Telemarketing Software Featured Article

Like it or not, you’re in sales. Whether it’s to get your prospect to buy something, a private citizen to make a donation or convincing the person on the other end of the phone that it makes sense to meet with you, it’s all about sales. How you present yourself and your brand dictate the outcome to a certain extent. The rest of the equation is left up to your plan.

That’s right – to be successful in selling, you have to have a plan. Plus, this plan needs to be consistently improving as you discover things that work really well and things that could stand a little adjustment to produce the results you want. It’s the key to making telemarketing software work to your benefit.

A recent blog post by VanillaSoft, a telemarketing software provider, lays out the guidelines to successful selling very well, focusing on the importance of a robust forecasting model. While the company doesn’t suggest that you need to invest in expensive platforms to support your forecasting, they do recommend that you have a few elements in place to get going.

An effective sales forecasting model needs to include sales data from the past with numerical information about wins and losses, broken down according to product type sales rep and any other elements that can affect success. It must also include a sales pipeline with data about each deal at each stage of the pipeline. Contextual data and strategic assumptions regarding demand should be included, as well as processes for continual improvement.

When you track your sales data, you’re able to see which sales tactics are working the best, which sales reps are the most successful and which marketing channels are driving the most growth. This information could be tracked using a spreadsheet or even a free template that provides a solid foundation for your unique forecasting model.

The pipeline provides your sales team with a structured system for turning qualified leads into repeat customers. When you study the progress of each deal through the pipeline and examine each outcome, you gain insights into your sales process that not only assist in sales forecasting, but also improve your sales overall.

Finally, improving the process you use for forecasting means you’ll continually improve what you’re doing to make the right connections. Keep in mind that even with access to the best telemarketing software, you have to have the right plan in place or your software will only get you so far.