Is the ‘cold call’ as we know it, burning itself out? Many marketers seem to think so especially with the way sales callers tend to go berserk at anyone and everyone almost in the manner of unrelenting zombies. In the pre-online days it made sense to carpet-fire across a wide perimeter and score a hit or two by sheer chance rather than shoot and scoot specific targets because that meant making efforts with both brain and brawn.
The cold call is typically a sales terminology because it still has the same SOP (standard operating procedure) of picking up data from open and public sources like telephone directories among others.
This is not the end of direct sales though, but there needs to be some strategy about how to engage more customers. Every business exists for financial performance and the key to successfully nurturing and converting leads is effective coordination between marketing and sales teams at every level – from the concept of strategy to the details of execution.
If marketing and sales do not sync, the company’s strategy will be inconsistent and weak and execution will be flawed and inefficient. As per the latest approach, selling is going to be a more social and relationship-based effort as a follow up of sound marketing strategies. You need to nurture, meet and care for prospective customers and sell your brand to people who are not ready to buy from you. Here are some well-devised strategies that can help craft the right approach to marketing and sales.
Predictive targeting is one of the strategies to analyze the audience, especially to know which users are likely to buy based on in-market signals and possibly what particular products they are likely to buy. Content relevance and timing can also affect the prospects. Content is meaningless unless it serves the purpose of conveying the benefit of your brand and product to the customer.
A Customer centric approach should cover excellent user experience on the site, transparent transactions, scope for customer reviews, helpful and proactive customer support, fair and balanced returns policy, competitive pricing, and above all, quality products.