2 of 9 Executive Summary: In 2011, inside sales eclipsed
outside sales by an astounding 300 percent (source:
InsightSquared.com), and became the dominant means of business
development. Companies had to adapt to a changing dynamic to keep
up with the increasingly competitive marketplace. Improving inside
sales efficiencies allows companies to better manage, nurture, and
convert leads while improving productivity and delivering
actionable insights. Today, inside sales success requires a
software-based platform that: Simplifies how inside sales teams
work and collaborate Makes it easier for sales managers to set
goals and objectives consistent with future growth VanillaSoft is
an industry leader in lead management and phone sales. It is
intuitive, simple to use, and easy to manage. At its core is a
simple concept: empower management and sales to work together to
improve productivity, obtain higher contact rates, and increase
sales. The Shift from Outside to Inside Sales Companies formerly
viewed business development entirely from an outside sales
perspective. More customer face time equated to higher revenue,
increased customer retention, and improved account penetration. The
goal was to spend as much time in front of the customer as possible
in order to maintain that all-important position as the incumbent
supplier and keep competitors at bay. However, the landscape has
changed.Companies no longer focus solely on outside sales to
increase marketshare. Todays companies increasingly rely on inside
sales as their primary revenue-driven activity. Inside sales is
better aligned with todays business reality, where customers are
always mobile and distracted. Selling today requires a tech-savvy
salesperson who understands the importance of remaining in contact
with a constantly moving, constantly connected customer base. In
order to manage the sales team and ensure a steady flow of leads,
inside sales managers need appropriate tools and strategies. The
ability to identify inside sales approaches most likely to produce
consistent returns is critical in moving prospects forward.Managers
must manage the sales teams activities, provide timely guidance,
and ensure that the companys value proposition is properly
conveyed. This often involves listening in on live conversations
and reviewing calls with salespeople to ensure quality.
of 93 It's About Quality of Conversations - Not Only Quantity
Far too many companies place the greater emphasis on the number of
conversations. This is largely due to their reliance on both
leading and lagging indicators. While both are useful key
performance indicators for inside sales teams, relying too heavily
on these numbers can be misleading and counterproductive. Lagging
indicators dictate what actions were taken by inside salespeople in
order to hit their sales targets from the previous quarter or year.
These define the number of actions inside salespeople need to make
in order to close new business. Lagging indicators might include
the number of cold calls, warm calls, repeat calls, customer
discussions, quotations, and sales as a result of these actions.
Each action is critical to ensuring the next one is properly
completed. For example, X calls need to be made in order to reach X
discussions, quotations, or sales. Lagging indicators are used to
define future leading indicators. The company then defines the
number of daily, weekly, and monthly activities that must be
completed in order to duplicate and or improve past results. The
focus is either to maintain or grow market share. However, one
critical aspect of inside sales success is missing from lagging and
leading indicators: conversation quality. The quality of customer
conversations is what determines success not the number of
conversations. This means companies must eliminate manual
approaches that do little to improve the quality of conversations
while allowing salespeople to pick their own leads based on
individual preferences. In fact, the company should determine the
next-best lead based on a series of predetermined qualifiers, not
the salesperson. Only then can the company be assured that leads
are being managed, worked, and reworked at the appropriate time and
manner. Fortunately, real-time productivity tools exist that ensure
the companys value proposition is communicated, remove human error,
and counter the natural tendencies of salespeople to cherry pick
their next calls. So what are some of the critical tools todays
inside sales teams must have in order to properly manage these
leads from initial contact to final close of sale? Below are nine
must- have inside sales tools for the modern inside sales
team.
4 of 9 1. Fresh Leads Keeping the sales funnel full isnt merely
a question of reworking the same strategies with existing
customers. Its about having a continuous flow of leads worked by
multiple levels within your sales organization. However, the focus
must be on working those leads using a consistent and proven
process. Control, speed, and efficiency are critical to success.
Companies cant afford to let salespeople decide which customers to
call, which customers to follow up on, and which opportunities are
most important to them personally. After all, individual bias as to
who, when, and how to call a lead will drive the salespersons
decisions rather than solid criteria such as customer readiness,
demographics, customer behaviors, or other factors. Relying upon a
consistent number of leads isnt just essential to increasing sales,
its a critical part of reaching your target audience. List
companies like ListGiant, ZoomInfo, and InfoUSA provide a steady
stream of leads. However, any list you buy must be focused on your
ideal target prospect, one with whom you can have high-quality
discussions that are likely to lead to repeat sales. 2. Queue-Based
Contact Routing The surest way to eliminate any preferences or
biases on the part of salespeople is to rely upon queue-based
contact routing. VanillaSofts platform puts an immediate end to
cherry picking calls. Sales agents can no longer fallinto a
position of convenience where they continually call contacts that
they have a rapport with and already know. The platform revolves
around a customizable workflow. VanillaSoft software focuses your
inside sales teams efforts on leads that meet your specific
qualifiers. Your salespeople will automatically work on the
next-best lead the lead your company has defined as the all-
important priority at a particular time. Rather than relying on a
list-based lead platform where salespeople select comfortable leads
from a nondescript, random call list, VanillaSofts queue-based
platform puts the power of choice in the hands of management. With
queue-based contact routing, the focus is on increasing
productivity and improving how and when customers are called based
on predetermined variables. Management sets the order and
salespeople follow. Salespeople no longer spend time searching for
the next call to make. They no longer show preference to one
contact over another. Instead, management defines the criteria for
the next-best call. A queue-based lead platform removes personal
preference from the equation. It forces salespeople to prepare for
the next call based on the companys predetermined criteria.
of 95 3. Preview or Progressive Dialing Deciding between
preview and progressive dialing platforms comes down to your target
audience, the type of sale your team is pursuing, and the length
ofyour companys sales cycle. Long sales cycles that involve a
series of repeat calls or steps require a preview dialing platform
where notes are retained and reviewed prior to the next call.
Consider this a stage- gate process where your dialing platform
takes your companys long sales cycle times into consideration by
feeding your salespeople with essential data and notes from that
last call. No call can be made until the inside salesperson has
properly read and understood the notes from the previous call.
Progressive dialing is better suited to inside sales teams where
multiple list calls need to be made and where prior notes on calls
arent a prerequisite to moving forward. However, its important to
note that progressive dialing doesnt assume that the person
answering the phone is an immediate qualified lead or involve
making random calls to any prospect, anywhere. Qualified leads have
been preselected. 4. Email and Call Integration In todays
multichannel world, we communicate using a variety of technologies,
including email. VanillaSoft combines email capabilities with voice
calls, making it possible to extend the conversation electronically
as well as respond to and summarize customer discussions in a
timely manner. Management can create email templates containing
predefined attachments, sender CC/ BCC fields, and messages. These
messages can be sent automatically based on the result of the call
or in response to an incoming web or trigger lead.For example, if a
call results in a request for a price sheet, an automated email
could easily satisfy that request. Rather than waiting around for
the salesperson to gather the requested information, compose, and
send the email, the customer receives exactly what was requested
automatically. Because a prewritten template was used, the message
will also be professionally written as well as potentially contain
a relevant call to action or links for additional information. You
can also integrate drip and mass email campaigns. Drip campaigns
involve sending multiple messages over a period of time to educate
prospects, build your brand, qualify leads, and follow up in a
timely manner. Mass email campaigns involve selecting a target
audience (such as prospects interested in particular product or
service) and sending a message to the entire group. VanillaSofts
e-Gen email platform takes email and call integration to the next
level. For example, calls can be scheduled and prioritized based on
the contact opening an email.
6 of 9 5. Personalized Recorded Messaging When a prospect is
unavailable, calls in a call center typically go to voicemail or an
answering machine. While a salesperson could leave a message and
move on, leaving messages is not the best use of your resources.
Its time consuming and repetitive. It could even sap some of the
drive and energy from your sales team. VanillaSofts Voice Drop
feature relieves salespeople from the tedious task of leaving a
message. Voice Drop is a prerecorded messaging service that
delivers the desired message perfectly every time. Since the
message is prerecorded, you can ensure that the narrators voice
comes through sounding fresh and clear with no coughing, throat
clearing, or embarrassing memory lapses. From the prospects
perspective, the message does not sound automated whatsoever. From
your companys perspective, Voice Drop allows your sales team to
work more efficiently. Best of all, Voice Drop frees your sales
agents to focus on what they do best: share information about your
products and services. 6. Base Scripts Most dialing solutions
support call scripts; however, long, redundant, and time-consuming
scripts dont engage prospects nor do they touch any of their
pressure points. Youve likely been on the receiving end of numerous
telemarking calls. How often have you been truly engaged? What
happened when you caught the agent off guard by asking a question?
Do you really want your sales team to read through a five-minute
script only to find a disinterested prospect who cant wait to get
off the phone? VanillaSoft helps you to avoid this problem while at
the same time providing your sales team with helpful information to
draw upon as needed. Before you develop a base script, youll need
to: Define a unique value proposition Understand customer fears
Develop leading questions that uncover those fears and help to
explain how the companys value proposition removes those fears From
there you can use VanillaSoft to create a base script that covers
the main value proposition and allows the salesperson to branch out
and cover other customer-centric topics. With this approach,
salespeople are able to have a two-way conversation and can modify
the call to address the customers unique issues and concerns
without straying too far from management-approved messaging.
Scripting should be considered a starting point and used as a
training tool and guide, not as a verbatim message to be read to a
captive audience. With that in mind, management should train
salespeople to thoroughly understand the product and service they
are selling. By blending product knowledge with a base script, your
team can talk about it intelligently and answer questions while
still using key messaging elements provided in the base
script.
of 97 7. Recording and Monitoring for Coaching To ensure that
salespeople remain true to the value proposition and key messages
outlined in your base script, you will need to track and monitor
calls as they take place. Recording and monitoring calls provides
management with a fantastic opportunity to coach the team as well
as get a more realistic view of the customer experience, verify
orders, or comply with any applicable regulations. VanillaSofts
intelligent call recording feature connects the recording with the
contact record. Managers can eavesdrop on live calls as well as
access and listen to existing recordings from any computer or
mobile device with Internet access. In addition, you can look up
recordings by contact name, date, salesperson, or call result. For
example, if youre coaching a salesperson with a higher than
expected number of not interested call results, you might start by
listening to calls marked as not interested to see what they have
in common. Perhaps the agent is asking yes/no questions rather than
probing questions. Similarly, you may want to find and listen to
successful calls so that you can recognize a salesperson for a job
well done. Being able to quickly find recordings based on specific
criteria is essential to making your call recording efforts
productive. 9. Data Collection The dynamic nature of customers and
markets makes it essential to continuously collect and analyze
customer call data. VanillaSofts data collection and management
insight tools help you to keep up with an ever-changing market so
that you can make smarter decisions moving forward. VanillaSoft
prompts salespeople to enter the right information into the call
result field. The business intelligence gathered during calls can
then be studied or used to create best practices. The data
collected during calls appears in real-time management dashboards
where you can see calling statistics by campaign, user, result
group, call result, or call results per lead source. You can also
look up historical data, score leads, build custom queries, and
much more. 8. Streamlined Document Management Processes Documents
and forms play an important role in the inside sales process.
Streamlining and centralizing document management eliminates the
time-consuming and error-prone manual process, as well as ensures
that only the most current, management-approved documents are used.
By merging all documents and forms under one central database,
sales agents can quickly find the documents that they need
(assuming an automatic email hasnt already delivered it as
mentioned earlier). Because documents are just a click away, agents
can even send them to prospects during the call with minimal
searching required. This streamlined document management process
saves the sales team both time and money.
8 of 9 Taking Your Inside Sales to the Next Level Clearly,
inside sales has evolved in recent years, and Excel spreadsheets
and manual paper processes are no longer sufficient. Not only are
they cumbersome to use, theyre never updated in real time and
extremely costly to manage. They also do nothing to help your sales
team communicate effectively with prospects or work productively.
VanillaSoft is the solution to drive productivity. The web-based
sales platform eliminates inefficiencies and increases visibility
for your sales team. VanillaSoft leverages all nine of the success
factorsdiscussed with features, such as: Lead and sales
tracking/real-time lead distribution Next-best call
logic/queue-based contact routing Auto dialing (progressive and
preview) Personalized recorded messaging (Voice Drop) On-board
intelligent messaging Integrated email Centralized document
management Data collection tools and live management dashboard Base
scripting Call monitoring and recording
of 99 About VanillaSoft VanillaSoft is the industrys leading
software for sales by phone. Its intuitive and easy-to- use
queue-based software for inside sales takes the best of CRM, lead
management and telemarketing applications to create the most
productive phone sales environment available today. VanillaSofts
core philosophy and development process is centered around one
concept: the power of simplicity. It is through this principle that
VanillaSoft offers a queue-based platform that allows our customers
to see increased productivity, higher contact rates, deeper list
penetration, greater management control over the sales process,
better sales accountability tools, and a faster speed to lead like
no other. Learn more about how your organization can benefit from
VanillaSoft by contacting us today. Call: (866) 763 - 8826 Email:
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