• ACD SOFTWARE
• Articles

Big Changes in TeleSales Needed to Keep Service Alive, in Demand

After taking a look at industry standards, the next big trend for 2014 is a reorganization of the telesales process. It’s set to see some of the most dramatic changes over the next few months. The industry is very simple. It usually known as “inside sales” and has a salesperson soliciting prospective customers to buy products or services either over the phone or through the Internet.

The telemarketers are also trained to help with up-selling, negotiating pricing and offering more to the deal to help make a sale. Telemarketing can also included recorded sales pitches programmed to be played over the phone via automatic dialing. However, a lot of times telemarketers get hung up on, people don’t listen to the full recording, or people will complain when they receive too many calls from telemarketing companies signing up on a do not call list.

The Barrett Blog named 12 sales trends for 2014 saying that telesales will have to make dramatic changes to stay alive and remain profitable. “With the increasing demands of more sophisticated buyers, telesales operators, who have traditionally focused on the uncomplicated sale of easy-to-understand commodities, are going to have to increase their knowledge base and learn to sell solutions to buyers who are more demanding and more knowledgeable and with higher expectations,” the Barrett blog said.

“This shakeup means a radical re-think for telesales operations. Smart companies will see their telesales teams as a vital part of their overall sales operations. Some may even bring back in house sales teams that were previously outsourced or off shored.”

So in Barrett’s estimate the change is going to be necessary for the industry to survive and its two suggestions would be to re-think the overall sales pitches that the salesmen are giving out and also think about bringing them back in-house vs. overseas.

Sue Barrett is a sales expert, business speaker, advisor, sales facilitator, and entrepreneur, and founded Barrett Consulting. Barrett, in an interview with Smart Company said that companies that use these telemarketing tools would need to be determined to survive.

“Buyers have become too individualized, too sophisticated to put up with this shallow and useless approach. Unless call center operators have the skills to understand every buyer’s unique expectations and needs; unless they can offer a solution, rather than a product, they are likely to see sales and demand for their services decline,” said Barrett.

“The telesales people of smart companies will be committed, connected and in control of their role in driving the sales effort across the entire value chain both now and over the long term and everyone will benefit, especially their customers.”