Are you worried that your sales are stagnating? Does there seem to be a sticking point that is preventing your employees from sealing the deal and turning hot leads into converted sales? The sales process is a difficult one no matter what industry you work in. The best sales teams understand that they are likely to be rejected a lot more than they are accepted, it doesn’t matter how good a salesperson you are. That is why it seriously pays off to hire a call centre sales team to help your business if you are stuck in a sales rut, or if your in-house team just doesn’t have the skills or capacity to take on sales calls.
It is difficult of course, but by hiring an external contact centre team to act as your sales department you are benefiting from a number of things immediately. First, it helps to relieve any stress that an in-house team might be facing. An external contact centre team can take over a sales department in full or be there to help with call overflow if there is a particularly high volume of calls for any reason, or during office out-of-hours, to ensure that you never again miss an opportunity. If you have been using employees as sales staff when it is not their primary function, an external team allows you to utilise your in-house team in a much more satisfactory and profitable way.
There are a few different stages to sales that it is important to understand before you can become good at it. The best salespeople are those that understand rejection is the standard, and that following a process is everything. If you get the sales process right, and you understand the product or service you are selling (and the company brand), you’ll do well in sales.
The stages of selling are:
- Establishing communication with a customer or potential customer – it is harder to cold call than to contact an already interested party of course
- Identify the needs of the potential customer – a transaction should always be mutually beneficial, and there is no way to sell to someone you know nothing about.
- Present the product or service in the correct manner, to entice the customer and show you are providing a solution to a problem they have.
- Be ready to overcome objections, understanding what you are selling inside and out.
- Understand how to close without being pushy, remaining polite at all times and demonstrating you care about the customer and want to build a relationship beyond a single transaction.
Now that you have a greater understanding of the sales process, the different pressure points and challenges, and the best ways to succeed in sales, you can focus on how to improve your business in respect of sales. A contact centre team with the experience of selling and the knowledge of your brand and company processes, can significantly help to improve standards and profits for your organisation. Think about whether you need a full-time sales team from an external source, or just support for out of hours or when there are times of high call volume. It will make your company increase standards and improve customer satisfaction levels as a direct result.
