Real-time data results in win-win

Jun 10 2010 by Richard Lane, The Journal

TECHNOLOGY can help you gain a rapid understanding of who your customers are and what they are interested in.

I was with a customer earlier this week who has implemented a live chat function across their website. This value-add service provides their prospects and customers with an opportunity to speak to a “real” person quickly and easily with the click of a mouse. However, it also serves up a set of high-value benefits for the sales team to help them sell at a higher level.

One of the greatest challenges we have in sales is finding the right person and sparking a conversation. It is not enough to have done your research and found the right person. The next step is to engage them, and at a time when they are focused on solving the problem, or creating the future, your company believes it can help deliver.

As with much of technology 2.0 it is the data behind the service that makes live chat products so exciting. Successful selling is about asking questions you know the answer to in order to gauge your prospects’ interest and buying position. It is about building rapid rapport by focusing on what is important to them.

It is about always qualifying interest and spending time with prospects who have the need and ability to buy from you (assuming you are able to help them, of course).

Imagine how much more confident you will feel when speaking to a prospect if you know that they have already spent time on your website, not to mention how much more focused and effective your questions will be if you know exactly which sections they have visited.

However, I believe the real power lies in the immediacy of the information becoming available to sales. We all know that the best time to speak to a prospect is when they are thinking about an area where your expertise can help. Intelligent use of the data behind this technology adds science into your sales effort.

Gone are the days when we wait a week or more for a hot lead to filter through from marketing to management for assignment to sales to action, only to find the requirement has fallen down the priority list and our company has been forgotten.

This availability of real-time data should lead to a win-win result on both sides of the buying table. Sales people empowered to target prospects that have shown an interest in their product or service; potential customers being assisted in a timely manner and with a higher degree of personalisation and accuracy.

:: Richard Lane is managing director of Morpeth-based Engleby Associates