Telemarketing is the practice of marketing goods and services through telephone contact. It is an integral part of many modern sales and marketing campaigns. One use of telemarketing is to identify prospects. A financial services company used telemarketing to identify prospects for its customized equipment–leasing packages. Leads were given to salespeople for consideration. Telemarketing also can be used to quickly and inexpensively qualify prospects for follow-up. Some marketers use the telephone to verify sales leads generated by direct mail, advertisements, or some other method.

Although the response rate for sales e-mails is quite low, they have proven to be a source of leads for many salespeople. Ideally, sales e-mails should be sent only to existing customers or others who have “opted in” to receive them. When you use broadcast e-mails, there is the risk that you will be blocked and end up on a spammer blacklist. Online sales specialist Mac MacIntosh says those who use broadcast e-mails should stay within antispam laws by giving recipients the right to opt out of future e-mails.15

Putting your company name in the subject line can help get e-mails opened by prospects who are familiar with it. Some salespeople send newsletters to current and prospective customers. Lee Levitt, director of sales for software consultant IDC, sends a monthly newsletter to current IDC clients and professionals at large technology companies. He wants to expose them to services his company can provide. Levitt says, “The key is to offer something of value they can quickly digest and use in day-to-day work.”16