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Every marketing pro longs for a hot product; but what if your product's so hot you can't handle it alone?
At Broderbund Software Inc., we're getting a taste of what that's like, thanks to the overwhelming interest in a recent upgrade to one of our most popular software products.
With inquiries still pouring in to a special 800 number set up to handle responses to a campaign launched more than a year ago, Broderbund is a perfect example of why telemarketing service bureaus are emerging as an integral part of marketing teams for smaller, growth-oriented firms.
When our popular "The Print Shop" software program became "The New Print Shop," the potential influx of inquiries resulting from planned direct mail and advertising campaigns would have swamped our in-house direct sales staff. Even though we can normally handle more than 750 calls a day with a rather simple Centrex telephone system, it wasn't suited to handling the heavier volume of inbound calls projected. Thus, without the resources to either hire a telemarketing staff or increase the capacity of our telephone system, we decided to explore the idea of using a telemarketing service bureau.
FINDING A SOLUTION
Broderbund, which as grown from a start-up venture in 1980 to a company with more than $60 million in sales last year, publishes software games and educational programs for the home and office markets. Specifically, "The New Print Shop" is a print program for banners, letterheads and other graphics needs. It works well for desktop publishing and is used extensively by schools, small businesses, and home computer users, since it's compatible with both IBM and Apple PCs.
Although many larger companies use telemarketing as an outbound direct sales tool, this was never part of our strategy. Because we sell most of our products through distributors who then sell to dealers, the objective was to set up a "net" that would capture potential orders more efficiently. If a sale could be closed on the phone, fine. If not, the service bureau could send the lead to the home office, where, depending on the caller's locale, it would either be given to a local dealer or passed to someone on...