What does a Telesales Representative do?
A telesales representative, also known as a telemarketer, is a salesperson whose duties focus on communicating with potential and existing clients through calls, aiming to secure sales and build positive customer relationships. They offer products and services, set appointments, answer inquiries, discuss product and service specifications, process orders and payments, and even assist customers in issues and concerns. Moreover, a telesales representative also conducts research and assessments to find leads for potential sales opportunities, contacts existing customers, keep records, and provides optimal services to ensure client satisfaction.
Telesales representative responsibilities
Here are examples of responsibilities from real telesales representative resumes:
- Contact medicare eligible recipients to sell medicare advantage plans through in-home meetings, community seminars and direct telesales.
- Exceed expectations in cross-selling and upselling on all inbound and outbound calls.
- Solicit cross-selling and upselling opportunities to new prospects and current customers.
- Upgrade current customers who have Comcast services through outbound telephone solicitation.
- Counter customer objections by remaining knowledgeable of Comcast and its competitor's services and initiatives.
- Demonstrate superb organizational and multitasking abilities
- Provide customers with bundling options, products and services to create revenue.
- Handle calls from TWC customers who are thinking about switching service providers.
- Provide troubleshooting and technical trouble ticket installation for DSL customer outages and connectivity issues.
Telesales representative skills and personality traits
We calculated that 17% of Telesales Representatives are proficient in Customer Service, Inbound Calls, and Lead Generation. They’re also known for soft skills such as Computer skills, Listening skills, and Patience.
We break down the percentage of Telesales Representatives that have these skills listed on their resume here:
- Customer Service, 17%
Maintained and expanded existing customer base, provided them extraordinary customer service by meeting their advertising and deadline needs.
- Inbound Calls, 9%
Answered inbound calls helping customers with orders from advertised infomercials, helping purchase even further benefits than often expected
- Lead Generation, 8%
Negotiated wireless sales to small and midsize businesses, with strong emphasis on cold calling and lead generation.
- Closes Sales, 7%
Generated prospective customers through cold calling and closes sales.
- Customer Interaction, 7%
Managed customer interactions by resolving any reported issues.
- Telemarketing, 6%
Placed telemarketing calls to existing customers Processed upgrades to customer accounts Assisted customers with needs and questions
Most telesales representatives use their skills in "customer service," "inbound calls," and "lead generation" to do their jobs. You can find more detail on essential telesales representative responsibilities here:
Listening skills. Another essential skill to perform telesales representative duties is listening skills. Telesales representatives responsibilities require that "representatives must listen carefully to ensure that they understand customers in order to assist them." Telesales representatives also use listening skills in their role according to a real resume snippet: "addressed and resolved customer issues utilizing effective listening and problems solving skills. "
Patience. Another skill that relates to the job responsibilities of telesales representatives is patience. This skill is critical to many everyday telesales representative duties, as "representatives should be patient and polite, especially when interacting with dissatisfied customers." This example from a resume shows how this skill is used: "assisted customer inquiries with professionalism and patience answered multi-line phone system and directed callers to appropriate extension. "
Problem-solving skills. For certain telesales representative responsibilities to be completed, the job requires competence in "problem-solving skills." The day-to-day duties of a telesales representative rely on this skill, as "representatives must determine solutions to customers’ problems." For example, this snippet was taken directly from a resume about how this skill applies to what telesales representatives do: "respond to all customer inquiries and decide the best avenue to come to a resolution for the customer. "
Communication skills. Another common skill required for telesales representative responsibilities is "communication skills." This skill comes up in the duties of telesales representatives all the time, as "customer service representatives must be able to provide clear information in writing, by phone, or in person." An excerpt from a real telesales representative resume shows how this skill is central to what a telesales representative does: "called present customers on a rotating basis; operating telephone equipment, automatic dialing systems, and other telecommunications technologies. "
Interpersonal skills. While "interpersonal skills" is last on this skills list, don't underestimate its importance to telesales representative responsibilities. Much of what a telesales representative does relies on this skill, seeing as "representatives should be able to create positive interactions with customers." Here is a resume example of how this skill is used in the everyday duties of telesales representatives: "contribute to a team environment by consistently exhibiting excellent interpersonal skills and demonstrating flexibility with daily operations/function. "
The three companies that hire the most telesales representatives are:
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Compare different telesales representatives
Telesales representative vs. Customer support representative
A customer support representative is responsible for answering calls and correspondence, providing customer assistance in various technical issues, concerns, or difficulties. There are also instances when they must make calls to follow-up on the issues, or even sell products and services. Most of the time, a customer support representative has a certain quota to reach and works under a manager's supervision. Furthermore, it is essential to keep accurate records and report to managers or supervisors should there be any problems.
These skill sets are where the common ground ends though. The responsibilities of a telesales representative are more likely to require skills like "customer service," "outbound telephone calls," "inbound calls," and "lead generation." On the other hand, a job as a customer support representative requires skills like "technical support," "windows," "data entry," and "customer support." As you can see, what employees do in each career varies considerably.
On average, customer support representatives reach similar levels of education than telesales representatives. Customer support representatives are 0.4% more likely to earn a Master's Degree and 0.1% less likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.Telesales representative vs. Support representative
The primary job of technical support representatives is to answer incoming calls and resolve customer problems or complaints related to computer hardware and software. They typically work in team environments and report directly to the technical department manager. Aside from answering phone calls, they also maintain the solutions database and respond to online chat requests and technical support emails. A successful technical support representative should have an in-depth knowledge of diagnosing and fixing computer problems, customer service skills, and problem-solving skills.
Each career also uses different skills, according to real telesales representative resumes. While telesales representative responsibilities can utilize skills like "outbound telephone calls," "lead generation," "closes sales," and "telemarketing," support representatives use skills like "patients," "troubleshoot," "data entry," and "technical support."
Support representatives earn similar levels of education than telesales representatives in general. They're 1.2% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 0.1% less likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Telesales representative vs. Customer care representative
A customer care representative is responsible for providing resolution with the customer's concerns, following the business' procedures and strategic processes. Customer care representatives must have exceptional customer service skills to address their clients' concerns efficiently and accurately, as well as having extensive knowledge of the products and services their company offer. Duties of a customer care representative also include managing client's complaints, offering alternative products and refunds as needed, calculating fees for special requests, updating customer's account information, documenting actions taken, and escalating special case concerns to the supervisor.
The required skills of the two careers differ considerably. For example, telesales representatives are more likely to have skills like "outbound telephone calls," "inbound calls," "lead generation," and "closes sales." But a customer care representative is more likely to have skills like "work ethic," "strong work ethic," "data entry," and "excellent organizational."
Customer care representatives typically earn similar educational levels compared to telesales representatives. Specifically, they're 0.4% less likely to graduate with a Master's Degree, and 0.1% less likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Telesales representative vs. Customer service representative
Customer service representatives are the first point of contact of the customers, acting as the frontiers of the company and help in driving customer loyalty and retention by leaving a great impression and resolving all of their concerns. They accommodate customer queries by providing useful and comprehensive information about any products or services. Some would use that as an opportunity to market and promote more sales. The most challenging issues they use to handle are customer complaints and processing of refunds and returns. They also assist in basic troubleshooting or accounts and payment setup with the use of specific guidelines or step by step procedures. At most, they help and solve customer issues on their own, but sometimes they would need support from supervisors or other departments.
Types of telesales representative
Updated January 8, 2025
