Telemarketer

The first thing that comes to mind when thinking of Telemarketers is dinner-interrupting phone calls. But as a Telemarketer, you actually do much more. You use the phone to reach the clients and customers of businesses ranging from nonprofit groups to large corporations, and you do everything from advertising to selling.

You can work as a Telemarketer in a lot of different places, like universities, theater groups, phone companies, or political organizations. No matter who pays you though, your job is to connect with their primary base of customers or supporters by making phone calls using a list of names. These lists vary depending on the needs of your group.

Say, for example, you’re selling window repair services. Your list would then consist of all the homeowners in a specific area. Other examples might be more specific, like democrats between 18 and 25 or alumni from a certain school. Whoever you call though, your job is to convince the person on the other end to give money or support your cause.

This is a sales position, but it takes more skill than working in a store. For one thing, you seek out customers as opposed to them coming to you (like when searching for a shirt at a store). You also don’t have the luxury of being able to show off a good or even look the person in the eye. To do this job well, you need to be personable over the phone, be able to answer any type of question the client might have, and have the patience to deal with near-constant rejection.