A PROACTIVE SALES CHATWHY YOU SHOULD IMPLEMENT

”A PROACTIVE LIVE CHAT IS A CHAT INITIATED BY THE COMPANY INSTEAD OF A WEBSITE VISITOR. RATHER

THAN WAITING FOR A VISITOR TO START CHATTING, A MESSAGE IS SENT OUT TO GREET THE VISITOR

INVITING HER TO CHAT.”

@IlkkaVertanen

WHY YOU SHOULD IMPLEMENT A PROACTIVE SALES CHAT

Ilkka Vertanen @IlkkaVertanen ilkkavertanen.com

WHY YOU SHOULD IMPLEMENT A PROACTIVE SALES CHAT

WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT?▸ Having a chat icon on your website enables people to

"call you." Anyone on your site can dial in.

▸ With proactive chat, you become the one controlling who gets invited to chat. You can now have control over what kind of chat conversations your team has.

▸ You exercise this authority by targeting invites only to those visitors who support your business goal (more sales).

▸ Of three principles for successful live chat operation, proactive chat helps you to control direction. An example of a proactive chat message.

Ilkka Vertanen @IlkkaVertanen ilkkavertanen.com

WHY YOU SHOULD IMPLEMENT A PROACTIVE SALES CHAT

FROM AGGRESSIVE WAITING...

From a website visitor to a new customer.

▸ In a modern buying process, potential customers do most of their research independently and then reach out asking proposals from selected 1-2 suppliers.

▸ Much money is spent on getting traffic on the website. Then through painstaking optimisation, some of the traffic converts to sales leads or even RFPs. Finally, some visitors end up as new customers.

▸ This is you and your sales team being reactive. Aggressively waiting for sales leads!

Ilkka Vertanen @IlkkaVertanen ilkkavertanen.com

WHY YOU SHOULD IMPLEMENT A PROACTIVE SALES CHAT

...TO PROACTIVE SELLING!▸ For each website visitor who connects with you,

many consider reaching out but decide not to do so.

▸ With proactive live chat, you can capture hesitant visitors and turn them into conversations and warm sales leads.

▸ An example: A prospect is reading your blog. He is about to leave your page when a chat window pops up with a message: "Hi there! I see that you are reading about one of our bestsellers. Would you like to know more?” This prompt leads to a conversation and scheduled call to continue the discussion.

From a website visitor to a new customer.

ADD A MULTIPLIER. HUNDREDS OF SALES-

FOCUSED CHAT CONVERSATIONS.

HOW WOULD THEY TRANSFORM YOUR SALES PIPELINE?

LET’S RUN SOME NUMBERS!

Ilkka Vertanen @IlkkaVertanen ilkkavertanen.com

IMPACT ON SALES IS £40,000 / MONTHAn SME collects sales leads from their website:

▸ Website visitors (month): 65,000pcs

▸ Targeted live chat captures 1% of visitors.

▸ Sales-focused chat conversations: 650pcs /month

▸ Hit rate, chat conversation to sales lead: 25%

▸ New sales leads: 163pcs / month

WHY YOU SHOULD IMPLEMENT A PROACTIVE SALES CHAT

Those sales leads go through sales pipeline:

▸ Average deal value: £2,500

▸ Hit rate, lead to deal: 10%

▸ New deals: 16pcs / month

▸ New revenue: 16 x £2,500 = £40,000 / month

ISN'T IT CRAZY HOW BIG OF AN IMPACT A SMALL NUDGE CAN HAVE?

NOW RUN THIS EXERCISE WITH YOUR NUMBERS

TURNING LIVE CHAT OPERATIONS TO LEAN, MEAN SALES MACHINESHi! My name is Ilkka Vertanen. I am an e-commerce enthusiast and a sales fanatic. I'm passionate about developing digital businesses and online sales.

During daytime, I use a live chat primed for sales to deliver increased revenue from digital channels. With sales chat, I boost lead generation and increase conversion rates. Rest of my time I spent following latest trends in tech. Today I’m especially interested in chatbots and virtual reality.

For more check out my other content about digital business, e-commerce, sales, live chat, and chatbots here: ilkkavertanen.com.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

@IlkkaVertanen ilkkavertanen.com