Most companies now sell their products over the phone or on the Internet instead of meeting with their customers face-to-face, and they are increasingly investing in their inside sales teams. Inside sales telephone calls are of particular importance: the first moments of customer contact can determine success or failure in sales.
Munich-based Ciara provides inside sales teams with interactive guides, proven playbooks, and smart objection handling, helping them to structure their phone conversations and increase their success and productivity.
Similar to assistants in the consumer market such as Amazon Alexa or Google Home, Ciara helps sales representatives effectively conduct phone conversations and answer difficult customer questions, for example on competition, pricing, and new product capabilities.
The digital sales assistant launches today, while announcing a seven-digit funding round led by UVC Partners. Interhyp founders Marcus Wolsdorf and Rober Haselsteiner, and business angels Christian Mangstl (Scout 24) and Felix Haas (Bits & Pretzels, IDnow) also participated in the round.
“We are convinced that productivity assistants are a radically new category of business software,” said Martin Heibel, Managing Director of Ciara. “Such assistants are all about making life for people in daily business situations much easier again. Instead of having to deal with dozens of tools, our customers want meaningfully automated solutions. With the Ciara inside sales assistant, we show how that’s possible: With real-time supported phone conversations, Ciara helps employees and teams achieve a new level of productivity.”
“With UVC Partners, the Interhyp founders, Christian Mangstl and Felix Haas we won a unique investor consortium made of software, technology, and sales experts,” said Konstantin Krauss, co-founder of Ciara. “After just a few months of cooperation, we are benefiting immensely from the knowledge and networks of our investors.”
“From my own experience, I know the great growth opportunities of phone-based sales,” added Marcus Wolsdorf, founder of Interhyp AG, Germany’s largest mortgage lender, which he led to the stock exchange in 2005. “The Ciara assistant makes it much easier to train inside sales personnel quickly and effectively, sharing best practice knowledge and supporting every single phone call.”
