Services: Contact Center – Sales
Industry: B2B, Technology

01 | Problem

A global consumer electronics company was experiencing low sales volume with its current strategies for selling projectors into the higher education market. The company relied on distributors, selling multiple brands of projectors, to set and attend appointments with higher education institutions. To become successful in this market, the company needed a sales-driven partner that would be dedicated to building long-term relationships with the decision-makers at higher education institutions. The ideal partner would be an experienced inside sales leader that would provide a full end-to-end sales service including lead generation, initial contacting, sales and follow-up.

02 | Solution

Dialog Direct was already the company’s dedicated customer service and tech support provider, achieving outstanding customer service results by lowering average handle time by 52% while cutting costs by 20% per month. So when the consumer electronics company decided to search for an outsourced inside sales support partner, Dialog Direct came highly recommended by the vice president of customer service.

Dialog Direct was hired with a goal of setting two appointments per agent every day for the higher education market.

Phase 1 of the sales program was to begin extensive training on the electronics company’s high-tech products. By educating Dialog Direct’s agents on each of the products to be sold, the Dialog Direct team served as an extension of the brand’s internal team, now able to answer detailed questions from prospects. In Phase 2, Dialog Direct developed a multichannel sales strategy to deliver the target audience a custom message during each stage of the sales cycle. After Dialog Direct gathered a leads list, agents sent an email to warm-up the lead and build interest. The email was followed with a phone call from an experienced Dialog Direct agent. Instead of pitching a product during phone calls, agents would listen to the prospects’ needs and expectations for technology in their classrooms. The Dialog Direct team then worked with the prospects to offer a custom package for their classroom needs. Feedback was also an essential part of the process. Dialog Direct’s agents were able to establish trust and build relationships by listening to the needs of the prospects and asking for feedback that would help them reevaluate their pitch.

Dialog Direct built a custom CRM platform to ensure the sales campaign succeeded. The CRM platform enabled agents to monitor the entire sales cycle and deliver a message corresponding to prospects’ current stage of the sales cycle. Agents were responsible for updating the stage of the sales cycle by choosing a disposition option for their calls – for example: interested in future, left message or declined.

This would help determine the next steps for each contact. The CRM platform also served as a valuable reporting tool. Daily appointments scheduled, dials made and total appointments scheduled were monitored to determine if adjustments needed to be made to the campaign. Lastly, the sales platform is integrated with the customer service platform to improve the efficiency of both services. When sales agents scheduled a trial with a higher education institution, the customer service team is alerted through the CRM platform to send a projector for a demo.

03 | Results

Dialog Direct exceeded the client’s expectations again with this campaign. The goal of setting two appointments per agent every day was surpassed by more than 390%. Dialog Direct’s sales team surpassed the appointment-setting goal for the pilot in just 15 days. Agents scheduled appointments with more than 55% of the higher education decision-makers they contacted during the opening months of this campaign. In addition to scheduling appointments and expanding the sales pipeline, Dialog Direct provided feedback of the client’s products and services. The customer insights agents gathered during conversations with prospects provided the client with ideas to improve its products to meet the customers’ needs. For example, Dialog Direct’s agents received frequent feedback about the projector bulbs. Consumers felt the bulbs were expensive, difficult to change and had a short life-span. Dialog Direct shared this feedback with the client, and improving the bulbs became one of the client’s top priorities.