Text messaging offers an incredible opportunity for sales teams to reach people quickly, consistently, and personally — three factors that heavily influence the deal cycle. But those advantages easily get overlooked when you have a process that seems to work. (Adding another tool to the sales stack? Sounds bothersome.)
So no matter where your opposition to using texting in sales comes from, I want to help you out. Let’s go through some of the most prevalent barriers to adopting text messaging in sales and how you can overcome them.
Texting Seems Invasive
Yeah, when you’re used to emailing people, texting leads and customers feels invasive. Cold contacting through texting should never happen.
Texting people with permission though? That’s just the natural progression of personalized communication. When you have permission to contact someone in that way and then do it, that’s not invasive. That’s simply following through.
So make it the norm to collect mobile numbers. Then use those numbers responsibly. You’re not spamming or bombarding them with messages. You’re going to talk to them like a human.
Email Works Just Fine
Yes, email works. But making phone calls works too, and there’s plenty of situations when you’re better off not calling. So why would you settle for email just because it’s what you’ve always done?
Comfort zones make up a pretty flimsy excuse for not trying something else that could cut down on busywork, give you more opportunities for engagement, and boost conversions.
Text messaging combines speed, authenticity, and convenience. It helps you do sales follow-up faster, more personally, and with greater ease overall. You communicate in a way that more and more people now prefer and keep a careful
The benefits of utilizing text messaging to reach out and follow up with leads and customers certainly outweigh the comfort of using email.
(And I’ll never say that you need to completely replace email with texting. Quite the opposite. Use them together and you’ll be golden.)
Conversational Texting Is Relatively New in Business
Just like you’re used to sending emails, buyers are used to receiving them. They’re even pretty used to getting texts from 5- or 6-digit short code numbers. They’re less used to conversations from a business. But that doesn’t mean customers don’t want to communicate that way.
More and more people now prefer texting for asking questions, scheduling appointments, and receiving reminders. They want real-time interactions and human-to-human conversations. And just because other sales people might not use texting yet doesn’t mean you should avoid it too.
For sales teams using Skipio, conversational text messaging has helped them boost show rates, increase engagement, and get people back on the calendar.
You Don’t Know What to Say in Text Messages
Again, texting isn’t meant to replace email and calling completely. It’s meant to provide the quick, convenient follow-up that email and phone calls lack.
So what do you usually say on a follow-up call or in a follow-up email? Say that in a conversational, concise way in a text message instead.
Basically, be yourself. Show your prospects and customers that you’re a person, one who cares about communicating clearly and consistently.
Still not sure what to say? Try out these prewritten templates for doing sales discovery. And use these 4 tips from 30 Minutes to President’s Club to start writing worthwhile messages.
You Don’t Know When to Reach Out With Texts
Once again, email falls in your comfort zone — you know the cadence for your email sequences. But texts shouldn’t send at the same intervals as emails. If you text someone as often as you may want to email them, you’re going to get a STOP.
The best way to create a process for your follow-up is to think about what you ideally would like. When you’re a buyer, when’s the optimal time for you to receive messages? How many messages is too many? At what points in the buying process would a reminder or follow-up help you move you through the deal cycle?
You don’t have to complicate things — be yourself and trust your sales intuition.
Using a Personal Number Feels Wrong
Using your personal number for business communication feels wrong because it is. It’s completely unnecessary. Just like you wouldn’t use your personal email to talk with a customer, you shouldn’t ever feel pressured to text someone from your personal number.
It’s an easy fix though. You keep your private number private with Skipio (or any of the other business text messaging platforms). Get a unique 10-digit number, with a local area code if you choose it, and a platform designed to help you communicate with customers more efficiently. Whether you’re texting customers or calling them, you do it from your Skipio number.
Texting in Sales Seems Like It Would Be Too Manual
If you’re using your personal number and the native messaging app on your phone, using texting in sales is going to be manual. There’s no way to schedule messages or save templates. Everything about that is time-consuming and kind of ruins the other benefits of texting.
So use a platform to automate your messaging. Adding more software isn’t always the answer, but if you want your engagement and outreach to actually reach your leads and customers, that extra software is going to be worth it.
With Skipio you can automatically import contacts, add them to drip messaging campaigns, move them in and out of groups, send ringless voicemail drops… The list goes on and on for how Skipio’s automations save you time throughout the day.
All of that adds up to faster outreach to new leads, easier appointment setting, higher show rates, better engagement throughout the buying process, and ultimately boosted CLV.
Demolish the barriers to using text messaging in sales
When you finally realize the text messaging could have on your sales, I’ve got you covered. Download The Sales Rep’s Playbook for Texting in the Sales Process and we’ll walk you through the major steps to create your texting strategy. You learn the why, what, and how of conversational text messaging for sales.
