As a salesperson, you know the daily struggle of getting ahold of a potential customer and then losing them quickly like sand slipping out of a fist. While it’s good to stick to the basics, sometimes it may help to switch it up a little and get on with the times. So, how can you tweak your outbound calling strategy to lead to more sales?
Reevaluate Your Outbound Calling Tactics
Businesses make outbound calls to attract and convince new customers to purchase their products or service. And so, outbound calling goes hand-in-hand with sales. A couple of different factors come into play when creating and executing strong outbound calling strategies. Let’s look at how you can refine yours and increase overall sales.
1. Set Goals and Be on the Same Page
First and foremost, everyone needs to be on the same page and working towards the same goals. Therefore, spend some time discussing what the company wants to achieve through these calls. For example, how many sales do you need to make by the end of the quarter or biannually? Are all goals sales-focused or should some work towards customer care? And so on. Deciding these goals beforehand will ensure that everyone knows what they need to be doing and can track their progress accordingly. Actions with no end goal can be overwhelming and lead to a waste of time.
2. Work Alongside Marketing
Even though making sales calls is a job for the sales team, your in-house marketing team can provide insights into how to target and attract customers. For one, marketers can use market research to help you create a list of high-potential clients. They can also identify customers that don’t fall under your ideal audience so you do not waste time contacting weak leads. Additionally, your marketing team can help you understand the motive behind some customers purchasing your product which can then influence how you present and sell it.
3. Retrain Agents
Retraining employees every couple of months is a good idea because strategies and tools change. It is, therefore, necessary to keep employees up-to-date and teach them new techniques. Consider redoing your script if it is not drawing customers as you hoped it would. You can also use call recording features to review how employees perform on a call to highlight strengths and weaknesses. United World Telecom offers Outbound Call Recording that lets you record and access 100% of all calls for up to 6 years. Understand your call center agents’ daily challenges so that you can help them do better.
4. Adopt Active Listening Techniques During Outbound Calling
This goes without saying but when dealing with customers, agents must adopt active listening and pay attention to customer doubts or concerns. If a customer thinks you are calling just to make a sale and you do not actually care about their concerns, they will automatically switch off. Part of selling is to make the sale personal for each individual you are targeting. How can this specific person benefit from our product or service?
Be mindful of their time and always ask if now is a good time to talk or if they’d prefer setting up an appointment for later. If you don’t have an answer to their question, offer to follow-up and make sure you do so. These are some ways you can make the sale about the customer and not the business.
5. Use Analytics and Metrics
Lastly, be smart. Use analytics, metrics, and call tracking to determine customer preferences. What times or days are they more likely to answer? How many follow-up calls are appropriate before giving up? Can you employ other follow-up methods such as instant messages or email reminders? Play around with the data to tweak your strategies and find one that works best for your business.
Outbound Calling with United World Telecom
Upgrade your sales techniques by choosing United World Telecom’s outbound calling service. With this service, you will have full control in-house over how calls are placed and who is targeted. You, therefore, do not have to rely externally on an outbound call center. United World Telecom’s outbound calling service comes with a customizable caller ID. That is, if you purchase a variety of local and international virtual numbers, you can display one of those numbers when calling a specific country or state. This helps your enterprise create a local presence without the need to physically relocate. Sign up or talk to an expert for more information.