From appointment setting to converting cold leads into warm leads, our SMB answering service can help close more sales.
Sales are the bedrock of every business. Without sales, even the best business is at risk of losing revenue and profitability. The challenge that many small businesses face is that they become so focused on operations and servicing existing customers that sales can sometimes fall to the wayside.
As a small business owner, overhead is always a chief concern. That makes it difficult to find the budget for a sales team that can properly manage incoming jobs and ensure that potential customers know everything they need to about your business.
Fortunately, there are options for small business owners that want to develop and nurture their sales funnel without incurring unnecessary overhead. One viable solution is utilizing a small business answering service as a part of your sales operation.
Using an answering service for sales
Typically, most business owners think of answering services as a way to support a customer service department, or to provide customers with a method of communication during “off hours” (i.e. nights and weekends). However, a professional answering service like MAP Communications can also be utilized as part of your sales team as well.
In general, an answering service can be used as an effective first step in the sales process. Whether a potential customer has general questions about the product or service, questions about pricing, or simply wants to set up an appointment, a phone answering service can be an effective way to handle those calls. This means you can avoid hiring a full-time member of the sales team for that (often time-consuming) purpose. It also means your existing sales team won’t be spending all of their time on this level of sales calls either.
Answering service for appointment setting
In addition to helping with first level sales calls, an answering service can also be particularly effective at scheduling appointments. One of the worst things that can happen for a business is for a potential new customer to try, and fail, to schedule an appointment on their first attempt. By utilizing a call answering service for this purpose, small businesses can capture the interest, and business, of new customers, regardless of when they call.
This is useful both for off-hours calls, as well as customer calls that come in when the rest of your team is busy working with other people.
Appointment setting is beneficial for all the obvious businesses, including doctor’s offices; laws firms, and massage therapy salons (among many others). However, any business that benefits from or utilizes a consultative sales process can benefit from having appointments set at specific times by a live answering service. This can help close business by properly preparing potential customers, and it helps to filter and qualify potential customers that are most likely to be a good fit for your business.
Regardless of the stage your business is at, an answering service can be a valuable addition to your sales team. To learn more about how MAP Communications can help your business, sign up for a 100% free 7-day trial!
Here are some related articles you might be interested in:
5 Signs It’s Time to Hire a Small Business Service
