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With so much of sales discussions dealing with the topic of “inbound”, you might guess that the opportunities presented by call centers and outbound sales in general are a thing of the past. Not so. Many industries, for example software sales, still depend on outbound sales.
That is why I believe that a good sales rep will make 80-100 phone calls in a day and I know how to make that possible.
If you have a business with a large sales contingent, for instance over one hundred sales reps overseen by sales managers and serving multiple territories, you need a marketing team, account developers and an outside sales team.
- Marketers inspire and cultivate interest in your product or service.
- Inside sales account developers follow up on that interest and also use outbound sales tactics, like cold calling, to ferret out the most likely customers and convert the leads into prospects.
- Outside sales reps then work to convert those prospects into customers.
But in order for an inside sales rep to be successful, and make those 80-100 calls, certain systems need to be in place to make them more efficient.
First, Marketing scans badges at a trade show or collects contact information from white paper downloads. Each of those are tagged as a campaign in the system.
A list of leads collected from marketing campaigns is sent to account developers. They will then vet these leads and see which ones will likely qualify. That is when the phone calls start in earnest.
But a single phone call will not make the decision.
Initial phone calls often result in no answer, leave a message, good to hear from you but not right now, etc. It’s impossible to qualify or disqualify the lead at this stage and the whole process is slowed down.
With the right CRM system in operation, these leads can easily be tagged in a way that, based on your predefined workflow, they can receive the further nurturing they need. Having actionable items and a workflow in your CRM software allows you to instantly and automatically set a next call date.
Your workflow might look something like this:
- If you got a voicemail box: Call again in 3 days.
- If no contact was made: Call again in 1 day.
- If it was not a good time: Call again in 1 week.
Imagine if your sales reps had to schedule all these reminders, together with all of their customer data, in their daily planners! With the right CRM system, the scheduling is done for them. When they get to work the next day, they will know exactly where they left off and what needs to be accomplished that day. Working through their lists this way will easily allow them to make 80-100 calls during the day in an organized and efficient manner.
And of course the proof is in the reporting generated from the CRM system. If an organization doesn’t have systems in place, both operational and technical, it will be very difficult, if not impossible, to measure the impact Inside Sales has on the sales pipeline. As the old adage goes, “You Can’t Manage What You Don’t Measure”.
If you want to help your inside sales team hit their goals, let us tell you more about how Microsoft Dynamics CRM makes call centers more efficient.
Contact AbleBridge, 877-600-2253 or [email protected]
By AbleBridge, Microsoft Dynamics CRM Gold Partner in Massachusetts,
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