graphic courtesy of beepdvm.com
Integrating content into the sales process is always a vital part of the client engagements I run. For that reason, my agency is always on the look out for companies offering services that could potentially support improved sales integration.
Yesterday we got an interesting presentation from beep Directed Voicemail. Founder Patrick Cahill explained their value prop very succinctly — over 90 percent of business calls go to voicemail. So why not automate that process, with a followup email sent as well?
For large, considered purchases sold by well compensated sales teams this can make a lot of sense. A salesperson’s time can be better spent in other ways, for example following clients and prospects in social media communities. Prospects hear a recording of the sales executive or someone else from the company, then receive an email from them the next day.
Cahill told us the combination with the followup email is critical, and can result in response lifts as much as 3x to 6x. beepDVM is not a list building service — clients supply their own target lists. Test campaigns can be conducted with as few as 100 names.
There could be a place for beepDVM in client content marketing programs. For example, when there is an important webinar that needs to be promoted in a short time window, or a highly popular piece of content needs to be sent as thought leadership collateral to a large number of prospects.
There’s a well known maxim for effective social media participation – automate the monitoring, but not the engagement. Leave that to the actual humans. Here it’s the same principle, since voicemails and emails (while important outreach) can’t be called engagement. Engagement begins when a prospect replies, and the salesperson then takes over the process in a better position to build a relationship.
Outsourcing your cold calling won’t be right for some organizations. But it’s another possible tool to leverage as we connect content marketing campaigns to demonstrable sales results for clients.