This past week I have been in the middle of several discussions surrounding the validity of telemarketing or cold calling.  In each of the discussions, the premise was that telemarketing is dead and that it should be eliminated from the marketing mix. 

I could not disagree more!

Throughout the course of these discussions what came to light very quickly is why telemarketing did not work for these companies.  The reasons varied from time to time but by and large it was usually a combination of the following:

- It was the only medium that was relied on by the company to generate leads:  This would be the same as if a

company only used direct mail, e-mail or their website for lead generation.  It would not come close to yielding the results that a fully integrated program would, yet it is always expected to be the "magic pill" that solves all of a companies lead woes

- There was a lack of training involved:  This one always gets me! As the person on the telephone is often the first voice from the company that a prospect will hear and can truly make or break the deal, initial and ongoing training are a must for success

-The teleservices agents were non-professional low cost resources: While companies would never dream of farming out their creative to a son's friend who is a pretty good artist, they seem more and more willing to skimp when it comes to phone work.  It all has to have the same investment and be recognized as a discipline within the rest of the marketing mix

- There was no process to handle the leads that were generated by the telephone:  This extends beyond telemarketing and into marketing as a whole.  Companies do not have an established automated process whereby they handle leads and ensure only the qualified leads get passed to sales while the others are nurtured.  This only leads to the assumption within the company that marketing as a whole (beyond just telemarketing) is not doing their job

I am sure that telemarketing and cold calling will continue to get the bad rap as being ineffective and if the changes are not made why not? However, used correctly and with the right process it can yield some incredible results.  Go ahead, give it a try and see for yourself.