Summary
Telemarketing industry
See the full content of this document
Extract
Dialing for dollars.
DIALING FOR DOLLARS
The sign on the window of the shabbybuilding in Silver Spring, Maryland reads "positions available: telephone solicitations.' In the basement office, three dozen people sit under flourescent lights at folding tables placed against the walls. Each works a yellow push-button phone. Some are fundraising for a local Kiwanis Club; others are calling those who have let their magazine subscriptions lapse. In subdued, conversational tones like those of late night DJs, they work from scripted pitches, though most of them also ad lib. They work 4-to-6 hour shifts and make between $5 and $10 an hour. "We've got a low overhead philosophy here,' explains a 30-year-old in jeans and sneakers named Bill Taliaferro, one of the owners of Nevus Communications Group, the telemarketing firm. "That beautiful operator from Time/Life who you see on TV, with her computer screen and her plush office; she's in telemarketing, too,' his partner, Paul Holland, explains. "But believe me, most telemarketing firms don't look like that; they look like this.' Telemarketing is very likely the fastest growingindustry in America. Banks, real estate firms, stock brokerages, insurance companies, sporting goods manufacturers, distributors--nearly every industry in America is "into telemarketing.' Arts, charities, and other non-pr...See the full content of this document
Sponsored links
