If businesses can take away any lessons from the COVID-19 era, it’s this: Even your most proven and established processes can become obsolete overnight. Companies must quickly embrace emerging technologies and adopt newer sales models, including leveling up their telesales, telemarketing, and sales support strategies to create a sustainable and prosperous future.
The emergence and development of internet marketing and social media have changed the game for marketers. The telesales and telemarketing approaches that once seemed clever in the past may now get lost amid burgeoning 21st-century marketing strategies. Businesses must stay up-to-date on the latest information and keep reinventing their tactics to ensure that these remain effective and appealing to customers.
This article will look at why it’s so essential to continually reinvent your telesales, telemarketing, and sales support strategies. Then, we’ll provide helpful tips and techniques you can use to take your approach to the next level.
Telesales, Telemarketing, and Sales Support: What’s the Difference?
Before discussing the importance of reinventing your telesales, telemarketing, and sales support approach, let’s briefly discuss the differences between these three services. Although these concepts may seem similar, there are critical distinctions between each one.
Telesales
Telesales is getting prospective customers to buy your products or services, usually either through the phone or through a web conferencing virtual call. If telemarketing is about building brand awareness, telesales is about carrying out the actual purchase.
Telemarketing
Telemarketing has a broader scope than telesales which is mainly concerned with direct selling to customers. It usually involves generating interest in new products or services, offering information to customers, and listening to customer feedback.
Sales Support
Sales support services are all the background tasks performed to assist sales representatives. Examples include product training, lead generation, PR press releases, and marketing promotions. Sales support workers enable your company’s telesales agents to focus on selling and closing deals while doing necessary background work.
The Importance of Reinventing Your Telesales, Telemarketing, and Sales Support Strategies
As new digital marketing strategies emerge over the years, many businesses wonder whether cold calling is still needed in today’s marketing landscape. The truth is that, even in today’s increasingly digitized age, telesales is still a practical and relevant sales and marketing tactic.
However, you may need to refresh your company’s approach to telemarketing, keeping in mind that today’s customers are, in many ways, different from past generations. Here are just a few of the reasons why you need to rethink and elevate your telesales strategies in 2022:
1. Customers are after a holistic experience.
Telemarketing on its own may not be as effective at getting customers’ attention as it was in the past. However, it can still be an essential part of your business’s overall marketing strategy. The key is to adopt a more holistic telesales approach.
Since companies are collecting more and more data from their consumers, people now expect better experiences. For instance, one random cold call may not endear potential customers toward your brand. However, if you create buyer personas and understand what your target consumers need and want, you can make more personalized and uniquely targeted telesales pitches. This way, you foster a connection between your brand and your customers.
Customers today don’t want to be seen as “just a number”; they want to feel that their favorite brands view them as individuals. So, effective telemarketing will mean doing more than just reading a rigid script and, instead, adding a human touch to every customer interaction.
Read More: Top 22 Powerful Customer Service Statistics Proving the Value of Customer Experience in 2021
2. Your competitors are becoming even more competitive.
After over two years of economic uncertainty due to COVID-19, businesses are now looking to improve their competitiveness in 2022. There are many ways for brands to enhance their competitive edge, including improving their diversity, fostering innovation, and scaling their business toward a global market.
The best time to reinvent your telesales, telemarketing, and sales support strategy is now, as other businesses are also working toward improving their competitiveness. Investing in emerging technologies that help streamline your telemarketing process can help future-proof your operations even as market conditions shift and evolve.
3. Buyers do not expect to go back to pre-pandemic practices.
The pandemic may be slowing down, but the way consumers purchase and shop may never be the same as before. One recent study found that only 20% of buyers wanted and expected to return to their pre-COVID shopping practices.
Most customers now prefer making purchases from the comfort and safety of their homes, which means that e-commerce and telesales will likely become the norm from this point onward. Maximize your customer acquisition by improving your telemarketing strategy.
Read More: Top 7 Ways Call Center Outsourcing Can Reboot Your Business Post-Pandemic
How Brands Can Elevate Their Telesales, Telemarketing, and Sales Support Approach
Now that we’ve discussed why businesses need to refine and reinvent their telemarketing strategies constantly, let’s move on to how you can do that. Here are a few valuable tips to help improve your telesales approach this year:
1. Utilize multiple platforms, tools, and techniques.
The more a business understands its customers, the easier it is to know how and where to promote its products and services. Use multiple platforms for your marketing campaigns to expand your brand’s reach and gather as much data as possible. Take full advantage of all the tools, resources, and connections to create your telemarketing and telesales strategy.
For example, some businesses have found success by partnering with influencers specializing in particular niches. Work with a relevant influencer to promote your products and services, then follow up with a telemarketing campaign using the data and call list gathered from the influencer campaign.
2. Rethink the role of telesales and telemarketing agents.
Today’s consumers are not easily persuaded by traditional sales talk, and hard-selling might even put them off from buying your products or services. As such, many companies nowadays train their telesales and telemarketing agents to take on a more consultative approach when interacting with customers.Â
Instead of immediately pushing a new product onto customers, telemarketing agents may first offer valuable advice and suggestions that show their knowledge and expertise on the subject matter. Telesales agents will then follow up with interested customers and help close the deal.Â
The idea is to ensure that the marketing and sales team are aligned in their strategies. These teams should work together to attract and retain as many customers as possible.
Read More: 8 Advanced Customer Service Skills Your Team Needs in 2021
3. Choose an outsourcing partner with multi-platform solutions for all three services.
Sometimes, the best way to improve a company’s sales and marketing performance is by partnering with a capable outsourcing provider. Instead of working hard to hire and train an in-house telesales and telemarketing team, focus on your core business and entrust these services to highly skilled and experienced call center professionals who know how best to reach and appeal to your customers.
Ideally, the outsourcing provider you choose would offer multiple solutions and utilizes different platforms, from phone to email to social media. Also, make sure that you partner with a people-centered BPO company that knows how to add a “human touch” to every customer interaction.
Boost Your Telesales, Telemarketing, and Sales Support With Help From SuperStaff!
At SuperStaff, we are dedicated to helping businesses provide the best possible experience for their valued customers. We offer a variety of call center outsourcing solutions, including telesales, telemarketing, and sales support services.Â
Our fully trained sales and customer service representatives work round-the-clock, helping you keep your business operational 24/7. Contact us today for more information!