The Future of Telesales: Is Automation Truly Taking Over?
TeleworkPH
Published: October 21, 2020
Today, more and more businesses instill automation into their business functions. One traditional business function that has taken an impact due to the rise of automation is telesales. According to a study made by Deloitte, companies have dropped telesales in their sales budget distribution from 67% in 2017 to 47% in 2019. The study showed that companies don’t see that telesales will largely contribute to their lead generation efforts in the future. Also, 33% of the respondents from the same study have said that they’re more willing to invest in automation processes in 2019. With this situation at hand, it begs us to question: is telesales dying?
In this article, we’ll answer that question, but first, let’s take a look at the current state of telesales and its definition. We’ll also discuss how automation is affecting business functions and how telesales agents can improve by using automation.
Let us help you scale your business. Book a
FREE
value-bomb
strategy session with our
Outsourcing Specialist NOW!
Telesales Defined
In simple terms, telesales is the act of selling products or services through phone calls. It’s a marketing and sales channel where you can directly reach out to your customers. There are two kinds of telesales – inbound and outbound telesales.
For inbound telesales, the customers are the ones who reach out to you. Usually, they have a concern over the product or service, and sometimes, they inquire about the product or service specification. In this case, the telesales agent is responsible to solve the customer’s concern or inquiry and then proceed to upsell.
While for outbound telesales, the agents get in touch with the customers to generate leads and offer a product or service. Oftentimes, outbound telesales agents also inform the customers of any special announcements or promotions that might help close the sale.
An effective telesales strategy relies a lot on the telesales representative’s skill. He/she must have enough knowledge about the product or service, as well as soft skills and empathy to be able to sell that product or service. But are soft skills and empathy enough to close a sale these days? Let’s take a look at the current state of the telesales industry.
The Current State of Telesales
The practice of telesales has been around since 1950. With its ups and downs over the years, telesales is still perceived as a viable channel for increasing profits. Nowadays, it’s all about the omnichannel experience for the customers. But despite the advent of digital channels, telesales still prove to be a contender.
In terms of lead generation activities, a report conducted by Demand Generation ranks telesales 3rd as a useful tool for driving conversion later in the sales funnel. On average, the growth of the telesales industry from 2015-2020 was only 1.4%. Clearly, something needs to change in order for this number to grow.
Automation in Business
According to Forbes, 38% of businesses are already using automation and AI technologies to improve their processes and services, and 62% more businesses will be integrating automation in the coming year or so. While 83% of businesses prioritize automation over traditional strategies 54% of businesses that already implemented automation have already seen an increase in productivity. These numbers justify that automation indeed has a positive effect on business processes.
This study by McKinsey showed that automating data work can help businesses save costs. In the field of telesales, automation, and AI programs are now used to streamline customer interaction. Customer profiles can be made with machine learning and data analytics. AI programs can also predict customer intent using these data profiles.
What’s more, the IDC (International Data Corporation) estimated that automation and AI will be worth US$47 billion in the global marketplace by the end of this year. As such, automation definitely contributes to the improvement of business performance. However, there are certain limitations to what automation can do.
Telesales Agents and Automation
Humans can easily adapt to change, and although the advancements in automation are quite promising, it still needs human knowledge to navigate complex tasks. As telesales agents adjust to this movement, intuitive skills such as judgment and empathy are still required to communicate or to close a sale effectively. Re-aligning agents with the skills to work with automated programs can contribute to improving business performance and stability in the long run. With this, telesales professionals are more empowered to perform better with the help of automated data analytics and predictive analysis.
The Takeaway
To answer the question from the beginning of this article: is telesales dying? No, it’s not dying. In fact, it’s evolving to a more complex business function driven by data and automation. This integration only signifies that traditional aspects of the business, when combined with modern technology, can have a positive impact on the bottom-line goals of the business. All in all, the future of telesales looks promising, and we look forward to more innovations that will positively impact businesses for many years.
