Computer products direct marketer Insight Direct just keeps hanging on the telephone.
Not only has the Tempe, AZ-based firm increased its U.S. telephone account staff to more than 1,000 reps from the 600 it had just a year and a half ago, Insight plans to open a call center in Montreal by year’s end to be staffed by 500 reps and has been working to recruit at least 300 more – partly through a one-day “extravaganza” it threw in May.
“Telemarketing is even more important than it was in the past,” says Insight marketing vice president Charles Jarrell.
Over the past few years, Insight – which started out as both a consumer and business-to-business cataloger – has gradually shifted its marketing efforts over to outbound telemarketing and, in some cases, online marketing, to take advantage of the cost savings and greater efficiencies it can attain over the phone.
The strategy apparently is working. In the quarter ended April 26, Insight reported net sales of nearly $468 million (a 38% jump over the same period the year before); 53% growth in its U.S. core direct business; an 81% overall increase in net earnings; and 19 consecutive quarters of sales and income growth.
Insight’s primary target customers are companies with between 50 and 1,000 workstations, especially those firms that are most likely to be automating and presumably upgrading or buying new computers, software and accessories often.
Names of prospects to be contacted come from Insight’s database and from leads picked up by each rep. Insight has also started having reps sell more laptop and notebook computers and other “mobility products” to its client companies and to individual employees at those firms, says Jarrell.
Insight pays its reps a salary and commission and gives them quotas for bringing in business.
As part of this plan, telephone salespeople are asked to build relationships with each of the 100 or so accounts they are assigned.
Even with all its growth, Insight has stayed with the network-based call center technology it adopted over a year and a half ago when it moved away from a personal computer-based system. This more automated system permits reps to access their accounts on the Web at www.insight.com, send regular promotional and other e-mail to them and further develop their relationships.
Insight is placing heavy emphasis on online marketing, especially for smaller businesses and home offices. According to Jarrell, reps generally try to direct those customers to the site because the amount of business they generate is too small to be worth a rep’s time.
Just the same, telephone reps still get commissions for sales they refer to the site.
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