Telesales isn’t dying, it’s just evolving
Back in the day…
The hey-day of telesales was during the 1980s and 1990s. Back then, people picked up the phone and telesales delivered and incredible ROI.
Roll forward 30-40 years, the traditional telesales model isn’t having the same results it used to and the term ‘cold-calling’ sends a shiver down the spines of most of us…
Success precedes a fall…
Telesales was rocking it in the latter part of the 20th century. Unfortunately, we all know what usually comes after great success, as the law of gravity sets in.
Success is an open invitation to take advantage. Those who want a slice of the action but aren’t willing to put in the work see the opportunity. Fraudsters and scam artists are born in this way.
Have you ever picked up the phone to a robot or an aggressive salesperson that you’ve had to hang up on, leaving neither of you feeling good? So have the rest of us!
As the popularity of telesales increased, the quality of the workforce also decreased with many joining to make a quick buck but not focusing on the skills and connection with the customer that it took to make it work.
What was once a legitimate, booming industry was then surrounded with an air of mistrust.
Times change…
Traditional telesales requires people to pick up the phone and people started to ignore the phone when it rang, pre-empting a robot or pushy salesperson on the end of the line. I cover this more in my blog on ‘Why does no one answer the phone anymore?’.
Telesales also requires patience and persistence. Not always in abundance in today’s world of quick-fix and immediate gratification.
Survival of the fittest…
It’s not all doom and gloom. We’ve seen the worst and now it’s time for the best to come through.
Telesales isn’t dying, it’s just evolving.
You need to find the sweet spot…
I’m talking about customer engagement… The cream of the crop are succeeding by focusing on this engagement and moving with the clients’ needs, as well as fostering that human connection, something that can be so lacking as we move through the digital age.
We can’t deny that phone calls are becoming less popular and the preferred form of communication is moving online. But what if you could meet your customer there and yet still develop a human interaction with them on their terms?
This is where the future success of telesales lies – texting and messaging have become the customer’s preferred mode of contact but this doesn’t mean that you have to sacrifice customer engagement because of it.
One of the key benefits of traditional telesales is that you are able to develop a relationship with the customer and to really discover their needs and tailor your services or product towards this. This also results in more success in up-selling and cross-selling – something that can be lost when connecting purely online.
Win-win…
I’m here to tell you there’s another way.
Here at adviser.ai we have developed software that enables you to develop a relationship with your customers and to engage with them in a very human way but via technology instead of phone calls. You then have all the advantages of traditional telesales, with the disadvantages removed.
– No need for your customer to pick up the phone
– A human interaction and connection
– The ability to up-sell and cross-sell
– Building greater trust with your customer for future sales
– Higher retention on telesales agents as their success rate increases
– Meeting compliance as the scripts are all pre-approved
Find out more about Adviser.ai
Why does no one answer the phone anymore?
Do you remember…
…a time long ago when the phone used to ring and everyone would jump up in excitement, one person yelling, ‘I’ll get it!’ and the others spurring them on to ‘Hurry! Before you miss it!’? Feels like a lifetime ago, doesn’t it?
Where did it all begin?
The telephone has been a part of our lives for nearly 150 years. The first working telephone was created in 1876 by Alexander Bell but primitive forms of the telephone were being developed as early as the 1660s.
By the 1930s, most affluent homes in the UK had a telephone, but it wasn’t until the 1950s and 1960s that they became more commonplace. It was in the mid-1980s that mobile phones became widely available and over the last ten years, these have become the preferred choice over landlines.
Where did it all go wrong?
Along the way, we have lost the reflex of answering phone calls – once they offered us a pleasurable experience, a chance to connect with a loved one or to relay an important piece of information in a quick and efficient way.
But as usage and our experience has evolved, they’ve become something that we immediately distrust – I’m sure that all of us have at one time or another been victim to a spammy robot or high-pressured sales call when you innocently answered your phone.
These experiences have created distrust in us, and we have built up a wall – no one likes to be caught ‘on the hop’. Not only this, but mobile phones mean that we can be reached anytime, anywhere, and this constant bombardment has built our walls even higher.
Instead of rushing to the phone to answer, we look at our mobiles with apprehension and chances are that if we don’t recognise the number, we ignore the call. Meanwhile, the popularity of texting and messaging has increased.
These forms of communication give us a chance to assess who it is that’s contacting us and why, and to respond when it suits us. They break down the barriers, making us feel like we’re more in control.
Where do we go from here?
For those working in telesales, it pays to be aware of these trends and how the market is evolving. If you want to reach your customers, you will need to move with their desires and behaviours.
None of us want to make out customers feels uncomfortable so it’s important that we reach them where they are and that we attract and engage with them rather than creating mistrust and suspicion. We want to build trust and through this we build sales.
I know what you’re thinking – how do you do this when you can’t even reach your customers, right? No one is picking up the phone! They’re either working, on the school run, on holiday, or just staring at the phone wondering who on earth it is calling them this time…
I know that being unable to make contact is one of the biggest reasons for losing leads, but what if I told you there is another way?
Not only this, but it’s a way of making contact with your customers on their terms, proven to increase your leads and chances of converting a sale by building trust and adding value to the customer. It involves some very clever technology that creates a human way of interacting with your clients.
Find out more about Adviser.ai