Category: Sales

Appointment setting is a vital component if you want to build your business. After a prospect enters your sales journey, they need to convert into a lead to then become a sale, and what better way is there to do this than by setting aside time to talk to prospects and understand exactly what it is that they need or want?

However, appointment setting can often be a time-consuming challenge, both for small companies or those growing at speed, who lack the resources to manage and nurture their opportunities.

If this sounds familiar, then outsourcing your appointment setting to our team is a simple and effective way of giving you back the crucial time that you need to sit with prospects to ensure a sale through a meaningful interaction.

Our campaigns are straightforward to set up, all you need to do is give us a call and we will do all of the hard work for you – you’ll receive a proposal within 24 hours and then we can begin the process of allocating your account director, your dialling team and forming your campaign. On average, our client’s campaigns go live in just 4-6 weeks.

How can an appointment setting campaign help you?

Data Analysis: A call list is only as good as its quality. You may have hundreds of records, but if these aren’t qualified leads then you aren’t likely to get many appointments out of your calls. Our team will help you to gather and analyse data, ensuring that you are speaking to the appropriate decision makers who have a real investment in your offering.

Technology: You may be worried that in outsourcing your appointment setting campaign you lose that brand focus, however at Air we are able to replicate your internal teams processes and free them up to work on gathering leads. Our software allows us to mimic your local caller ID, use your personalised voicemail messages and track your prospects calls.

Skills: If you don’t have the capacity to hire an internal appointment setting team and you are currently passing this task to your sales team, you may be doing yourself a dis-service. Whilst they may be excellent sales people, appointment setting requires different skills. Cold calling requires dedicated diallers who aren’t demotivated by the perseverance that navigating discussions with gatekeepers requires. So, even though you may have an exuberant and energetic sales team who are brilliant at one-to-one discussions after the gatekeepers have been bypassed, this energy may not be maintained with the repetitive nature of appointment setting.

Automation: Much of the appointment setting process can be easily automated by our team so that we can process as many leads as you can send us. By automating parts of the process, i.e. calendar invitations, we can swiftly work through your data ensuring that as quality many appointments as possible are set.

Cost: At the end of the day, business boils down to money. In investing in outsourced appointment setting, you know the upfront cost of your appointment setting campaign and know that you can upscale or reduce those hours at any time. However, if you keep this in-house and hire a whole team, it will cost you a lot more in the long run.

If you feel that you could benefit from outsourcing your appointment setting to our expert team, get in touch today. Call us on: 0345 241 3038 or email: contact@air-marketing.co.uk.

Outsourcing your sales team can be an efficient and effective method for you to increase leads and sales opportunities, therefore aiding the growth of your business, without incurring the costs and time restraint demands that arise when on-boarding a team of full-time sales reps in-house. Outsourced sales are nothing new. However, companies are often still dubious when it comes to handing over a pivotal part of their business to an external party. It seems that there’ll be an everlasting debate – to outsource or hire in-house.

So, why might you need an outsourced sales team?

• Accelerated sales growth: Whilst your business is growing, or looking to expand further if established, you may not have the capacity in-house to deal with the flow of leads coming in or the time to outbound sell to new prospects. A dedicated outsourced sales team will take this weight off of your shoulders and allow you to accelerate your sales pipeline.
• Immediate access to sales expertise: Recruiting and on-boarding local talent is costly and often a time-consuming process, even once you have formed an in-house sales team, training each individual will be a lengthy process. When outsourcing a sales team, you will already have the raw talent there, with diallers who know what quality calls look like, it is just a matter of building their knowledge of your business and moulding their talent to fit around your product or service.
• Lower risk and overheads: Outsourced sales teams are used to working on multiple campaigns and picking up the intricacies of various campaigns swiftly. By working with experienced outsourced sales teams, you will be putting your sales into reliable hands, avoiding errors and reducing the on-going costs of in-house employees.
• Efficiency: For new business or those looking to launch a new product or service perhaps to a new market or industry, your management team will be putting much of their efforts into product development and marketing. By outsourcing to an experienced team, who have the time to dedicate to sales, you can focus on growth or launching your new campaign.

Could you benefit from using an experienced outsourced sales team, with experience across multiple sectors including Fintech, Saas, Professional Services and Energy? Then get in touch, call 0345 241 3038 or email contact@air-marketing.co.uk

Ethical selling is not often something which springs to mind when people picture a sales person. Only 3% of people asked trust sales reps, so it’s not surprising that businesses can be reluctant to outsource their sales to an external team that they don’t know on a personal or professional level.

However, at Air we want to change that. We want to show that the vast majority of professionals in the outsourced sales industry are trustworthy people, looking to help businesses develop and grow. Of course, we have targets to meet and we are ultimately accountable to that, but what actually drives Team Air is people and, more importantly, our ability to build relationships with them.

From day one we are upfront and honest with both our clients and prospects, we base our entire sales journey on ethical selling. Offering a consultative approach, we work with our prospects and clients to help them to make smart businesses decisions.

We know it’s all well and good to hear us saying that, but let’s break down how we achieve it:

• Realistic campaigns and goals: If a prospect approaches us and we know that they simply can’t afford to work with us, or at least can’t afford to work with us in the way they want to, we tell them. We will never sell our services to a prospect who doesn’t stand a strong chance of generating tangible success with us, whether that is through ROI, conversations with decision makers or leads. That’s not to say that we won’t work with them full-stop, but we will arrange further conversations to better understand their budget and goals. From this, we either recommend a reduced campaign or other approaches that may work for them – such as digital marketing, utilising the services of our internal marketing company, Roots to Market.

• Transparency: At Air, we don’t just take your money and run with a campaign – we want you to be involved at every stage. When you express an interest in starting a campaign with us, we will invite you to the office to meet the team and view our office culture before you even start working with us. From there, you will be invited in to assist with the training of your dedicated dialling team and provide insight as well as getting a clear understanding of our approach. As the campaign runs you will receive weekly reports and calls as well as having access to our live time reporting system in the client portal.

• Accountability: Our campaigns are driven by learnings and so the strategy or approach may change throughout depending on the results that we generate. However, through your weekly calls and reports you will be made aware of this and able to see our reasoning and the difference in results. As well as reports, you also have access to every call made on your campaign, upon request, so that you can listen to how we handle your calls and prospects, ensuring that you are happy and can voice any concerns or questions that you may have.

If you are looking for an outsourced sales team, who place an emphasis on ethical selling, get in touch today. Email: contact@air-marketing.co.uk or call: 0345 241 3038.

As your business grows, you’ll find yourself having more and more conversations (both in person and over the phone) with potential leads. Whilst this is great news and shows that your business is developing good traction, do you really have the time to sift through all of those conversations to find the diamond in the rough? Unless you have an in-house sales team, the simple answer is probably no.

In order to close qualified leads, you need to be able to spend time talking to prospects after the initial stages of the sales cycle. This is where outsourced Inside Sales comes in.

Some people may be dubious of the benefits of inside sales at first, asking, “is it not just telemarketing?” Whilst both are predominantly phone-based selling, they deal with opposite ends of the sales cycle. Whereas telemarketers are often cold calling and forming a first point of contact between a business and potential client, inside sales reps act as a final touchpoint, being the ‘expert’ and nurturing or closing warm leads.

With continuous developments in technology, inside sales is growing 15 times faster than field sales and buyers are becoming increasingly comfortable holding remote conversations and making remote purchases. But how does inside sales differ from traditional sales? And how can it become your secret weapon?

1. Location

Similar to telemarketers, inside sales reps work in the office, contacting their leads via phone, email or video calls. This method of sales is both time and cost effective when compared to field sales reps who may find themselves travelling up and down the country attending dinners, presentations and meetings.  By having your sales team all in one place, they are always contactable and not prey to delayed transport or miscommunication of locations.

2. Technology

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tools are vital in assisting inside sales team and ensuring a smooth sales operation. In having a CRM assisting your sales, all prospect information, campaign updates, messages and appointments can be kept in one place and visible to both your team and yourself. Also, if you do choose to employ both inside sales and field sales, your inside sales can do the ground work and then pass key information on to your field sales team. At Air, we also offer full reporting. We understand that it can be daunting to outsource your sales activity which is why we created a unique client portal where you can see your campaign and it’s results in live time.

3. Scalability

You may have the best field sales rep in the world or be amazing at closing yourself but if you’re generating a large sales pipeline, who is going to manage all of those leads.  By having inside sales reps that work as a first touch point, a relationship can be built and solidified before you or your field sales rep gets to the prospect. It also allows you to reach a broader audience, even a global one if you see your market growing to that extent. Team Air are experts at holding conversations with senior decision makers in businesses of all sizes and locations – we’ve even worked with a company in Bermuda.

At Air, our inside sales team is driven and dedicated to getting you the results that you want, often exceeding expectations. If you feel that you could benefit from working with our expert team then get in touch – call: 0345 241 3038 or email: contact@air-marketing.co.uk

In the era of GDPR, unwarranted contact should be a distant memory. To be truly business savvy is now, and always should have been, demonstrated by a company’s ability to target customers based on their wants and needs, not your own. Sales are increasingly determined by the trust that a customer has for a brand, if you are honest and transparent with them upfront they are more likely to buy into you as a brand. People value a brand they can trust.

A simple and effective way to build a trustworthy brand is by implementing a segmentation strategy – it shows that you have taken the time to understand the various groups within your target market. We’ve created the infographic below to highlight 5 key reasons to segment your data and customers:

But many businesses are still failing to hit the mark, with 20% of respondents to an Avention survey feeling that segmentation was one of the biggest challenges facing their organisation. Segmentation is a tried and tested means of delivering results to your customers. We only have to look to email campaigns, where Mailchimp showed that clicks are 74.53% higher than non-segmented campaigns, to see these results.

By taking the time to highlight the different needs and barriers that may be important to your potential clients, you will be better able to sell to them. Not only will it allow you to understand them, but it will allow you to forge personal relationships with them through meaningful interactions – which is essential in the telemarketing industry in particular. So, how can you segment your customers?

However, it is important to remember the earlier point about customer trust. With increasingly personalised sales and marketing materials out there it isn’t enough to take your data and simply spilt everyone into superficial segments. You need to gain insight into the people behind the numbers, otherwise your will simply be working from conjecture.

To gain insight and create genuine, informed personas for these groups, it is vital that you demonstrate a desire to know more when in conversation with your prospects. It is with this in mind that the scripts used by TeamAir are only there as prompts, we encourage our BDEs to engage in meaningful, personal conversations when on the phone. This helps us to nurture a sense of human connection whilst carrying out the vital research that is needed to lead a successful campaign and enrich the data that is held.

If you feel that you could benefit from working with a reputable, award winning telemarketing company, who work with a customer-centric focus, get in touch. You can call us: 0345 241 3038 or email: contact@air-marketing.co.uk.

Photo by Javi Lorbada on Unsplash

However your sales team operates, there’s a place in their work for Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising. A properly constructed PPC account will act like a pack of automated hunters, sniffing out potential leads from every search anyone does on the internet, and chasing them into your website. The trick is to train these hunters to bring those potential leads into your existing pipeline as seamlessly as possible.

Singling searchers out to get the right message in front of the right person at the right time involves planning your strategy in advance and then adapting it to the data you acquire. Too many PPC accounts simply show the same message to everyone who searches for a vaguely relevant keyword (or an overly specific keyword). You need to understand the mindset of a potential lead and learn how to recognise their intent from what they type into that search engine. Once you’ve learned this, you can herd them into your existing sales pipeline at the point it matches their decision-making process and significantly increase your chance of converting a lead into a sale.

Fitting Leads into Your Pipeline

If you sell office equipment and someone types, “office equipment,” into Google’s search box, then you can be fairly certain they’re close to the beginning of pipeline. They know they want office furniture and they’re seeing what’s out there. These are the people you can flag your services to, let them become aware of what you have to offer. If you’re in a complex industry where public perception is lacking, you can use this opportunity to become the voice of authority to them, increasing the chances they will come back to you when they are closer to making a final decision. These people are those you fit into the top of your pipeline.

Longer, more specific searches tend to come after someone has been thinking for a while or has a definite and often immediate need. If someone types in, “adjustable height computer monitor bracket,” it’s fairly likely that they need an adjustable height computer monitor bracket and they need it soon. These people come in around the middle of your pipeline.

The longest tail keywords are from those searchers who need to be herded towards the bottom of the pipeline. “Brand-X Model-Y monitor bracket next day delivery,” is about as specific as it’s possible to get. You know this person has made the decision of what they are getting, they are just looking for where to get it from. They’ve even included a handy USP that you can hook; “Next Day Delivery.” These are the people who you can drop exactly what they want into their lap.

Getting the right message to these people requires having your PPC account structured correctly. For the broader searches you have to use broader messages. As the user intent becomes more specific with longer tail search queries, you can narrow down the message you convey (both in the ad copy and on the landing page the user is directed to). At every stage it doesn’t hurt to have the user get in touch; a simple call back form is ideal, the shorter the better, just a name and a phone number is all you need – once you have those you have far more control in the sales process.

Matching Tactics to Intent

Unfortunately, it’s not always this simple to slot searchers into their correct slot on the funnel. Although it’s safer to assume that they’re higher in the funnel, the broader search terms make it harder to infer the true intent of the person typing it. The best you can do is give them options: Sitelinks on your ad allows you to link people through to other pages which might be of interest. These sitelinks give the user the opportunity to find their own place in your sales pipeline.

For example: If someone searches for, “office equipment,” you can show them a link to your home page, which is broad enough to have something of relevance to them on it. But on top of that you can have links to your products catalogue, to your most popular lines, and to your services/FAQ page which explains that you offer not only next-day delivery but a free installation service as well. And again, give a quick and simple means for them to give you their contact info at every step.

The Remarkable Power of Remarketing

Another tool in populating your sales pipeline from PPC is remarketing. Targeting specific ads to people who have already seen your website, or a specific page on your website, or performed certain actions means you can recapture their attention. This is a balancing act, you have to have an audience of sufficient size to guarantee anonymity.

Typically, the best way to accomplish this you need a single list of everyone who has visited your website, which you can then break down into progressively smaller groups based on the user action – the first tier may be all those who have visited any page in a particular category, and then those who have looked at more than one product. By creating progressively more targeted audiences you always have a working audience to work with, but if you have sufficient traffic for the smaller audiences you can use more carefully constructed messages. More carefully targeted messages always perform stronger.

Exactly how you integrate PPC into your existing sales pipeline does depend greatly on your own procedures, but the potential value is universal. The real knack lies in picking the best targets out of the herd of online searchers and potential customers. Only a small segment will match as a lead, and sorting these out to determine their place in your sales pipeline can be tricky, but very rewarding. Get it right and you’ll fuel your sales pipeline with a regular stream of leads across all stages – that’s enough to keep any sales team happy!

Guest Blog written for Air by Aquamarine Search and Social Agency