Role of telephony in the sales process
Sales cover several segments: customer communication, employee efficiency planning, sales control, etc. Many stores and marketing agencies have been using effective methods in their arsenal for a long time to expand their customer base and increase sales, one of which is VoIP or IP-telephony.
In simple terms, this is a telephone connection via the Internet and IP-protocol. Thanks to it, you can make calls on multichannel lines, record conversations, set call forwarding, and much more.
For typical subscribers, IP telephony is unremarkable, but for business, it provides unlimited opportunities. Today everyone can connect to VoIP: companies providing various services, sales departments, online stores, small and medium-sized businesses.
Their efficiency will mainly depend on the quality of communication and the number of phone calls. How exactly can IP-telephony help you? Let’s review further.
The value of Internet telephony
High-quality stable communication with the client wherever he is plays an important role. Thanks to it, you can distribute the sales plan among employees, organize the workspace, monitor the employment of managers, and more.
The advantages of IP telephony that will be useful for sales departments are as follows:
- call forwarding;
- CRM VoIP integration;
- multichannel numbers;
- connection of remote managers;
- call recording;
- strategic call tracking;
- automatic calls to an extensive customer base;
All statistics on calls are stored in the database, so there is no need to maintain additional tables and reports. It also allows you to evaluate the effectiveness of certain employees, to work on errors.
For heads, it is also a big plus – they spend less time analyzing the effectiveness of the conversation scripts and monitoring each employee.
How reliable are VoIP telephony services?
This service is carried out based on modern Internet technologies. It managed to combine the advantages of mobile communication and the freedom of using the Internet. The optimal combination of high-quality communication and reliability makes telephony the best choice for business development.
To obtain these privileges, it is important to choose a reliable provider, for this it is worth examining the available companies, their list of services, prices, and reviews. You can get a virtual number by contacting HotTelecom.
We are ready to offer a large list of tariff packages, flexible prices, and consulting support on any questions. Let us consider further how exactly IP telephony affects one or another area of the sales process.
Planning of staff activities
Many heads of sales departments do a preliminary plan for the month ahead. First, it helps to retain a certain bar, conduct analytics over the past months, assess the effectiveness of the department and make adjustments depending on changes in demand for the goods and services offered.
This also allows you to identify more “strong” and “weaker” employees, plan a work timetable, as well as a vacation schedule. The company gets the opportunity to maintain statistics of calls. If the organization has several branches in different cities, then you can connect numbers for different regions.
Thought-out organization of the workplace
To connect a virtual number, you will only need the Internet, and not bulky equipment, routers, etc. To do this, you need to install the Softphone program which would allow you to make sales from a phone, tablet, PC, and other devices.
PBX allows you to conduct sales remotely, regardless of geographic location, while each employee of the company has access to the network.
The optimal solution includes:
- softphone;
- call scripts;
- call forwarding function.
The last two points help customers to get through to the company at once.
The control of staff performance
Previously the CRM system was the most reliable assistant for such purposes. Today, thanks to virtual telephony, it can be integrated with a PBX.
In other words, when entering the corporate CRM system, the head of the department views the call log, including the waiting time and call duration. These indicators allow you to monitor the activities of employees, improve their quality of communication with clients, and work discipline.
Additionally, you can record calls to successfully resolve controversial issues.
Customer base accounting
An extensive customer base included in the CRM system is the main tool in the working process of any manager, it can also be integrated with a virtual PBX. Thanks to it, you can find a buyer in a couple of clicks, segment customer cards by different filters, add new deals, and more.
Without a CRM system, sellers can use a virtual database that performs the same functions while successfully replacing Excel or paper tables. The virtual card of each client contains information about the calls made.
Additional options
You can use services such as auto callback and conference calls which simplify communication with customers. These features will be useful for both warm and cold calls. For example, if a manager accidentally missed an incoming message from a customer, he can use the auto-callback function.
If clients want to discuss the approval of the transaction in more detail, then conference calls can be used. Thanks to it, lawyers, executive directors, etc. can join the negotiations.
This method of communication allows you to comfortably communicate with customers from other cities and countries without compromising the quality of communication.
The client does not spend money on calls
All financial expenses when using virtual telephony are borne by the supplier (seller). In other words, the company connects, configures, and maintains the PBX station itself. The only VoIP costs are as follows:
- the monthly fee for the tariff package of services;
- mobile operator’s fee;
- payment for the Internet;
- purchase of a working headset for a PC or smartphone.
The SIP system allows you to bind several channels to a single telephone number for receiving and transmitting data. The majority of modern call centers work according to this scheme.
Sales department analytics and statistics
VoIP connection helps to conduct not only telephone conversations but also detailed analytics that would help assess the effectiveness of teamwork and establish some processes. Analytics will allow you to adequately evaluate data such as:
- A number of missed calls.
- The number of new clients.
- Duration of waiting time on the line for subscribers.
- Call duration.
- Buyers’ activity during the day.
Altogether, this significantly improves the quality of service and the effectiveness of sales. In addition, the well-organized work of managers increases trust in the company and enhances the company’s reputation among competitors.
Reasons to switch to VoIP
Numerous researches have identified the main reasons why modern companies are switching to IP-technologies:
- reduction in communication costs;
- combining voice transmission and digital traffic;
- unification of different offices or branches;
- effective teamwork of staff;
- simplification of management.
It is also worth noting the reduction in the cost of communication. Thanks to virtual telephony, the compressed traffic does not overload the channel. If needed, it is possible to configure routing so that you can call customers at the best rates.
The international lines are not needed for connecting several channels from different countries, a short internal phone number of an employee is enough.
Utilization of the conferencing function allows team meetings and brainstorming sessions to be held at any time while the manager receives up-to-date information “first hand” and adjusts the actions of his subordinates.
Personal telephony does not depend on additional equipment. A regular office PC or phone where the corresponding software is installed will work for the server. When you move the office, all contacts are saved, just the telephone network gets deployed in a new place.
What do you need to connect telephony?
Perhaps you are interested in the benefits of this technology and want to try it in your office?
Then it is worth identifying what tasks you will solve with its help, how many employees will be connected, what budget will be allocated for the use of new means of communication, etc.
Answering all these questions, you can find way around the telecommunications market and choose the best option that will surely help you establish sales.
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