Library · Glossary
The telesales glossary
Every term this site uses, defined in a paragraph and linked to the page that owns it in depth. Written for both sides of the marketplace.
Defined
The selling vocabulary
TelesalesWhat is telesales?Selling a product to a customer over the phone with the sale completed on the call itself. Distinct from telemarketing, which generates interest for someone else to close. Paid here per sale the customer confirms.TelemarketingTelesales vs telemarketingOutbound calling that warms a list: qualifying prospects, booking appointments and generating interest that another person converts. In job ads the word is used loosely for both; the pay model tells you which one is meant.Cold callingFree telesales trainingThe first unsolicited call to a prospect. The opener and the first thirty seconds decide most of it, which is why the free training spends two lessons there before anything else.Commission-onlyCommission-only vs salaryA pay model with no salary and no hourly rate: a fixed amount per verified sale, nothing in between. Suits sellers who have carried a target; a slow week pays nothing at all.Self-employed phone sellerSelf-employed in the UKThe person doing the work here: registered self-employed, selling on their own account, invoicing commission rather than earning a wage. No employer, no shifts, no rota.Appointment setterSetter vs telesalesBooks qualified meetings for a closer and is usually paid per slot or per hour. The skills transfer almost entirely to telesales; the difference is who completes the sale.Salaried trackThe two ways you are paidThe second pay model on some campaigns: a guaranteed minimum for the hours worked with commission on top, built for people newer to phone sales who need a floor while they learn.Objection handlingThe objection lessonThe structured response to a prospect’s reasons not to buy. Taught against outcomes: the tally of which objections you hear and what happened next builds itself in the dialer.
Defined
The buying vocabulary
Pay per saleThe pricing modelsThe advertiser pays when a customer confirms a purchase, and not before. Here confirmation is written, by SMS, and billing waits out the cooling-off period, so cancelled sales are never invoiced.Pay per leadWhen leads are the better buyThe advertiser buys contact details or interest signals, priced per lead delivered whether or not any lead buys. Cheap next to sales because the conversion risk stays with the buyer.Pay per appointmentThe pricing modelsThe advertiser pays per booked meeting. One step closer to revenue than a lead, still not a customer; it suits demo-led products closed by an in-house team.Telesales outsourcingOutsourcing, honestlyPaying someone outside your company to sell by phone for you: an agency with a retainer and a trained team, or a marketplace priced per confirmed sale. Also searched as outsourced telesales; same purchase.Outbound call centreInbound vs outboundMakes calls to sell. The other kind, inbound, answers the calls your customers place. They are priced and measured differently, and buying one when you need the other is the category’s most common mistake.Commission-only sales agentAgents, direct or platformA self-employed seller who invoices commission on what they close: no employment relationship, no salary, no employer obligations. Run directly, or through a platform that has the vetting and payout rails built.Lead generationLeads vs salesThe industry that produces prospects for other people to close, priced per lead or on retainer. Adjacent to, and often confused with, buying finished sales.B2B telemarketingB2B, paid per saleOutbound calling to businesses rather than consumers. Fits per-sale pricing when a decision-maker can confirm on the call; does not fit quarter-long enterprise cycles, and we say so.CampaignHow campaigns workOne brand’s published offer on the marketplace: the product, the script, the qualification rules and the commission per verified sale, stated before any seller accepts it.
Defined
Platform terms
Verified saleWhat you are billed forA sale the customer has confirmed in writing by SMS and that has survived the cooling-off period. The only unit that is ever billed to a brand or paid to a seller.Cooling-off periodWhen you are invoicedThe statutory window, 14 days for consumer distance sales, in which a customer may withdraw. Sales are invoiced only after it has run, so withdrawals never reach an invoice.Do-not-call registersCompliance on business linesThe opt-out lists numbers are screened against before the dialer connects a call; in the UK, the TPS for consumers and the corporate TPS for businesses.Platform marginPricing in fullRingoMarket’s charge, added on top of the commission the brand sets and charged only on sales that survive cooling-off. There is no retainer, no seat fee and no minimum.
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