An answering service, like Smith.ai, can offer your business sales development services. In doing so, answering services can provide additional representatives for your in-house sales team to help qualify leads and make sales calls. Smith.ai’s virtual receptionists act as your sales extension by making outbound calls, screening leads, and calling back potential prospects so that your business has every opportunity to find and convert new leads. Your top sales staff will only be sent ready-to-purchase, qualified leads so all your team has to focus on is sealing the deal. This allows your staff to spread out their sales responsibilities so that they focus on sending leads down your business’s sales funnel without having to worry about missing a lead due to already being on the phone or having to call back leads who filled out web forms. We do all of the work for you so that your business can increase its sales capacity without any more time or effort demands on your team.With sales development services, your business can exude professionalism at all times and grow more successful by the hour.

By enabling sales development services through an answering service, your business can:

• Minimize distractions & protect team’s time: With sales calls being made and potential leads being screened, your team will be able to focus on more important sales tasks and avoid constant interruptions.
• Reduce call handling times: Sales development services allow for sales calls to be picked up immediately and outbound calls to be made more frequently so that leads won’t hang up, be stuck waiting on hold, or go unanswered.  
• Boost client satisfaction & business reputation: With sales development services, your leads will get an immediate answer to their inquiry, whether made online or over the phone, displaying the illusion of a larger business. With clients feeling valued, your business will exude professionalism and your company’s reputation will be stronger than ever.
• Enhance lead conversions: Sales development services allow experienced agents to screen and qualify leads for you and only send your sales team leads worth their time, meaning your sales staff can convert more leads and make more sales in less time. 
  

A sales development service can make all the difference for your company. It's important for any business to have reliable and efficient sales teams. Smith.ai can provide professional sales representatives who can screen potential prospects, perform outbound calls, and send only qualified leads straight to your sales team. We are your lead gatekeepers who can deliver exceptional service so that even if you don’t have the time to send clients through your sales funnel, leads can still be screened and converted faster than ever, thanks to Smith.ai’s answering service.

Sales development services are invaluable to your business’s success. With trustworthy representatives performing sales tasks for your team, you can boost your team’s responsiveness and productivity and put your business well ahead of your competitors. Whether your business needs lead screening assistance, customer service support, or just help off-setting sales performance pressure on your team, a sales development service can transform your business into the best version of itself.

As far as sales development services are concerned, call centers and in-house staff can’t perform as well as an answering service. While they may be able to answer calls more frequently and consistently than employees with other duties, call centers and in-house receptionists are rarely trained in customer service or sales and tend to deliver sub-par quality on the sales calls they make.

Developing sales isn’t rocket science, yet still call centers and in-house staff often fail to perform sales tasks in a manner that prioritizes your teams’ time and your callers’ satisfaction. Call centers and in-house staff are often not equipped to answer common sales questions leads have and come with excessive background noise as well as basic call handling, leaving clients understandably annoyed. 

Answering services like Smith.ai offer thoughtful accommodations, like scheduled call-backs so that your team never has to miss a lead. By paying attention to the details, Smith.ai’s answering service can relieve your busy team of tedious sales duties, care for your clients with outstanding customer service, and help your business thrive. Hiring a call center or an in-house staff rather than outsourcing sales development services to an answering service may risk your reputation, your productivity, and your customer satisfaction. 

If you’re a small business, this rings especially true for you. Over 80% of consumers prefer to talk to a real person over the phone yet call center agents and in-house staff can sound rehearsed, impersonal, and unsettling. This can destroy any initial impression a client may have and erode any trust they may have in your business, which is critical to establish in the initial conversation with a potential lead. 

It’s well known that call centers customarily:

• Have little to no sales or customer service knowledge
• Leave leads on hold for absurd amounts of time
• Fail to check your teams’ availability before transferring calls
• Have trouble screening and qualifying leads
  

Call center agents are not trained in sales or customer service, ultimately falling short of providing satisfactory service and sales assistance. Clients that are sent to a call center to make a sales inquiries or express interest in a company hone can be put on hold anywhere from 5 to 15 minutes, whereas sales calls answered by an answering service usually only take anywhere from 1 to 2 minutes. And with only 44% of callers reporting call centers to be helpful compared to nearly 76% of callers reporting non-call centers, like answering service, to be helpful, it’s clear to see that hiring a call center will result in longer call times and unsatisfactory customer service.

In-house staff also regularly:

• Come unequipped to address leads concerns
• Have limited sales or customer service knowledge
• Cost companies more than they bring in
• Have little to no ability to make capture, screen, and nurture leads
  

Just like call center agents, in-house staff are not specialized in customer service and can rarely offer expertise or assistance in sales. Despite being their sole purpose, in-house staff still fail to answer sales calls, which can cost your business potential customers, as up to 50% of sales go to businesses that answer first. Current clients can be lost as well due to an in-house receptionists' failure to offer sales expertise or adequate customer service, as over 71% of clients will end a business relationship due to poor phone etiquette. Hiring an in-house staff to answer calls is arguably counterintuitive to your business’s success. 

All of these common issues with call centers and in-house staff can lead to clients hanging up the phone and potential prospects taking their business elsewhere, resulting in your company losing leads, customer loyalty, money, and time. By hiring an answering service, such as Smith.ai, instead, your team can avoid losing out on clients by having a knowledgeable and friendly sales representative available at all times to screen potential prospects, perform outbound calls, and send qualified leads directly to your sales teams.

If that isn’t enough, the Bureau of Labor Statistics found that on average, answering services cost only about 20% of what an in-house staff or call center costs despite offering more features and better quality services. 

As a matter of fact, Smith.ai’s virtual receptionists can:

• Perform professional sales calls
• Call back leads from social media or website form-fills
• Send qualified, ready-to-purchase leads straight to your sales team
• Schedule call-backs that adhere to your team’s calendar
• Foster leads with personal and friendly customer service
• Prepare callers with critical information that allow for a smoother transition
  

Outsourcing sales development services to an answering service like Smith.ai instead of a call center or in-house staff can save your business from overextended budgets, embarrassing client interactions, missed lead-capturing opportunities, and frustrating workplace complications. Rather than risk your revenue and client relationships on inexperienced or ineffective call center agents or in-house staff, trust Smith.ai’s reliable service to nurture callers, capture leads, and take the pressure off of your sales staff. 

Don’t just take our word for it. Check out some of our clients’ reviews to see why so many businesses rely on Smith.ai to handle their sales development services.

Cost is an important factor when deciding whether your business should sign up for an answering service or not. Many answering services often hide their true prices to trick you into signing up. Luckily, Smith.ai’s pricing is always clearly advertised upfront so that determining the cost for sales development services can be simple and painless.

When signing up for Smith.ai, there are:

No set-up fees

No cancellation fees

Free spam blocking

No hidden fees/pricing

You shouldn’t have to go bankrupt to receive high-quality services that can set your business apart from the others. With Smith.ai, you’ll never be charged with random, unrecognizable fees or stuck paying for something you didn’t sign up for. You can rest easy knowing what you see is always going to be exactly what you get.

Even better – Smith.ai’s sales development services, among other features, are incredibly affordable. Monthly plans start at as little at $140/month or, if you prefer, you can create a customized plan that fits your business needs. No matter which plan you choose, you’ll never have to spend more than you should, since Smith.ai’s virtual receptionist pricing follows a per-call rather than per-minute pricing model. That way, you don’t have to pay for someone to sit around while your phone isn’t ringing as you would with an in-house staff member. You only ever pay for the plan you sign up for – nothing more. 

To save you even more money, Smith.ai offers 15% off when you pay upfront annually. You’ll be able save money and receive the exact same services as you normally would on a monthly payment plan. It’s a win-win. 

If your business might benefit from bundling sales development services with live website or text message answering, Smith.ai also offers a 5% bundled discount for receptionist and chat services. This’ll put money back in your pocket and give your business the opportunity to take advantage of unique services other answering services don’t offer, granting your business a leg up in your industry.

Whatever your business can afford, investing in an answering service that offers sales development services will be well worth it. While other companie may be stuck spending massive amounts of time and money on front desk support or call centers, you’ll be able to save both by utilizing an inexpensive and flexible service that provides you with sales assistance. Customers will run to your business for your reliable customer service, quick answering, and well-prepared staff.

To see if Smith.ai is the right fit for your business, sign up for a 14-day/20-call free trial – no credit card required.

Keeping a business up and running is no simple task. That’s why it’s easy to see how quickly businesses can run into problems they struggle to resolve themselves. Common problems that indicate your company may benefit from a sales development service are:

• My team struggles to keep up with sales calls and remain productive

Sales calls don’t just come in when your team is ready and available. For sales teams that already have enough on their plate, the amount of sales calls that need to be properly answered, screened, and sent down the sales funnel can be overwhelming to say the least. With over 20% of calls being spam, it can be even more difficult to determine which callers are real clients or leads. Answering sales calls consistently and correctly is crucial for your business’s success, but sales teams might have to neglect more important work to do so, leaving your staff with a growing list of tasks they can’t seem to get done. 

• I can’t afford to hire front desk support

Front desk support, whether it’s in-house receptionists or call centers, can cost tens of thousands of dollars and with slimmer budgets set in place, business can often be left desperate for sales assistance. Paying more than you can afford for services you need can put your business in a dangerous position and trying out free services can be just as detrimental to a business as having nothing at all. Without sales support in some way, shape, or form, your business can lose out on leads and dismantle client relationships.

• My staff has difficulty finding and capturing leads

Staff members may not have the time or expertise to convert leads consistently. When a representative fumbles over your business’s mission, struggles to portray confidence in your company’s services, or forgets to mention their contact information, clients may lose interest quickly and feel less secure about entering into a relationship with your business, costing you not only your revenue, but your reputation as well.

• Clients are frustrated with our slow response times

The only way a business can succeed is when clients are happy so when clients inevitably have questions about their services or concerns about their products, businesses need to be prepared to answer them. Businesses regularly struggle to find the time to answer clients’ questions in a quick and efficient manner. Whether staff members have limited availability and either can’t get to the phone in time or leave clients on hold, clients can get irritated and hang up, going to the next company they find in their search results. 

If your business is facing one or any of these challenges, an answering service that provides sales development services can help you convert more leads and deliver excellent services to clients who call. An answering service, such as Smith.ai, can take the pressure off of your sales team and allow your business more flexibility in time and in budget without compromising your client relationships. Smith.ai’s virtual receptionists can assist your sales team by screening potential prospects and performing outbound calls to boost your business’s lead conversions. Smith.ai’s answering service offers the fastest, easiest, and most affordable way to resolve your business’s issues and leave your clients with a smile on their face.

Businesses of every size can benefit from outsourcing call handling and enabling sales development services, whether it helps to take the load off of a small, family owned business or to increase efficiency in a large corporation. For example:

• For small businesses, sales development services mean a professional “big company” phone presence and not having to pick up every call

Small businesses are often up to the necks in tasks that need to be done. They don’t need to spend more of their restricted time screening and qualifying leads or their narrow budget on call centers. Sales development services give small businesses the opportunity to increase the amount of leads they convert and provide their sales team with the support they deserve. This allows small businesses to maximize their potential sales without sacrificing their much-needed time, money, or outreach towards current and potential clients. No more wasted days dedicated to determining whether a caller is interested in your services or not.

• For medium businesses, sales development services mean sales assistance and screened leads

With an endless amount of projects that need to be done, medium sized businesses often struggle to get everything done while focusing on improving their sales. Balancing daily tasks with performing sales duties is difficult for any company, let alone a company with limited staff, availability, and resources. Outsourcing sales development services enables medium sized businesses to place the responsibility of customer service and lead screening into the hands of a trustworthy agent so that their team can get back to running important sales operations without worrying about neglecting potential prospects.

• For large businesses, sales development services mean personalized customer interactions and scheduled call-backs

Many larger businesses have staff that are far too busy to answer calls themselves. It can be tedious for sizable staff to focus on the smaller details, like providing personalized one-on-one customer service, when there are such vast operations to run. It’s also very costly to hire in-house staff and, for companies at the enterprise level, scaling at lower cost is a core objective. Sales development services can make it easier for large businesses to function at a high volume without neglecting the details that can separate a good sales team from a great one. By allowing answering services like Smith.ai to send qualified leads directly to sales teams and schedule call-backs when they’re busy, larger businesses no longer have to choose between interrupting work to answer a sales call or abandoning leads.

Having an experienced team of sales representatives who are trained in customer service to represent your company can transform your business’s efficiency for the better, no matter what size your business is. Whether you want to improve your company’s sales or increase your business’s lead conversion rate, an answering service that delivers sales development services can help accomplish your company’s goals and get your team focused on their work once again.