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|  |  Article - Telephone Sales Strategies, by our President - Neil Saviano August 9, 2008 Telephone Sales and CRM Technology – a powerful Combination By Neil Saviano Telephone sales, integrated with CRM and Sales Force Automation software, is a powerful sales and marketing program for dealers to help drive higher sales and margins and at the same time result in more cost effective customer coverage. Historically, telephone sales programs have been an option for dealers wanting to lower their cost of sales with smaller customers while maintaining their business. Though this is still a key strategic focus, telephone programs have evolved into a sound new customer development and penetration strategy for medium and sometimes large customers as well. The CRM software component contributes greatly to the strategic effectiveness in all customer segments by providing a high level of information and contact management as well as automated sales and marketing processes. Smaller customers, generally those with less than 10 office workers, do not have the sales or margin potential to be covered cost effectively by field sales-where the cost of a sales call is high. Take into account commuting time to and from a prospect or customer’s office, time spent in the lobby or reception area and an hour or two can be spent for a 20-minute meeting. The cost for this business is out of sight and the losses can be astounding. Conversely, a telephone sales person can reach at least 40-50 customers and/or prospects a day, and overall can cover as many as 700 customers. The double benefit is that the cost of sales goes way down while the large number of customers covered results in the potential for high sales without needing the success rates of field sales. Economies of scale are surely on the side of telephone sales. CRM and Sales Force Automation software drastically enhances the power of telephone sales. This type of software has the capacity to store large amounts of information, such as: customer’s office equipment, special products, industry type, buying history status as well as demographic information at both the company and contact person/s level. Many CRM software products offer connectivity to industry back-end systems, integrating sales history with customer demographic information within the CRM software. A benefit is that this powerful combination of information is always available to a telephone sales person while in contact with a customer, resulting in very effective use of information, and strategically timed presentations. Some examples of use of information are: letting customers know of specials that can address their needs, or products that fit key customer applications. This allows for considerable cross selling into higher margin non commodity products and deeper customer penetration. Field sales people simply do not have this access to information during the selling process as easily, if at all. A key CRM software component that results in powerful use of information for telephone sales people is the capacity for instant faxing or emailing of pertinent promotional or product information. Seamlessly integrated fax and email software is available on most CRM software; this means that a fax promotion or an html e-mail piece is only a mouse click away. A spin-off of this feature is the capacity for very effective target marketing. Virtually all of the stored information can be combined into targeted groups; groups can be set up for customers using specific products, buying history or many possible demographic breakdowns, such as customer type, industry type or competitor. Promotional and informational pieces can be aimed at these targeted groups at any time by inside sales people or inside sales management. Follow up calls can automatically be scheduled for telephone sales people, adding greatly to the effectiveness of a campaign. Telephone sales, of all dealer sales strategies, works best with CRM software’s most powerful feature: automated processes. An automated process represents the automation of a series of repetitive sales and marketing tasks that historically fall through the cracks. Examples of tasks addressed by automated processes include: penetrating underachieving customers, following up with “not interested” prospects and touching current good customers at strategic intervals to help assure retention. Automated processes are only a mouse click away for telephone sales people. In essence they gain the help of a virtual sales assistant to address tasks that would be impossible to perform while having to cope with every day crisis management and other administrative tasks. The benefits of technology-driven telephone sales related here are not intended to denigrate field sales. Dealers need to make market segmentation decisions, and within their segmentation decisions the need for more cost effective coverage of smaller and medium sized customers is paramount. The cost-of-sale losses from smaller customers in particular can drastically impact bottom line – taking away from the impact of larger and more profitable customers that require a field sales concentration. Field sales can obviously benefit from CRM software as well. All CRM software is equipped with remote synchronization or direct access to data via an internet connection from the field. Thus, the same benefits accorded telephone sales people can be realized by field sales people. This technology can help field sales people segment their customers and decide upon more cost effective customer coverage. In fact, technology, combined with easily accessible internet connections, can result in mini telephone sales programs for field sales people. Dealers may also consider the traditional hunter/farmer sales and marketing model; this strategy combines a best of both worlds. For instance, field sales people team with inside sales people and customer service in covering all size customers. CRM software helps them team-manage all customer processes and contact, using all of the software features and related benefits. The result is more strategically timed customer coverage, deeper penetration and far greater retention of all size customers, not to mention a higher ratio of new customer acquisitions. ABOUT THE AUTHOR: A sales and marketing veteran with more than 30 years’ experience, Neil Saviano is president of Longbow Consulting Group a sales and marketing organization that focuses on helping office products dealers combine proven sales and marketing techniques and strategies with state-of-the-art technology-based solutions. He can be reached by phone at 978-750-6882 or by e-mail at neil@longbowcg.com.
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