Telesales is an optimal tool to increase one’s business… despite its reputation!
We have dealt with the problem of a bad reputation of a brand, especially in delicate times like the one we are now experiencing because of the coronavirus, in another article: The risks in teleselling at the time of the coronavirus
If done in the right way, teleselling is still one of the best ways to generate new sales. There are several strategies to apply in this field, which vary according to the sector concerned; we have selected here the 5 teleselling strategies (and a few tricks) that will allow you to complete your business objectives!
The 5 telesales strategies that works
Along with reaching our target audience and gathering valuable information, telesales is very effective after techniques such as lead nurturing* and contact qualification, in order to organise the appointments of the sales team, but also the actions of the management. Of course, launching a telesales strategy does not mean guaranteed success! The key is to approach it in the right way in order to achieve the desired result and to keep in line with the objectives.
Preparing for the call: obviously this could only be the first step. We live in an information age that moves on huge amounts of data. Exploiting the right technology to obtain information means, in this context, arriving at the time of a call really prepared for the person with whom we are going to interface, but above all for their needs, their problems, which our product will be able to solve. The AI Platform software is the perfect example of technology based on machine learning and people profiling that can also calculate the probability of purchase of a potential customer you are about to contact.
Follow the script: using a script that gives an outline of what to say is a matter of controversy in the industry. Most specialists agree that a script written for successful telesales offers the possibility to effectively manage interactions during the call and gives a more professional appearance to the callers. The idea of the script is not to read a written text, but to give the message more punch.
- Helps improve sales methodology
- Allows you to spend less time thinking about what to say and more time listening to the needs of the user
- Allows you to have a basis on which to check the team’s performance.
Focus on consumer challenges: the ultimate goal is to offer the customer a solution. To understand how to help someone we must, quite simply, listen to them: this is an action that builds trust, gives value to the conversation and brings results, in teleselling as in life.
Prospect follow-up: following up with potential customers is the step that often leads to closing the sale. One way to make it work is to set a specific date for the future conversation and share valuable content with the prospect over time to keep them interested.
Organise sales: the telesales strategy is the first step in getting our team to close sales properly. This is where management comes in, both in terms of supporting the team and in terms of finding the right telemarketing software to get information about the potential consumer, to track progress with the strategy, to understand where we are in the lead building process and how many sales have been closed (and how). In short, you don’t need to increase the number of calls, you always need to focus on their quality.
* A technique that involves acquiring the contact via the web and then activating teleselling.
Telesales? Let’s call it: building relationships
Every day companies try to make their consumer touch points work, but in many cases, it is difficult to keep track of what happens. Yet the immediate response to first contacts has the greatest impact on our campaigns. One of the characteristics that sticks with today’s users of social networks and websites is the feeling of brand presence and trustworthiness. Responding ‘quickly’ is the first step in building a relationship of trust. The second step? Develop a personalised consumer discourse.
Sales performance comes when we leave nothing to chance. That’s why Insight comes to our aid, to constantly know what worked and what didn’t. Strategies and approaches can (and often must) be modified as we go along, to ensure that the service improves with us and according to the real needs of our audience.
The benefits of outbound sales
When approaching a telesales strategy, we need to have data available, verified and consistent, to convert contacts into sales.
We don’t have to get in touch with as many people as possible, but we have to get to the best ones.
Preparing in advance with the information we have about our prospects allows us to do just that: by asking and listening to our prospect, their needs, we understand how we can help them solve them and unearth the sales opportunity.
All this is just a nice story if we don’t have good, verified data at our disposal. Studies have found that 20% of sales data is duplicated, full of errors, simply wrong or out of date. That’s why the telesales strategy we are looking for must be based first and foremost on reliable technology that allows us to waste as little time as possible following false leads or inconsistent contacts.
People talking to people
But none of this will be of any value if we forget that we are “people” talking to “people”. The telesales that works is the one where we remember that it is a moment of sharing between someone who needs help and someone else who can give it. We can create this contact with creativity, good taste, respect for others and a great deal of help from powerful technological means. Because when people like us, we are often listened to and when they trust us, we have built a relationship. People who are on target with the product we are selling will be very likely to trust us and they will be the leads that will become sales, with the others we will probably just have wasted some time.
Find the most targeted people for your campaigns
BigProfiles AI Platform
With BigProfiles AI Platform you can manage your teleselling campaigns in a predictive way, using Artificial Intelligence to predict the propensity to buy of the contacts you want to call. BigProfiles AI Platform is the first telemarketing platform that uses our Artificial Intelligence algorithms to analyse every single contact you have, allowing you to quickly identify those most likely to buy. AI Platform enables bank, insurance, utility and telco sales managers and contact centres to easily reach their sales targets.