There's No reason to Delay Next Steps
Transfer Sales Lead Calls to Make More Sales*
Transfer Hot Leads to the Point of Sale
Companies that use centralized call centers, whether in-house or outsourced, often prevent sales! They encourage a prospect's interest and then say, "I'll have your account executive call you back tomorrow." Or, worse yet, "You'll receive a call from an account executive in two to three business days."
Why Does this Occur?
The account executive may be in a different city, with a different company or with an outside rep firm. However, telecommunications technology can enable the prospect to be transferred to their sales rep immediately. This type of connection is sometimes called hot transfer. In the telephone technology world it may be called off-premise transfer.
Technologies
Technologies that enable this connection are available in phone systems and from the phone companies that supply lines; others are inherent in phone systems. These technologies include:
- Take back and transfer.
- Corporate network transfer.
- PBX trunk-to-trunk transfer.
Speed dial buttons can be programmed to perform the transfers. The phone rep should stay on the call, wait for an answer and "hand-off" the call. If the sales rep is not available, the phone rep can leave a message with the prospect's contact information, get back to the prospect on the phone and tell them they will receive a call. This approach of staying on the call until the transfer is completed is called a warm transfer. Just transferring the call and disengaging is called a cold transfer or blind transfer, and should be avoided.
*These are general recommendations. Specific strategies and tactics should be based on a review of your needs, market and operation. For outside support contact Lieber & Associates.
A Case History.
A respected mutual fund company used hot transfer to expedite technical calls from stockbrokers calling about reselling closed-end mutual funds. The outsourced call center transferred the technical question calls directly to the particular fund's underwriter. Transferred calls often resulted in sales, with individual transferred calls generating as much as a $5 million each.