Telemarketing Software Featured Article

Digital technology makes it easier than ever today to collect sales leads, reach out to them, engage prospects and help customers through the buying process. It’s an ideal infrastructure for selling…you can ensure your brand remains in a prospect’s or customer’s consciousness at all times.

On the flip side, we’ve lost something with all the digital selling that’s going on today. In the days when sales were face-to-face, successful sales reps had the ability to “read” people for cues, according to a recent article by Sujan Patel writing for Forbes. 

“At one time, salesmen cut their teeth on face-to-face interactions, selling directly to the customer by reading their responses, body language, and tone of voice as they engaged with them,” he wrote. “In today’s world, however, where businesses are disconnected from the consumer and purchase funnels are near-fully automated, much of that is lost.”

In a digital selling environment, sales people are having to do without that extra information they gained from watching body language. Essentially, outside sales people are finding themselves at the same disadvantage that inside sale personnel relying on telemarketing software have always faced. One of the biggest dangers of not being face-to-face with a prospect is missing the cue when you should stop selling.

“When you can’t readily identify the sticking point – the point where your customer is ready to make a purchase decision – it’s incredibly easy to oversell, overhype, and send them packing while you’re still barking away into the megaphone,” wrote Patel. “And given that it costs 500 percent more to acquire new customers vs. retaining existing customers, it’s pretty important that you make sure your efforts aren’t killing the sale.”

One way to do this, according to Patel, is to watch for other signs that you’re overselling. For example, if a formerly enthused customer is engaging with you less on social media, that’s a sign that the tipping point may have been reached. At this point, it’s time to back off and make communications less frequent, but of higher value.