What is outbound calling?
As a job duty descriptor, you may see or hear the term outbound calling. As a homeowner or business executive, you’ve likely experienced the result of outbound calling first hand. Outbound calling refers to phone calls made by a company to a specified list of contacts. In sales, outbound calling encompasses telemarketing, lead generating, and other steps necessary in the sales process. As opposed to employees who handle inbound calling, employees who perform outbound calling may be required to abide by certain laws that apply to their job or type of work. When a job description requires employees to handle inbound calling, they are usually fulfilling duties that are governed by the company’s policies. Customer service, company or business inquiries, and so forth are handled through incoming calls. However, outbound calling, such as in sales or collections, is partially mandated by state and federal law. For example, a company who uses outbound calling as a way to build a client base to
An outbound call center, also known as a telemarketing call center, is a company that specializes in making multiple sales, survey, or service calls on your behalf. Typically, telemarketing companies make: direct sales calls, lead generation calls, appointment scheduling calls, information verifying calls, and research and survey calls. Depending upon the contract between the telemarketing call center and your business, telemarketers can follow scripts or ad-lib when dealing with customers—in short, their response to your potential customers is completely customizable to your needs.
Whenever we advertise or talk internally at work we refer to “inbound” and “outbound” work. As a leading outbound and inbound telemarketing company we make a very deliberate and marked distinction between the two. Why? If you have ever listened to a directory type service you will hear both business and residential customers calling by the thousand to ask for specific products, services or numbers – but they are calling you – hence inbound. Imagine being given a Yellow Pages and asked to find business whether it be for office furniture or gardening equipment! This is outbound calling or cold calling as it is more commonly called. As hopefully an expert in this field now with more than 25 years experience of outbound and inbound calls, the difference between doing either is marked. Although inbound can and maybe tough it is in my opinion nowhere near as difficult as outbound. Outbound calling requires real thick skin and very strong discipline – constantly motivating and re-motivating o
