Published : September 17, 2018As markets continue to get saturated with every kind of product you can imagine, marketing and selling products get tougher with each passing day. Simply selling more won’t do the trick, you need to sell smarter.
Companies are coming up with novel ideas and viral marketing campaigns in order to sell more. But the truth is you can go back to basics and manage to connect with your customers just as easily. 92% of customer interactions still happen entirely over the phone.
How could you get more out of a phone number? Well, with a traditional landline connection, there’s not much more you can do.
But why stick to a traditional landline or even cellular mobile connection when there’s better technology that can harness the true potential of business communication? This is the reason virtual phone systems have experienced a surge in their popularity and acceptance rates. A virtual phone number helps the business in many ways and it is loaded with features as well. Here are some of the ways a virtual phone system can help your sales team to operate at a different level altogether:
Integrating with Sales-Enhancing Tools
Tools to boost your sales are available a dime a dozen. Most companies rely on standard tools such as sales CRM, email marketing, etc. in order to complement traditional sales and marketing strategies.
Many providers now make available the unique functionality to integrate your cloud-based phone number with a plethora of standard sales tools like the CRM (Customer Relationship Management) software, through which it becomes easier than ever to track and nurture leads. A CSO Insights study showed that 42% of sales reps felt they did not have the right information before making a sales call, while nearly 50% felt that they did not know which accounts to prioritize. This problem is solved with such an integration. When your entire centralized customer database is connected to your communication system, your sales team experiences greater productivity because they’ve got everything in one place. They know the entire history of the customer with the company and every piece of relevant data is available at their fingertips. Effective communication can take place, consequently. Similarly, integrations with helpdesk systems or even customized apps using APIs has been becoming increasingly common, and it adds immense value to any sales team’s process.
Going International
With virtual phone systems, the world is your oyster. A good virtual phone number provided will ensure that there’s no country beyond the reach of your business. So, after signing up with a leading virtual phone service provider, you can get virtual numbers to any part of the world.
For example, if you want to connect with clients in Australia, you can opt for an Australia virtual phone number. Getting a virtual phone number will help your salespeople get a foot in the door. Now that you have an Australia virtual phone number, it will be easier for your team to get through to your target customers who are residing in Australia. They are more likely to even pick up the phone just because they see an Australia phone number, and not a foreign number. So, effectively you are expanding your entire customer base when you get an Australia virtual phone number!
Same for the United States or any other country, It will be much easier for you to connect with your client in the US after you buy a US phone number.
You could be operating from anywhere on the globe, but your target clientele can reach you and vice versa using the Australia phone number. It’s a simple concept that will give you huge rewards.
Building Trust and Rapport
It’s sales psychology 101: people are more likely to buy what you’re selling if they like and trust you. Well, how do you build trust in a phone call? The first step is to get your client to answer your call, of course. Now, if you’re targeting customers in a foreign country, the chances of potential customers rejecting your cold calls increase manifold.
How does one overcome that? By making use of a local phone number!
Continuing the train of thought from the previous example, if you were living in Australia and saw a phone number with an unfamiliar area and country code on your phone screen, would you pick it up or reject the call the moment you see that strange number?
Now, say you saw an Australia phone number reflected on your screen. You would at least do the courtesy of picking it up, wouldn’t you? And for a good salesperson, that one act is all it would take to convince a customer. After that, building rapport was with them and even getting repeat business, will be a cakewalk.
Designing an Adaptive Sales Strategy
Yes, the cold calling approach does not quite work anymore, but that’s because customer expectations have evolved. If you can modify your sales strategy to match the customers’ preferences and expectations, you will get a greater number of loyal customers. Using intelligent calling, which is driven by data rather than by an aggressive selling strategy, is a great way to ensure that your sales are more effective. A plain-jane cold calling approach would mean the equivalent of having the door slammed shut in the face of your salesmen. It also would not be effective if you’re calling a different country.
Completely unsolicited calls will just end up putting your customers off. Your marketers and salespersons should make the move towards a permission-based model. So, think warm calling rather than cold calling. A virtual phone number can help your business in implementing this strategy perfectly, precisely because of the aforementioned reasons.
Wrapping it Up
On the face of it, cloud-based phone numbers might just seem like another temporary tech gimmick. But on a deeper level, they have so much more to offer. The reasons mentioned above are a clear indication of how much potential these simple but powerful virtual phone systems possess. Making intelligent use of these phone numbers can help you to enhance your sales strategy and expand your existing business to anywhere you want. Transform your entire sales strategy with a virtual phone number, you can thank us later.
Updated : November 15, 2024
Hiba Ali is a content writer who excels at turning complicated VoIP and virtual phone system concepts into straightforward, easy-to-understand content. Her unique skill is breaking down technical details into clear, accessible content. Hiba’s writing helps businesses grasp the latest advancements and benefits of modern communication technologies.
Subscribe to our newsletter & never miss our latest news and promotions.
+24K people have already subscribed