Phone Systems for Sales Teams

Teams of sales reps have their own demands of a phone system that differ from those of a typical customer service or support team.  trixbox Pro provides an number of advanced features that can make your existing sales team more effective at closing business.

Make Your Team More Available

It's pretty obvious that in order for people to buy from you, they need to contact you.  Advanced phone systems like trixbox Pro, support a number of strategies to help customer get in touch with you and make a meaningful conversation.

Main Sales Number

These days it's quite common to have a dedicate phone number for "Sales".  The advantage of this is you can get sales enquiries directly to a person best positioned to answer the enquiry, rather than simply reaching the receptionist.

Automatic Call Distribution

When you have new enquiry, then there are some options for who that enquiry should go to.  Many organisations simply distribute calls to the next available person, but an alternative approach is to distribute calls to the person most likely to close the sale. 
In either case, you want to make sure that the phone call is answered by a person, rather than going to voicemail or simply ringing out, so trixbox provides the ability to configure progressive escalation of calls to try more people which might include trying other people in the office, people in other offices, and people on mobile phones.

Direct Numbers

Once a rep has established a relationship with a customer or prospect, it's typically a good idea to maintain and develop that rapport, rather than the customer talking to a different person each time they call.
The obvious response to this is for each rep to have their own direct in-dial phone number.  Almost all carriers offer options of blocks of 10, 50 or 100 phone numbers irrespective of how many actual lines you have.

FindMe

If you've given someone your direct number, you want to be as responsive to calls on that number as possible.
trixbox's FindMe(R) feature allow you to configure rules about how to route your own calls, using information about the time of day, whether you're at your computer, and route calls to your desk phone, an alternate extensions, your mobile phone. You can choose to screen calls, and decide which VIPs will always get through to your mobile, and which people get routed to your voicemail.

Voicemail to Email

When someone leaves you a voicemail, trixbox will email you the details of who called, and attach the audio of the message.  This way you can pick up voicemail via your computer, via a smart-phone, or simply call back into the office and retrieve it.

Make Your Team More Informed

Improve Access to Subject Matter Experts

There's nothing as satisfying as a customer than talking to someone who can answer all your questions.   Unfortunately, in the real world, it's rare that a sales rep can be an expert at everything.   Fonality's HUD application (Head Up Display) provides real-time instant message chat among all your employees.   While speaking the phone, a sales rep can also exchange chat messages with a specialist, and get answers to the customer while on the phone.

Account Owner Call Routing

If you use a CRM system like Salesforce.com,  trixbox Pro Unified Agent Edition  supports automatically routing calls using account ownership information in the CRM system.  By getting calls to the assigned sales rep it minimises the chance of territory disputes when two reps talking to one customer, and improves the customer's experience by always reaching the person best positioned to answer their call.

CRM Integration - Screen Pops and Click to Dial

By linking your trixbox Pro system with your CRM, you can make your staff more informed.  When the phone rings, trixbox Pro can tell your CRM to open a new screen, and present details about who is calling and what we know about them.   Using the CRM to inform the rep about the customer's current situation, what sales opportunities exist, and what needs to be done next, will always be more efficient than relying on a persons memory alone.

On the outbound side, reps can simply click on a phone number, and the system will automatically take the phone off hook, and dial the requested number. This one-click-dialing removes the chance of misdialling, and can improve outbound efficiency as well as reducing call reluctance.

Training

trixbox Pro provide a number of functions that support the training of new sales staff, as well as the continuing development of all team members.   Sales calls can be recorded for later review, or can be monitored in real-time for "co-pilot" style training. 
With HUD chat, the trainer doens't even need to sit with the trainee.  By monitoring a call remotely, the trainer can use HUD Chat to send messages to the sales rep while their on the phone, prompting them with idesas, or answering customer questions in real time.

Make Your Team More Flexible

Multiple Sites

trixbox Pro supports distributed sales teams, helping them to work together, and the organisation servicing a wide geographic range.   For example, with multiple offices, people from one office can answer calls on behalf of another office, helping with peak periods, and to extend operating hours. 
For example if you have an office in Auckland, another in Sydney and one in Perth, then by sharing calls across all three sites, the organisation effectively adds an extra 4 hours to the times that customers can call.
If you have a peak time in Sydney then calls can be immediately routed to Auckland or Perth rather than make a customer wait to speak to a person.

Remote Workers

You don't need multiple offices to provide distributed teams.  With trixbox Pro, your staff don't need to be in the office to effectively particpate.  A trixbox VOIP handset can be anywhere in the world, and behave as if it was in the office.
By improving the communcation technology, workers who telecommute are no longer isolated from the office.  This means an organisation has the flexibility to allow staff the option to telecommute, or even to attract valuable skills from different cities.