It is no surprise that technology is at our fingertips 24/7 and texting is the preferred method of communication. Here are a few statistics to blow your mind:
- There are 71 billion smartphone users worldwide
- The number of monthly texts sent has increased by more than 7,700% over the last decade
- #1 most used way of communication among Americans younger than 50 is texting
- 82% of people read their text messages within 5 minutes, but only open 1 in 4 emails they receive
As a salesperson, you do not have much time to attract and keep the attention of your prospect. If you contact them to late, they may have already gone with your competitor. If you don’t provide a quote quickly, they may give into their doubts and change their mind. If you don’t stay in contact with them, you will be quickly forgotten. This is a HUGE challenge, because if they do not check their email regularly or answer their phone because they do not recognize the number, you have an uphill battle to win.
To overcome this challenge, many companies have integrated texting into their sales strategies. We have seen this to be very successful in business to consumer (B2C) sales. Here are three benefits of texting in the sales process:
- Increase the number of times a prospect is touched automatically to complement phone, email and direct mail campaigns. As it is impractical for the sales team to carry on texting with every prospect and customer, automation frees up your sales team for the most qualified prospects.
- Increase your closing rate through automated texts. Using a CRM, you can set up automated texts that reach your prospects at certain touchpoints in the sales cycle. The texts can be tailored based on your prospects’ needs to educate them and drive them to your website.
- Nurture your existing customers through text messaging. There is nothing worse for a customer than feeling forgotten. Texting can prevent this from happening. Based on your clients’ information, you can send automated texts for birthdays, reminders 6 months after their purchase, or new customer appreciation discounts. The ideas for nurturing are endless.
Texting is an awesome way to increase sales. Instead of waiting for email responses and return phone calls, speed up the sales process with texts and take the pressure off of follow ups while staying in front of key prospects. Combine “High Tech and High Touch” as people still love personal interaction. Pay attention to your prospect and customer and you will know when you to talk to them verses texting.
In this age of instant gratification, many companies use testing to grow their sales leads. Many CRMs integrate with texting platforms that automatically send texts at specific touchpoints to educate and nurture prospects on their buying journey. If your CRM does not offer that functionality or you haven’t started using a CRM, contact us about our CRM which includes texting capabilities.
