What are the strengths of SFA?

A customer relationship management system tracks and organizes all of the processes and tasks that are needed to be done during the sales process. The collecting and automating of all of these tasks is also called sales force automation. A sales force automation system (SFA) is most effective when it is able to integrate the many different departments needed to complete a complex sale from beginning to end. Many telephone software solutions have been developed to support an SFA.

The most basic functions of a sales force automation system are calendaring and scheduling. SFAs are able to keep track of appointments and tasks on both an individual level and for entire groups. This ensures that all follow-up and call-back appointments are kept by sales and support representatives. This simple function is very important to sales force automation, but the other innovative tools used alongside an SFA are what separate it from a simple calendaring application.

Power dialer is a perfect example. A dialer’s purpose is to automatically call through a list of contacts and prospects for a sales agent. This saves a large amount of time for the sales agent who would normally have to look up and dial each number manually. What separates a power dialer from other kinds of telephone dialers is the fact it only calls one number at a time. This straightforward way of placing calls ensures that every answered call will have a sales agent to speak to immediately, and that no call placed by the power dialer is ever dropped.

Faxing, emailing, and voice messaging are three additional tools that support sales force automation. These messages, regardless of the media, can be prerecorded and saved within the
SFA. Any sales agent can send messages with just a click of the mouse and at anytime during a call. This allows him or her to not only give the contact additional information that a sales rep may promise to send, but also leave the best impression possible by using carefully thought out and executed messages.

The true strength of an SFA is enrollment campaigns. This feature is sometimes referred to as ELF for Electronic Labor Force. If a lead or contact fits a predetermined demographic or type of prospect then it can be assigned to a specific campaign. Once enrolled the SFA does all of the work. Previously specified emails, faxes, and voice messages will be sent to the enrolled lead at specified intervals. Additionally tasks will be created for sales agents to call that lead, too. This enrollment program ensures that the lead will receive all of the attention it needs to convert, and sales force automation takes the work out of it for the sales representatives.

These Software Solutions will Increase your Lead Nurturing Success

Lead generation practices can produce a large volume of leads for a sales team agent to contact. Even with the best of sales reps not every lead contacted becomes a conversion. But not every lead that does not convert is a lost cause. Lead nurturing is the process of preparing contacted, but unconverted leads, into profitable sources of revenue in the future. Unconverted leads become not-yet-converted leads when lead nurturing is implemented.

A potential client needs to think and feel several things about a company before they will purchase their product or service. The lead needs to be familiar with the company and what it does. He or she needs to perceive the company as a group of experts in their field. The lead needs to feel like his or her specific problems are understood. Lastly, the company needs to be well liked enough for the lead to consider doing business with it.

This gradual changing of a lead’s feelings or attitudes cannot be accomplished by a monthly phone call asking if he or she was interested in the product yet. Instead, the lead needs to become comfortable with the organization and the employees there. Much computer telephone integration (CTI) software has been designed to manage the consistent and meaningful communication during the lead nurturing time. These telephony software solutions also incorporate several media formats to be used in the process.

Task management systems, such as an electronic labor force (ELF), manages lead nurturing from one source. These integrate with customer relationship managers (CRMs) to keep track of callbacks, events, and other tasks. These systems also control the various marketing solutions: email, voice broadcast, fax messaging, direct mail, and others.

Fax or email messaging campaigns can be particularly useful during lead nurturing. Faxes or emails can be designed previous to their sending, and cover topics that the majority of leads would be interested in. Many fax or email messaging systems also contain templates made by the host company to help in lead nurturing campaigns. These messages can then be automatically distributed to individual leads that are being nurtured periodically throughout the process. In addition, these emails, or original ones, may be sent by using the straightforward features of the ELF. The interspersion of these text based messages between phone calls from sales reps fosters a feeling of trust with the lead.

These are only a few of the software solutions available to aid the remote sales team to increase sales and customer loyalty through lead nurturing. Sales marketing tactics become more effective and more leads become conversions as lead nurturing becomes an important part of the sales process.