Last Updated on May 30, 2023 by asifa
Outbound sales campaigns are indispensable for business growth. You can conduct such campaigns through various ways but the cheapest and most effective one is to use outbound call center software for outreach. Here is how you can use the contact center software for lead generation, surveys, branding and customer loyalty enhancements that, ultimately, will translate to increased revenues.
Table of Contents
Get the right call center software first
You will want the right tool for the job. The best one is smart omnichannel contact center software that combines both inbound features with outbound call center software features. You need omnichannel with social media integration since people use Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Whatsapp more than they use voice calls, SMS or emails. You must have all these channels confluencing into a single dashboard, integrated with CRM to run fluid sales campaigns.
Campaign flexibility and options
Set up cold calls based on a list of acquired phone list fed to your CRM
Segregate numbers according to time zones and geographic regions and specific products as well as demographics (age, profession, etc)
Qualify and quantify leads into cold, warm, hot and assign priority
Capture leads as a result of outbound cold calls
Set up automated IVR/voice broadcast/SMS sales campaigns
Set up surveys and upsell/cross sell campaigns for existing customers
Set up lists and tasks to match employee skills
The permutations are many. You can choose one that suits you best and keep analyzing results to arrive at that decision.
Cold call
Set up your sales campaign for cold call using the CRM to pick numbers from phone database and then proceed.
Configure the auto dialer and predictive dialer features. You can assign call ratio to each employee and set up dialer so that the next call is ready by the time the current call is nearing completion.
Alternatively, if you have more than one employee for sales campaigns you can configure dialer to route a ready call to an employee who is free.
Employees have the freedom to let the auto dialer dial numbers automatically or they can click to dial the next number once they are completing an existing call.
Callees that show interest are routed to the inbound CRM database and classified as warm or hot leads for immediate follow up by a sales executive.
IVR/Voice broadcast automation
Yet another way to conduct sales campaigns is to automate it using the call center software’s IVR and SMS/Voice broadcast feature. This works when you do not wish to assign employees for routine cold calls.
Record a sales message or use text to speech feature of the contact center software
Set up a list of numbers to be called
Link it with the IVR
Schedule a time for the voice broadcast or SMS to go out. That’s it.
Targets that show interest can press a key to have an employee call back or to talk with one. Such responses go into the CRM and are classified as leads to be followed up. You save on time and effort when you automate sales campaigns this way, your employees only handling leads with better chances of conversions. This type of campaign also works well for brand building and to announce new products or services.
Leads do not arrive only through these two routes. Leads may arrive as a result of external campaigns through print, TV, social channels or digital media.
Social media campaigns
Cold calls and IVRs target individuals. However, you can use the contact center software’s social media integration to good effect for “broadcast”promotions. For instance, you may announce an offer on Facebook posts, support it with Tweets and Instagram posts. Responses in such cases may vary.
Potential customers may call, in which case you should have sufficient number of employees ready to handle inbound calls.
Keep watch on social media channels to know about responses and reach out to them through that channel before shepherding them to call or email or simply convert on first call.
Measuring and analyzing
So you set up different types of campaigns and wish to know which one works well. Here again the call center software’s analytics feature comes into play. You can derive metrics for each type of campaign as stated above. You can just as easily funnel all data for common analysis to find out efficacy, make comparisons and derive information that will help you fine tune future campaigns. By listening to call records your employees will be able to learn and improve interactions, leading to better conversions in a shorter time.
Would you be able to do it without call center software? Yes, but it will take much effort, time and expense. Instead, invest in call center software and use its features for sales campaigns that cost less and deliver better outcomes.
Apart from that, if you are interested to know about Virtual Phone System then visit our Technology category.
