The Telephone: Field Marketing Tool or Sales Deterrent?

Field marketing: the task of improving sales of a product or service, it comes in many forms from extra promotional drives, to taking to the streets and selling directly to customers.

In their arsenal of marketing tools field marketing agents find the contention of the telephone. Telephones can be a tempting strategy; they reach more people for less money than sending out staff to deal face to face. Just a few phone operatives can potentially contact thousands of customers in a day whereas, for the same expense and time, face-to-face sales will reach far fewer numbers. So the appeal is clear; telephone marketing reaches far more people for far less expense.

The drawback of telephone marketing is that customers generally find it extremely annoying. Dealing with an insistent, disembodied sales voice is frustrating to most people, and the salesperson suffers from an immediate lack of trust. The more marketing agencies badger clients with phone calls more annoyed they become and less likely to deal with what has become known as "cold calling", subsequently many business clients will refuse point blank to conduct business over the phone.

This is compared to face-to-face sales where a highly trained sales executive takes the time to talk personally with the customer, earning their trust, building a genuine rapport and winning their custom. Another factor is that face-to-face sales executives are generally better trained than tele-sales; because the nature of tele-sales is quantity over quality, the sales staff will be generally less trained or motivated than dedicated sales people. Telephone sales are a much less customer friendly approach and, although reaches far more customers, will generally see a smaller percentage of success than face-to-face sales and marketing.

So the decision must rest between reaching the maximum people for the least expense, or taking a little more expense to increase the quality of each sale.

Therefore, especially when dealing negotiating major sales with other businesses and sales outlets, field marketing agencies will opt for a face-to-face approach. There are times however when telephones can be advantageous in conducting sales.

Over a long term of sales negotiation, in the case of an outlet perhaps considering whether to spend thousands of pounds on a product, the process will take place over a series of meetings. Therefore, after initial contact, the telephone can be can be useful to keep the line of communication open and arrange further meetings without the salesperson having to travel all the way back to the client every time. A friendly phone relationship can therefore bolster the face-to-face relationship between salesperson and customer.

So the telephone is a valuable auxiliary tool for field marketing, bolstering face-to-face sales whilst saving some of the money it may take a sales executive to constantly travel to clients. As a pure selling tool however the telephone is generally impersonal and annoying to customers, although to some the reduced costs can seem worth it in light of their company marketing strategy.