The Realities of Today’s Telesales

by Jenna Durbin

03.10.2023

Telesales Is a Powerful Tool for Remote Engagement

The B2B sector is undergoing significant change in response to advancing technologies, new customer preferences and evolving business models. One area that has been particularly impacted by these changes is sales strategy.

Illustration of woman with phone to her ear sitting at desk with monitorIn today’s market, customers increasingly prefer remote engagement with sales professionals over face-to-face interactions. This shift in preference is causing companies to rethink their sales strategies, with fewer organizations prioritizing field sales and more focusing on inside sales, the process of building a thriving business pipeline and achieving sales growth through remote channels.

The prevalence of “as-a-service” business models, where customers need to renew subscriptions, memberships, contracts, event registrations, and other services regularly, has made it essential for businesses to focus on nurturing customer relationships. This is crucial for maintaining revenue and building resilience, and as a result, sales teams are becoming more sophisticated in their approach and aligning themselves closely with customer success in the long run.

 

How Does Telesales Add Value in This New Environment?

With the changing B2B sales landscape, telesales has also evolved. Despite the common misconception that telesales only refers to high-volume, transactional sales, it is actually a versatile and powerful discipline that covers a wide range of remote, phone-based sales activities.

Illustration of woman sitting at laptop with icons floating around her: clock, phone receiver, and talkingTelesales can serve as a synonym for inside sales, depending on the proficiency of the sales team and the supporting systems and strategies. By utilizing multiple channels, telesales can carry out various remote activities such as lead generation, appointment setting, presentations, demos, direct sales, cross-selling, upselling, and building complex B2B relationships. These tasks are traditionally performed in the field, but can be managed remotely by highly skilled inside sales professionals.

A phone-based operation is a cost-effective way for businesses to test overseas markets, eliminating the need for satellite offices, larger sales forces, and frequent travel. In today’s world, inside sales teams with multilingual capabilities can develop and service foreign markets effectively. By incorporating these techniques, B2B sales teams can utilize phone-based contact throughout the sales process, from direct selling to solution selling to account-based marketing.

 

Telesales Can Be Just as Personal as Face-to-Face Sales

To navigate phone-based remote sales effectively, it is essential to dispel common misconceptions:

 

Remote Doesn’t Mean Impersonal

In today’s rapidly evolving business landscape, phone-based selling has emerged as a powerful and effective alternative to traditional field sales. Despite some common misconceptions, remote sales campaigns can be just as personal as face-to-face sales when managed by highly skilled and knowledgeable sales professionals. In fact, the use of advanced technology, such as video conferencing and screen sharing, can even enhance the personalization of phone-based selling by allowing agents to demonstrate their products and services in real-time to potential customers.

 

Telesales Isn’t Just About Selling

Telesales, as a versatile and flexible sales approach, can take various forms tailored to the specific needs and preferences of businesses and their customers. A well-managed telesales campaign, led by a team of seasoned sales professionals, can not only boost the efficiency and productivity of high-volume sales but also cater to complex, high-value B2B relationships with a personalized and consultative approach.

 

Conversations Are Not Heavily Scripted

Establishing a natural and intuitive conversation style is crucial for building trust and rapport in telesales. However, the effectiveness of this approach heavily relies on the expertise and experience of the sales agents. To ensure that telesales is truly adding value, it is necessary for agents to have the ability to position complex solutions, convey sophisticated value propositions, and engage senior decision-makers. This requires a high level of skill and knowledge but can lead to successful high-value sales campaigns when executed correctly.

 

Phones Are Not the Only Means of Communication

Telesales, when supported by digital systems that integrate CRM, email and marketing automation, webinars, and hotkey/live call transfers, offers organizations a chance to enhance the productivity of their sales team, streamline governance and compliance processes, and increase the return on investment for every penny spent on the sales budget.

How Do You Use Telesales to Your Advantage?

The quality of a telesales campaign relies heavily on the competence of the sales agents and the efficiency of the supporting systems. If your in-house team lacks the necessary expertise and skills, outsourcing the required resources may be a more viable option than investing significant resources to build and manage them in-house. By doing so, you can ensure that your telesales efforts are managed by skilled professionals with proven experience and that your business can leverage the latest technologies and best practices to optimize sales outcomes.

 

Optimize Your Sales by Outsourcing Your Telesales

Outsourcing your telesales to a specialized agency dedicated to outbound calling can provide you with numerous benefits. By partnering with an agency, you can have access to an entire team solely focused on building pipelines and responding to prospective needs, allowing you to avoid disruptions to your daily operations. In addition, you can choose an agency that utilizes the latest customized calling platforms to drive greater productivity and efficiency gains.

Illustration of woman looking back from her computer with various phone-related icons around herOne of the advantages of outsourcing your telesales to a well-chosen agency is that you can also benefit from their multilingual skills. They can provide a team of native language agents who have experience working with a diverse set of clients across cultural divides, which can connect you with a much broader, multi-nation market.

Another benefit of outsourcing your telesales is that it allows you to introduce more flexibility into your sales workforce. With an outsourced telesales solution, you have the on-demand capacity, which means that you can easily scale your remote sales function up or down in line with changing business needs or cater to seasonal spikes in demand. Overall, outsourcing your telesales can be a smart way to optimize your sales operations and achieve your business goals.

If your business is considering an external telesales service to boost your sales, TSRM Group can help. Visit our Telesales page to learn more about our comprehensive telesales services.

0 Comments

Featured

Related Posts

About

The Author

TSRM staff photo: Keith

Jenna Durbin

Jenna Durbin is the Digital Marketing Manager at TSRM Group. Full bio

Related Posts