July 1996

From Obscurity To The Darling Of Wall Street In Just 15 Years

BY NADJI TEHRANI

This 15th-year anniversary issue provides the perfect opportunity to briefly look at the past, present and future of the telemarketing industry. In my "Publisher's Outlook" of July 1991, I outlined how Telemarketing� & Call Center Solutions™ magazine laid the foundation for what is now a multibillion-dollar telemarketing/call center industry. My "Outlook" mentioned that at the time of the magazine's inception, there was not only a general lack of knowledge about telemarketing, there were virtually no technologies, training programs or scripts available to practitioners. A minuscule number of companies were engaged in market research and what we now call proactive telemarketing, but beyond that there was little else. As such, and as I've indicated in the past, we had difficulty finding appropriate stories by the second issue of this publication.

Guided By Our Vision
Throughout the infancy of the telemarketing industry, we persevered and refused to give up. Looking back, it's easy to say we did the right thing. In the "Publisher's Outlook" of July 1991, I made some important assertions that still hold true today. They are: ".What has made our industry as great as it is today is not just the equipment, the hardware or the software, IT IS THE PEOPLE, because they are the ones who are making the difference. Without professionally trained, honest, high-integrity telemarketers, it is clear that in no way would our industry have reached the level of success and respect it is enjoying today." I also stated: "Part of our image problem stems from the unfortunate fact that sensationalism and trash journalism sell more than factual, truthful and honest journalism does." Today, we continue to struggle with this image issue.

Looking back on the early days, and seeing where we are today, I feel as though we've witnessed a miracle. If anyone back then had suggested that this embryonic business of ours, that was only very slowly taking shape, would someday become this multibillion-dollar industry, I probably would have laughed and called the visionary simply crazy! But even though I would never have thought telemarketing would grow to such exceptional proportions in 15 years, I did believe this industry couldn't possibly fail because it was cost-effective, far superior to any other form of marketing and tailor-made for corporate America, which was hungry for a new way to conduct database marketing, relationship marketing, loyalty marketing, customer service, customer care, customer retention and market share expansion - anything that provides a business with a reason to exist.

Telemarketing certainly went through many hardships in the early days. Until the right way to conduct effective, ethical and quality telemarketing was found, every mistake in the book, and then some, was made. But, as the old saying goes, failure is the fertilizer for success. The resounding success of this newfound technique caught on in the business world like wildfire. Today, no company can exist without the power of the telephone coupled with the necessary skills for effective communication, customer service and help desk through networks and computer-telephony integration (CTI). Technical breakthroughs such as CTI, the Internet and open platforms have made call centers phenomenally more effective which, in turn, has made the selling process and customer care far superior to that of the past.

All of this progress has resulted in some extraordinary statistics. For instance, 15 years ago, who would have thought the top 100 service agencies alone, which are less than two percent of our industry, would cumulatively use more than 3 billion long-distance service minutes per year, generate $15 billion in sales and create or protect

500,000 jobs in America? Who would have believed that during 1995, outbound telemarketing would grow (at the service agency level) an average of 45.6 percent and inbound telemarketing 90.3 percent?^* And, we predict an even higher growth rate for 1996 and beyond due to the following five factors.

1. The Downsizing Of Corporate America - The downsizing of corporate America, which is now commonplace, seems to be an irreversible trend. According to a recent report by CNBC, from 1990 to 1995, 2.8 million Americans were laid off due to downsizing, which continues at a rate of 700,000 jobs lost per year. This unfortunate trend demoralizes employees, creates a lack of employee trust for business and produces excessive unemployment. However, downsizing has a positive effect on our industry because it leads to outsourcing and insourcing to the telemarketing/call center industry. In fact, it seems like a perpetual resource for our industry, albeit at the expense of jobs for others.
2. The Telecommunications Law Of 1996 - The Federal Trade Commission's Telecommunications Law of 1996 is also expected to vastly increase the demand for outsourcing to our industry. (Please see the May 1996 "Publisher's Outlook.")
3. Demand For Quality Customer Service - The incredible passion to provide customer satisfaction, care and retention - demanded by today's more educated and informed customers, and necessitated by intense global competition - also provides tremendous opportunity for outsourcing to our industry. This trend also seems never-ending.
4. Internet And Help Desks - The Internet will continue to provide significant fuel for the growth of inbound telemarketing, which, in turn, fuels outbound telemarketing for cross-selling, upselling and other add-on sales opportunities.The explosive growth of help desks, stemming from the development of more and more sophisticated technologies, will generate significant increases in inbound calls to businesses of all types and sizes.
5. Inbound Telemarketing Generates Business - Of course, the usual bread-and-butter inbound generators, whose business practices feed outbound telemarketing, such as catalog marketing, infomercials, home shopping networks and other forms of multimedia and interactive/integrated marketing, will be a continual source of business growth for our great industry.

Putting It In Perspective
All of the intense effort we put into the development of the telemarketing/ call center industry was definitely worthwhile! Our industry today supports millions of jobs, generates billions of sales and serves industries from retail, wholesale and customer service, to banking, insurance and financial services. As I've noted in the past, one of the most important contributions of telemarketing to our society is the supply of blood for blood banks and soldiers engaged in wars. In fact, when I delivered the keynote address at the American Red Cross in Massachusetts several years ago, there was a huge banner across their call center that read "Telemarketing.The Link To Life!" A drop of blood represented the exclamation point. How wonderful to see telemarketing functioning to help save lives!

Keeping Up With Technology Is Vital
In recognition of the growing applications of help desks within our industry, effective with this issue, we are introducing a new column entitled Help Desk Applications & Solutions™. This column will appear bimonthly. In addition, to address your needs for technologies for and applications of the Internet and the call center, we are introducing a new, bimonthly column effective with the August issue entitled Internet & Call Center™. This valuable column is intended to keep you at the cutting edge of the Internet as it applies to the call center. We urge all of our readers to pay particular attention to these columns as the technologies discussed within them will play major roles in the future of your call centers.

As we mentioned in the June 1996 "Publisher's Outlook," we have introduced additional shows: the Internet and Call Center Expo™ and TCCS™ Montreal '96. The Internet and Call Center Expo™ will supplement our TCCS™ FALL '96 show in Atlanta, Georgia. The TCCS™ Montreal '96 show will devote one full day to CTI technology and applications.

By now, the readers of this publication are aware that we launched CTI For Management™ magazine this July. CTI is also a pivotal technology that is expected to revolutionize the call center and lead to not only a significant increase in productivity and customer satisfaction, but also a reduction of talk time by as much as 33 percent. As stated earlier, if the top 100 telemarketing companies use more than 3 billion minutes of long-distance service, CTI technology can easily eliminate more than one billion minutes of long-distance service and reduce the cost of doing business by millions of dollars. And that is just one benefit of adopting CTI technology. Can you really afford to live without it in your call center?

The Harder We Worked, The Luckier We Got
While the road has been long, the reward of success was certainly worth the journey. In just 15 years, we've gone from nowhere to the darling of Wall Street! Of course, we could not have reached this point without the support of our valued readers, advertisers, TCCS™ trade show exhibitors and, of course, our staff. Without exception, it is people who have made this industry. I feel blessed that I have this opportunity to interact with and work with these outstanding readers, advertisers, exhibitors and my GREAT staff! Thank you all for your support. We look forward to an even more exciting future!

Sincerely,
Nadji Tehrani
Publisher & Editor-in-Chief

^*Source: Telemarketing� & Call Center Solutions™ magazine. � 1996. Technology Marketing Corporation.