Bridging the Gap to the Close Through Inbound Sales and Marketing

The process of sales and marketing is not new to us. It has always been there and traditional methods have been handled to tackle sales processes, especially inbound sales. The inbound sales representatives were never clear on their roles and in turn business was lost.

It is of utmost importance for your inbound sales representatives/agents to understand their roles and have knowledge about the company's products and services. It means the agents must be able to manage the conversation with the client by understanding his needs and giving satisfying answers.

The following tips will help inbound sales agents and representatives to improve their inbound sales and achieve customer satisfaction.

• Give agents a calling process – This means train your agent to answer the call politely and greet well. An automated response creates a gap and should be avoided. The response must show that the agent is listening to what the caller is saying. The next step would be to offer a solution in such a way that the customer believes in it and gets hooked up. This would also be the time to offer promotions and discounts. Thus starts your inbound sales process
• Say "Please" – This is where your manners should ‘kick in'. Make sure you are using the word please and thank you in your conversation. It gives a personal touch and has an edge over automated responses
• Blend telling and asking – A great conversationalist knows how to ask questions and give answers at the same time without irking the customer. This strategy is called the question/answer pair technique. For e.g. "I would like to fill out your billing address. Could you please provide one?"
• Pronounce the name correctly – If you are doing business with American customers, you know pronouncing their names can be tough. You don't want to offend a customer by pronouncing his name wrong. Try your best to pronounce the name correctly and immediately confirm by asking "Did I spell that correctly"? Another tip would be to listen when the client pronounces his name
• Adjectives boost your inbound sales – Train your agents to use nice language. It does not mean throwing in jargon or using flowery language. It means practicing sentences that exactly describe your product by using adjectives which will engage the customer
• Don't be too pushy – A lot of orders get lost simply because the inbound sales agent was too pushy. If you pressurize the customer to buy your product instead of creating interest, the call is bound to get stopped sooner than later. It has to be a gradual process wherein you create interest and explain the value of the product
• Be prepared to overcome objections – The use of word ‘but' can send your efforts down the drain. Even if the customer says No to your product, don't get discouraged and get into the ‘rebuttal' mode. Instead empathize. Try to put a positive note in your question and ask if there was a specific concern that the customer had regarding the product

Conclusion

Inbound sales are fast becoming a backbone of today's business world. If you work on your call handling skills, you are sure to have a happy customer. Needless to say, it is important that your sales agents take care of your customers who want to place an order from you. Pay attention and Listen up!