Sales Force Automation

Sales force automation systems (SFA) are a part of a companies customer relations management (CRM) system . Sales force automation is a system that automatically records crucial data at all stages of the sales process. Utilization of a well designed SFA brings the possibilities of increased productivity and customer satisfaction.

The idea behind sales force automation is that when analytical data is shared between departments and sales stages that sales professionals will be able to ensure that they are productive as possible.

An SFA allows successful lead management, and promises that no lead will ever be lost. This allows a sales agent to contact a lead as soon as it comes in, never stored in a file where they could be forgotten about. Leads are able to be imported in from a variety of sources including spreadsheets and web captured forms. As leads are converted into customers you can view trends and analyze the trends in your SFA, showing how individual employees and sales teams could improve.

SFA also consolidates all company information into one place. This includes contacts, product purchases, and communication histories. This information facilitates collaboration across an organization and allows the coordination of sales campaigns.

Having an SFA helps you track the communication history of individual customers which is important in keeping clients happy. Well designed sales force automation systems provide easy templates to be used in creating effective emails or print mailers for customers. They also provide tools for personalization, allowing companies to reach the individual needs of their clients while providing them a good experience with the organization. By tracking communication with individual leads and customers annoying repetitive emails can be avoided, and all contact with the customer can be rewarding. They also provide information for an organization of whether emails sent are opened or not, and how long it took after they were sent for them to be opened.

A sales force automation system should integrate with all other telephony systems an organization uses. This allows the SFA to be as accurate and useful as possible in its analytic business reports. Because an SFA receives information constantly from sales agents, it can provide the exact status of a business at any given moment. This increases an organizations ability to make informed decisions on sales practices. An SFA that can produce graphs or charts of sales performance quickly and easily will show underlying trends, and will allow sales managers to quickly relay important information to their sales teams.

Power Dialer: It really doesn't get better than this

A inside sales representative dialing leads manually can expect to dial thirty to eighty. Using a predictive dialer that same sales representative can expect to dial four hundred and six hundred but they likely loose three to six percent of calls throughout the day from times where he is busy on another call. Additionally, a “telemarketer pause” often occurs when the lead answers the phone call before the sales agent is patched through. With a power dialer the number of calls made can be expected to fall somewhere between two hundred and fifty and three hundred and fifty calls in a typical work day, but the power dialer removes the pauses and dropped calls from the remote sales experience and is able to provide and much more satisfactory experience with a more personal feel to the lead.

Power dialers accomplish this quadrupling of leads called in the manner the software places calls. Like all dialers, power dialers need to be programmed with a list of phone numbers. This list can be generated automatically as interested individuals submit inquiries online via a web form on a company’s web site, by purchasing leads from a lead generation company, or by uploading a list of leads that were previously attempted to be contacted or current clients out of the businesses Customer Relationship Manager (CRM).

The phone numbers of the contacts on the list are fed into the power dialer one at a time. By only calling one lead, no contact will ever have to wait for a sales rep to become available to answer the call. Likewise, no call will ever be dropped because there is no sales rep available to accept the call.

The sales rep initiates a call simply by clicking on the call button next to the lead’s information within the CRM. The power dialer then rings the sales agent at the same time it calls the lead. If that lead does not pick up, the power dialer then dials the next lead on the list. As long as the sale’s agent stays on the line the power dialer will continue to make calls for him or her.

Using a power dialer, remote sales professionals also no longer have to waste their time dealing with voice mail machines. The sales representative can instead have the power dialer leave the voice message while it simultaneously starts the sales agent on another call. The agent can choose to do this with a single button click. The message left is one that the sales rep records previously in his or her own voice. This still gives a personalized feeling to the contact, but also allows the message to be planned and free from mistakes.

In similar manner a sales representative can opt to send an email or to send a fax message instead of a voice message. The power dialer pulls the necessary contact information from the CRM, and uses previously made templates to speedily send the desired message. This can also be done during a phone conversation. This increases a sales agent’s power to meet a contacts request and fulfill his own promises by immediately completely tasks that involve sending additional information.

While using a power dialer sales agents can still accept inbound calls. This allows all members of the sales team to be making outbound calls while they are waiting to receive a call, increasing over all productivity. Inbound - outbound blending utilizes ACD, or automatic call distribution. ACD call routing is when the ACD transfers incoming calls to the appropriate employee for the task. To help match which available agent should take any particular call the ACD call routing system reviews that customers credentials. Sometimes a simple interactive voice response system may retrieve additional data from the customer for the ACD. Alternatively the ACD can be programmed to recognize different toll free numbers, and direct customers to the appropriate employees based on that. Automatic call distribution will increase the rate of response to incoming calls and productivity no matter which set up is used to organize call agents. Better response times lead to improved customer satisfaction by limiting the time each customer waits for service and by giving inbound agents higher levels of responsiveness to each caller.

Since power dialers are so often embedded within Customer Relationship Management software, power dialers serve to increase reporting visibility. By using the power dialer functionality a sales rep activates all of the telephone reporting tools in the CRM system to track effort, ratios, and results. Management can easily see how many calls are made per day, the amount of talk time there is during each call, and the ratio of leads contacted to conversions for whole sales teams and individual remote sales agents.

Likewise power dialers help increase call quality by standardizing a call centers dialing and voice messaging approach as well as being able to record and monitor calls for quality control and training purposes.

What you should demand in your Telephone Dialer

A telephone dialer is a combination of hardware and software that allows a sales agent to more effectively make a call. Companies or organizations that make a large volume of calls each day should consider obtaining a telephone dialer through an established host site. In this arrangement the hosting company will be responsible to resolve any technical problems and will be responsible for the purchasing and maintenance of the hardware needed for the dialer. In exchange hey will provide their software for you to use for a monthly fee.
Not all dialers are made the same, and there are certain traits that you should demand in your telephone dialer systems.

Look for a telephone dialer that will work with your existing CRM (Customer Relationship Management System). Hosted CRM's will provide your business with the organization you need to quickly and accurately keep track of leads generated. When powered with a telephone dialer that will automatically process leads generated from sources like forms on your company website, your sales team will be able to contact incoming leads within minutes of receiving them, which is absolutely crucial to converting those leads into paying clients. Having a telephone dialer that will work effectively will provide your agents with the numbers they should call, freeing them from remembering details like callback times – the telephone dialer and CRM team will do the remembering for them.

To save time in the menial and monotonous tasks of manually dialing phone numbers each work day a telephone dialer should have the ability to make a phone call with a single click of the mouse. Additionally a telephone dialer should have the option to automatically record a call, hang up, leave a voice message if a lead is unavailable, or send an email automatically to the potential customer, all with a simple single click. Look for phrases such as “click to call” when viewing the features of a potential telephone dialer.

Your telephone dialer should be able to automatically call through a list of contacts, and patch through only those leads that answer their phones. This system is referred to as a power dialer, and will dramatically cut down on the time wasted by each employee who has to sit through pointless minutes of rings and voice mail with each potential customer. This is one of the ways a telephone dialer can protect your companies time and boost its revenue.

Lead routing is the last feature you should demand in a telephone dialer. This program decides based on the parameters you gave it which agent answers which incoming calls, allowing you to make sure that those toll free numbers you've provided to your customers will always connect them to the right department.

ACD Call Routing

We all want phone calls to be flooding into our call centers. An ACD will help you be organized and efficient when that happens as your agents handling the calls will automatically be routed calls that they can best handle.

ACD stands for Automatic Call Distributor. ACD call routing is when the ACD transfers incoming calls to the appropriate employee for the task. ACD call routing is ideal for offices handling a large volume of calls, especially when callers do not need to talk to a specific employee but require attention by any of multiple persons at the soonest possible opportunity.

To help match which available agent should take any particular call the ACD call routing system reviews that customers credentials. Sometimes a simple interactive voice response system may retrieve additional data from the customer for the ACD. Alternatively the ACD can be programmed to recognize different toll free numbers, and direct customers to the appropriate employees based on that. A third alternative is that an ACD may be connected with a CRM (Customer Relationship Management). In this arrangement the ACD will route calls based on key information and also relay this information to the answering agent.

ACDs can work equally well with both in-house call centers and remote inbound call agents. Automatic call distribution will increase the rate of response to incoming calls and productivity no matter which set up is used to organize call agents. Better response times lead to improved customer satisfaction by limiting the time each customer waits for service and by giving inbound agents higher levels of responsiveness to each caller.

Automatic call distributors often contain software that monitor reporting and performance data. Records of call time and volume provide insight to managers about a business's performance. Tracking which toll free numbers are called the most allows an organization to refine and reevaluate marketing plans and current campaigns. Call recording options provide quality control as well as tools for valuable training for current and future employees.

The ability to blend inbound calls with outbound calls is also a task a good ACD call routing system can accomplish. This allows an agent to be free to make outbound calls while waiting to receive inbound calls. This is especially useful at increasing efficiency during non-peak shifts or down times in caller volume.

By subscribing with a hosted ACD call routing system provider your resources are expanded. Additional hold capacity without having to pay for more T1s or local lines is an example. Instead your ACD's host can hold those calls that you during those times of peak inbound call volume, and patch them through with your ACD call routing system as inbound call agents become available.

What to shop for in a Voice Messaging system

It is impossible for any business to be successful without customers. A business must contact as many leads as possible to gain those customers, and studies show that contacting leads within five minutes of them showing interest increases the likelihood of them becoming a customer.

A voice messaging system is one effective and simple way to communicate with both sales leads and your tried and true clients. It is a system for calling a large number of individuals and presenting them a prerecorded voice message. These messages are recorded by you and your employees, allowing your contacts to have a good and personal experience. It also frees your live agents to be working with those contacts that show the most interest.

Voice messaging systems manage telephone messages that can then be sent to a large number of people. They are perfect for sales, prospecting, lead generation and appointment-setting – or for any other organization that want to make a high number of calls in a short period of time automatically using a prerecorded message.

There are some key features to look forward in a voice messaging system to make sure that you get the best service and highest returns from your investment.

1. 
   Find a system that uses a single screen for the multiple tasks it has to perform. This will allow your organization to efficiently cover all the tasks you need: leaving prerecorded messages, recording calls, converting leads, sending emails...
2. 
   Make sure your voice messaging system allows for the option that any lead listening to the pre-recorded message has the option to be routed to a live person, receive an email, or opt out of future calls. This should be as easy as simply pushing a button for the recipients of your messages.
3. 
   De-duplication is a must. This feature automatically makes sure the same phone number will not be sent the same message numerous times.
4. 
   You will want a system with the capacity to manage your Do Not Call list. Look for software that will not only keep track of those contacts who ask to be taken off of your calling list, but also one that will cross-check against the national DNC list for larger projects by utilizing the CRM.
   Going with a trusted company that will host your voice messaging system will save you money compared to purchasing your own hardware and software to run the system yourself. This will allow you to effectively start sending messages to your contacts regardless of how little prior experience you have with voice messaging, and will also give you flexibility as your company expands.

Voice messaging will free your employees from making simple, routine calls while still allowing your customers to receive a personalized message from your company and easily getting in touch with a live person. A well designed voice messaging system has the potential to catapult the progress of your organization.

Invest in a CRM

Inside sales are characterized by their reliance on telephones. The entire idea behind inside sales is that your salespeople and your customers don't even meet face to face to do business, at least at first. Instead your call center contact potential leads with the intent of turning them into lifetime customers. The current customer's role in this process is that they can call your business at any time during operating hours, and they will be given the service they need. An inside sales department can only do better if they are able to make a large volume of calls, receive a large volume of calls, and keep track of all of those calls.

With all of these inbound and outbound calls any organization will need to keep on top of their paperwork. Otherwise, who will theyknow which leads have been contacted and which ones need to be followed up on, and when, and how. A CRM is the system any inside sales company needs to stay competitive.

CRM stands for Customer Relationship Management. A customer relationship management system tracks all phases of the sales process: sales, marketing, support, ordering, and services.
The parts of a CRM that takes care of sales is called sales force automation (SFA). This allows salespeople to schedule callbacks and phone meetings, track responses, and manage sales accounts. The data that the CRM collects during the sales process on leads, customers, and performance will be kept in the CRMs database.

CRMs can analyze data recorded and provide reports for employers. These analytical reports will allow you to know just how many calls your sales team is making each day, how long they talk with customers, and just what percent of their contacted leads convert into customers. This will allow you to evaluate which sales agents need more training, which ones can handle more responsibilities, and which ones may be better off in another line of business.
These analytical reports also become important in managing your marketing campaigns. With a customer relationship management system you can track where your leads come from and which ones bring you money. If one particular lead generation company's leads aren't coming through for you a CRM will let you know that and you can reallocate your resources to a source that will bring returns.

Converting leads and keeping customers happy is what inside sales is all about. Don't loose track of your customers, your leads, or the money you have invested in gaining them. Invest in a Customer Relationship Management system.

What is Telephony and Why should you use it?

Telephony is the use of equipment to allow people to verbally communicate with each other across large distances. Telephones are the standard for telephony tools, but can be upgraded by telephony software. Telephony software is any software that is used to increase the productivity of phone calls.

A salespersons success is linked to the number of phone calls he or she can make in a day. The more calls a salesperson can make, the more goods or services they will be able to sell. Well designed telephony software can quadruple the number of calls an individual salesperson can make in a day. Logic would say that the same salesperson would also quadruple his or her sales. Telephony software provides all the incentive a business owner needs to install it – a bigger bottom line!

One example of telephony software is a power dialer. A power dialer is a software that automatically selects leads for any individual salesperson to call. They will then make that call. Power dialers can make phone calls significantly faster than manual dialers. Because of this they are one of the great ways telephony software can increase your organizations number of outbound calls upwards of four times each day.

Well designed power dialers will be integrated into a company's Customer Relationship Management System, or CRM. This will display to each agent the information your company has already gathered on any individual customer that the power dialer selects to call. This will allow the salesperson making the call to instantly see how often their leads have been contacted in the past, when last contacted, and what the results of all of those contacts were. This telephony software interface with the power dialer eliminates much of the mundane note taking and busy work of the sales world by automatically recording information about the call and providing clear places to type in the information that the system still needs from any particular client.

Telephony software can also recognize answering machines, busy signals, and wrong numbers, and prevent those calls from being patched through to your available agents. This frees up your employees to be dealing with decision makers that will purchase your services. This also avoids burnout among your sales team that may be caused by the routine of manually calling leads only to be greeted by machine generated beeps and answering machines.

Telephony software can amplify any sales team or organization that routinely contacts many people by the phone each day. Search for a provider that will host the service, and will download their computer telephony software into your own system. By going with an established provider of this service you will save yourself the time and stress of recreating what has already been done for you by another company.