****Please forgive any and all transcription errors as this was transcribed by Otter.ai.****

Lisa Leight 0:00

Hello, I'm Lisa Leight and you're listening to A Shark's Perspective.

(Music - shark theme)

Kenneth Kinney 0:20

Welcome back and thank you for joining A Shark's Perspective. I am Kenneth Kinney but friends call me Shark. I am a keynote speaker, a strategist, a shark diver, host of this show, and your Chief Shark Officer.

Kenneth Kinney 0:32

If you've ever worked closely with a call center environment, like yours truly, then you know the power and need for a good call center software platform, often referred to as a dialer, which is a piece of technology that helps enable a call center team to make more outbound calls, handle more inbound calls, do them faster, which is so important, be much more efficient. It was some guardrails that help call center personnel do so in a more compliant manner. Then what is the future of speed to lead and call center technologies and how can they help you get in close more sales and conversions?

Kenneth Kinney 1:06

Lisa Leight is the Chief Marketing Officer of Convoso, a predictive dialer and leading cloud based contact center software for sales and lead generation teams.

Kenneth Kinney 1:15

And on this episode, we will discuss the state of the state with call center platforms, ROI and efficiency with costs, speed to lead, integrating technology, compliance, the Consumer Consent Council and PACE, the future of predictive dialers and how AI plays a part with that, speeding race cars, candy, inbound and outbound, good industries for dialers, and a lot, lot more.

Kenneth Kinney 1:36

So let's tune into a Convoso Marketing Officer with a Shark Marketing Officer on this episode of A Shark's Perspective.

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Kenneth Kinney 1:47

Lisa, welcome to A Shark's Perspective. If you will, tell us a little bit about your background and your career to date.

Lisa Leight 1:54

Sure. My name is Lisa Leight. I'm Chief Marketing Officer here at Convoso. Convoso makes the fastest most powerful dialer for outbound in sales teams. And my background, I spent early parts of my career with large professional services firms like McKinsey and Ernst and Young and then graduated to really advising and leading marketing teams for technology and software companies could mostly coming up on enough for years now.

Kenneth Kinney 2:27

Do you have a CPA?

Unknown Speaker 2:29

I have my CPA, yes, my CPA, an MBA.

Kenneth Kinney 2:31

So how did you go from CPA to blend into marketing?

Lisa Leight 2:35

You know, I think I was always a marketing person at heart. But I forced myself because that seemed like a smart move and graduated from college. But it really, it really helped to form a metrics driven marketing strategy, because everything is is you know, you got to look at the the ROI of everything you do.

Kenneth Kinney 2:55

Well, you went from McKinsey to the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago. And that's almost like a midlife crisis, as far as you know, with that big of a shift. But let's let's talk a little bit about dialers and contexts in our software for sales and lead generation teams where we generally with the technology as it exists in the industry as a whole?

Lisa Leight 3:20

So, you know, dialers and dialer, they've always been about, you know, trying to get get prospects and customers on the phone in the most efficient way possible. And I think in you know, a lot of times there's a lot of those that are out there that are kind of more of a commodities and I think where the smart thing to do is really look at just like I was talking about ROI but you know, you really got to do the math and think about it not as a simply a cost line item in your budget. But what what tool are you selecting the technology and the tools that are really going to drive your top line as well as be most efficient with your your total set of expenses. We we talked a lot of people and a lot of people are being you know, pennywise and pound foolish like, well, how much is gonna cost me and oh, that's more than I'm paying now. And really, if people are approaching the, the decision of you know, do I switch to a dialer? Do I switch to a new one? Or you really need to to look at what's it going to do in terms of getting more people on the phone, getting more conversations, getting more opportunities to convert? What's that's going to, what is that going to translate to in revenue? And how is it going to make your people your agents more efficient?

Kenneth Kinney 4:42

Yeah, so often that I talked to people about lead generation, and they think about the cost of the lead itself, but they forget about a lot of missed opportunity costs. And that's where a lot of things like with age leads with the proper dialer or call center platform can really narrow that gap if you can Get the math on both sides. Yeah.

Lisa Leight 5:02

So yeah, and and think of we think of like, efficiency across three buckets. So there's the agent efficiency, the lead efficiency, and then kind of the management time efficiency. So what you said about lead efficiency, we see people all the time, and they're not getting the conversions that they want, what do they do that they they buy more leads, and they, you know, they keep pouring more leads into the, into the machine. And really, you need to make sure that you've got a systems in place and processes in place to to optimize the leads that you are buying. So are you working through? Do you know, do you have the workflow, the automated workflow to reach out to those leads in a way that's going to be most most powerful and most likely to get them on the phone? Also, do you have the, the granularity of reports reporting and analytics to understand what's your what's your ROI, by list by lead source by lead vendor, so that you can, you know, stop throwing bad money after good if you see that a list isn't performing? Let's you know, stop that and put your agents on the list. And the lead sources that are our performance. So there's really a number of things that people should be doing the smart dialer managers and and call center operators are doing to maximize their their lead efficiency. In terms of agent efficiency. You know, you see a lot of, you know, how do you make the most out of your agent time? That's one of the that's one of the most expensive cost items in a call center? So are you are they spending all their time listening and disposition? Ting answering machines? How can you get smarter about answering machine detection, so that your, you know, your people, first of all, they're not wasting their time. And then when they finally do get a live person on the phone, then they're, you know, suddenly a little bit, you know, lulled into sleep, because you know, they they're not quick on their game. And finally, the other category was management, which is, how do you make the most of your management time to give them the tools to see Make the smart decisions that they need to make?

Kenneth Kinney 7:17

This is across the board with any business, whether they've got a call center or not. There's a problem with having a lot of martec that doesn't integrate and talk to each other. But I find so often that so many people, for example, they get focused only on their CRM, and then they it best make buying a dialer an afterthought. And then they don't think about how it really connects well, right, talking about the importance of integrating a dialer, with other technologies in your marketing and tech stack.

Lisa Leight 7:51

Right? No. So that's very, that's very important. Because like I said, in terms of the purchases that you're making, in terms of leads, and making sure that you've got the you know, the back and forth to, to see the performance by those those different sources is key. And also making sure that it's efficient in terms of agents who are working between different systems, making sure that they can easily get the information at their fingertips to manage those things. And, and again, it's really not, yeah, not just looking at things as a as a cost item. But what what can you do to get more, get more folks on the line, that alone couldn't really drive your top line?

Kenneth Kinney 8:38

Yeah, it's something I see all the time where they also don't think about, Do I need to buy something to add on with a scripting technology? Do I need to look at multiple vendors for SMS conversations? does it integrate with some sort of mailer to do campaigns and, and the more that people start to think about that they start making better decisions that have better communications with their potential customers, and then soon to be customers? So

Lisa Leight 9:06

Yeah, and Kenneth you said, you said a couple of different things there that I'd like to, you know, further. So you talked about dynamic scripting. So dynamic scripting, obviously, having it incorporated into your dialer is going to be most efficient. But there again, it's a tool. It's a tool to support saying the right thing at the right time. Certainly from a compliance standpoint, I know our customers in the solar industry, they need to, say certain disclosures at the beginning of every call and that differ state by state. So you know, dynamic tripping, it's a tool to make sure you're you're being compliant, and which can be costly if you're not. It's also a training tool. So if you've got a good dynamic scripting, functionality, and you can get your agents you can move them from, you know, just training to live calls and Have a little more kind of training wheels with a dynamic scripting support that that's going to, to cut down on your training time and get them producing money sooner for themselves and for you, which is also going to kind of help with turnover. So that's the key word you also mentioned, you know, email and, you know, Omni channel, I think having a having an omni omni channel solutions, reaching out to the consumers, a variety of different ways consumers of today want to, you know, are much more likely to, you know, respond to a text or, you know, maybe, you know, touching them across all different fronts is important. And I think, you know, looking ahead, we're going to see more intelligent, you know, the conversational AI, the younger generations, they're going to be used to interacting with a, you know, whether it's chatbots on a website, or whether it's a intelligent virtual agent on the on the phone, or SMS texts, you know, that sort of interaction can help you reach the reach the warm prospects and generate more live polls with lower costs. So it's definitely a technology that people are looking to.

Kenneth Kinney 11:19

Well, you just touched on something earlier, when you were talking about this, I want to kind of dive back in some of the biggest issues in the space, especially when considering outbound. And now that people have got a great dialer with a that's a shiny, fast toy, are the compliance and legal concerns to consider with it with the power of a dialer? With that great power comes great responsibility. Sorry to borrow borrow that line again, but where do you guys think through the compliance part of all of this, because you are part of the guardrail with a brand who might, they may not always know how to not abuse the system.

Lisa Leight 11:55

Right now, that's a good point. And that's why we are we are active as I know, you are as well, you know, consumer consent and pace, that professional association for customer engagement, and really trying to be proactive and working with our members to like, let's, let's let's police ourselves, let's take the lead and acting responsibly with the consumer to you know, because the regulators are certainly, you know, getting more and more active, not just at the federal level, and that's one of the I think that's one of the challenges is at the state level, we're seeing all these little mini TCPA laws springing up by state, whether in Florida, Washington, Oklahoma, Maryland, all these and Michigan's all these other ones coming down the pike. So you really need a robust tool to be able to, you know, start your shorter list by state or some cases by zip code or area code, and then act appropriately. So for example, there's, there's rules in a handful of states saying that you cannot contact a prospect more than x times within a 24 hour period. And that may be different. So how do you how do you make sure that you're that you're doing that because the fines, fines can be 1500 to 2500 per call. So that's, you know, making sure that we're there's tools and technologies that can allow you to do that, I think that's really important. The other thing, and that these regulatory agencies, they really, they acknowledge when companies have kind of gone above and beyond to, to, you know, try to really, you know, try to arm themselves with a lot of tools for supporting compliance. So that's, you know, having making sure your dialer automatically integrates with the, the Do Not Call list, you know, making sure a lot of times I've mentioned the scripting, making sure that you're saying what you need to say, making sure that, you know, for example, there's a lot of things that are being put in place to catch the illegal Robo callers. And, unfortunately, there's a lot of legitimate, compliant minded companies that have prior express written consent to contact that consumer and they're getting caught up in the net that's designed to catch the Illegal Robocallers

Kenneth Kinney 14:31

Yeah, it was a great shout out as well to rob and team at consumer consent Council and pace. If you're in the lead generation business, you need to check out pay sociation and understand a lot of these legalities because compliance can really bite you in the behind on the back end, other than it can just be a much better relationship with your customers if they know you're being ethical about it as well. But you know, one of the things that I remember talking to you at a conference, gosh, probably six months ago, but we had to space can be confusing to buyers. And I was thinking about this going through a conference that I had spoken at earlier in the year. And I was thinking about brands that maybe didn't have the background I did. And they're walking around, and I, and I've talked to people like, who are attendees before that when they walk through a lot of these conferences, they see booth after booth after booth, and they don't understand all the what each of them does. And it's hard. When you think about CRMs, and other kinds of SAS technologies out there. For you and your team, how do you go about looking at the differentiation with your platform, and a lot of it comes down to cost, but it also comes down to the bells and whistles as well. And I guess, basically, what makes your call center platform unique? And how should a buyer, whether they're in a conference or just sitting at their desk, go about considering what your unique is as well.

Lisa Leight 15:52

Right? Well, that's, that's a great question. And that's why a lot of a lot of times if you know, committees or are eligible to do to do a trial, we recommend, you know, doing a side by side trial, and really, you know, putting putting it to the test. Because I think that's when you can can see, again, side by side, which which system is going to get those prospects on the phone more. And a lot of times, you know, we've we've helped triple and in some cases quadruple, you know, contact rates and those sound like big numbers, but we've definitely had cases like that. But even if you could only increase contact rates by you know, by, you know, 10 to 30% really doing the math and understand you have to understand your you have to start by understanding your numbers yourself. So, um, you know, what's your current contact rates? What's your current revenue per conversion? And so then looking at what would you know, and you can do the math, what would a 30% improvement in contract rate? What would that get you? And then do it, like I said, doing the side by side trial to, to, you know, see what's what's it look like how many, we did a side by side trial in terms of answering machine detection with one of the larger players in the space. And again, it's, which is primarily an imbalanced solution. So they're not as focused on answering machine detection? Well, we were having a five times as many conversations, which was also led to five times as many, you know, sales, and the conversion rate went up because the agents were having more fun and having more good conversations. So I really think trying to do the trying to do the math in a metrics driven way. And side by side trial is going to lead you to your best your best answer.

Kenneth Kinney 17:55

So if you could either use a crystal ball or magic wand, wherever would you like to see dialers go in the say, near to mid term future? A few years out? Where do you think the the industry, I guess the will be with the advances that you look at?

Lisa Leight 18:13

Right, so I really think that a lot of the regulatory pressures are going to drive the industry due to higher costs, higher costs and higher quality leads. And so that means a couple of different things, it really means, you know, man, you better have your systems in place to do the analytics, if you're spending more for these leads, you really want to make sure that you're properly working them in the most efficient way possible, and that you can tell what your cost per acquisition is by lead source so you can make those smart decisions. Um, and, you know, so I think that's going to be you know, one direction is, it's really going to be a necessity for the software to give you those answers. Um, the other thing in terms of you know, we've we've heard a lot of talk about conversational AI. And I think people are really going to want to give that a give that a shot to see what it can do. What are the repetitive tasks that might be more properly done, and more economically done by an intelligent virtual agent? So maybe the initial set of questions for qualification, maybe it's kind of nurturing those leads and tried to do appointment setting, maybe you've had a point you have appointments, I know in the home services industry, they're, they're no show rate for physical face to face appointments can be you know, 50 50%. So that's very costly when you look at what you spent in so how can you use a conversational AI to You know, reconfirm remind those folks and again have your it's not to replace human agents but it's to really utilize human agents for the the special tasks that they are that only they can can do. Like closing the deals.

Kenneth Kinney 20:16

Yeah. Great point. Lisa, is this of everybody who appears on the show, especially since my nickname is shark, but what is your favorite kind of shark and why? You're in LA, you're

Lisa Leight 20:29

I will have to say the great white shark. And that's because seeing the movie as a as a, you know, young young team seen the movie Jaws when it came out. I was fascinated by it. I was so fascinated with Roy Scheider, but that's what

Kenneth Kinney 20:51

Well, you got a bunch of baby Great Whites not far off the pole is ice waters in LA. So anyway. Alright. Well, Lisa, this special time in the show? Are you ready for the five most interesting and important questions that you're going to be asked?

Unknown Speaker 21:05

Oh, I have not the Shark one was one. Yes. I'm ready

Kenneth Kinney 21:08

It's a it's a warm up to those. So. All right, number one, here we go. We've talked a lot about speed. Would you rather watch a Formula One race or a NASCAR race? Because last time I saw you there was a big car as part of your kind of promotional logo.

Lisa Leight 21:26

Yes. And I would say yes. And I was at the speed track. Which was it was a NASCAR and that was pretty going around the track. That was pretty bumpy. I'm gonna go with a Formula One.

Kenneth Kinney 21:40

Okay. Alright, number two. A real tough one here. Reese's Pieces or m&ms? m&ms, definitely. Okay. All right. Number three inbound or outbound.

Lisa Leight 21:53

Outbound. So definitely outbound.

Kenneth Kinney 21:57

Makes sense. Yeah. I'm asking somebody that works with a dialer. Alright, number four. And I know you're not partial to any of them. But I'm gonna give you a couple of industries. And I want you to sort of pick one that you think works the best with dialers in general. Okay. Insurance, financial, Home Services, or education.

Unknown Speaker 22:21

Oh, my gosh, that's, that's not

Kenneth Kinney 22:23

like your favorite child. I mean, yeah, I don't want to I don't want to get you in trouble with one client per se. I mean, just in general, with the industry.

Lisa Leight 22:32

You know, I would you get no financial, I'm not gonna say financial because financial is so broad, there's some real sweet spots in around credit repair and debt settlement. But I and I love I love our home services. Clients because I think I'm gonna you know, even though insurance is such a huge, it's, we love our insurance customers. And that's a big part of it. And there's so many different types between final expense and all the health insurance varieties and all the subsets within there. So it's, it's going to be a toss, I would, my initial thought was to say insurance, but I love my home services and solar customers, because a lot of times they they've gone from door knockers to getting a you know, call center together and have really grown and taken care of some, a lot of these have become national chains, and they really rely on on that. So it's a tough one between the two, but I will say

Kenneth Kinney 23:37

Alright, number five. And the most important question that you're gonna be asked today is biscuits, or cornbread.

Lisa Leight 23:44

Oh, can you know if we're talking American, I'm definitely going to say cornbread. But if we're going to talk British I love biscuits, which are actually cookies, but I'm keto. So I've got to avoid at all.

Kenneth Kinney 23:58

Okay, okay. Yeah, we're talking American biscuits or cornbread. Alright, so, Lisa, where can people find out more about you keep up with what you're doing in the space. I know, you speak and a lot of events and panels and all sorts of things as well. But keep up with your thought leadership in the dialer, call center platform world.

Lisa Leight 24:16

Great question. So you can find out more about the company conversely.com. You know, please on LinkedIn, you know, follow up and vote. So we've got a lot of great content that we're always sharing, both on LinkedIn and on our blog, and, you know, connect with me on on LinkedIn.

Kenneth Kinney 24:36

That's a true marketing person when they promoted the company they're working for before they ask to promote themselves. So good for you. All right. Lisa, thank you so much for being with us today on a sharks perspective.

Unknown Speaker 24:49

Thank you, Kenneth.. It's great to talk with you.

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Kenneth Kinney 24:57

So there was my conversation with Lisa Leight, the Chief Marketing Officer of Convoso, a predictive dialer in leading cloud based contact center software for sales and lead generation teams. Let's take a look at three key takeaways from a conversation with her.

Kenneth Kinney 25:10

First, she says that many people focus on the wrong idea with costs. And so many people want to translate dollars to direct revenue. And sometimes they get too stuck in that mindset. However, never be penny wise and pound foolish without being able to see what your real loss costs are as well. For example, just buying more leads isn't always the solution when you're not handling them efficiently. And that's costing you much much more. As she said, Don't throw bad money after good.

Kenneth Kinney 25:37

Second, regardless of what piece of technology you ever buy and make part of your tech stack. Never forget to consider how it integrates with your other pieces of the puzzle. I see this all the time where the bright shiny objects someone added doesn't connect well with a Rube Goldberg machine you've already configured. Remember that your customers they don't care about your matrix. So consider how all of your technology benefits them, and works together.

Kenneth Kinney 26:02

Third, never forget with lead generation to consider compliance with technology considerations especially make certain that technologies like a dialer help you become more compliant, and nevertheless, challenge vendors to help you get there. And don't forget to consider joining professional organizations like the consumer consent Council and pace the professional associations for customer engagement.

Kenneth Kinney 26:25

Got a question? Send me an email to Kenneth at a shark's perspective.com.

Kenneth Kinney 26:29

Thank you again for the privilege of your time, and I am so thankful to everyone who listens.

Kenneth Kinney 26:34

I'm not using any predictive technology here, but I do predict that we'll be together again. Join us on the next episode of A Shark's Perspective.

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