5 Reasons Why Your Remote Sales Team Should Be Using VoIP
Excellent communication is crucial for the success of your team. For a remote team, it’s ten times more important. Whether it’s customers interacting with sales representatives or internal communication between team members, effective communication can make or break your business.
Thanks to advances in the digital world, remote work is fast becoming the norm. With internet access, your sales team can now do their work from anywhere in the world. In fact, a recent International Workplace Group survey discovered that up to 70% of employees work from home at least once every week.
Employees are also accepting this shift to remote work. 99% of current remote workers want to continue working from home in the future. So, your sales team is definitely on the remote train.
But it’s not just about employees. For an organization, there are many advantages to working with a remote team.
For starters, it means a considerable slash in overhead and space renting costs. Also, given that team members don’t have to be in the same location, you can choose the best out of a wider applicant talent pool. But, it means you must get a better handle on available communication channels.
For a remote sales team, conventional phone systems come with many challenges, including cost, outdated tech, scalability issues, and more. It’s why organizations are turning to VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) solutions.
61% of organizations are now switching to VoIP systems. This means conventional phone systems are quickly fading out. This article will discuss why your remote sales team should also be using a VoIP communication system.
What Is VoIP?
VoIP is a technological innovation that uses the internet instead of analog channels to transmit data. With this level of functionality, VoIP communication can be used for more than just calls.
It can facilitate file sharing, screen-sharing, video conferencing, archiving, and chats. Say you want to discuss “6 sales pitch examples (and 6 ways to make them even better)” with your remote sales team; the process is much more straightforward with VoIP.
With VoIP, members of your sales team can interact in real-time with each other and customers. This makes working a seamless prospect, even though they might be in different parts of the globe.
VoIP communication systems also allow for faster, more effective sales team collaboration and increased productivity, with features like instant file sharing and multiple user accessibility. Essentially, VoIP provides your sales team with a virtual conference table.
What Is Hosted VoIP?
This is defined by VoIP hosted by your service provider. You’ll have all of the functionality that comes with VoIP systems. The only difference is you won’t be managing any of the services, equipment, and servers necessary for the system to work.
Phone calls and data transmission will no longer be forwarded over a network in your company’s infrastructure. Instead, a hosted VoIP system will work using the internet and a unique phone number assigned by your VoIP provider.
As long as your remote team has access to the internet, they’ll be able to direct and receive phone calls with the same number. This allows you a more affordable and seamless way to make calls across the globe. Indeed, you can set up your business in different locations without extra communication expenses.
Why Your Remote Sales Team Needs VoIP
Below are the key reasons you should incorporate VoIP solutions for your sales team.
VoIP Can Boost Efficiency
The seamless and faster communication features of VoIP will help your remote sales team work more efficiently. Take cold calling as an example.
Cold calling is a widespread technique employed by most sales team departments, particularly in the utility, banking and finance, charity, and IT industries.
If you have a large remote sales team, time and money are your most valuable resources. The repetitive task of number dialing can take significant time in large volumes.
With the call campaign feature on VoIP, your sales team can create call lists that auto-dial the next phone number once a previous call ends. This feature can prevent mental drain for your sales team, thereby improving productivity.
Track Sales Metrics With Software Integrations
Every sales team must ask itself, “what is a marketing objective in this project?” and a strategic answer lies in measuring and tracking sales metrics.
A VoIP system allows you to integrate third-party software with the phone system easily. For instance, VoIP is compatible with Customer Relationship Management (CRM) applications.
With this feature, your remote sales team can develop a strong marketing strategy using cold hard data. More importantly, they can access this data independently from anywhere in the world. Your remote sales team will be able to track:
- Customer lifetime value
- Conversion rates
- Sales history
- Subscription rates
- When leads are contacted
This means you can set up a dashboard with real-time measurement of relevant KPIs. This makes it easier to notice patterns, review remote employee performance, and identify positive results.
Less Time for Customer Interaction
In 2021, no customer wants to spend extra time waiting on a sales team to fix issues or provide solutions. This blog titled: 8 examples of good customer service (that all have…) discusses the importance of respecting customer’s time.
With VoIP features, you can reduce customer interaction time and make it easier for your sales team to solve customer queries. Here at the features of VoIP that make this possible:
- Data accessibility through cloud storage: Typically, your remote sales team’s VoIP system will be connected to data storage and CRM. This means your reps can access customer history, customer accounts, and other vital details within seconds.
- Integration capabilities: VoIP’s ability to integrate with third-party apps isn’t just for measuring metrics. You can pair your existing tools, such as a threat intelligence platform, with VoIP.
Scalable and Cost-Effective
One of the advantages of working with a remote sales team is the ability to scale at reduced costs. With a VoIP phone system, you can achieve cost-effective scalability and functionality updates.
To grow the team with traditional telephone systems, you’d have to pay to install additional phones. This is an investment that’ll cost time and money.
Since phone calls will be routed across the internet, there’s no need to install expensive landlines. If your remote sales team works alongside a call center, this can save you thousands of dollars.
In fact, with your sales team able to save up to 75% on operational costs by using VoIP systems, it’s undoubtedly a positive move.
Location Independence
One of the glaring limitations of landline phones is they’re bound by location. Members of your remote team can’t take their landline along with them when they have to travel.
This is a significant reason your remote sales team should be using VoIP. They’ll be able to receive calls and close deals with video conferencing regardless of where they are. Location won’t affect the productivity of your remote team.
How to Implement VoIP for Your Remote Sales Team
The first course of action is to determine how many employees will rely on the system. With this information, you’ll be able to make more informed decisions as you start the process.
If you’re looking to grow your business, the number of new employees will determine the number of lines to install. With this information, you should follow these steps:
Install a Fast Internet Connection
Every member of your remote sales team needs access to a fast and reliable internet connection. As such, you must arrange for the installation of a super-fast internet network.
This network should also be able to handle the expected call volume. Doing this will help prevent a lot of headaches related to poor call networks.
Create a Budget
To avoid getting carried away during the installation of VoIP, you should stick to a budget. VoIP comes with a plethora of features that may catch your eye. By setting a budget and sticking to it, you’ll be able to prioritize the most valuable features for you.
Choose Your VoIP Service Provider
Before making this decision, you want to be able to compare service providers. Using your budget to guide you, explore what every VoIP company near you has to offer to make an informed decision.
Arrange for Hardware
In most cases, your remote employees can use their computers or smartphones to access the VoIP system. Or they can choose to buy an adapter compatible with analog phones.
Setup and Configuration
All your remote sales team has to do is plug the VoIP phone into an Ethernet system. If there’s a firewall, they may need to do some tweaking with the help of the service provider.
Your Remote Sales Team Needs a VoIP Phone
With the shift to remote work, you must pivot your communication strategy to fit new demands. VoIP phone systems can even combine with marketing software to offer your sales team much-needed functionality and accessibility. It’s the perfect tool to kick their overall efficiency and productivity up a notch.
