The most successful call centers leave nothing to chance when it comes to converting leads. Success relies on a well-defined strategy, flawless execution and a deep understanding of prospect behavior. Here's how the top performers maximize conversions with the best call center strategies.
To discover other advanced techniques for boosting your lead flow, read our article on how to multiply acquisition networks. Now let's get down to the details of specific call center strategies.
Call Center strategy: Delivering the right lead to the right salesperson
The first step in a successful call center strategy is to ensure that each lead is allocated to the most appropriate sales person. This match is not simply a question of availability, but is based on a detailed analysis of the prospect's demographic data. The aim is to create a "love affair" between sales rep and prospect.
For example, a prospect living in Marseille (13) might be better served by a salesperson with a southern accent, which immediately establishes a certain proximity. Other effective combinations can include matches based on age, profession, or shared interests. An older person, for example, might be more receptive to a salesperson of their own age, creating an instant relationship of trust. This personalization strengthens the customer relationship, and can also be applied in other geographical or cultural contexts. This call center strategy is essential to optimize conversion.
Adapt the Phone Number in your Call Center Strategy
One of the aspects often overlooked in call center strategies is the importance of the telephone number displayed during a call. Depending on the prospect's region, using a local number can significantly increase the chances of picking up the phone. For example, a person living in the Pays de la Loire region will be more likely to answer a number starting with 02 rather than 01 or 03. This psychological phenomenon is linked to a feeling of proximity and relevance. Applying this call center strategy improves your chances of conversion.
Double Calling: A Winning Strategy for Call Centers
When a prospect doesn't respond to your first call, it's tempting to move on to the next. However, the most successful call centers know that timing is everything. If a prospect doesn't respond immediately, it's essential to call back a second time immediately. This greatly increases the chances of a response, while reducing the risk of losing a potential prospect. Here's why this approach works:
- The prospect is still in "reception" mode: if he didn't answer the first call, it's highly likely that he's seen the missed call and is wondering what it's all about. A second call, just after, takes advantage of his still active curiosity.
- Reducing hesitation: Often, a prospect is reluctant to answer the first call from an unfamiliar number. A second call immediately indicates that the call is important, which may encourage the prospect to pick up.
- Memorized context: The prospect may be doing something else at the time of the first call. An immediate second call allows them to instantly recall the situation, reducing the risk of them forgetting the previous call or thinking it was a mistake.
If the prospect still doesn't respond, leave a strategic message to capture their interest. This double call is a simple but powerful call center strategy to maximize responses, optimize your chances of conversion, and reduce the risk of losing a hot lead. To find out more about effective lead management, discover how to turn your prospects into loyal customers.
Strategic Voice Messages in your Call Center Strategy
Never underestimate the importance of a well-designed voice message in a call center strategy. A voice message is often a prospect's first impression of your company. It needs to be personalized, clear and engaging. Here's an example of a good voicemail message:
Avoid:
"Hello, you've filled in a form on the Internet, please call us back."
To do:
"Hello, I'm Marc from Aventure Assurance. We have a senior mutual insurance offer that seems perfectly suited to your situation. Could you call me back on 02 41 00 00 99 so that I can present it to you in detail? Thank you very much."
A message like this reinforces credibility and encourages the prospect to contact the company again. To find out more about best practices, read our guide on how to maximize your lead conversion rate.
Understanding Prospect Awareness in your Call Center Strategies
Not all prospects are equal in terms of awareness of their needs and available solutions. Understanding where each prospect falls on this spectrum of awareness is crucial to adapting your sales pitch accordingly. Here are the different levels of awareness:
- Unaware of his problem: This prospect isn't even aware that he has a problem.
- Aware of the problem, but unaware of the solution: He knows he has a problem, but is not yet aware of the possible solutions.
- Aware of the problem and the solution: He knows what solutions are available, but is still hesitating.
- Highly informed: knows the solutions and compares them.
Each level requires a specific sales approach. For example, a prospect who is unaware of his problem will require an education phase before even talking about your product. It's crucial to have a different sales script for each level of awareness, and to prepare your sales people for the eventuality of switching from one script to another. This flexibility is essential to maintain effective and relevant communication throughout the sales process.
Analyzing Long-Term Statistics in a Call Center Strategy
Don't just focus on immediate gains. The real winning call center strategy lies in understanding the customer lifecycle. In times of crisis, for example, it's crucial to look at the long-term value of each customer. This includes not only the first sale, but also upsells and future repeat sales.
Your Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) is a key indicator to monitor. This cost is calculated by dividing your advertising expenditure by the number of sales achieved. However, instead of trying to minimize this cost at all costs, focus on maximizing the long-term value of your customers. If you can sell more products or services over an extended period, you can afford a higher CAC while increasing your margins. Learn more about calculating the cost of a qualified lead in our complete guide.
The Cost of Buying a Lead is Not Representative of the Customer CAC in Call Center Strategies
It's important to understand that the cost of buying a lead doesn't necessarily reflect your Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC). It may seem tempting to focus on buying low-cost leads to reduce initial costs, but this can actually increase your overall CAC if these leads are of low quality and generate few conversions.
On the other hand, investing in more expensive but higher-quality leads can be much more profitable in the long term. A more expensive, but better targeted and more qualified lead is more likely to convert into a loyal and profitable customer. This reduces not only the CAC, but also the risks associated with chasing uninterested or ill-informed prospects. Ultimately, it's often better to pay more for a lead with high conversion potential than to waste resources on cheap leads that don't generate results.
Callback Speed: A Nuanced Strategy for Call Centers
Contrary to popular belief, it's not always necessary to call a prospect back within three minutes of receiving the lead. Statistics show that over a 24-hour period, a prospect's attention generally remains stable. Calling within 30 minutes, for example, can show that you're taking the time to study their request rather than rushing in, reinforcing your seriousness and professionalism. We've seen this strategy work very well on both shared and exclusive leads.
Minimal Week Follow-Up: A Key to Call Center Strategies
To manage your sales teams effectively, it's essential to analyze your statistics over a week rather than day by day. By following this method, you can double your conversion rates through rigorous follow-up of call-backs. It's imperative to call back prospects for at least a full week. This regularity, if well executed, often doubles conversion rates. However, it's crucial not to harass prospects. Find a balance to avoid frustrating them.
Be careful not to exhaust your prospect. Even if you have the option of changing your number every time you call, this doesn't fool the prospect. He won't think: "Oh, it's a new number, I'll answer it." Instead, he'll think: "They keep calling me, I get them every day, I'm going to block them all." So it's crucial to strike a balance between persistence and harassment to maximize your chances without alienating the prospect.
Choosing between Exclusive and Shared Leads in a Call Center Strategy
When buying leads, it's important to understand the difference between exclusive and shared leads. Mutualized leads are often less expensive, but can be saturated by calls from multiple companies, diluting the impact of your approach. Exclusive leads, on the other hand, although more expensive, guarantee exclusive attention, reducing confusion and increasing the chances of conversion. Although an exclusive lead can indeed fill in several forms, this will depend on your lead provider's approach. At Yacla, for example, we tend to target people who haven't yet researched the product, so we'll be the first to offer them an advert for your product/service. This greatly limits the number of multi-replicates, unlike Google Search or comparison campaigns.
Understanding Lead Quality in Call Center Strategies
A lead is considered qualified as soon as it fills in a form to obtain information about a product or service. However, this basic qualification does not guarantee conversion or real interest in purchasing.
As explained above, the prospect's level of awareness, and your ability to adapt your sales pitch to this level, account for 80% of your sales success. To maximize your results, there are two possible approaches:
Approach 1: Adapt to a varied lead flow
If you choose to adapt to the lead flow provided by your lead supplier, you need to be prepared to navigate variations in quality and lead awareness. Suppliers often seek to maximize their own margins by sending you the maximum number of leads, which can lead to significant fluctuations in prospect awareness depending on the saturation of their creative tests. To maintain stable conversion rates, it's crucial to have several sales scripts ready to use, and to train your teams to switch from one script to another as the need arises.
Approach 2: Target leads corresponding to a specific level of awareness
The other option is to work with a supplier who only provides you with leads corresponding to the level of awareness with which you're most comfortable. This method maintains more stable conversion rates and facilitates the growth of your business. However, expect a higher cost per lead, as well as the need to change strategy once you've reached a saturation point, forcing you to readjust your approach.
At Yacla, we don't recommend the "staircase" method, which consists of providing you with leads tailored to a single level of awareness until saturation is reached. Once saturation is reached, it's best to re-evaluate the advertisements or awareness level targeted, and adapt your sales scripts accordingly. This approach enables you to continually adjust your strategy in line with market conditions, and maintain high conversion rates over the long term.
In addition, Yacla strongly recommends working on the long-term value of your prospects by implementing upsell and cross-sell strategies. By increasing the value of each customer beyond the initial sale, you not only optimize your profitability, but also give yourself more flexibility to accept a higher customer acquisition cost (CAC), in the knowledge that each customer will yield more in the long term. This approach helps you build lasting relationships with your customers, reinforcing the stability and growth of your business.
If you'd like to find out more about how to improve your lead generation processes, read our article on the CPL agency that's revolutionizing the industry.