Unfortunately, the DNC legislation has many small businesses that use telemarketers a bit concerned about their choice of direct sales tactic. However, there are still many ways to have your message get into the right people's hands without annoying them. And the fact of the matter is, telemarketing, as a direct sales tactic, works. Here are some tips and ideas to get your sales flowing and customers thrilled that you called them:

Find New Target Markets -

Have you talked with your current customer base lately to find out what their demographic standing is, on a whole? Most small businesses only do this once every couple of years, instead of once every couple of months. Find out who is using your products or services, and who they are: age, sex, race, income bracket, family unit, rent or own, etc. You may find that you haven't been targeting some crucial groups that use your business effectively. Then all you have to do is purchase a targeted telemarketing list, and you're well on your way to garnering more customers.

Consider Outsourcing -

There are a great number of telemarketing agencies currently that would be pleased to contact demographically appropriate customers on your businesses behalf. Why not save yourself the time and hassle of doing it all yourself, and look into one of these companies. They may just save you more time and money than you originally thought. Plus, if they specialize in products or services that your company offers, the response rates may be more than a bit surprising.

Test, Test, Test -

Before you start calling a large number of potential customers, test your telemarketers, the scripts and the telemarketing lists you are using, first. Listen to your staff; they'll tell you pretty quickly if something isn't quite right. Then, tweak whatever needs it, and try again. Not until you are getting an appropriate response rate should you settle into a larger scale operation - and don't forget to test again if your response rates dip.

Buy Quality -

If you want excellent results, you need to pay for them. Make sure you've purchased a telemarketing list from a reputable source that offers highly targeted customer lists only. Freebie lists, or ones that you borrowed from a 'similar' company just won't work here. Without a great list that exemplifies similar characteristics of your current customers, your telemarketing staff will be frustrated in no time with their low response rates.

Chris Burns - American Profiles Mailing & Telemarketing List company. Providing telemarketing lists to the direct marketing industry since 1996.

A full service mailing & telemarketing list company with over 40,000 lists available. http://www.americanprofiles.net

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