Telemarketing Software Featured Article

Officially opening its doors back in 2002 and then taking on the name of InsideSales.com (News - Alert) in 2004, the it has become the first company in the world to blend dialer technology into a customer relationship management (CRM) database. Now highlighted as being a leader in the sales space, since that time InsideSales.com has expanded its offering into a full featured platform that powers everything from workflow management, dialer tools and predictive analytics to lead nurturing capabilities for salespeople. 

Always remaining on the edge of innovation, recently the sales automation and analytics provider conducted a study of AA-ISP companies that produced some interesting findings.

Some of these highlights of the research are:

-          When asked how many attempts a sales team made to contact a lead, companies often estimated "more than five," but in actuality the number of attempts was zero.

-          Nearly 25 percent of companies surveyed thought they were responding to leads within five minutes, when only five percent actually responded that quickly.

-          More than 90 percent of companies surveyed believed that their first response to sales leads was done by phone, when only 67 percent of companies make their first contact through e-mail.

 I recently had the chance to speak with Ken Krogue, president, InsideSales.com about some of these key statistics in addition to how telemarketing software is helping to completely revolutionize the sales process overall.

In regards to the attempts sales teams make to contact a lead, Krogue believes this number is significantly exaggerated simply because “people put policies in place but they don’t put the processes in place that are needed to make them happen. These companies tell their representatives to call prospective customers back as fast as they can but that’s really hard to do until an effective system and a process is put in place.”

Additionally, communicating in the channel that customers feel most comfortable with is considered to be the best practice only for that initial contact. However, what your organization should then do is bridge that media and utilize a more assertive type of media to close the sale. Krogue said, “If someone approaches you with an e-mail, bridge it with a phone call as fast as you can. Social media doesn’t close sales; instead it starts conversations so what we recommend is bridging from passive media like LinkedIn (News - Alert) into assertive media like phone calls and face-to-face contact.”

Transitioning Leads into Sales

When taking a closer look at what can a company do to transition more leads into closed sales in the most efficient manner possible, InsideSales.com has found that the single biggest obstacle a sales rep faces traditionally is reaching busy decision makers. Krogue highlighted seven important rules to ensure leads get contacted. They are as follows:

1. Don’t delay, call the lead back immediately after receiving their information.

2. Be persistent:  Instead of making one of two calls, you need to make between six and nine phone calls to see the best results.

3. Choose the best time of day to reach people: This is usually in the morning or late afternoon, with the worst time being around lunch time.

4. Pick the best days of the week to reach contacts:  Typically, mid to later on in the week like Wednesday and Thursday are ideal days, with the worst days being right when the week kicks off on Monday and Tuesday .

5. Ask for the optimal time to reach people: This can easily be done by simply adding a section on your website that asks when is the best time to reach prospects.

6. Always ask for direct dial phone numbers instead of an office line: “This simple action can almost triple your ability to reach people,” Krogue commented.

7. Try a unique approach: Make these follow-up phone calls with a local phone number as opposed to a blocked phone number, 800 -number or long distance phone number.

How Telemarketing Software Can Help in the Sales Process

You must always remember this basic rule when trying to make a sale: it is not about making one phone call, but rather is about making 10 phone calls to make that first contact. Telemarketing software, like the product powered by VanillaSoft, can help you quadruple the number of calls that can be made in a set period of time. Not only does this significantly drive efficiency within an entire business, it allows a team to easily leave a voicemail or send e-mail with the click of a button.  

He commented, “It’s still a human being doing the work, except now technology is leveraging that human being to do four times the work in the same amount of time.”

Moreover, current trends increasing in popularity by the day within the rapidly growing telemarketing software space include the fact that these offerings are garnering more attention continuously; gamification is driving the use of the platform since the millennial generation grew up playing games; and predictive analytics is able to predict who to call and when to call them, which triples normal rates seen when just dialing numbers manually.

And when analyzing what role the cloud plays with the telemarketing vertical, it is obvious the benefit it provides since this technology that was once extremely expensive is now cost-effective for even the smallest sized firm.

Be sure to keep your eyes peeled on the Telemarketing Software Channel, exclusively on TMCnet for all the latest updates in the industry!