In the modern business world, sales teams no longer face the limitations of the past when it comes to following leads and closing a sale. Outside sales, also known as field sales, are often recognized as the classic, traditional sales method involving travel to meet with potential clients face-to-face-an ongoing practice that is, while certainly viable, time-consuming and costly to a company. With the onset of the Internet, sales strategy transformed entirely by paving the way for inside sales, or the practice of conducting sales remotely rather than face-to-face using CRM technologies, web conferencing, predictive analytics, and social platforms as tools. Newer technologies have therefore made it possible to pursue leads more rapidly and efficiently, giving way to another term altogether which is dominant in inside sales: sales acceleration.Sales acceleration is essentially what it sounds like: increasing the speed, and also the efficiency and consistency, of the sales process. In a sense, some of the unpredictability of the traditional outside sales process is removed, as the technologies which fuel inside sales allow agents to follow a set procedure and methodical approach to pursuing leads and driving sales for their companies. Forbes reported that businesses spent $12.8 billion on sales acceleration technology in North America in 2013, or $2,280 per sales representative, while estimating that North American companies may spend nearly $6,790 annually per representative on sales acceleration technology by 2017.There are many digital tools at their disposal, and more than ever companies are capitalizing on them and making sales acceleration a key strategy to their business.Among the technologies driving sales acceleration is the predictive dialer. With a predictive dialing solution, agents can maximize their efficiency and drive sales as the dialer eliminates the need for looking up phone number lists, manually dialing leads, and waiting to see if the call will even connect to a potential customer. Predictive dialers automatically filter out answering and fax machines, busy signals, and disconnected calls to enable live calls as quickly as possible, dramatically reducing idle time and therefore leaving agents more time to connect with potential customers. The dialer will be able to determine the best times to call and predict when a current call will be finished while already dialing the next number. By bypassing disconnected or unavailable phone lines as well as machines, agents will always be connected quickly to the right customers-those who are most likely to welcome such calls-at the right times.Predictive dialers which integrate lead management software are especially optimal for effectively organizing lead data, sales information, customer history, and customer contact information and automatically feeding this data to agents. Such software may also feature call logging, callback rules, call recording, and other automated processes which can save agents’ time and free them to focus on connecting to the biggest leads and closing sales quickly and efficiently. With such a solution, agents may focus on the strongest leads and benefit from detailed reporting and dashboards that allow for performance improvements of over 150%.Sales acceleration depends on a combination of factors including skilled agents who have been properly trained to manage the digital tools involved, lead management software, and optimum predictive dialing solutions. A predictive dialer is therefore a major factor behind sales acceleration and the success of inside sales-a compulsory digital tool for companies which aim to boost their sales, brand image, and customer satisfaction in a flash. To learn more about predictive dialer software solutions, please visit Vocalcom.com .
