Can a bot help you sell?

In some businesses timing is key to selling; customers may send an inquiry to dozens of providers and only the fastest ones to reply will have a chance of getting the business. The problem, especially for small businesses, is that it is virtually impossible to always have someone connected and ready to answer.

If you are a local B2C business, chances are that potential clients will contact you outside business hours, when they themselves are not at work, and if you are a global business there’s a good chance that you and your customers won’t even be in the same time zone. 

On top of all this, there’s an increasing expectation of immediate reply caused by our ever-growing use of social media and messaging apps. In most cases, if your targets use WhatsApp you will eventually have to start using the channel for sales. The only question is, how do you avoid missing business opportunities?

The traditional approach to increase availability is flawed

The traditional approach is simple, always have the phone with you, answer messages at any time, day or night, and eventually burn out and either lose your mind or lose business. It is not the best or the healthiest option, but it is certainly a very common one.

A popular alternative is trying to set up a shift system, hire more people, train them on the ins and outs of the business and pray they don’t leave. This system will, of course, increase cost but, depending on the business you are in, it could be profitable. It is a close relative of the call-center approach and neither, to be honest, is very recommendable.

Smarter companies often take a different approach. They realize that to sell a product you don’t need to complete the entire transaction when the client first reaches out. You only need to provide some information, answer a few questions. If you are not in an impulse-purchase or last-minute business the customer will often think of your product, reach out to find out more, and complete the transaction at a later stage.

The key to beat the competition is surprisingly simple

All you really need to do to beat the competition is to be able to provide this initial information faster than them. The goal is not an immediate sell but the immediate beginning of an interaction. It is a much simpler process and one that can be easily automated using chatbots.

Of course, for this to work well you will need to set up a well-automated system because a bad initial interaction can often do more harm than good, especially if compared with an equally fast but better interaction with one of your competitors.

To help you navigate the world of chatbots and decide on the best solution for your business, we have put together an amazing team of experts that will analyze your company, and offer advice for free. Get in touch with them!