Phone Conversations in 2021 is an Asset for Your Business: Here’s Why

For the record, phone conversations are not dead.

Steve Thomas Santy, a B2B marketing expert agrees on this and shared the same in one of his quora answers ‘’The truth is marketing and sales people might usually say that cold calling is dead. However, it is still well and strong.’’

Before the pandemic could hit us, we were engaging with prospects via social media, emails, and other communication tools, but after the pandemic, there is one thing that you all would have realized.

If you wish to sell in such an environment where the economy is down and the chances of lead conversion will be slow or close to no, just engaging on communication channels isn’t enough, you need something more that can take you back to how sales were conducted in the past, via phone conversations.

There is no denying that your other communication channels have stronger weight on what they offer, but you tell us, would you make a purchase decision on the basis of chats and messages?

You would get on a call at least more than once to learn better. 

In 2021, while the business world is going digital and we are floating in an online pool, the lack of human touch if retained can work wonders for your business. 

Edward Lee, an online researcher in one of his quora answers, justified the same, ‘’while technology may render things obsolete, cold calling is one tool that shall never be made redundant for the simple fact that the human face and the human voice are part of our humanity. It’s through them that we are able to observe, to hear, to feel and to sense the level of interest in our prospects (or any human being for that matter!). It’s through them that we are able to uncover a prospect’s unhappiness, hidden fears and insecurities. And it’s only through them that we could allay their objections and thereby move the sales to a close there and then!’’

We believe that phone conversations will prove to be an asset for you in 2021 and to clarify all your doubts about phone conversations/cold calling and how you can perform better with this solution, this article has everything you need to take a call once you reach the end of this article.

What to expect?

• Identifying the major reasons for phone conversations being frowned upon
• Justifying how phone conversations can work in your favour especially in 2021
• Covered powerful tips on how you can conduct efficient phone conversations in 2021
• Learning how callback solutions can up your game in phone conversations
• Expert tips on conducting result oriented phone conversations

Let’s get started.

Phone Conversations: Why do you consider it as bad anyways?

1. Honestly, phone calls are annoying

If you’re receiving multiple emails and text messages regularly, wouldn’t that be annoying as well?

The main issue of cold calling is that it is annoying. Prospects have to speak to random strangers who are either not too knowledgeable or are rude in their phone conversations with you. Also, cold calls stress over just one reason which is making sales so it’s obvious when a prospect picks up a call and realizes that this is a sales call, they are not going to be fond of it.

Insights: 

• What if prospects could be trained on how to communicate well with prospects? 
• What if prospects could be taught up how to create a tone and how to manage leads?

Wouldn’t you be fine as a prospect yourself if the above were adhered to?

2. Generating sales from phone conversations is too less

Have you ever wondered why this happens?

When your calls are not conducted well, you won’t receive much lead engagement hence lead conversions too will drop. You could make 100 calls a week but if the way you engage with your prospects is wrong and not in an ideal manner, how can you have an expectation that your sales generation will skyrocket?

Insight:

• What if each call was recorded so that sales reps could learn their mistakes and work on them?
• What if prospects understood the right way to deal with leads?

Don’t you believe that the sales figures will see close to a minor difference?

3. Phone conversations are inefficient in nature

Phone conversations are not efficient in nature because only when a prospect picks up your call and continues to retain the engagement that is when you know that your cold calling opportunity stands a chance. But it is very rare that a prospect would do such an action.

Insight:

• What if sales reps were trained on how to conduct the first 30 seconds of the call well?
• What if trained sales reps are continuing calls for longer than a minute?

Would you still be under the idea that phone conversations are inefficient?

4. Most prospects just cut the call hence a time wastage

When a prospect picks up the phone only to find out that the call was conducted for the purpose of conducting sales, the prospect will cut the call because as a sales rep the needs of the prospects are being ignored. The more calls you conduct in such a manner, the lesser are your chances to continue a call or make a sale.

Insight:

• What if prospects don’t cut the call immediately when they realize that the call has a purpose they are being catered to?
• What if prospects understand that this call being made can help them achieve their needs?

Do you still believe that phone conversations would end sooner?

5. Increases frustration for sales reps 

Why do sales reps get frustrated?

The most common reason especially in the phone conversation context is calls are rejected, ignored, and not moving forward. Sales targets are not met, lead conversions are dropping, and making sales has become difficult.

Insight:

• What if sales reps were trained regularly?
• What if sales reps were taught how to deal with rejection?

Do you still believe that sales reps’ frustration would remain the same which is high?

You have multiple solutions available in the market, not all of them are going to be perfect or the ideal one, there will be flaws. Phone conversations are always looked upon as wrong or not an ideal tool, but when you read the above pointers, did you still feel the same?

The pandemic has caused a destruction and it will take time to come back to normal, but this doesn’t mean that businesses should stop selling or start late or wait for that matter, in such cases we believe that Phone conversations have the ability to still make an impact which is why we have all the reasons listed below to advocate on the same.

Phone Conversations: Why 2021 needs it the most?

1. Not everyone is accustomed to using digital platforms

They would prefer the idea of engaging with businesses rather than speaking to them over a text message or a chat. 

Digital platforms are being used by millions around the world, but when it comes to preferring a conversation over texting such an age group would also choose the first option. As a brand, you need to ensure that phone conversations are running smoothly in your business. 

Also, with the pandemic staying with us for some time now, prospects need to be sure of their investment. Understanding this, they would prefer a phone conversation to take a call and understand whether your brand is the right fit for the conversation or not. 

2. Human touch is still wanted

Human touch is necessary and no matter how digitized a business becomes, the human touch needs to be restored. That is when phone conversations come into the picture. Human touch is necessary because when you speak to your prospects, you are able to exhibit better, your genuine feelings towards helping them cater to their needs.

Let’s understand this with an example:

Say that you are dealing with two prospects here, Bob and Ashely.

Bob is speaking to a sales rep over his social media channel, he engages with a sales rep and during the conversation, neither the sales rep nor Bob is able to understand the tone of the conversation. For the sales rep, he or she feels that Bob is not that interested in the way he is messaging and on the other hand Bob feels that the sales rep isn’t helping him enough.

Due to this, Bob drops out and moves away.

Ashley on the other hand gets on a call with a sales rep. Ashley still continues the call because she feels that this call has a purpose and that is to serve her needs. She understands from the tone of the conversation that the sales rep is looking to assist her rather than to make a sale. 

During the conversation, the sales rep aims to continue the communication trying to understand what Ashley’s needs are and cater to them accordingly. By the end of the conversation, Ashley agrees to consider the sales rep’s words and goes on to make an investment in the product.

3. Perfect for solving immediate issues

Say that your lead has an issue and he or she realizes that if this issue isn’t resolved then he or she can land up in a lot of trouble.

So what would they do?

• Can they leave an email and wait for the reply?
• Could you leave a social media message and wait for the next day for a reply?

The best way to resolve such immediate issues is via a phone call.

Have you wondered that when you face any issue, the first action you do is get on a customer service call because you know that at last you can understand what the issue is about or you can resolve it instantly? No waiting, no staying on hold, just immediate assistance whenever.

This is exactly what phone conversations are all about. Your prospects could have doubts about your products or want to learn more about your product, in such cases engaging them over a call will add a better bonus informing a good relationship along with retaining them for longer with your brand. 

4. It is quicker to cater to prospects

When you send an email to your prospects, they are going to take their time and reply. The time period could be any day between one day to multiple days. In such cases, you have no choice but to wait for your prospects to reach out to you via such platforms hence slowing down your lead conversion rates.

If this would have happened over call, this issue wouldn’t have been faced by you. For example, when you engage with a lead over call and if they don’t pick up, you know that they are not available so you schedule a call with them later. This also however doesn’t stop your work because you will continue to engage with the leads that are available hence increasing your lead rates. 

5. Proof of being legal

When do you find a brand suspicious?

If the brand doesn’t have a logo, or not even an image about the brand, no contact details, and more. You will hesitate to cater to such brands. Imagine not having a number to engage with a brand?

You will have your doubts because even if you’re not contacting the brand, having a number is proof that a brand exists. It’s’ not like no one is going to ever call on that number, that phone will ring and it will be from a prospect who is eager to explore your brand. 

Now that we’ve understood how well phone conversations matter in 2021, it’s time for you to get started on the right foot with it. To help you start or rather continue this journey well, we have curated the top tips that can help you to get started.

Smart Tips to conduct efficient Phone conversations in 2021

1. Don’t make it a sales call

If you think that treating your phone conversations as a sales call will help tap more leads, you’re mistaken. As a prospect yourself, how many times have you ignored or cut the calls because you knew at that instant that this is a sales call?

No one likes it not even your prospects, stop conducting the following actions:

• Sounding like a robot fixated on making sales purely
• Ensuring that all calls are done for the purpose of cracking that sale
• Reading from a sales pitch and not making improvisations 

Switch the old habits and instead focus on doing this:

• Making the prospects comfortable to have a conversation
• Not making the call sound like a business call instead of making it sound a little lighter
• Hearing what the prospects expect from you
• Understanding what the prospects’ needs are
• Aligning your actions accordingly
• Using your sales pitch as a guide to help continue the conversation well

2. Sell benefits to prospects

“Approach Each Customer With The Idea Of Helping Him Or Her To Solve A Problem Or Achieve A Goal, Not Of Selling A Product Or Service.” – Brian Tracy

Your prospects are not going to engage with you if they think you will not be beneficial to them or don’t find you to be the right fit. When you give your prospects the impression that you’re interested in helping them find their needs, then only will your prospects engage with you.

Frame your statements in such a manner where the prospects realize the following:

• How eager are you to assist them?
• Make them curious as to what you will offer them
• Make the curiousness grow fonder with every conversation 
• Align your product on the basis of solving the prospect’s issues or doubts

3. Listen to your prospects

You cannot sell to your prospects without understanding what their needs are in the first place, ‘’What do buyers want from sales pros? 69% say, “Listen to my needs.” 

For you to cater better to your prospects, you can conduct the following:

• Doing the obvious, which is listening to your prospects
• Asking questions to understand better

“You Don’t Need A Big Close As Many Sales Reps Believe. You Risk Losing Your Customer When You Save All The Good Stuff For The End. Keep The Customer Actively Involved Throughout Your Presentation, And Watch Your Results Improve.” – Harvey Mackay

4. Work on the tone of your conversation

You might not sound rude but your tone could give away that for you, in such cases if you don’t work on this you could turn away your prospects. This is a phone conversation and the way you communicate will determine the tone of your voice to your prospects. 

Engage with your prospects in a comfortable and calm tone so that they can engage with you for long. 

5. Focus on conducting the call

If you think that while you conduct the call, you can do other tasks, that can backfire you badly. It is obvious to understand over the call that you are doing more than one thing. It can be disrespectful and determine to your prospects that your focus isn’t on the right place and this is merely a normal call for you.

Now that we have this sorted, we would like to share a simple solution with you that can help you understand better how you conduct efficient phone conversations.

Callback Softwares: An enhancement to your Phone conversation

Callback softwares makes your life easier by ensuring that engagement between you and your prospects is conducted well. 

Let’s understand this with an example:

Limecall is an efficient callback solution that ensures that engagement takes place well.

We offer two types of communication, one is via chat and the other is connecting with the right team be it sales or billing in less than 28 seconds.

You can also engage in such a manner as shown above anytime as per your convenience. 

This type of solution is effective because it can help your phone conversations to be conducted better.

How many times have you encountered leads that are hot and warm but because the medium to conduct the call is slow, they have walked away?

You could be practicing the best ways to conduct phone conversations but if you don’t have the right medium to apply it, it will all fail. 

Why don’t you try it yourself?

You can head here to get started. 

Just like you, there are multiple of your peers that believe that phone conversations do work and to help assist you better they have shared the top insights.

Expert tips on conducting result oriented phone conversations

The Salesman podcast revealed the top ones.

1. Aim to Generate Interest

Jordan Stupar, a master in cold calling,

‘’If you fail to generate interest you’re going to fail to have an appointment or a deal because there’s no interest. The way to really generate interest is to figure out in using like little micro questions and value driven questions is to figure out where somebody might have a problem.’’

2. Always use a script

Mike Brooke, President at Mr. Inside Sales and also an expert in phone selling,

‘’When you prepare phone scripts, learn to internalize it. You need to also start giving your sales reps a better response.’’

3. Research before cold calling

John Hazell, Cold outreach expert,

‘’It’s not actually what you say when you outreach of course it’s very important but it’s only ever as good the results are only ever as good as the research that you do at the start of the process.’’

The Bottom Line…

‘’69% of shoppers have accepted a cold call from sales representatives over the past year.’’

And are you still doubtful about phone conversations?

You have everything you need to get started with your phone calls, there is no time to waste in soaring higher than your competitors.

So tell us, what did you think of this article? Are you convinced, even if it’s 20% that phone conversations are here to stay? We would love to hear from you.

Share your opinions with us with a tweet.