When did telemarketing begin in the U.S.?

Hello angeleyes777-ga,

It appears that telemarketing didn’t start in earnest until the 1960s
when Murray Roman founded Campaign Communications.

According to a WashingtonPost.com article:

“Have We Reached the Party To Whom We Are Speaking? 
Telemarketers Aren't So Bad. Really. Just Ask 'Em.”
By Don Oldenburg, Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, October 20, 2002; Page F01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A45989-2002Oct18?language=printer
“Murray Roman is considered the father of telemarketing. In the late
'60s he founded a shop in Manhattan called Campaign Communications,
where he hired out-of-work actors to put some feeling into selling
subscriptions for Saturday Review.”


Other references to Murray Roman:

Direct Marketing Association (DMA)
Honoring lifetime achievement: The DMA Hall of Fame Inductees
http://www.the-dma.org/industryawards/hofinductees.shtml
“MURRAY ROMAN
Inducted 2001
Acknowledged founder of professional telemarketing and an instrumental
force in its worldwide growth. Founded Campaign Communications, Inc.,
one of the earliest and largest telemarketing agencies specializing in
creating innovative telemarketing programs for companies.”

eti Sales Support
http://www.etisales.com/9_must_do_b2b_telemarketing.htm
“Telemarketing has come a long way since Murray Roman, the 'father of
telemarketing', opened his shop in Manhattan in the 60's. Those were
the days when out of work actors were available, and hired, because
they could read a script with feeling.”

Open Book Systems (OBS) Archives
http://archives.obs-us.com/obs/english/books/elecmanu/gh302.htm 
“Murray Roman pioneered the telemarketing medium and launched the
first telephone marketing firm to make over 100 million calls. His
son, Ernan Roman, pioneered integrated direct marketing (IDM),
starting with telephone and direct mail.”


However, some believe that telemarketing started much earlier. 
According to Stellar Business Online (“Business-To-Business
Telemarketing; Is It For You?”
By Shirley J. Calpas, President of Enterprise Telecom Services)
http://www.stellar.org/global/e-mktg2.html
“R.R. Donnelley in 1930 pioneered telemarketing (TM) by using it to
entice advertisers to buy ad space for the Business Yellow Pages. This
opened the door for using the telephone for business.

In 1970 Murray Roman of New York was credited for creating the first
business-to-business TM program to sell Saturday Review subscriptions
to professionals. Today, TM is the fastest growing marketing technique
being used by small entrepreneurial companies to sell to Fortune 500
companies.”


Other references:

Direct Marketing Association 
“The United States of America, Land of Opportunity, Direct Marketing,
An Overview”
http://www.the-dma.org/library/landofopportunity.shtml

Amazon.com, Book Search Results, Murray Roman
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-url/index=books&field-author=Roman,%20Murray/104-4843040-1178308

Ernan Roman Direct Marketing
http://www.erdm.com



I hope you have found this information helpful. If you have any
questions, please request clarification prior to rating the answer.

Googlenut


Google Search Terms:

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I found this answer to be very helpful. Not only did the researcher
answer my question of when telemarketing started, but they told me the
person who started it. I had been surfing the net for days trying to
find the answer to this question, and you all answered it in a day.
This makes me look bad, but great job on your part! Thanks for the
help!
Angeleyes777

angeleyes777-ga,

Thank you for the tip. I'm glad I was able to help.

Googlenut

I can't resist adding my opinion of telemarketing. I typically am
polite and appear intersted. I ask questions and try to under stand
the future probabilities if I say yes. Often the telemarketer does not
understand my questions, does not know the answers or is programed not
to respond in most areas other the the script. Then I tell them that I
have little confidence that their product or service is servicable,
useful or reasonably priced, goodby. I am especially turned off by the
computers that dial 5 people per minute, and hangs up on more than
half of them as the humans can not keep up with the dialing rate.
Apparently the computer assumes correctly that most people will be
unreceptive unless a human says something within 2 seconds after we
answer the phone, and we are less likely to be reseptive if we reach
the phone on the third ring instead of the second ring.  Neil