While the web and other technological advancements are opening new ways for salespeople to convert leads into customers, telemarketing remains a core approach for many businesses. That said, there is no reason that sales managers can't utilize new technology such as sales performance management software to improve their telemarketing efforts.

First, they need to establish which metrics they use to gauge their telemarketing success. As Business 2 Community notes, there are a variety of signals that need to be observed to determine where agents are succeeding and where they could use some work to improve.

1. Call Volume
When it comes to cold calling, quantity is often equally as important as quality. Sometimes the best way to secure a sale is by simply picking up the phone and start calling prospects. This metric can help managers evaluate the work ethic of their agents. More calls generally translate into a greater number of sales and better performance, although this isn't always the case.

2. Lead Acquisition Rate
Cold calling is an effective way to generate leads as well. These initial communications don't always have to lead to sales, but if they can be converted later on down the line, that is equally as important. Businesses should look at how many leads salespeople are generating, as well as how many they are actually converting. Both figures can have a big impact on the success of the sales team.

3. Personal Evaluation
While this is a difficult metric to assess, sales leaders should also try to observe the performance of their agents. Assign them a figure based on gut feel and other metrics and use that marker to gauge their performance as they continue to develop and improve at their jobs. If leaders notice their performance waver or decline, they may want to consider sales coaching and other such strategies to help agents improve.

Return on investment is an effective metric for assessing telemarketing sales operations, but it isn't the only one. If companies are interested in improving the performance of their sales teams, they need to use a variety of metrics, such as call volume and lead acquisition.