3CLogic's Contact Center Blog

If you’re a company performing outbound sales campaigns, there is a high likelihood you have a portion of your employees regularly making phone calls. But as consumers become increasingly mobile and caller-ID gains widespread adoption, sales reps are finding it increasingly difficult to get in touch with their prospects. In fact, it takes the average sales rep eight calls to get in touch with a single prospect, of which only 2% result in an appointment. Factor in the added complexity of maintaining compliance with the latest industry regulations, and keeping up with it all can feel like a juggling act. As a result, many businesses have turned to contact center solutions to assist not only in increasing contact rates, but also enhancing the quality of interactions. Is it time to adopt a contact center solution for your organization? If you answer yes to one or more of the following statements, it may be something to consider.

It’s no secret that sales prospecting can be a difficult task—in fact, the average sales rep makes 8 dials per hour and prospects for 6.25 hours to set a single appointment, a reality that can quickly demotivate to even the most-qualified and hardest working sales teams. And when one considers the fact that more than half of a sales rep’s time is unknowingly wasted on unproductive prospecting, the problem at hand quickly becomes clear. So how can sales teams work smarter rather than harder with their existing resources to boost the success of their sales campaigns, and increase the odds of a successful close? A few suggestions:

The sales landscape has significantly evolved over the past few years as consumers become more informed and empowered, and alternative touch points continue to emerge. What was previously a process largely controlled by the seller, 57% of the purchasing decision is now made before an individual even contacts a business, something that has presented businesses with a number of challenges. And to keep up with the growing demands of the customers they’re serving, businesses have recognized the need to adopt a number of advanced solutions, from marketing automation, to CRMs and contact center software, in order to more effectively attract, sell, and retain their client base. So what are some of the solutions sales teams should be utilizing in 2016?

As the sales and customer service landscape continues to evolve and become far more complex, businesses around the globe are discovering the value in adopting advanced Customer Relationship Management (CRM) platforms to assist in collecting and organizing the vast amount of data their clients provide, and using it to deliver seamless customer service across multiple channels and touch points. And with organized client data, agents can more effectively up-sell, cross-sell, target marketing efforts, and solve potential issues before they escalate. Yet, arguably the most vital component of sales and service delivery, and one CRM platforms do not inherently provide, is voice—a channel that has the power to drastically enhance internal efficiencies, reduce costs, and transform the customer experience when integrated with a CRM.

“Cold calling”, or the act of making unsolicited phone calls to consumers in hopes of making a sale, is a widely used marketing tactic that has recently come under immense scrutiny. Cited as “irritating” to those on the receiving end of the call and inefficient for those performing the dialing (only 2% of cold calls lead to a future appointment), many have begun to wonder if outbound calling/telemarketing is a sustainable way to sell and market product and service offerings in today’s consumer-centric society. And with the FCC and FTC cracking down on telemarketing and the use of ATDS devices with increased TCPA regulations, businesses are also fearful of mistakenly crossing legal boundaries, leaving many to wonder whether they should seek out alternative means to connect with their target audience.