Outbound Sales Setup

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Outbound Sales

Get better results from your outside sales efforts by adding SMS text messaging to your toolbelt. Sales professionals love having a business number that allows texting. They can cultivate relationships, manage new sales, share information with other sales professionals, and keep their personal numbers private.

Outline

Overview

Before you begin texting leads and customers, you must have consent to text with them. There are a few different kinds of consent depending on what kind of messaging you plan to implement. Please review this post on consent: How to Get Consent to Text with Your Customers.

If you already have consent from current leads/customers then you can start texting them right away. Review “Import Contacts with Tags” to learn how to import your current customers and leads with a tag.

Before you begin texting your sales prospects, you need their permission. For outbound sales, there are several ways to gain consent.

  1. Verbal content over the phone.
  2. Written consent over Email.
  3. Checkbox on a contact form.
  4. Keyword opt-in. (setup automation in Beetexting).

Keyword Opt-ins

Create Your Automation

  1. Create an automation to automatically gather opt-ins, modify contact information, and automatically reply to received messages.
    1. Start by selecting ‘Tools’.
    2. Select ‘Automations’.
    3. Then select ‘Create Automation’.
    4. Title: Create a title for your automation. This will only be visible internally and will help you identify your automation within the Automation overview screen.

Keywords

Keywords are a form of automation. You choose a piece of text that, once received, performs some kind of action within Beetexting. We’ll use this keyword to trigger your opt-in tag to be added to the contact, as well as send a reply message to the new opt-in.

  1. You’ve already started your keyword automation creation and created the title. Now, we’ll set the condition that triggers the action. In this case, a keyword.
  2. Within the “ONE of these conditions must be met” section, select ‘Message Received’ from the first dropdown.
    • Other options are ‘Time Is’ and ‘Tag added to contact’. Typically, neither of these options work to gather opt-ins.
      1. Tip: ‘Time is’ can be used for Out of Office automations. ‘Tag added to contact’ can be used to tag your opt-ins with the opt-in tag if you use multiple keywords to segment your customers but is unnecessary.
  3. In the dropdown to the right of ‘Message Received’, select ‘Exactly Matches’
    • The other option here is ‘Contains’. By selecting contains, if that keyword is ANYWHERE within the message you received, the action you set later in this process will occur. We recommend NOT using this to gather marketing/promotional opt-ins.
  4. In the text box below both dropdowns, type in the keyword that you would like your customers/leads to text to your number to opt-in to receive your promotional messages
    • You can use whatever keyword you’d like. For outbound sales you want to generate new conversations – you might use a keyword like “TALK”, “INFO”, or “MEET”. Depending on what you want your leads to do.
  5. You can choose to make your keyword case sensitive if you’d like. In most cases, we recommend leaving this OFF
    • When ‘Case Sensitive’ is toggled on, your contact must match the capitalization of your set keyword. If your set keyword is “JOIN”, with ‘Case Sensitive’ marked as ON, and your contact texts you “join”, they will not have opted in. The contact must text “JOIN”.
  6. Where to promote your keyword.
    • Website
    • Social media
    • Business cards
    • Email signature

Automation Action

Automation actions are what occur within Beetexting after your condition is met. In this case, that would mean that you received the opt-in keyword set above. This automation will tag the opted-in person as well as send a reply message.

  1. To create your actions, start by selecting the dropdown under “Action upon met condition”. Select ‘Send a reply immediately’.
  2. Next, move on to the message section. Create the message that will be sent to your contact once they opt-in to receive your texts.
    • Within this message, be sure to mention who you are (your company name), what kind of content you will be sending (coupons, product releases, etc), and how often you will be texting them (monthly, weekly, twice a month, etc), and then your mandatory keywords; HELP for more info and STOP to opt-out
      • Example of Reply Message: "Thanks for reaching out to ABC Leadership Co! My name is Alex and I’m excited to share with you tips and tricks to be more productive. I’ll send a weekly productivity tip helping you get more done each day and the occasional update on the world of leadership. Msg&data rates apply. Reply HELP for more info or STOP to opt-out."
      • HELP and STOP are required for all promotional messaging. STOP will allow them to block all communication with you. HELP will provide company information, alternative communication methods, and how they can opt-out. You will have to create your HELP automation. STOP is already built into Beetexting.
      • Example of HELP automation: You’re texting with Beetexting! Call us at (XXX)XXX-XXXX or visit our website at beetexting.com. Opt-out to all messages by replying STOP.
  3. Now that we set up our reply, we will create the ‘Add tag to contact’ action. Select ‘Add Action’, below your first action.
  4. A second action creation box will appear beneath the first. Select the dropdown underneath ‘Action upon met condition’. From the options, select ‘Add tag to contact immediately’.
  5. In the tag section, type in the tag(s) that will be attached to that contact upon receipt of the keyword. You can create multiple tags here.
    1. The tag you assign should provide you information with how they relate to your business.
      1. Example: Adding the tag ‘opt-in’, will let you know they have opted-in to receive marketing messages.
      2. Example: You sell skateboards and bicycles. Create two separate keyword automations, one that tags contacts with ‘skateboards’ and another that tags them with ‘bicycles’. Now you can have focused campaigns that ensure your messages are only going to interested customers and prospects.
  6. One more thing! Just toggle your Automation to ‘ON’, underneath the actions section, if you’d like your automation to go live right away. You can always toggle this ON or OFF as you’d like.

Additional Automations

  1. Help Automation
    1. The help automation is mandatory, and it’s another Keyword automation you must create to send promotional messages to people. This automation allows recipients of your messages to text you the keyword “Help” communicating they need your assistance.
    2. You’ll follow the above Keyword automation steps to create your keyword automation for the word “Help”
    3. This automation does not require a tag action but does require a “Send Reply Immediately” action with a message containing company information, alternative communication methods, and how they can opt out.
      1. Here’s an example reply message “You're texting with SMB Tech Group. Reply STOP to opt-out. Text us your question or call us at: (309) 605-0663”

Tags

Overview

We’ve covered how to automatically add a tag through your keyword automation. Now we’ll dig deeper into what tags are and how to make them the most useful to you.

What's a tag? Tags are short descriptive words or phrases added to contact profiles. Tags are how you organize your contacts and how you identify specific groups of contacts for sending messages to multiple contacts at one time.

An Example Demonstrating How Tags Work

  • A customer texts you, so you add a tag to their profile indicating they are a customer… you add the word "customer" as the tag name to their contact profile.
  • Then a different contact who is a lead for service X texts you for information, so you add the tag "Lead Service X" to their contact profile.
  • And then you receive another lead from a different contact for your service Y so you add the tag "Lead Service Y" to their contact profile. As the weeks go on you accumulate 15 leads for service X, 20 leads for service Y, and 50 clients in your Beetexting account.
  • You decide you want to text all your leads for service X at once (a broadcast message) letting them know your newest service offering. This is when tags become really important - when you create your broadcast message it will ask you which tags to send your message to, and you will choose the tag(s) that identifies your leads and use those tags for the message. So you choose the tag "Lead - Service X" and your sales message sends to just your leads for service X and not anyone else.
  • This is a simple example of the basics of how tags work. Tags are the organization system behind your contacts helping you separate your contacts into their appropriate buckets.

Make a Plan for Your Tags

Before you begin adding tags consider determining beforehand how you want your contacts organized. Tags are the most powerful when implemented with a plan. Here are some good tag ideas:

  1. Customer/lead
  2. Product/service
  3. Region
  4. Campaign attribution
  5. Industry vertical
  6. Marketing/deal stage
  7. Job role

How to Create a Tag

  1. Open the Beetexting app on your desktop computer.
  2. Select a current conversation from your list of conversations.
  3. To the right of the conversation is their contact profile.
  4. From the contact profile, there is a spot for adding tags. Add a tag or two here to see how it works.
  5. Note: You want contacts to fit into similar tag names so keep these simple and not too detailed. If you want to add details then add those details as separate tags. For instance, let's take the following details about a client... they are a lead, they are in Nashville, and they are interested in both service x and service y from you. You could add the following 4 separate tags: "Lead" "Service Y" "Service X" and "Nashville".

Managing Tags

  1. Start by selecting ‘Tools’ from the left-hand column.
  2. Select ‘Tags’.
    1. Edit tags – there are two ways to edit your tags. You can look through the list and click on the tag you want to edit, or you can use the search bar to narrow down your choices and then click on the tag you want to edit.
      • Select the tag you want to edit.
      • The next screen gives several options for managing the selected tag.
      • Update tag name: if you want to alter the name of your tag, you can change/edit the tag name here.
      • Add/remove tag from contacts: all your contacts will show at the bottom of this page. The ones with a yellow circle by their name are the ones who have the chosen tag already on their profile. To remove the tag from their profile, simply click the yellow circle turning it back to white. Use the same method to add the tag to more contact profiles – once you’ve found the contact you’d like, simply click the circle changing it to yellow.
      • Once you’re happy with the changes you’ve made, select “save”.
    2. Delete tags – if there is a tag you no longer want anymore, you can delete the tag.
      • From ‘Tags’ select the tag you wish to delete.
      • On the next screen, you’ll see a red “DELETE” button. Click this button to delete the tag from all profiles and from your list of tags.
    3. Create new tags from the tags page.
      • From ‘Tags’ select ‘Create Tag’.
      • In the text box add the new tag name you wish to create.
      • Select from your contacts listed below on this page at least one contact to add the new tag.
      • Once you’re happy with the tag name and have chosen your contacts, select ‘Save’.
      • Note: You can also create new tags directly from contact profiles. From the dashboard select or search for the contact, you’d like to add a new tag to. Simply go to the tags section of their profile and add a new tag and select ‘ADD’.

Import Contacts with a Tag

  1. Go to ‘Contacts’ located next to ‘Conversations’ at the top of your Beetexting dashboard.
  2. Select the ‘Import’ icon (it’s the second icon from the left with an arrow).
  3. Download the CSV Format file.
  4. Use this format to setup your contacts for import. There is a row for tags. You can add as many tags per contact as you’d like. Separate them by comas.
  5. Your tags will automatically be added to the appropriate contact profiles when you import your contact list.
  6. REMINDER: You must receive consent before sending text messages to your contacts. For more information, read this article on consent.

Send Your Broadcast/Promotional Message

Overview

Broadcast messages are mass messages sent through text to your opted-in customers and/or leads. Similar to email marketing, you create one message and send to a large number of contacts who receive the message individually to their phone number.

Marketing uses broadcast messages to send promotions, events, coupons, discounts, industry news, and advice, etc.

Outbound sales can leverage broadcast messages to keep in touch with many leads at one time.

  1. Example: Let’s say you work for a commercial landscaping business and your job is to find more business clients. You have 50 warm leads that are a good fit, but you haven’t heard from them in a while. You send ONE message to all 50 that looks like this:
    1. “Hi [FNAME], I hope everything is going well at [COMPANY NAME]! I’m just touching base to see if there is a good time that we can meet to discuss your landscaping need for the fall? Thanks!”
    2. This message goes to each individual person’s mobile device as a personal text from you. Now you’ve just followed up personally with each lead in minutes instead of hours. Let’s look at how to create your broadcast message in Beetexting.

Create Your Broadcast Message

  1. Create a broadcast message to your opted-in sales leads to follow up with multiple leads at one time.
    1. Start by selecting ‘Tools’.
    2. Select ‘Broadcasts’.
    3. Then select ‘Create Broadcast’.
    4. Choose the phone number line you want your broadcast to come from when you send the broadcast message.
    5. Select which tag(s) you want your broadcast message to send to. Note: you can only send broadcast messages to people who have opted-in to receiving messages from you.
  2. If you choose more than one tag for your message, choose if you want your message to be more or less targeted.
    1. More targeted means the contact profile must have ALL the tags you’ve chosen listed in their profile to receive your message.
    2. Less targeted means that contacts must have at least one of your chosen tags to receive your message.
  3. Title: Create a title for your message. This will only be visible internally and will help you identify your broadcast message within the broadcast overview screen.
  4. Next, write your message. Messages have several features making them engaging to your recipients.
    1. Personalization: If you look above the text box to the right there are options to personalize your messages with the contact’s first name and/or businesses name.
    2. Below the text box is a series of different items you can add to your messages:
      • File attachments: Add a file attachment to your message.
      • Emojis and GIFs: Add emojis/GIFs to your message to build excitement, show personality, and more.
    3. Request review: If you’ve set up your request review link then you can use this request review feature in your broadcast message.
    4. Business vCard: If you’ve set up your business vCard then you can use the vCard feature to send your vCard in your broadcast message.
  5. Once you’re happy with the look of your message make sure to select the “opt-out” box for the appropriate opt-out messaging to be added to your message. You must also add the mandatory keyword HELP. Here’s an example for your opt-out language:
    1. “Reply HELP for more info or STOP to opt-out.”
    2. Note: You must create the keyword automation for HELP by following the instructions listed above.
  6. Choose when you’d like to send your message.
    1. Send now.
    2. Schedule for later.
      1. Click on the date/time below this option and a popup will appear for you to choose your preferred date and time for your message to send.
  7. Choose whether you’d like your broadcast message to be recurring.
    1. If yes, then select this box. Choose how often you want your message to send from the options provided.
  8. Agree to the terms of use.
  9. Lastly, you can choose to either:
    1. Send/schedule your message now
    2. Save as draft.

Schedule Messages

Overview

Write messages to your leads ahead of time and schedule them to send for a later date.

Tip: one way to use scheduled messages is reminders for meetings, scheduled check-in texts, holiday salutations, and more.

How to Schedule a Message

    1. Schedule from your conversation.
      1. Under the conversation text box is a series of icons. The schedule messages feature is the fifth icon from the left (the little clock).
      2. Select the clock icon.
      3. A popup screen will appear. Choose the date and time you’d like your message to send.
      4. Select ‘set’.
      5. Write your message in the text box.
      6. Select ‘schedule’.
    2. Schedule from tools.
      1. Open the Beetexting app on your desktop computer.
      2. Select ‘Tools’ located in the left-hand column.
      3. Select ‘Scheduled Texts’ from the top row.
      4. Select ‘Create Scheduled Text’.
      5. Choose the department you’re creating the scheduled text for.
      6. Under “Text Sent To” Either enter the name of your contact or their phone number.
        1. Tip: You can add multiple contacts for your scheduled message, but the contacts will be together in a group text, not an individual one-to-one conversation. For messaging multiple contacts at once to be delivered individually, use broadcast messaging.
      7. Choose the date and time you want your message to send.
      8. If you want to send a recurring message, select ‘make this text recurring’.
      9. Choose either ‘schedule text’ or ‘save draft’.

Manage Scheduled Messages

  1. Open the Beetexting app on your desktop computer.
  2. Select ‘Tools’ located in the left-hand column.
  3. Select ‘Scheduled Texts’ from the top row.
  4. From this screen, you can manage your upcoming scheduled messages and your draft messages by selecting the ‘Manage’ button to the right of messages. From the manage section you can:
    1. Delete the message.
    2. Change the recipient.
    3. Edit the message.
    4. Edit the date/time the message will send.
    5. Change your message from scheduled to a draft message by selecting ‘Save draft’.

Create Template Messages

Overview

Templates are great for creating and saving frequently used text messages to send quickly.

Example

  1. You make 50 calls/day to potential customers. If they’ve given permission then when your call goes to voicemail you can follow up with a text message.
  2. Your template might look like this: “Hi [firstname], I just tried calling and got your voicemail so I thought I’d follow up with a quick text letting you know I tried calling and see if there is a good time next week that we can meet to touch base?”.

How to Create Template Messages

  1. Select ‘Tools’ from the left column.
  2. Select ‘Templates’ from the top row.
  3. Select ‘Create Template’.
  4. Title your template (or internal reference only).
  5. Next, write your message. Messages have several features making them engaging to your recipients.
    1. Personalization: If you look above the text box to the right there are options to personalize your messages with the contact’s first name and/or businesses name.
    2. Below the text box is a series of different items you can add to your messages:
      • File attachments: Add a file attachment to your message.
      • Emojis and GIFs: Add emojis/GIFs to your message to show personality and more.
    3. Choose ‘Personal’ or ‘Shared’.
      • Personal: This is a template message that only you can see and use.
      • Shared: This is a template message that other users can also see and use.

Calendly

Overview

The Calendly integration allows you more ways to interact with people who schedule appointments with you.

This integration expands Calendly’s functionality for you to include deeper customization, advanced SMS sequences, and the ability to manage replies.

How to Link Your Calendly Account

  1. To begin, you must have a Calendly account.
  2. Go to Calendly to create your Calendly account.
  3. Go to the Beetexting app on your desktop computer.
  4. Select ‘Integrations’ from the left-hand column
  5. Follow the steps to link your Calendly account.
  6. NOTE: If you choose the free account you have to manually update your Calendly in Beetexting.

How to Create Workflows

  1. Go to Beetexting on your desktop computer.
  2. Select ‘Integrations’ from the left-hand column.
  3. Select ‘Create Workflow’.
  4. Choose the phone line you are creating the workflow for.
  5. Under ‘Workflow Title’ give your workflow a name (this is an internal note only).
  6. Under ‘Workflow Event’ choose which event you’re creating your workflow for.
  7. Create your first trigger:
    1. Under ‘When this happens’ choose the right scenario that should kick off your workflow.
  8. Create your first action:
    1. Under ‘Do this’ choose the right action that you want to happen after your workflow is triggered.
    2. Add more actions if you would like more than one thing to happen when your workflow is triggered.
      1. For example, if you’re inviting people to a webinar then you might want to have at least three different actions happen after the workflow is triggered: a confirmation message, a reminder message, and a tag added.

Manage Your Calendly Workflows

  1. If you have the free version of Calendly, you must manually update your Calendly account in Beetexting to show all your events. Here’s how:
    1. Go to the Beetexting app on your desktop computer.
    2. Select ‘Integrations’ from the left-hand column.
    3. Select ‘Status’.
    4. Select ‘Sync hook’ and then select ‘Sync Events’.
    5. Now you’re up to date.
  2. View and manage workflows.
    1. From the integrations page you can view both your workflows and past/present events.
    2. To manage specific workflows, select ‘Manage’ next to the workflow you want to manage.

CRM Integration

Overview

If your organization uses any of the following CRMs, you can import your contacts from your CRM:

  1. Google
  2. Hubspot
  3. Zoho
  4. Salesforce
  5. Microsoft Office 365
  6. Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central
  7. Microsoft Dynamics 365
  8. Zendesk Sell

How to Import Contacts from Your CRM

  1. Open Beetexting on your desktop computer (not your mobile device).
  2. Select “Contacts” next to “Conversations” located at the top of your dashboard towards the left.
  3. Select the “import contacts” icon (small rectangle with an arrow)
  4. A popup screen will appear. Select your company’s CRM to easily pull your contacts. (you can upload contacts manually as well if Beetexting doesn’t integrate with your CRM).
  5. A screen from your CRM will pop up - sign in and give permission for Beetexting to pull your contacts.
  6. After you sign in and give permission, your contacts will automatically be pulled into Beetexting. Check to make sure that any appropriate tags or information that you had within your contact management software have been pulled with the contact.
  7. NOTE: Your contacts will not update automatically once you update or add contacts to your CRM, but once the integration is set up, you can easily reimport your contacts whenever needed to update your contacts.
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