The basics of telesales

Telesales personnel are in growing numbers around the world in a growing range of fields, from insurance, double glazing and healthcare, to advertising, construction, manufacturing and national and regional newspapers. And the list is getting longer and longer. Even charities now employ telesales staff to increase donations.

Across the UK and internationally, many companies exist solely to contact people by phone, with contracts from various companies. At a conservative estimate, there are many tens of thousands of full and part-time staff engaged in the telesales industry in the UK alone. Each of these wants to earn a good commission (because the base salary is generally low). Staff turnover is high due to ‘burnout’ due to insufficient training.

o As fuel costs increase, sales staff on the road decrease. However, phone costs are steadily dropping, with more options available from independent phone companies.

o Shipping costs are still prohibitive for many, and e-commerce is not.

Allow person-to-person contact. Telephone contact is the viable option.

o Each individual telemarketer wants to make more money.

o Both Telesales managers and staff want to highlight the skills and techniques of effective Telesales management.

So what are the basics of effective telesales and how do they apply in your telesales department?

openers

Very early in the phone conversation, your staff will have created one of two effects: interest or resistance. And it’s one or the other. Most callers are able to create resistance almost immediately, closing the phone call early and a sense of loss for the caller. Hear. No one is sitting in their office waiting for their telesales department to call. Most of the time, the person you are calling is busy and has little time to talk on the phone. How often are you ready and available to answer the phone, with nothing else going on, sitting comfortably with nothing else to do? Chances are if those circumstances fit you too often, your P45 won’t be long in coming too.

Those first moments of telephone communication are vital and extremely important. Here is a good procedure for personal telesales:

o Introduce themselves and their organization.

o Make a statement that stimulates interest and creates curiosity about some benefit that the prospect could derive from the phone call.

o Ask appropriate questions to engage the other person in a conversation. Then listen and respond with more questions, the appropriate ones. Tell them that in order to deliver the potential benefit, you need to get information. Here are examples; “My name is Roger Aspen, with Apex Marketing. We specialize in generating business for our clients while lowering their marketing costs. I have a few ideas I’d like to discuss to see if this would be of any value to you and your company”. Or: “Sophie Grierson from Cleanways UK. I’m calling because we may be able to reduce your costs for the same cleaning items you’re buying now. To determine this, I’d like to know what you need.” reuse for…”

Have your telesales staff put themselves in the shoes of the person listening to you and ask, “Would you like to hear more if you were the buyer?” “Would you drop whatever it was you were doing and join the call? If not, you should craft a new approach along the same lines. The opening line should say as much as possible, in as few words as possible, that’s an interesting exercise in itself. By appealing to prospects’ desire to win, or their fear of losing something, you’ll make them spend productive time with you, and eventually buy from you.

Picture phone.

Others form an image of our way of being through our telephone treatment. Try it yourself. The next time you get a phone call from someone you don’t know, grab a piece of paper and a pen and write down the positive and negative images of the other person that form in your mind as the conversation progresses. How does this affect any decisions you have to make about this person or your company? The image is the most important. The tone of voice, the way of speaking, the words we choose, everything instantly positions us in the minds of the recipients and makes judgments that we are not aware of. Listen to yourself on the phone. How do you rate the image of the phone? Have your personal telemarketers do this as an exercise. It’s very revealing! Anyone who works with words and voice, actors, broadcasters, musicians, they all listen to how they sound, because they know it’s very important.

Take the time to review

Many telesales people make one call after another, as if there were a record to be broken. Many telesales and telemarketing companies give their staff targets to meet (100 calls per hour in some cases). To me, these companies have given up on true professional telesales. It has become ‘just a numbers game’ for them so this may not apply to them… My advice here about reviewing your last call is intended for the telesales manager and caller who wants to make it so just like him or her. she can. If you were unsuccessful on your last call, if the prospect hangs up on you without ‘giving you a chance’, ask yourself – Why? What the hell did I do wrong there? Review the call – What did I like about this call? What would you have done differently on this call? Don’t think your staff doesn’t have time to do this on every call. You can’t afford not to.

Preparation

Take the time to learn something about the company you are calling and where your product or service would fit with that company’s potential needs and wants. Prepare ahead of time the questions you’ll need to answer to further qualify your lead.

listening

Success on the phone doesn’t mean dominating the conversation. Listening experts say that most of us don’t listen most of the time. Often this is because we are too busy thinking about what WE are going to say next. Work on the ability to listen. This is very easy and it goes like this: Shut your mouth. Hear. Keep your mouth shut. Keep listening.

The receptionist

The Receptionist is there to receive people and phone calls. That’s what they pay you for. Acknowledge this to yourself. Befriend them. Don’t be in such a rush to get to the “main man” that you intimidate them or “push their buttons” so they stop you in your tracks. To reach your buyers, all you need to do is help the receptionists do their job, which is to protect your bosses’ time from useless calls. “We’re happy with who we’re buying from.” Says the receptionist. “Well, I have some ideas that have helped other people in your industry reduce their ad spend while generating more sales. I’d like to ask Mr./Mrs. Roberts a few questions to see if this might apply here as well. … “. Befriend the receptionist. She can often be a big help, so get her on her side. She knows what she wants, but she remembers, you’re not paying her salary…

Literature shipment

“Send me literature” can be a legitimate sign of interest. Often, it isn’t. Literature will never make your business sell for you, most of the time it will never be read even when requested. Good quality literature will only be a compliment to the sales skills of your staff. So sending out literature is often another way to put off hearing a ‘no’ from the prospect. Make your people more willing to hear the word ‘no’ and further reduce your overhead by not wasting literature.

Interrogation

Instead of having a list of features and benefits that you’re trying to present, take all of your benefits and write them down on the side of a piece of paper. Then draw two columns on the page to the right of the words. Label the first column “Needs Met/Problems Resolved.” Then, for each benefit, write down what need or problem the corresponding benefit satisfies. Label the right column “Questions to Ask.” For each need or problem, write a question that determines if that situation exists. Use these questions during your call. Make sure you don’t present what you “think” is a benefit until you’ve confirmed it by asking the appropriate questions. Use questions. Discover.

Objections: legitimate or illegitimate?

Many objections are created by the Seller not rating well enough in the first place. An objection is generally defined as ‘the customer’s reason for not buying’. Often times, the customer simply hasn’t been qualified as the right prospect for this particular product or service. Poor prospect qualification will always result in many objections and many failed sales. When a prospect raises objections, they may not be real to your telesales staff, but to that prospect, they are very real. Unlike many books and sales training courses, objections to buying your product are not always overcome. It may be an inappropriate product or service; the customer may not really be in a position to buy if they are on a budget. Above all, they may not really want your product or service. Why not? The best thing to do with genuine objections is to discuss them with the prospect. If the product or service really isn’t for that person right now, it will become apparent. If you continue to warn your sales people that ‘all objections can be overcome’, sooner or later they will lose affection for you and the company. Because? Because many objections are legitimate objections that put the potential customer out of the scope of your product or service for now. Acknowledge it.

Ask about the order

‘If you don’t ask, you don’t get’. It’s an old saying, but very often true, especially in business. Do your sellers want an order? Ask about it. Do you want a definite date to call back? Ask about it. Do you want to know exactly who will make the decision? Ask. Discover. When will this person be available? Do the question. Don’t hesitate, get the information you need, get the warrant if that’s what the call is about. Can’t have the order? Well, when can we have an order? Can we phone you on that date? What would be a good time then? Ask the question and get the answer.

Sales professionalism is for all salespeople, not just the field salesperson. It comes from really caring about doing it right, figuring out why, when things don’t work, and wanting to sell the right products or services to the people and companies who really want or need them. This can be accomplished over the phone. Telesales can be as professional as the rest, take care of it!