(The short sale maven) Telesales Consultants Aim For Efficiency
No commentsBy Andy West
As an employer one of the most important things when it comes to running your business is to make sure that it is profitable. In order to survive as a small business or any other business for that matter, you have to make sure that the money that you are bringing in is enough to cover the cost of operating expenses such as payroll, rent and electricity. In addition to covering operating expenses, business owners also want to make a profit so that they can make a living as well. If a business owner is not seeing the type of profit that he or she would like to see coming into their business, it may be time to bring in an outside consultant to see where improvements can be made. Individuals such as telesales consultants specialize in sales and help to increase profits for business owners.
The main reason for bringing in telesales consultants is to evaluate the productivity of your current operations. There is always room for improvement when it comes to business operations, therefore business owners do not have to see a problem in order to call in a consultant. The idea is to bring in a consultant before your business is in dire need of some help. Consultants can prevent businesses from being in a poor financial situation because of decreased sales. They can also help each business stay on track and improve where there is the need. When it comes to consultants business owners are not required to implement each recommendation, however it is strongly advised to listen carefully to each recommendation and evaluate what is the best option for your business.
Telesales consultants are trained professionals who are experts in sales. Oftentimes consultants have been in the business for a number of years and bring their expertise from their work experience to the table when it comes to consulting. Most consultants have a bachelor’s degree at a minimum and typically study business administration, economics or marketing. These specific areas of study teach the skills and knowledge necessary to be successful in the business world. Most consultants take the knowledge they learn in the classroom and apply it to the business operations of the organization that they are consulting. In addition to the classroom knowledge, because of the fact that most telesales consultants are previous business professionals themselves, they bring experience and knowledge from their years in the business world as well.
When it comes to telesales, there are numerous areas where a business can improve. One of the biggest areas to improve in any business is the budget. Telesales consultants can evaluate the current business budget and give recommendations for where to improve. It is important to trim the fat when it comes to the budget and tighten up any loose ends. Errant spending and low productivity can wreak havoc on any business operation. By increasing productivity and keeping an eye on spending the budget can be brought under control.
Another area of improvement for any business is project management. If projects are not managed efficiently than that can decrease productivity and increase costs. Telesales consultants aim to evaluate the procedures when it comes to project management in order to increase productivity. Consultants will recommend a course of action in order to bring project management under control. The recommendation can range from retraining managers to putting together new employee manuals.
There are many consultants available on the internet; however it is important to make sure that you find the right consultant for your business. If a business owner is looking to improve in the telesales department then a consultant that specializes in telesales is your best option, just as a consultant that specializes in marketing is ideal for a marketing department overhaul. Either way, each consultant has a specialized expertise to bring to the table. Be sure you choose wisely.
Andy West is a writer for Inside Sales Lab, a company specializing in consulting services to improve inside sales with hands-on experience. For more information on telesales consultants please visit InsideSalesLab.com.
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Email Marketing Plan of Attack to Increase Holiday Sales
By Karen Scharf
Many retailers are worried about the dire state of the economy and are forecasting meager holiday sales. But don’t let their doom and gloom attitudes get you down. You’ve got email marketing on your side!
Here’s a great plan of attack for using email marketing to supplement your sales during the holiday - and beyond.
Focus on growing your list.
Try to capture email addresses at every stage and every location. Get permission from warm leads, prospects, customers, even vendors to add their names and email addresses to your mailing list.
Invite your on-line customers to join your opt-in list when they make a purchase.
If you have a brick and mortar location, ask your retail customers for permission to send email. Provide an incentive for joining the list that coordinates email with your brick and mortar customers, such as a 15% off coupon for in-store purchases.
Take advantage of order transactions, such as email receipts, shipping notifications, upsell offers, etc. to invite your customers to join your mailing list.
Look for ways to improve.
Email marketing is not a set-it-and-forget-it activity. Every time you send a campaign, set aside time in the future to review the campaign and measure its performance.
Map out possible improvements for the next campaign. And watch for warning flags, such as extremely low open rates, delivery issues to a certain ISP, excessive bounces, etc. These problems need to be addressed immediately.
Watch for list fatigue.
You may be tempted to over-send this holiday season in a desperate attempt to increase insufficient sales. But be careful with this tactic. You’re not the only retailer feeling the strain.
As more and more retailers send more and more email messages, it’s easy for your readers to become inundated and stop opening your mail altogether. Keep an eye on your open and click through rates in addition to your unsubscribe rates.
Help your readers and yourself through joint ventures.
How can you help your readers get all their holiday shopping done? Is there an item or service that piggy-backs on what you already sell?
Why not create a few joint venture partnerships with complimentary providers and develop a complete, one-stop shopping area for your busy readers. You can send out partner mailings and messages and make it easier for your customers to purchase the other items you know they’ll be needing.
Most importantly - start NOW.
Don’t wait for the first snowflake to start planning your holiday email marketing. Take time this week and put your plan together.
Once the busy shopping season arrives, you won’t have time for graphic design and article writing and being creative. Your competition is already planning their holiday sales campaigns, you better not wait any longer.
Karen Scharf is an Indianapolis marketing consultant who works with small business owners and entrepreneurs. She offers several whitepapers, free reports and checklists, including her FREE Can-Spam checklist and FREE email pre-flight checklist to ensure your emails get delivered, get opened and get read. Download your copies at http://www.ModernImage.com.
What Is Sales Leads
By Tarun Jaswani
A sales lead is the identity of a person or entity potentially interested in purchasing a product or service,and represents the first stage of a sales process.The lead may have a corporation or business associated (a B2B lead) with the person(s).Sales leads come from either marketing lead generation processes such as trade shows, direct marketing, advertising, Internet marketing or from sales person prospecting activities such as cold calling. For a sales lead to qualify as a sales prospect, or equivalently to move a lead from the process step sales lead to the process sales prospect,qualification must be performed and evaluated. Typically this involves identifying by direct interrogation the leads product applicability,availability of funding, and time frame for purchase.This is also the entry point of a sales tunnel,sales funnel or sales pipeline.
A formalized sales process is generally more common for companies that either have large revenue risks that require systematic assurance of revenue generation and/or those that choose to use a more consultative sales approach(Saturn, IBM, Hewlett-Packard).Strictly speaking, even an effective ad hoc or retail sales process can be described by steps of an ideal sales process though some of the steps may be executed quickly.Often a bad sales experience can be analyzed and shown to have skipped key steps. This is where a good sales process mediates risk for both buyer and seller.
A solid sales process also has the dramatic impact of forecasting accuracy and predictability in revenue results.In general terms, sales professionals need to know a set of discrete data in order to determine whether or not the prospect will become qualified. These variables may include,business needs, authorization to transact business (financial or operational), money or budget and an economic buyer or in other words, who would stand to benefit the most (or lose the most) if the good or service were to be acquired (or not acquired).
Closing is distinguished from ordinary practices such as explaining a product’s benefits or justifying an expense. It is reserved for more artful means of persuasion, which some compare with confidence tricks. For example,a salesman might mention that his product is popular with a persons neighbors, knowing that people tend to follow perceived trends.Internet marketing ties together creative and technical aspects of the Internet, including design, development, advertising, and sales.
Internet marketing does not simply entail building or promoting a website, nor does it mean placing a banner ad on another website. Effective Internet marketing requires a comprehensive strategy that synergizes a given company’s business model and sales goals with its website function and appearance, focusing on its target market through proper choice of advertising type, media, and design. The volume of B2B transactions is much higher than the volume of B2C transactions. The primary reason for this is that in a typical supply chain there will be many B2B transactions involving sub component or raw materials but only one B2C transaction, because the sale of the finished product to the end customer is only a single transaction.
In complex sales, the process of selling can take several weeks, or even months, to complete. Sometimes there are long discussions between buyers & service providers before finalizing the specifications. In some cases, offer and counter offers will go back and forth. Prospective buyers sometimes issue a Request for Proposals (RFP), Request for Information (RFI), Request for Quotation (RFQ) or an Invitation for Bids (IFB). These requests guide the sellers and provide specifications about the buyer’s needs. Meeting the specified requirements is a major objective in writing a successful proposal.
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Friday, October 24th, 2008 at 11:45 am and is filed under sales. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
