How to Hire a Telemarketer

Why hire a telemarketer?

Hiring a telemarketer at any stage can be beneficial to a company. The right candidate can bring added sales and revenue.

• Increase the number of appointments your sales team has
• Provide excellent customer service to callers
• Enhance the overall sales of your business

Deciding between a full-time vs freelance telemarketer

Before you create your telemarketer job description, consider the difference between hiring a full-time employee and a freelance telemarketer. A full-time telemarketer works well when you have consistent year-round needs. This option gives you consistent coverage and can help consistently boost sales.

For irregular schedules, smaller workloads or varying telemarketing needs, a freelance telemarketer can be a cost-efficient alternative with more flexibility. A freelancer is an option if you have a seasonal business and want to push sales or have large call volume leading into the busy season. Another situation is when you’re launching a limited-time sales or marketing campaign that requires extra help temporarily. You can easily scale up or down based on your current telemarketing needs.

What are the types of telemarketers?

Telemarketers help you increase revenue with various sales tactics, but there are different telemarketers who handle various parts of the sales process. Comparing these telemarketing activities can help you customize your job description to fit your needs. Here are some options:

• Lead generation telemarketers: This type of telemarketer gathers leads for your company that you might pursue later in the sales process.
• Sales telemarketers: A sales telemarketer uses strategies to close the deal with a potential customer or client.
• Inbound telemarketers: When potential customers call with inquiries about your company’s products or services, an inbound telemarketer answers the call. Since the person is already interested in your business, the goal of this type of telemarketer is to nurture them closer to a sale. 
• Outbound telemarketers: Outbound telemarketing is a cold call method of prospecting for new customers. The people these telemarketers call usually fit your target audience, which increases the likelihood of them being interested in your products or services, but they might not be ready to buy just yet.

Where to find telemarketers

To find the right telemarketers for your business, consider trying out a few different recruiting strategies:

• Recruit other salespeople. Hiring people who already have sales experience, such as retail sales staff, especially those who work on commission and understand how to close a sale, can benefit your telemarketing efforts.
• Try a temp. Using a temp agency to fulfill your immediate telemarketing needs gives you a chance to try out potential employees. Offer temps who excel a full-time position.
• Hire from within. Look at your current staff doing other tasks to find people with a natural talent for customer service and sales. Since they’re already familiar with your products and services, they can move into a telemarketing position easily.
• Post your job online. Try posting your telemarketing job on Indeed to find and attract quality telemarketing candidates.

What are the types of telemarketers?

Telemarketers help you increase revenue with various sales tactics, but there are different telemarketers who handle various parts of the sales process. Comparing these telemarketing activities can help you customize your job description to fit your needs. Here are some options:

• Lead generation telemarketers: This type of telemarketer gathers leads for your company that you might pursue later in the sales process.
• Sales telemarketers: A sales telemarketer uses strategies to close the deal with a potential customer or client.
• Inbound telemarketers: When potential customers call with inquiries about your company’s products or services, an inbound telemarketer answers the call. Since the person is already interested in your business, the goal of this type of telemarketer is to nurture them closer to a sale. 
• Outbound telemarketers: Outbound telemarketing is a cold call method of prospecting for new customers. The people these telemarketers call usually fit your target audience, which increases the likelihood of them being interested in your products or services, but they might not be ready to buy just yet.

Writing a telemarketer job description

A thoughtful description is important to finding quality telemarketer candidates. A telemarketer job description includes a compelling summary of the role, a detailed list of duties and responsibilities and the required and preferred skills for the position.

When writing your telemarketer job description, consider including some or all of the following keywords to improve the visibility of your job posting. These are the most popular search terms leading to clicks on telemarketer jobs, according to Indeed data:

• Remote work from home
• Call center
• Sales
• Telemarketing
• Call center representative
• Telemarketer
• Hiring immediately
• Sales representative
• Online work from home
• At home work

Interviewing telemarketer candidates

Strong candidates for telemarketing positions will be confident answering questions regarding:

• Are you comfortable with rejection?
• How many calls they can make a day
• How they follow up with customers

Need help coming up with interview questions? See our list of telemarketer interview questions for examples (with sample answers).