Telemarketers

[James Boston]

I'm hoping someone with telemarketing experience will chime in here.

How does this work? Who are the people who are actually responding to telemarketers?

I've worked in radio for a long time. Everytime someone posts about radio on 2+2, there's inevitably a post saying, "OMG, get Sirius, they don't have commercials, it's better." Still, I know that radio has plenty of listeners and plenty of advertisers, so I know it's not yet antiquated.

Given what I just said, I have to assume telemarketing works. Otherwise, no one would be paying people to spend hours upon hours bothering people at home.

My guess is that it's similar to coupons. The response rate for coupons is around 1%. Essentially, you don't expect much repsonse, you just expect enough repsonse to justify what you spent.

(You spend $10,000 on coupons. They are mailed to 100,000 people. You expect that the 1,000 who respond will spend, at least, $10 a piece with you - or $10,000.)

Can anyone add to this? I've always wondered, given that I HATE telemarketers, whether or not they actually make money for the companies they work for. What kind of closing ratio is expected? What type of person reacts kindly to telemarketers? You get the idea, please expound....