A modern sales organization needs modern sales tools

Sales teams have always used sales techniques based on persuasion and personalized relationship building. What has changed is the way messages reach potential buyers. Thanks to the ubiquity of high-speed Internet connections, modern consumers are more informed than ever about products, services and their options. To further reach and influence online shoppers and potential customers, sales teams must now adopt volume strategies and use lead generation methods based on digital exchanges.

To manage the increasing volume of exchanges and the diversity of communication channels, customer relationship management (CRM) software has been developed to, among other things, automate and track the progress and effectiveness of various campaigns. This software is used daily by sales and technical teams to manage and track exchanges with their customers and prospects. They must therefore be integrated as naturally as possible with the various communication channels used by the company. To name but a few: e-mail, social networks, chatbots, SMS and, of course, the telephone.

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The telephone, a communication channel not to be neglected

Contrary to popular belief, the telephone is still a widely used communication channel. According to a study by LSA⁽¹⁾, whether it's a question of an inquiry or a complaint, the telephone remains the most common reflex for both private individuals and professionals. More than half of those questioned (53%) say they use the telephone when they need to contact the customer service department of one of their suppliers.

According to the same survey, 99% of private customers consider it important to receive a clear, appropriate response on first contact. This is even essential for the 42% who describe themselves as demanding. Yet only a quarter of companies manage to satisfy the majority of requests on first contact. In its annual study⁽²⁾, Salesforce also notes that 69% of customers want their contacts to have the same information about them, and that 78% of customers would like to be able to solve complex problems by speaking to just one person.

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Integrate your CRM software with your telephony system

The LSA study also shows that when companies try to improve their customer service, they mainly come up against technical difficulties (39%), mainly linked to the standardization of interfaces.

However, if we consider the above, it would appear to be essential to be able to connect CRM software as closely as possible with telephony systems. In fact, the number presented in the case of an incoming call can be used to automate many tasks, such as :

• present the user with caller information and history,
• program follow-up actions, take notes or record a call, and save this information in the contact record,
• create a track when the caller is not in the database, etc.

If your company has a unified communications solution, features such as presence management and instant messaging enable you to call on colleagues during a call, if necessary. Screen sharing facilitates the exchange of information with customers and prospects. For outgoing calls, it will be useful to be able to call a contact from the CRM window.

In all cases, the aim is to simplify the user's task, enabling him to focus on what's essential - selling or serving a customer - without having to use different windows and applications.

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⁽¹⁾ https://www.lsa-conso.fr/les-veritables-attentes-vis-a-vis-des-services-clients,303531

⁽²⁾ https://www.salesforce.com/company/news-press/stories/2019/06/061219-g/

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