Buy or Build: Getting the Most Sales Leverage from Telemarketing Services

Outside telemarketing companies can provide ready-made telemarketing services which can limit costs and get products into the market much more quickly

Before endeavoring to create a telemarketing operation from scratch, management should consider what outside telemarketing companies can do for them. By doing so, managers are likely to find that they can save both time and money if they buy telemarketing services rather than attempt to build them.

Buy or Build Fundamentals: Where Telemarketing Fits
Fundamentally, when any company contemplates adding a new capability, it should ask the andquot;buy or buildandquot; question. The answer to that question generally comes down to this: areas where the company has a unique competitive advantage should be built; those that are outside the companys core competencies should be bought.

Telemarketing services represent a considerable investment in time and money. In most cases, building a call center staff, obtaining the equipment, and acquiring knowledge about telemarketing are all outside the ways a companys business plan is designed to add value. Instead, any unique value proposition can be leveraged by having outside telemarketing companies get the message into the marketplace.

Six Ways Telemarketing Companies Can Leverage Early Growth
To be more specific, here are six ways telemarketing companies can leverage the growth phase of a business or product:
1. Speed product introduction. Whether it is a new business or a new product for an established business, time-to-market is a critical metric when it comes to taking advantage of emerging opportunities. Telemarketing companies can get a new message into the marketplace almost immediately, while building and training a staff from scratch could result in damaging delays.
2. Adjust to seasonal and product cycles. Most businesses have some peaks and valleys, so rather trying to expand and contract an in-house telemarketing staff in conjunction with those cycles, why not simply take advantage of outside capacity as needed?
3. Keep managements eye on the ball. There is already an overwhelming number of issues involved in a product launch. Outsourcing telemarketing services can give management one less distraction.
4. Build return on investment. By limiting fixed costs, outsourcing telemarketing helps build return on investment.
5. Access the best equipment and expertise. Instead of boot-strapping investment in telemarketing equipment and learning by experience, a company can tap into state-of-the-art equipment and experienced specialists by outsourcing telemarketing services.
6. Limit legal liability. Telemarketing laws have been in flux, and are subject to state-by-state differences. Rather than risk liability or spend time getting up to speed on an area of the law unrelated to most companies core businesses, managements can rely on outside telemarketing companies to stay abreast of the relevant legal environment.

A company is likely to encounter a series of andquot;build or buyandquot; questions throughout its life cycle. In the case of telemarketing services, the evidence is clearly in favor of andquot;buy.andquot;

Sources
American Teleservices Association
MSNBC, September 5, 2008, Victory for consumers; defeat for robo-calls