Telemarketing Consultants Business Plan

Roth & Calder Telemarketing Professionals, Inc.

Market Analysis Summary

The telemarketing industry is, at the moment, a growing industry with most companies having an annual growth between 6.5% and 8%. This is due to businesses that are becoming increasingly aware of the need for market information and the desire to reduce customer turnover rates in a hard hit economy. However, long-term analysis of growth rates in this industry shows a cyclical pattern and R&C does not expect this high growth rate to continue.

The telemarketing industry is quite fragmented with companies that vary greatly in size, scope, services offered, and market share. Many companies are general advertising agencies that offer telemarketing services along with a wide range of other consulting services. In addition, many companies, not realizing the potential advantages of outsourcing, choose to develop their own telemarketing services.

Roth & Calder Telemarketing Professionals’ business strategy is to establish a focused approach to its services rather than being everything to its clients. Our company does not intend to be a call center, nor will it ever become so. We are a consulting firm that designs telemarketing campaigns for its clients and matches these clients with the appropriate call center who has the necessary capabilities. These services are where we can offer a higher standard of quality to our clients. This will allow us to charge a higher profit margin to our clients for these differentiated and more focused services. This will also require average project times to be somewhat longer, and therefore we expect initial profitability levels to be lower than average.

4.1 Market Segmentation

Virtually every company, whether large and small, requires some form of telemarketing at some point. Often it is a survey to determine customer satisfaction or awareness. Sometimes it is effectively communicating an upcoming event such as a conference. Other companies wish to know if telemarketing is a feasible method of sales generation. Because of this almost universal need for some form of telemarketing consultation that spans almost all industries, R&C has decided not to create any market segments it wishes to concentrate on nor focus on a target market. We have the capacity to service almost any company of whatever size. We think that at this point in the company’s history, any attempt to target specific markets would hinder our growth potential.

The market analysis table and chart which follows shows the number of businesses within the greater Cawleweton region. This will be our geographical focus for the first 4-5 years of our company’s existance. Later, as we expand to an East Coast, and then a nationwide scope, our future business plans will include all of our potential clients across the country.

Market Analysis
		Year 1	Year 2	Year 3	Year 4	Year 5
Potential Customers	Growth						CAGR
Total companies within the Atlanta area	4%	13,400	13,869	14,354	14,856	15,376	3.50%
Other	0%	0	0	0	0	0	0.00%
Total	3.50%	13,400	13,869	14,354	14,856	15,376	3.50%

4.2 Service Business Analysis

R&C believes that the greatest threat at the moment is in new entrants to the market who perceive an opportunity in a “high” growth industry. The most likely entrants will be existing advertising agencies wishing to horizontally integrate and enter new sub-markets. However, the one major disadvantage to new entrants is that all firms engaged in contracting to telemarketing agencies face significant switching costs when bringing on a new partner. Furthermore, R&C understands that in this industry there is a significant learning curve that creates declining “unit” costs as a firm gains more cumulative experience in the field itself and with long-term clients specifically.

Rivalry among different telemarketing agencies as stated before is quite intense. The telemarketing industry as a whole is mature with long-term moderate growth. Most of the largest agencies are mutually dependent when it comes to jockeying for position and market share. The fact that there are so many diverse and seemingly “generic” or general telemarketing agencies makes this a cutthroat industry.

The threat of clients backwardly integrating so as to have all their advertising done in-house is one of the major factors that buyers use to indirectly control price in this industry, and increase competition among firms. This must always be foremost in the minds of R&C’s management when offering services and setting prices.

4.2.1 Competition and Buying Patterns

Competition
Competition includes all potential advertising and telemarketing agencies plus call centers across the country. In addition we have indirect competition from organizations that handle all their telemarketing in-house. Practically speaking, this means we have the greatest threat from the largest telemarketing agencies such as Davis & Henke, Ludquist telemarketing, and other big, nationwide consulting companies that hold significant market share. The telemarketing consultation industry is highly fragmented, with a large number of small companies that mainly cater to small firms and a few large companies that seek the largest contracts from companies such as Sprint, GM, etc. This makes competition within the industry very intense. Through our focused strategy we intend to avoid such a debilitating environment and avoid its drawbacks such as price wars, etc.

Buying patterns and needs
Companies usually enter into contracts with telemarketing agencies based on their reputation of professionalism and effective campaigns in the past. This reputation is difficult to obtain by new firms unless its personnel bring it with them from previous companies such as ours. Price and scope are also important reasons for accepting contracts, especially if the company is small.