouldn't want to do business with them anyways.

Still, be warned as the same goes for you. If you're going to contact decision makers, then you have to make sure that your telemarketers are also professional enough to maintain proper business decorum. In fact, this call to professionalism isn't just limited to telemarketing. It applies just as equally to any other marketing approach. The statistics in the article above should also indicate how important it is to train your telemarketers to avoid unprofessional behavior. And in the case of an outsourced provider, you need make sure that they also live up to such standards. Ask around for referrals and do some research on the companies that you're considering if you want a telemarketing service.

The standards of professionalism aren't just about indicating if a telemarketer knows what it's doing. It's about knowing if that telemarketer exhibits professional behavior that is only befitting the standards held not just by you but by your prospects.

Ultimately, it goes both ways

But on that note, this should also be good news for those who are still terrified of telemarketing. If you think that telemarketing has been stigmatized, there's a lot more stigma upon the unprofessional behavior that it gets. The statistics above should indicate that you have nothing to fear and that there is still a call to professionalism within the business world.