Last month I was in a sales call with the CMO of a London-based company and he said something that stuck with me ever since. Talking about the relation between his team and sales, he was mentioning how difficult it is to please their colleagues with good leads. As much that he refers to this type of leads as “gifts”.
Well, nothing really new. Ever since these functions exist there are issues when it comes to the quality of leads. However, considering the advanced technologies and overall advanced level of both sales and marketing, does it really have to be like this?
If you only think about how much you can do to optimize the way leads are managed, there is actually a lot that you can do to improve the quality. One idea is to have your sales team managing your live chat and these are some reasons why.
1. Qualify the Leads at an Early Stage
When it comes to the sales-marketing relation, one of the most common issues is that marketing leads are not qualified enough. They lack an email address, or they are not ready to buy, or they are just checking around. Having worked in both functions, I’m perfectly aware of how frustrating that is. In the end, everyone works towards the same goal: getting more business.
One good way to achieve just that is by making sure that the sales team can have a say on the quality of the leads at an early stage. This is where the live chat comes in handy. If your sales team can talk in real-time to your customers, they can very quickly assess the real interest of the lead and immediately take action.
Considering that these visitors are already on your website, it’s safe to assume that they have an interest. It just makes sense to have your sales team assisting these leads and try to get business out of them.
2. Train Your Sales Team for Live Chat
What happens often in many organizations is having the expectation that each new single sales hire has already a complete idea of what you’re doing. Especially with more experienced professionals, it’s very easy to assume they already know everything.
Obviously, that’s not the case and training should always be the norm. Some companies don’t see much value in it and they prefer their team to work in the field and gain experience. Fair enough, but then, why not do it more efficiently?
If your sales team works only for one week on your live chat they’ll gain invaluable insights from your customers and learn all they need about your product or service. It’s time-efficient and you’ll get your team up to speed in no time!
3. Reach Your Monthly Quota
By now everyone agrees that having any sort of instant communication with your customers will increase your conversion rate to a certain extent. And this, I believe, is one of the main reasons why your sales team should use live chat.
Even though live chat is, by all means, a sales tool, it’s still perceived as a customer support tool. Therefore most of the time live chat is managed by customer support staff. This by itself, it’s not a big deal because many questions that come in the chat are still related to customer support.
However, by doing so you’re limiting yourself and the sales potential of the live chat. Give it a try, have one of your sales staff working with live chat for a few days and experience the power of using a commercial mindset in the chat.
4. Use the Right Approach With Sales Live Chat
You might like it or not, but modern consumers demand your full and quick attention. All the time. Your visitors want to buy from you, they want to ask you questions so they can make the right buying decision.
Nowadays, companies are still hung up on the idea that live chat is exclusively for support. Chat surely is a way to support (potential) customers by answering their questions, but the approach from your side should be sales-oriented. Make sure you don’t leave any opportunity untouched.
To sum up…
Modern consumers are fast. Just as much as your competition. Be present for your customers in any possible way, use your tools smartly and exploit the potential of new technologies.
