Direct Mobile Dials Are Fueling B2B Communication Channels

Time is always a key factor in sales. Whether it is reaching out when a company is going through a growth trend, responding in a timely fashion to an RFP, or reaching out to renew an existing contract; timing can mean the difference between revenue and missed opportunity.  However, there is nothing worse than reaching out and getting “ghosted”. Never hearing back and having to deal with the anxiety of “do I reach out again?”, “am I bugging them?”, “did they get my message?”, “I was sent to voicemail again, did I lose the deal?” This uncertainty is nothing new to any seasoned sales person. One way to alleviate this anxiety is to reach out via multiple channels to find the best way your prospect or customer prefers to communicate.

So what outreach methods are the best communication channels to get in touch with your prospect or customer, and get that response in order to alleviate some of the uncertainty of the common sales process? One company, Text Us, is using text messaging to avoid the voice mailbox and cluttered email inbox to help customers reach out via mobile phone text message and they are having greater success with staggeringly higher response rates than traditional methods. In fact, According to their website, textus customers are seeing a 40% response rate to text messages. The data makes complete sense when you think about how often the average person checks their cell phone every day. According to a 2015 study by Deloitte, the average american checks their cell phone 46 times a day. That is an average of 3 times an hour (assuming 8 hours of sleep a night we all get…right). So why wouldn’t it make sense to reach out directly via text to take advantage of one of these attentive moments.

The data doesn’t stop with text messaging. In fact, there are still many benefits to reaching out via phone call or email. Let’s look at the benefit of picking up the phone and reaching out first.

The benefits of the phone call include:

• Personalization, reaching out with a voice to match the message
• Back and forth to build trust, ask questions and gain understanding
• Hanging up is hard to do, it is much harder to hang up than press the delete button

Phone calls are still a great way to reach out because they are the closest thing to an in-person meeting, but they are still incredibly time consuming.  If you know your audience and know that conveying trust is a major point of the business relationship (and you can’t get together for a face-face-to-face), phone calls are still a powerful communication channel.

Email is still a popular tool to reach out as well.  Email can include an incredible amount of information that is consumable when the recipient is ready to read it.  According to a Return Path study last year, analyzing 27 Billion emails sent by Americans between May 2016 and April 2017, 55% were opened via a mobile device.

The benefits of an email include:

• Email is incredibly time saving for both parties
• Emails are less invasive, and can be responded to at a convenient time
• You can track email data and know what is working and what isn’t

Email is still a popular method to reach out because its a quick and easy way to send important documents, contracts, and additional information to advance the B2B relationship.  There are downsides to email, including spam traps, and inbox overload, as the average American receives 121 emails a day (40 of which are B2B emails).

Email, phone calls and text messages are still viewed as 3 separate communication channels in the sales/marketing world, but email marketers and sales professionals alike need to make sure they are using each one effectively, as the majority of Americans continue to utilize their mobile cell phones more and more.

At Lead411, we are committed to this data and have been adding more and more mobile phone numbers and verified emails to our platform.  As this trend continues, the need for accurate phone numbers and verified email addresses will be at the forefront of the B2B relationship for marketing and sales professionals alike, as they look for the most successful ways to improve communication and maintain revenue streams without worrying if the message was received or not.

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