Does telemarketing work?

Does call center telemarketing services work for business out there?

Brian I have spent years in sales, marketing, and advertising. I've manged call centers of various sorts for different companies and telemarketing does work. Your cost per sale, appointment, or whatever you seek will be relevant to how well your representatives are doing their jobs. I've "fixed" many operations and gotten them back into a cost effective range. I would recommend doing any call center activities in house versus farming them out to other companies. No one is going to care for your bottom line like you do. If you are unfamiliar with the industry, then you should seek the services of a telemarketing consultant. There are many things to know and nothing worse than having ill-prepared people making calls. Feel free to email me if you'd like an opportunity to pick my brain. If I know what your product is and to whom you are marketing, I should think i could be of more help to you.

they wouldn't do it if it didn't work.

yes, it operates on the same principle as monkeys with typewriters.....give a room full of monkeys typewriters and enough time and eventually one of them will type, word for word, the gettysburgh address.

Call enough people, you are bound to find a succer eventually.

Depending upon the business model, telemarketing can work as one of the "points of sale," or the primary/only point of sale. While some other marketing communications can be very expensive and have high percentage of sale opportunities, (person to person sale, appropriately placed TV spot)telemarketing (along with mailers) is on the other extreme - very low costs, but very little return per hour invested.

One consideration with telemarketing is the brand impact -- telemarketing is typically a brand adverse activity; for those who don't buy from you, (most of those whom are contacted) the next time they hear the name of the company, they are likely to have a negative impression. A bad brand impression in many industries can be a killer. If your overall biz strategy does not entail a strong brand presence, however, the issue is moot.

Absolutely, pay commission only to keep costs low and callers motivated. It's our cheapest and highest profiting marketing we implement.
Like the person mentioned above, it's a numbers game.
I found these stats to be true for my business and area: For every 200 calls, I can expect 5 positive coversations, and 1 sale.