The year 2020 has been unusually challenging for all of us. It completely transformed the way we live our days. For most, it represented a nightmare, while for some others it provided opportunity. But even during worst of times, we get used to the easy things quite quickly.
During COVID lockdown, most businesses were forced to find new ways to operate online, in efforts to keep in touch with their customers and maintain a healthy cash flow. Thanks to that, now you can get virtually anything you want, without getting off your couch.
You can be certain that, at least this part, will remain the same once things go back to normal.. Why? Because it's easy, it's comfortable, and it feeds our ego to be able to get whatever we want, right from the palm of our hand.
This pandemic has affected our behavior in the most interesting ways. One that we all saw coming, is the raise in the time people spend on social platforms. By July 2020 there was an increment of more than 10% of social media usage, compared to July 2019. More than half of the world uses social media now.
Cold calling may have yielded results back in the day but, let's face it: it gets old pretty quick. People get tired of being randomly called at the most inconvenient times, by some obnoxious guy trying to "educate" them into buying something. We all have learned to identify these callers and hang up on them on the spot.
And no wonder we do. Cold calling seldom takes due time to qualify the leads they're calling. Those leads are usually bought in bulk from some website; the same website that sold the same leads to at least a dozen other businesses. They just add them to the CRM, turn the Autodial on, and pitch the same script to anyone who picks up the phone.
New times require new ways, and one of the greatest perks of social media is that it has made Business-Consumer communication to become human-centered. As a result, salesy pitches that don't provide any value become irrelevant FAST. Consumers use their power of choosing, and they support the companies that they feel understood by, or consider they have similar values than theirs (yes, company values are still in the game).
Thanks to social media, businesses can easily filter out everyone who doesn't match their ideal customer; reach out to highly qualified profiles, gather their contact info (which they willingly provide, out of their interest for the product, or in exchange for something they value), and then a specialized team of telemarketers can get those deals closed at a way higher rate than old school reps.
By reaching out with a friendly, warm, conversation-starting message, you'll have a better chance for them to read it whenever they're available, than if you try to have them listen to your sales pitch at the specific time your reps call them.
Reach out and offer something they will value (a free download, discount coupons, information they can act on, etc.), in exchange for their contact info.
Then have one of your specialized telemarketers reach out and ask for some feedback about their experience, which of course will be useful for you to improve, but the main purpose will be to open an opportunity for an upsell.
See how different the outcome would be, compared to calling them out of the blue? They already had a pleasant experience with your company by the time you call them. Your brand has planted a seed in their heads. Now it's up to your constantly updated reps to follow the lead and get deals closed for you.
Lead generation and telemarketing are only two of our areas of expertise at Infinity. Our training program is as effective as it is efficient. Keeping our reps always sharp and updated. Customer service best practices are always promoted, as they're essential for closing the deal. Soon we will be posting an article about customer service best practices for entering 2021.
If you want to learn more about our solutions, this link will take you to our services page. Feel free to reach out if you have any questions, inquiries, or you just want to say hi.
