How To Become A Telemarketing Representative: What It Is and Career Path

What is a telemarketing representative and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

2 min read

Quoted experts

Eric Gjerdevig,

Ashley Strausser

There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a telemarketing representative. For example, did you know that they make an average of $13.52 an hour? That's $28,116 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 6% and produce 32,900 job opportunities across the U.S.

What general advice would you give to a telemarketing representative?

Eric Gjerdevig

Lecturer in Marketing, Director for the Center for Professional Selling and Sales Technology, North Dakota State University

First, remember that what you get out of your first job is so much more than compensation. A great manager mentoring you is priceless: it will pay you back dividends for the rest of your career. That said, in sales our compensation is typically tied to our performance. That means we need to put yourself out there, pay attention to the actions of the most successful salesperson in the company, learn everything you can, and manage your time well.

ScoreTelemarketing RepresentativeUS Average

Salary

2.2

Avg. Salary $28,116

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

6.4

Growth rate 6%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

3.7

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.89%

Asian 3.93%

Black or African American 17.79%

Hispanic or Latino 17.79%

Unknown 3.52%

White 56.07%

Gender

female 62.67%

male 37.33%

Age - 33

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 33

Stress level

6.4

Stress level is manageable

7.1 - high

Complexity level

6.0

Complexity level is intermediate

7 - challenging

Work life balance

10.0

Work life balance is excellent

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a telemarketing representative

Explore telemarketing representative education requirements

Most common telemarketing representative degrees

High School Diploma

34.9 %

Bachelor's

30.1 %

Associate

16.9 %

Start to develop specific telemarketing representative skills

Skills	Percentages
Customer Service	16.81%
Telephone Calls	14.77%
Outbound Calls	14.34%
Telemarketing	13.73%
Cold Calls	6.01%

Complete relevant telemarketing representative training and internships

Accountants spend an average of Less than 1 month on post-employment, on-the-job training. New telemarketing representatives learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a telemarketing representative based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real telemarketing representative resumes.

Research telemarketing representative duties and responsibilities

Conduct telephone sales and interviews, compile and enter information into database, manage documents and insure customer satisfaction.
Complete numerous telemarketing calls for political campaigns and credit card companies, consistently hitting call and donation quotas.
Monitor telemarketing representatives telephone conversations with customers.
Verify medicaid waive eligibility for non-emergency transportation.

Prepare your telemarketing representative resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your telemarketing representative resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a telemarketing representative resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable telemarketing representative resume templates

Build a professional telemarketing representative resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your telemarketing representative resume.