Phone Hacks to Boost Your Inside Sales' Productivity
Salesforce is a powerful CRM that acts as a comprehensive data hub. On the sales side, it can be used to aggregate much needed information on prospects, analyze that data and create actionable calendars to drive the right kind of engagement at the right time. Through the AppExchange, customers can find a wide variety of third party applications that can do wonders for boosting your inside sales efficiency and sales team visibility. NewVoiceMedia’s ContactWorld for Sales is a powerful inside sales software solution and the leading Salesforce Telephony application on the AppExchange.
Salesforce can be an even more powerful inside sales software solution through the addition of Telephony, also referred to as Computer Telephony Integration or CTI. At the moment, if your inside sales team isn’t using an integrated Salesforce Telephony solution, you’re likely spending time dialing leads on your PBX, taking notes in spreadsheets or other documents and then transposing those documents in Salesforce for later reference. Your call data isn’t captured directly, so there are limitations to your efficiency, sales visibility and overall comprehensiveness of your CRM.
There is an information gap that NewVoiceMedia can help bridge in a way that leads to saving time, money and energy. With the integration of telephony, you will see a more holistic view of your prospects and drive a more robust pipeline.
In a recent webinar, we provided a walkthrough of 6 Ways Integrating Telephony with Salesforce Can Drive Sales (the recorded webinar is here for your reference).
To list a few takeaways:
Click-to-call to avoid slow manual dialing
It may seem rather innocuous, but each number you dial is a second and dollar wasted. Imagine how powerful it would be to have your lead list pre-sorted based on how qualified the lead is to ensure you are always calling your hottest, most interested first. With an inside sales software application, your reps can be armed and ready to go with one click – no digging out numbers and skimming between the phone and data sheet to make sure each digit is dialed correctly.
Prefer a landline? No problem! Have the outbound call delivered to any device – home phone, mobile phone, desk phone, etc. Any direct dial number will do. This means you can work from virtually anywhere, with any phone.
No phone? Again, not a problem. Web RTC has made it possible for us to create very rich audio capabilities over the internet, with no need for a phone system. This is especially useful for smaller businesses that perhaps can’t afford your typical PBX.
In addition, NewVoiceMedia has direct connections to major telephony providers and work with with companies like Twilio that have multiple carriers on deck. If someone digs up your Verizon line with a backhoe, you won’t be down for long; the switch to another carrier is seamless so you can keep trucking.
Automatic call logging to improve quality
One useful inside sales software feature is automatic call logging. It is a favorite tool among those inside sales managers eager to decode the formula for winning leads. Sales calls can be recorded manually or automatically and can be configured with rules to comply with individual state and country laws. Call recording can be used to highlight best wins or to determine where things went awry. Both novice and advanced sales people alike have hailed this as a must have feature.
Voicemail drops to improve outreach
If click-to-dial can save a rep seconds off each call, voicemail drop can save minutes. Hitting a voicemail is inevitable for an inside sales team, and more often than not you’re leaving the same message … over … and over … and over again. By the end of the day, you’re so burnt out rambling the same “call me back” message that words are fumbled and an incoherent callback number is rambled. The madness stops here.
Pre-record your voicemails and save them to your computer, then drag and drop them into your dialer as soon as you hit the “leave a message” tone. No need to stay on the line. The message will play while you move onto the next lead.
Localize presence to improve pickup rates
Do you pick up calls from Bismarck if you live in Austin? What about if you’re in Oshkosh? Most people look at the area code of any inbound call and make a snap judgement – “Not in my neighborhood? Not for me!”
Even if they’ve opted into calls and are wanting – even expecting – your follow-up, their instinct to ignore the unfamiliar is too great. It’s the ultimate sales killer and can stop profits in their tracks.
But what if you could customize your number to be local based on which area you’re calling? State to state and country to country doors begin to open that would’ve otherwise been closed. NewVoiceMedia’s inside sales software provides you the option to display a local callback number to help improve pickup rates.
You can’t sell to people who don’t answer. With local presence, pickup rates increase … and so do sales.
Automated dialing to reach more prospects
Want to trim even more time off your calls? You can easily create lead lists within Salesforce and sort it based on who you’d like to call first to last. The automated dialer lets an inside sales rep keep a steady pace of outbound calls that prime the next-up lead so you don’t have to go hunting through your database. All the information about your leads stays front and center as you work your way through the list, making it easy to take notes, reference past calls, dictate important changes in the account and establish follow-up action.
Integrated Salesforce reporting to track inside sales performance
Quality reports are the foundation of a good inside sales software solution. When you can understand the variables of your inside sales team’s success, laid out in clear, easy-to-understand metrics, you gain immense traction on the ground to convert leads to sales. The importance of metrics around calls can not be discounted, and your phone is still the top tool in making connections.
ContactWorld for Sales gives you visibility of who is calling who, and breaks down the factors of successful calls. You can see everything from best times of day to call, to comparisons between length of calls versus conversion, to who your best sales performers are. From this eagle’s nest of dashboards, you have full visibility of your sales data and can make decisions to better facilitate higher conversion.
To see how our inside sales software solution can make your team more productive, check out our video.
