How to use a chatbot as a sales tool
Thomas Leek
| 5 min
In most companies, the sales team still consists of human employees only. But over the years, we see that this is changing rapidly. More and more often, we see one extra employee as the perfect addition to the sales team: a chatbot.
A chatbot does not only enable you to offer fast customer service, but also to combine it with higher sales. And the results of a using a chatbot in sales are speaking for themselves. In addition to higher sales, the chatbot also continues to work even when the rest of your sales team is asleep. Do you want to know how you can strengthen your sales team, and use a chatbot to achieve better results? In this article, we explain exactly how you can skyrocket your sales by using a chatbot.
The hardest working salesperson in the room
Let's start at the beginning. Because, as you probably know, a chatbot is traditionally used as a tool for customer service. This field is completely different from sales. So how can a chatbot increase sales then? Good question! This can actually be done in a surprising amount of ways. The most obvious way is for a customer to ask about a particular product or item. The chatbot can come into action and give the customer the correct answer and then ask if they are interested in this product.
But what if the product is out of stock? Or what if the customer is looking for a different product? Even then, the chatbot can provide suitable alternatives or offer an even better product, based on the customer's wishes. This way, you can also add up- and cross-selling to your chatbot's arsenal. And even when your customer really does want only one particular product, your chatbot can ask the customer's details and notify them when the product is back in stock. These are just some examples out of the many where a chatbot can significantly increase the sales of your company. And best of all, the process if fully automated!
💡 Take a look: The Best AI Chatbots For Lead Generation
Always on the hunt for sales
One of the biggest advantages of using a chatbot is that your company can now be reached 24 hours a day. This does not only apply to your customer service, but also to your sales & marketing team. In today’s world, consumers are often shopping late at night on the couch. You simply cannot expect your employees to be at work at these hours. So for such situations, using a chatbot is perfect! In that way, even when your employees are enjoying their well-deserved night's rest, the chatbot is ready 24/7 to help and support your customers with their questions and making sales.
A chatbot with a distinct personality and initiative
You can set up a chatbot in such a way that it has exactly the style and personality that suits your target group and company. If you have for example a somewhat younger target group? In this instance, you could give your chatbot a cool name and humour, where you combine service & sales with a wink and a smile. This ensures that the distance between your customers and your chatbot becomes smaller. Which in turn, makes the sales part a lot easier.
So far, we have only talked about a chatbot in a reactive way. But you can also set your chatbot in a more cheeky (and perhaps even more effectively) way. Because a chatbot keeps track of which customer visits which page very conveniently, you can use this to your advantage. For example, if your chatbot sees that a customer is on the same product page twice, they can message the customer on their own. Because when a customer comes back to a certain product, you know that they are seriously thinking about buying your product. To give the customer that last little push, you can trigger the chatbot to send the customer a message. A simple message like: “Hey! I see that you have visited this product before, can I maybe help you with this product or provide you more information?” usually works wonders to convert a roaming website visitor into a paying customer.
💡 Capture Sales from Facebook with these chatbots: The Best Messenger Chatbots
The chatbot as a solid B2B & B2C sales agent
Chatbots are also often used in the B2B market these days. The examples we've given so far are mainly for websites that sell products on their website. But companies that sell customized services or high-ticket products can benefit from a chatbot at least as much. A chatbot can generate leads for these types of companies and even qualify those leads automatically. As soon as a lead contacts the chatbot or visits a certain page, the chatbot can take action and ask for the lead's data. This lead can then be picked up the next day by the sales team. Or you can even choose to let the chatbot automatically schedule the sales call itself! One of the biggest benefits of this, is that you will automatically keep providing your sales team with new, qualified leads. In addition to this, you ensure that you do not miss out on any leads after closing time.
The ease of setting up a sales chatbot
Now you know what a chatbot can do for your company, you’re probably wondering how exactly to set up a chatbot for sales. Is it a very slow, expensive and difficult process? Luckily not! For example, if you build a chatbot with our platform, there is not even one line of code is involved!
The Watermelon platform uses a very easy & intuitive drag-and-drop system where you can design a conversation within minutes! Even without any technical knowledge. Even though there is no coding involved, that does not mean that there are a limited amount of options available. In our platform, there are a lot of options to choose from when designing your chatbot. For instance, you can choose to have your chatbot present a multiple choice menu, in which your customers can choose predetermined choices. But you can also give your customer complete freedom and let them type what they want. Because you can use the chatbot exactly as your customers want, it is very user-friendly. Do you want more information about the ease with which you build a chatbot with? On this page we have all the information you need.
But these are not all the use cases of a chatbot. There are many more use cases where a chatbot can help your company reduce costs, while simultaneously increasing your profits. You can think of using a chatbot for HR, marketing and customer service. If you are curious about what a chatbot can do for your company, you can schedule a free demo. We are more than happy to show you how a chatbot can also help your company.
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