Articles

Many professionals are afraid that robots are going to “take over the world” – that tools like chatbots will eliminate jobs, that they spell the inevitable end of personal service, or that will overtake humans in their intelligence.

While tools like chatbots will alter the way purchasers and businesses interact, there are many areas where they are actually improving the process for sales professionals and enhancing the experience for customers. Here is how chatbots are changing sales for the better.

They Help Prospects Find the Information They Need

In today’s buying cycle, most information-gathering is done on the web. However, just because people are looking on the web doesn’t always mean that they are able to find what they are looking for. Chatbots can help them find the information they need.  For instance, you may be so busy that a simple request for pricing or testimonials takes you 24 hours to deliver, even though this information lives on your website. Chatbots, on the other hand, could deliver this information in seconds. Chatbots are improving the sales experience by helping prospects find information and get the answers they need.

They Qualify Leads

Nothing is more frustrating for a sales professional than spending time on a prospect only to discover that there is no possibility of closing this sale. Chatbots can help to alleviate this frustration by qualifying leads. Chatbots can ask the routine questions that help you to understand if a lead can become an opportunity, and alert you if a lead is qualified. This saves you an enormous amount of time and gives you greater efficiency.

They Do the Heavy-Lifting for Support

There’s no denying that most support teams get a lot of repeat questions. While there should always be a human being managing support, chatbots can work alongside your human team members to help to answer the most common inquiries or questions that have a simple solution. With Chatbots handling the bulk of the support requests, your support and sales staff can focus on the more complex questions, providing an excellent customer experience.

They do the Follow-up

Following-up after a sale is very important; it helps sales professionals gather feedback about the process and improve. However, all too often, sales people go dark after the sale is closed because they are focusing on other opportunities in their pipeline. Chatbots are a great solution to help gather important feedback without requiring any additional time from sales teams. Your customers may even feel more comfortable providing comments to an anonymous chatbot than they do to a human salesperson. You’ll get the all-important feedback you need without the additional effort.

Chatbots are nothing to be afraid of. If you implement chatbots in these scenarios, you’ll actually deliver a better customer experience and drive more sales.