In a moment dominated by inbound marketing and sales strategies, outbound sales techniques seem to have taken a back seat. Many companies consider them obsolete and choose to focus their efforts on content marketing, SEO, and social networks. However, outbound sales continue to be an effective and profitable tool for generating business opportunities, especially in the B2B realm.
In this article, we will analyze the advantages and disadvantages of the main outbound sales techniques, telephone calls, as well as how to implement them in your company to get the most out of them. Are you ready to discover everything that telephone sales can offer you?
What are outbound sales?
Outbound sales are characterized as those in which a sales agent, usually a sales representative, takes the initiative to establish contact with a potential buyer. Unlike inbound sales, where it is the potential customer who starts the interaction, in outbound sales it is you who initiates the relationship without the customer having prior knowledge about you.
The first approach is usually made through unsolicited phone calls or emails directed at prospects. Contact information is typically obtained from phone directories or lists of potential customers provided by third parties.
While cold calls and email blasts are the most typical examples of outbound sales, this strategy also includes activities like home visits, participation in trade shows, or attendance at industry events.
What is B2B telephone sales?
The B2B phone sales strategy involves one company communicating with another through telephone calls. The purpose of these calls can vary, including capturing potential customers, evaluating prospects, following up on correspondence, or conducting market research, among other objectives. To improve and optimize their B2B sales tactics, some companies opt to hire call center services specialized in this area.
Telephone sales in the B2B field are effective in generating business opportunities, as it promotes trust through personalized interaction. This is because the target audience in B2B tends to be more limited compared to the product-focused approach of B2C sales. In this way, B2B telephone sales provide direct access to key decision-makers, facilitating a quicker evaluation and conversion of potential customers.
Advantages of B2B telephone sales
Generation of quality leads
B2B telephone sales employ a personalized approach to attract prospects, which makes it easier to generate interest from potential customers and build relationships quickly. In addition, from the outset, it can be assessed whether a prospect is suitable for the company.
Creation of business opportunities
While lead acquisition is usually the central purpose of B2B sales calls, some of these prospects can transform into promising business opportunities. By communicating with decision-makers, possibilities to establish unique partnerships with other companies can be discovered.
Brand recognition
Not all telephone conversations result in an immediate sale. On average, it takes 6 calls to make a sale, which means that much of the telephone sales process focuses on generating brand recognition. As potential customers become more familiar with your brand, they will be more predisposed to make purchases in the future.
Team specialization
By assigning certain prospects to specific call agents in B2B telephone sales, they can build a relationship with the client, paving the way for the Business Developer to close the sale. This allows the rest of the sales team to focus on locating and researching more specific prospects, generating greater opportunities for lead conversion.
Performance measurement
By implementing the habit of recording calls and analyzing them to identify what has worked and what hasn’t, you will experience a significant improvement in your sales strategy. This method is the most effective for obtaining important data, such as the average duration of a call and the number of receptive prospects, among other aspects.
Disadvantages of B2B telephone sales
Despite the advantages that B2B telephone sales can offer, there are also some disadvantages that must be taken into account:
Extended sales cycle
Unlike B2C sales, B2B telephone sales are more based on relationships than on the product, which results in longer sales cycles. This can be due to the need to cultivate relationships with prospects and the involvement of multiple decision-makers before closing a deal.
Difficulty connecting with the right people
To succeed in a B2B telephone sales campaign, it is essential to have specific lists that match the target market and accurate data. However, making decisions without the correct data can be detrimental to the strategy, as it makes it difficult to connect with the right people.
Loss of income and waste of resources
When companies do not have accurate data or direct efforts towards inappropriate prospects, they can experience loss of income and a waste of resources in their B2B telephone sales campaign.
Rejection and skepticism
Despite a considerable percentage of buyers accepting meetings by telephone contact, there is some skepticism and rejection towards outbound sales. This can make it difficult for sellers to generate interest and establish relationships with prospects.
Need for strong interpersonal skills
For B2B telephone sales to be effective, sellers must be experts in interpersonal relationships. This includes the ability to attract the interest of prospects and locate decision-makers, skills that not all sellers may possess or easily develop.
What is cold calling?
The term “cold calling” refers to the first telephone communication with a potential customer who has not requested contact previously. Since the customer does not expect this call, it is considered a “cold” or unexpected contact.
Cold calls are named as such because they are made to unknown people who do not know the seller and have shown no interest in their product or service. On the other hand, “hot” calls are those where there are signs of interest from the customer, as they have interacted with the company in some way, such as downloading content or requesting information through a form.
The purpose of a cold call is to present a product or service and arouse the recipient’s interest. Although the ultimate goal is to make a sale, as the person has not expressed interest previously, closing a sale in this first call is usually more difficult. Therefore, these calls can be useful to schedule a later appointment or perform a demonstration of the product in question. The goal is to guide the potential customer through the sales funnel towards conversion. Sellers use cold calls as a preliminary step to subsequent discovery calls.
Advantages of cold calling
Allows direct interaction with the customer
Cold calling allows you to interact directly with the customer and assess their real interest in our product or service. Unlike emails, phone calls make evasion or deception difficult, as you can perceive the customer’s feelings through their voice. If the customer shows interest, this lays the foundation for a trust-based relationship.
Gets to the decision maker sooner
Although younger generations may prefer digital interactions, there are still older decision makers who choose to answer phone calls.
Generates valuable information
Calls allow you to obtain valuable information about prospects’ concerns and objections. This information helps identify customer needs, which can be useful for the sales department, marketing campaigns, or product development.
Shapes sellers
Requiring the sales team to make cold calls is a great way to train them for other business calls. After making cold calls, calls to more interested prospects will be much easier to manage.
Suitable for all budgets
Cold calls are a method to find new potential customers, especially when you do not have connections or sufficient financial resources to implement more advanced marketing tools.
Disadvantages of cold calling
Generates rejection
Cold calls can be perceived as intrusive and interrupt recipients, which often generates rejection and resistance to listening to the sales proposal.
Erroneously filters
There is a possibility that even a good prospect will not be receptive to a cold call, which could lead to unnecessarily discarding a valuable potential customer. In the past, cold calls were seen as an aggressive and invasive approach, which has generated negative prejudices around this sales strategy.
Discourages some sellers
Making cold calls can be tricky and uncomfortable, especially if the appropriate techniques are not mastered, which can demotivate sellers who must carry them out.
Time investment
Having a good database and getting to locate the right people can take time. Some companies prefer more inbound-oriented prospecting methods, such as social networks and webinars, as they consider these consume less time compared to cold calling.
Low conversion rates
Although cold calls are a direct method of generating sales opportunities, they have a relatively low conversion rate (around 2%).
How to improve your calls thanks to business intelligence
Upbe is a business intelligence platform designed to improve sales calls. Upbe can help you increase your sales in the following ways:
- Conversation analysis: Upbe analyzes conversations in real time and provides valuable information about customer needs and preferences. This allows sales agents to adapt their approach and offer more personalized solutions.
- Task automation: Upbe allows the automation of repetitive tasks, which reduces the workload of agents and allows them to focus on more important aspects of the sale, such as building relationships with customers and presenting products and services.
- Real-time assistance: Upbe provides real-time assistance to sales agents during calls, suggesting responses and actions based on the information collected from conversations. This can improve the quality of interaction and increase the likelihood of closing a sale.
- Agent training: Upbe analyzes the agents’ calls and provides feedback and recommendations on how to improve their performance. This helps agents to perfect their sales skills and increase their effectiveness in the sales process.
- Improvement of the sales approach: Upbe uses artificial intelligence to identify patterns in calls and recognize the most successful sales strategies. This allows sales teams to adjust their approach to increase conversion rates and improve results.
- Integration with CRM and other systems: Upbe easily integrates with customer relationship management (CRM) systems and other call center systems, allowing agents to easily access customer information and improve the efficiency of the sales process.
Are you interested in trying Upbe? Leave us your contact details and we will call you.
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