If you are a restless salesperson looking for new channels or realize that your customers require more immediate attention, it’s time to sell through WhatsApp. If you don’t know, this instant messaging application has become a space to find business opportunities and increase sales.
Selling through WhatsApp is more than just sending and receiving messages. That’s why we bring 10 important tips for you.
1. Assign a unique number to your business
It is a tip for every entrepreneur: separate the personal from the business. Just as you should have separate accounts, it is essential to have separate phone numbers. When selling via WhatsApp, this will help you to secure your information. A business line will be more vulnerable because it is designed to reach many (unknown) people. It will also help keep clear boundaries between your business and your customers.
2. Create automatic messages
One of the benefits of selling by WhatsApp is to get agility in the response you give to your leads and customers. Since the application does not shut down and you can receive questions or requests 24/7, this is an extraordinary help. WhatsApp Business allows you to set up responses to recurring queries, send welcome messages or greetings for the first interactions, and classify leads to nurture them effectively. So you don’t need cool paper writing skills to deliver a well-written letter to a client.
3. Make a catalog
WhatsApp Business allows you to upload a catalog with photos and descriptions of your products and services. It is a quick and easy way to show your offer to interested parties. Although the purchase cannot be made in this application, people can access a link that will take them to your e-commerce page. The advantage is that creating the catalog is simple: you only have to go to configuration, enter “Catalog,” and fill in all the fields.
4. Request permission to send messages
If you want to sell through WhatsApp and use it as a communication channel with all consumers, we advise you to ask for their authorization. We give you two reasons for doing so: first, WhatsApp can be a very invasive medium, and most users use it for personal purposes. Therefore, you could make them uncomfortable and get the opposite effect they expected if they do not agree to contact you in this way.
The second reason is the personal data protection rules in your country. These rules require companies to ask for customers’ authorization to store their data explicitly and say what they will use it for. So, in practical terms, having the user’s consent is not optional.
5. Connect your WhatsApp Business with your Facebook and Instagram accounts
One of the most effective ways for people to contact you via WhatsApp is by linking your accounts. While browsing social networks, a user curious about your product or service can send you a message just by clicking on the WhatsApp button if you enable it in your other channels. If your prospects do not know that you can serve them through this messaging system, they will not get there. Therefore, this possibility is a great advantage.
6. Beware of being invasive
We have already pointed out that you should be careful not to be invasive when selling through WhatsApp. The way to do this is to keep track of the messages you send. These are some of the variables that you can take into account for this task:
Frequency: How often do you send messages?
Length: Are they too long or too short?
Format: Do you use videos, voice notes, text, documents, or photographs?
Receptivity: Do they read your messages, which ones do they reply to or ignore you, and which formats are most popular?
If you carefully review these data, you will use this tool correctly. Otherwise, you will spend time and effort on a channel that will not give you results because your contacts will not receive it well.
7. Take care of your image
Remember that when you send and receive messages via WhatsApp, you do it on behalf of a company rather than on your behalf. The closeness and immediacy offered by WhatsApp can make you make this mistake. Your tone, spelling and writing, profile image, and, above all, your messages should represent your brand and product. It will give professionalism to your interaction and will generate trust.
8. Do not abuse emojis
Emojis are resources that help you express emotions or emphasize what you want to say on WhatsApp. However, our recommendation is to use them in moderation. Keep in mind two problems that can occur if you abuse this resource.
Trying to convey a message with several emojis can lead to misinterpretations. Not everyone assigns the same meaning to the same image.
Not all emojis are displayed correctly on all devices. That is why it is better to work with the most common ones.
9. Respond on time
People looking for general information will consult your social networks and your web page or search the Internet. They expect an agile and personalized service if they contact you by WhatsApp. Respond on time and meet the needs of each client on time. This way, you will meet the expectations of this sales channel and get better connections and results.
All in all, in this post, we have given you some tips, and we have shed light on everything involved in opening this sales channel. So, it is not a task to be taken lightly.
