Telemarketing Industry Stats & Facts

Telemarketing sales ($U.S. Billions U.S.)

1996: 63.1
2000: 86.9
2001: 93.8
2002: 100.3

2001 U.S. Telephone Marketing Spending by Industry Ranked by Dollars ($U.S. Millions)*

Industry definitions by SIC code

Educational Services: $2,159
Real Estate: 1,862
Depository Institutions: 1,833
Insurance Carriers & Agents: 1,760
Wholesale Trade: 1,487
Personal & Repair Services: 1,404
Social Services: 1,325
Security & Commodity Brokers: 1,318
Health Services: 1,309
Communications: 1,044
Transportation, excluding Airlines: 1,032

Telemarking Sales Representative demographics:

Male: 40%
Female: 60%

Full-time students: 26%
High School diploma: 70%
College degree: 5%

Male non-white: 63%
Female non-white: 67%
Male Black: 35%
Female Black: 46%
Male Hispanic: 27%
Female Hispanic: 20%

Female working mothers: 62%
Single working mothers: 26%
Partially or fully handicapped: 5%
Recently on public assistance/welfare: 30%
Work in rural communities: 60%

Median hourly wage of outbound reps (national): $9.67

The DMA’s Telemarketing Survey
U.S. nationwide, statistically valid survey of over 1,000 adult Americans, May 2003

Who bought via outbound telemarketing calls? (May 2002 - May 2003)

• 32% of adult Americans, ~ 66 million
• 34% men
• 30% woman
• No significant variation by income

What did they buy?

• 12% / ~ 7.9 million adult Americans
  - telephone or long distance service

• 11% / ~ 7.2 million adult Americans
  - magazine or newspaper subscriptions

• 8% / ~ 5.2 million adult Americans
  - cable or satellite service

• 6% / ~ 4 million adult Americans
  - CDs, videos, DVDs, etc

• 5% / ~ 3.3 million adult Americans
  - computers, software, or internet service

• 5% / ~ 3.3 million adult Americans
  - clothing

• 5% / ~ 3.3 million adult Americans
  - house wares

• 5% / ~ 3.3 million adult Americans
  - credit cards

• 4% / ~ 2.6 million adult Americans
  - cleaning or repair services

• 4% / ~2.6 million adult Americans
  - insurance

• 2% / 1.3 million adult Americans
  - lawn care services

How much did they spend?

$135 avg cost of most recent purchase
$9.02 billion spent on just the most recent purchases

Why did they buy?

57% felt product specially suited to needs or interests
39% liked great savings or special trial offer
38% liked quality of the product
29% liked company’s reputation
23% like the friendly or helpful caller