Tip for a Fast and Easy Sales Win --> Answer Inbound Sales Calls and Create More Opportunities!

Every missed sales call is a missed opportunity. Marketing departments work hard to generate leads. FastCall helps marketing extract more value as leads flow through the funnel. More so, demonstrating "rock solid" inbound lead response demonstrates that marketing "gets" lead generation. Responding to inbound leads is the fastest way to lift sales. Its an easy win.

FastCall inbound call routing includes:

1. Inbound calls “pop” in Salesforce for immediate response 
2. Sales calls are routed directly to sales, avoiding the "main" IVR 
3. Routing to lead owner or round robin to next available user 
4. Routing by office, or team 
5. Overflow to mobile phone 
6. Overflow to call center 
7. Time-based routing 
8. Salesforce-native reporting of calls received, answered and missed 
9. Call recording is a great training tool 
10. Seamlessly logs a Task in Salesforce with call duration, call count, call disposition and call notes 
11. Convenient history of recent inbound calls 
12. Voicemail reported in Salesforce for easy follow-up 
13. Missed call notification (email and SMS) 
14. Powerful call scoring based on call history

Here is a sneak peek at the *** NEW ** FastCall Click-to-Call Application installed in Salesforce. The basic version of the application will be free in the SFDC App Exchange.

 

FastCall DOUBLEs Phone Presentation Rates

I love to share good news. Isn't that what sales is about? Calling prospects to share the good news about our products and services? The more leads we can successfully connect with by phone, the more good news we can share!

FastCall has data on nearly 1 million sales calls, and we have consistently found that the "presentation rate" of an inside sales rep hovers around 10%. The graph below is from a recent trial. Presentation rates increased from 9% to 21% in the first two weeks. FastCall DOUBLED sales productivity!

So why wait? Start a free trial of FastCall today, and DOUBLE your presentation rates by next week!

A phone in your shoe? No. But, we have an awesome phone inside Salesforce

20 awesome reasons to try BeLocal, our Salesforce-native "Smart Softphone" 

BeLocal includes these exciting dialing features!

1. Convenient calling from Lead, Contact, Account, Task and Lead View 
2. Local caller ID  increases connection rates
3. Call recording is a great training tool
4. Seamlessly captures call duration, call count, call disposition and call notes 
5. Sames time by logging all calls as a Task in Salesforce 
6. Inbound calls “pop” in Salesforce for immediate response
7. Convenient history of recent inbound calls 
8. Voicemail reported in Salesforce for easy follow-up
9. Missed call notification (email and SMS) 
10. Lead status updates based on call history  (New --> Prospecting - Contacted)
11. Powerful call scoring based on call history 
12. Deep, Salesforce-native reporting of total calls, total talk time, average talk time 

Inbound call routing:

1. Inbound calls are routed directly to sales 
2. Routing to lead owner 
3. Round robin to next available user 
4. Routing by office, or team 
5. Overflow to mobile phone 
6. Overflow to call center 
7. Time-based routing 
8. Salesforce-native report of calls received, answered and missed 

We install BeLocal in your Salesforce account; very easy to test. 

Don't automate old and bad processes!

Fantastic interview of Jon Miller, VP Marketing and Cofounder of Marketo.

"As the old saying goes, "don't pave the cowpaths." In other words, don't automate old and bad processes when you are introducing a new technology into your organization. Instead you have to quickly iterate, and be open to changing old habits. New technology will require a new way of doing things."

Jon tells Scott Brinker, CTO and President of ion interactive

"your [marketing] talent must be both technologically adept and analytical."

I would add the same is true for sales talent.

Speed of responsiveness builds trust

Research on distance communication from UC Irvine Professor, Judy Olson, has found that people judge the trust-worthiness of others over text-based communication largely by the quickness of their response. Because we can’t use the normal indicators, such as facial expressions or intonation, speed of responsiveness is the closest approximation we have.

What is the real size of the local SMB market?

MarketingSherpa: 37% of the companies have claimed their free local business listing on one or more search engines. About the same percentage will answer their phone when receiving a consumer phone call. Coincidence?

The Mythical VP Sales?

Bruce Cleveland, a general partner at InterWest Partners and an investor in Marketo, blogged about the Mythical VP Sales and Marketing. I dont agree that the VP Sales and VP Marketing cannot be combined.

The traditional VP Sales role is dying. Sales leads are generated by inbound marketing, and nurtured, not cold called. Marketo, Eloqua and Hubspot are three of the hottest companies in CRM.

Cleveland writes: "Sales and Marketing are vastly different functions that require substantially different personalities, skills, and decades of experience to master. "

That's was true 10 years ago. Today, the skills required of a VP Sales have changed. The decades of experience developed by many in sales are decades of inefficient sales habits. Sales cannot operate today without marketing. Marketo and Eloqua bring the sales function and marketing function together. Do the same for the leadership role. I'd argue that in today's sales environment, sales and marketing leadership must be combined.