Sales technology can transform your business. Today, we’ll be looking at one that may be new to you: lead to call automation. Lead to call automation is a unique strategy that automatically converts inbound leads into a phone call, almost instantaneously. This technology can unlock speed-to-lead. Plus, sparking a real conversation at the peak moment of interest can build strong relationships and dramatically improve sales.

To be successful in inside sales, you need strong communication skills, solid industry knowledge, confidence in your abilities, and persistence. All of these elements are in play when a salesperson picks up the phone. Even today, the phone call is a powerful tool for building connections and generating sales opportunities. So what call tools are you using to make your sales calls as effective as possible?

Did you know that 90% of U.S. consumers prefer to speak with a human when they have questions about a company's products or services instead of interacting with an automated bot? In addition, 63% would take their business to a company that offered text messaging as a communication channel. That is more than six customers out of ten! Can you afford to lose sixty percent of your customers? Have you implemented text messaging into your team’s sales process? If not, now is the time to implement text messaging into your team’s sales process. 

How are you currently communicating with leads, building your customer base or enhancing customer loyalty? If you’re like most businesses, email is an important part of your conversational strategy. But have you thought about using Short Message Services (SMS) or business text messaging? You should! 

As long as your sales team has a phone and a computer, they can do their job almost anywhere. But, unfortunately, as many sales teams move to a remote working environment, an important part of a salesperson's job is forgotten by some companies: call coaching.

The2021 State of Sales Coaching Report asked 2,000 sales professionals about their recent experience with sales call coaching. Twenty three percent of sales reps said they received less coaching since beginning to work remotely, 16% said they received much less coaching, and 7% said they received no coaching at all. 

Does your team listen back to recordings of sales and customer service calls to identify opportunities for improvement? If so, you’ve already taken the first step to call monitoring. There are a plethora of benefits of call monitoring to your sales, from quality control to coaching. (More on this later.) However, the unfortunate reality is that manually monitoring calls is extremely time-consuming. That’s where call monitoring software can help. 

The importance of inside sales has skyrocketed in the last few years, driven by a variety of factors. For one, the availability of sales automation software has made inside sales possible, and resulting in lower customer acquisition costs. It’s also a reflection of customer preference. Forrester research has shown that inside sales roles are growing15 times fasterthan outside sales because75% of buyers would rather not meet face-to-face with a salesperson. So, the message is clear. If you are not thinking about how to level up your inside sales strategy, you are leaving revenue dollars on the table and hindering your company's profitability.

Businesses in the US spent $4.6B on generating leads in 2021; it’s a top priority for marketing and sales leaders. This begs the question: if these leads are so valuable, why does it take the average company 47 hours to respond to a lead - if they respond at all? The truth is that lead response matters. And lead response is most effective when it's fast.

Did you know that, on average, an inside sales team pays 40-90% less to acquire new customers than an outside sales team? Did you also know that 75% of buyers would rather not meet face-to-face with a salesperson?

The legendary football coach Vince Lombardi once said, "Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection, we can catch excellence." As we start a new year, many of us are taking time to reflect on the crucial lessons we learned in 2022 and set goals for 2023. If you're in sales, chances are one of your goals is improved performance. As Mr. Lombardi stressed, excellence should always be one of those goals.