Higher profits do not always depend on a higher number of orders. Chances are, you have enough of them now, but the managers process them poorly. We will show how to improve the situation with the help of messengers.
Why would you sell via messengers
1. Your clients are here. Statista predicts that by 2021 there will be 2.48 billion messenger users worldwide. So if you do not sell via messengers, you lose money.
2. It is more convenient to collect and process leads via messengers than over the phone. The client can text at any time, while being in the meeting, in bed or in transport.
3. There is also an advantage over email. The messenger open rate reaches 90%, which is 3 times higher than in emails.
4. Messengers help you collect information about the user: phone number, name, whether a client likes the service, what goods or services he/she needs. Furthermore, you can make your marketing team happy by enabling advanced statistics such as UTM and URL-tracking.
5. Automation. Business chat center allows you to use tools of any complexity: from automated replies to integration with artificial intelligence. Savings on operators' salaries are included.
Important peculiarities
Although the selling scenario is pretty much the same for face-to-face, telephone or messanger sales, each method has its own specifics. Of course, you can ignore them – a certain percentage of clients will purchase your goods anyway. But if you want to increase efficiency, it is worth remembering the following:
-
be quick: in industries with a short sales funnel, even a 10-minute response time can cause clients to turn to competitors;
-
make sure that your messages are easy to read: format the text, break it into paragraphs and do not neglect the importance of the lists;
-
forget about corporate language and soulless answers: communicate with clients in a personal way, call them by name and talk about specifics that matter to them;
-
choose the right employee to communicate via messengers: if you want to sell, it should be a sales manager, not a marketer;
-
ask and involve: the goal is to identify client’s needs and personalize the offer to meet them;
-
get a clear response and don't leave dialogues hanging.
Increasing sales efficiency: methods and tools
Messenger sales are convenient: where else can you find this set of automation tools? In addition, instant messengers offer opportunities for collecting detailed statistics and segmenting the client base. Some tools are easy to implement on your own, while others require a chat center.
Self-service menu
One-third of clients ask typical questions: it is easy to prepare replies in advance and entrust processing of such queries to technologies. You'll reduce response time and free up operators' time for more important issues.
-
Analyze all dialogues you have so far and create a list of frequently asked questions: "How do I make delivery?", "Do you have any special offers?", "What is your working schedule?"
-
Configure a self-service menu to provide answers to these questions.
-
Don't forget to include an option "Contact the operator" for clients, whose situations are less common.
Templates
Answer templates are essential when managers can no longer cope with the amount of requests: this feature increases the work speed by 2-3 times. In addition, taking extra time to prepare templates will make them more personal. You will be able to check the spelling and punctuation, and create a convenient reading structure. Instead of a message quickly written by the operator, the client will get a beautiful, considerate answer.
Here are types of messages that can be drafted in advance:
-
greetings;
-
instructions;
-
product presentations;
-
requests;
-
messages for postponing the final answer;
-
messages with links to price lists and other important files.
UTM/URL-tracking
UTM and URL-tracking work in combination with the widget. The features track client’s behaviour before the message. Use human-readable URLs, and the operator will be able to consult a client much faster.
Reports and statistics
Do I need to upgrade the website? Does the content need to be improved? How can I optimize the sales funnel and operators' work? The answers to these questions can be found by analyzing messenger statistics.
For instance, if you work with templates, calculate which ones were used most frequently in the last 30 days. Perhaps clients have difficulty finding delivery information, or a product is described poorly. By upgrading the website, you will improve the conversion.
Besides, analyzing operators' work will help you to identify weaknesses and figure out what kind of training you can do and what KPIs you can set.
Bulk messaging
It's not bad, if you carefully target your audience and send relevant messages. For instance, you can combine this feature with the use of tags that segment the audience by gender, age, place of residence, date of request and other parameters.
You're a tour operator and you've just launch a new destination – invite people that were interested in it. You're an IT company and you've activated a feature that some clients were waiting for – share the news with them. The more detailed the targeting, the higher the conversion rate.
Scripts
Scripts are an additional extension of messenger functionality and a further step in automation. For example, you can use them to filter out irrelevant leads, reduce costs and increase the efficiency of your sales team.
-
Add the script to the web form and send the following queries to everyone: "Will it be convenient for you if the operator contacts you within fifteen minutes?"
-
If you receive a "Yes", the script will transfer the dialog to the operator.
Messenger funnels
Heating the client can also be automated – messenger funnels are designed for this purpose. They are series of messages that stimulate the customer to buy a product without involving a manager.
Let's say, a person who wants to cover a house by insurance applies to an insurance company via messengers. He asks some questions, the operator replies, the person then says "I'll think about it" and disappears for good. To prevent this from happening, launch an automated messenger funnel and start sending some useful content: advise on how to choose the right insurance, tell about the subtleties that must be considered when signing a contract. Then at some point offer to purchase your service – and chances are, the client will agree to buy it.
The advantage of applying such a technology to messengers is ability to answer clients’ questions at any point of a funnel. So, if needed, you can modify the sales process.
Business Chat Center
The best way to get the most out of instant messengers is to start using a chat center: it gathers all requests in a single window, provides access to statistics and simplifies the whole process.
All described features (and more) are available in Chat2Desk. The platform allows you to manage sales from the first contact to receiving a payment. Configure a mini landing page, integrate messengers with CRM systems, incorporate into third-party services via an open API, and perform other actions necessary for profitable operation. Contact us and test our sales improvement tools today.
