What are future trends in the outbound telemarketing industry?

Hopefully,,,,,,Death on a stick...

Wasn't there some law passed recently (at least here in CA), that will require 
telemarketers to send their Caller ID info?  That would be a nice trend for a 
change...

no law that i know of requiring caller id.  telemarketers go out on Hunt groups 
anyways, and their line is automatically assigned by a dialer.  it's not like 
they're dialing out on the same line each time.

as for trends...being in the capital of telemarketing here...look at the 
ability to outsource telemarketing to people working from home and in rural 
communities.  this is especially true with the advent of newer IP technologies.

According to the Direct Marketing Association statistics, sales topped $660 
billion in 2001 for outbound telemarketing services.  They also say more than 
six million people were employed in the telemarketing industry in 2001.  (1)
According to Private Citizen, the telemarketing industry makes 148 million 
calls per day.  So, in my opionion these are pretty high numbers that indicate 
the telemarketing industry as a whole is growing, but on the other hand...
A recent telemarketing survey of over 1.78 million people, over 98% of them 
reported that the call made them "angry".  (2)
The National Fraud Information Center reports that consumers lost $5,679,855 in 
2000 due to telemarketing fraud.  (3)
Although the industry growth seems high, the popularity of telemarketing is 
quite low, and due to deceptive practicies of many phone marketers, consumers 
will tend to find these calls intrusive.  This is clear, seeing how the FTC 
recently proposed a National "Do-Not-Call" list for consumers to opt-out of the 
majority of telemarketing calls, and many states have already enacted lists of 
their own (4)
So, before you run out and start a telemarketing campagin, reading the 
JunkBuster's Direct Marketing Business Section may be of some assistance:
http://www.junkbusters.com/business.html

For consumers, information about telemarketing practices can be found here:
http://www.junkbusters.com/ht/en/telemarketing.html
http://opt-out.cdt.org/
http://www.obviously.com/junkmail/

Sources cited:
(1) http://www.the-dma.org/government/teleservicefactsheet.shtml
(2) http://www.dianamey.com/Telemarketingstats.html
(3) http://www.fraud.org/telemarketing/00statsfinal.htm
(4) http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/edcams/donotcall/index.htm

Also, something to consider is the globilization of telemarketing. 
INbound call centers for American and European products have been
successfully relocated to India, Indonesia and China.

There is no reason OUTbound call centers could also not be relocated. 
The only barrier is language, and the locals there have proven to be
quite receptive to language and voice training.

I see the future to be more offshore call centers, with more targeted
marketing as databases get better and data mining tools become more
powerful.

Just my opinion, no facts.

Will