Archive for the ‘sales development training’ Category
Tuesday, January 31st, 2012
When you’re making your telesales or telemarketing calls talk specifics. Your prospects will listen more. You’re simply more persuasive if you give actual, real and specific examples.
Don’t use generalities. I often receive sales calls which include the time honoured line ”We’re one of the leading suppliers of blah-blah in the UK.” It is simply a load of words, because everyone can say that about their product or service – whether they are or not. Or “we operate to professional standards.” Or “all our staff are experts in dealing with blah-blah.” Says who? Says you? ok, and of course you the salesperson are completely objective aren’t you?!
Talk specifics - no blah-blah
Instead talk about specific examples “we already supply our software to 11 of the 47 health trusts in England.” Or make bold but specific claims “our engineers are never more than 50 miles from any customer’s site.”
Even talking manufacturing output may give credence to the scale of your operation. “Yes we turn out 10,000 of those every day.”
The more obvious examples to boast about are where you’ve won awards (as by nature these are competitive) and show you must be good. “By royal appointment” will always carry a fair bit of clout, as will “we were class winners this year” in the fastest growing company in our industry sector at the annual awards in Birmingham last month.
There are always great things you can talk about, even if you can’t think of any examples at the moment. Develop them, weave them into your script and you will simply become more persuasive and someone your prospects will listen to.
If you want to develop a stronger, meatier sales approach to your sales calls give us a call on 01858 461148. We work with companies across the Midlands, in Birmingham, Coventry, Solihull, Leicester, Nottingham, Derby, Milton Keynes, Northampton, Kettering, Corby, Wellingborough, Leamington Spa, Warwick, Oakham and wider parts of Leicestershire, Northamptonshire, West Midlands and Cambridge.
Tags: sales tips, telesales advice, telesales scripts, telesales top tips for free, tips on selling, training in telesales
Posted in Cold calling, Field sales training, sales development training, Sales tips, Selling advice, telemarketing, telephone techniques, telesales, telesales scripts, telesales team management, Telesales tips | No Comments »
Tuesday, January 24th, 2012
Get all your sales quotes out within 48 hours. It is important to get into this vitally important habit. Quite simply it will get you more business. What other incentive could you need?!
I’m frequently amazed that clients do not have standards around this issue. They will often say that their telesales team members aren’t quick enough at following up proposals that they’ve sent out. Now, come on. Surely this should be an imposed standard, a minimum. Enforced if necessary. Really if you can’t get your team to follow these up quickly, you might as well pack up and go home.
Beat your competitors - get your quotes in fast
Ensuring you have the 48 hour rule ensures you work to a standard. It keeps things moving. Momentum is good, especially in selling.
You will also find that frequently getting the quote or sales proposal out quickly will impress them. It will be fresher in their mind when they’re reading it, and if you get it there quicker than the competition, it might just help you get the order.
There are some other key reasons I find that help too. Writing and sending your sales proposal quickly gets it done while it’s freshest in your mind too. So you will probably be able to do it faster. It also gets it out of the way. You can clear the decks mentally. So if other things come up such as illness, meetings, work crises, you won’t have to go back to it.
And never ever leave it to do until after a holiday. But then you’d never do that anyway would you?
The lesson I’ve learned
Apart from all the above, I’ve never lost an order because the client thought I’d sent it in too quickly. However I have won many for this reason. Even within the last few months, an industrial distributor in Birmingham commissioned me to run a training programme for them as they got tired of waiting for the other 2 competitive quotes. Suits me and it’s simple.
Templates
To help you write and send out sales quotes and proposals quicker, have templates for proposals. Have a master template that you just edit. This is much more effective than recreating the wheel each time. It will also save you time. Time you can use to go out on more sales calls selling.
Tags: sales proposals, Telemarketing management, telesales team management, winning orders
Posted in business development, business growth, Field sales training, sales development training, Sales tips, Selling advice, small business marketing, telemarketing, Telemarketing management, telesales, telesales team management, Telesales tips | No Comments »
Thursday, January 19th, 2012
Telesales masterclass for telesales and telemarketing. Our next 2 day telesales masterclass will run on 20th & 21st February 2012 at a venue in Leicestershire or Northamptonshire.
Telesales masterclass - 20th & 21st February 2012
The course will cover all the key elements of telephone techniques and communication skills, and how to structure an effective sales call. We’ll be covering top tips and techniques for dealing with objections, listening skills, and questioning skills – what the different questions are, when to use them and how to structure a powerful telephone sales call around good questioning. Add into that an introduction to the 2 stage process for directing the conversation, and a couple of hours on how to structure powerful telesales and telemarketing calls and you have the basic tools to make sure you convert more opportunities, for more value, more often.
Business conditions are challenging for many organisations at the moment. Those who are best at converting the opportunities that are there, will prosper. Contact us for more details on 01858 461148. You can download a copy of a telesales course schedule directly from the site http://www.tomarket.co.uk/course-schedules.php
Course fees are £399 + VAT per delegate for the 2 day course, although there are discounts for 2 or more delegates attending from the same company.
This 2 day course is ideal for telesales and telemarketing personnel in Leicester, Northampton, Coventry, Birmingham, Derby, Nottingham, Cambridge, Peterborough, Kettering, Corby, Wellingborough, Oadby, Market Harborough, Hinckley, Oakham, Warwick, Leamington Spa, Stratford on Avon as well as wider parts of Leicestershire, Northamptonshire, West Midlands and East Midlands.
BOOK NOW for places on 20th - 21st February 2012 Telesales masterclass course. Get your sales year off to a promising start.
Tags: appointment setting by phone, effective telemarketing techniques, selling techniques, telemarketing courses, telemarketing skills, telemarketing training, telemarketing training midlands, telephone skills courses, telesales courses, telesales training, telesales training Leicester, telesales training Leicestershire, telesales training northampton
Posted in Cold calling, communication skills, Forthcoming courses, Internal sales, Overcoming objections, sales development training, telemarketing, Telemarketing management, telephone techniques, telesales, Telesales tips | No Comments »
Thursday, December 22nd, 2011
The soft underbelly of your customer base. This is what you want to go for in 2012, right? Many companies appreciate that finding additional business at the moment is a test of your sales and marketing skills.
Broadly speaking your customer database can be divided into 3 hopefully ;
- Existing trading customers
- Lapsed customers
- Prospects (those who haven’t bought from you.)
This is all part of the sales pipeline or sales funnel. Your lapsed customers frequently present the greatest opportunities for you. They’ve stopped buying from you, but they used to. Do you know why? Have they changed processes and no longer need your product or service? Or are they still buying, but from one of your competitors? If this is the case, then it is worth spending some effort winning them back. It’s a 6 pointer (as they say in football) because not only are you adding to your revenue, but you’re reducing it for your competitor at the same time. Neat huh?
Meet lapsed customers, talk to them, find out what they want now
Use your telemarketing or telesales team, or even your account managers to make contact and find out why. At this point, don’t try and sell them anything. Show them that you’re interested, really interested in knowing more about their needs and requirements. These also, are the customers you want to invite to events, product launches etc. Remind them how good you are, and what they’re missing. Also the fact that you’ve researched and found out the reasons they’re not trading with you any more, will mean that you avoid spending time and money trying to win back someone who has moved on, and is unlikely to use your product any more.
Ensure you’ve got contact names, e-mail addresses and contact details up to date, so that when you market to them you’re at least aiming at the right person, in the right part of the company for the right reason at the right time.
I’m currently working with a company who after 10 years trading tell me their total customer base including lapsed is 74 records. And their average transaction value is less than £1,000 so clearly there is a lot of missing data. There is much to do, before we can even start direct marketing. Don’t let this be you.
Tags: customer, customer database, growing customers, marketing ideas, marketing strategy, marketing top tips, new customer acquisition, SME marketing ideas
Posted in Account management, business growth, Customer acquisition, Marketing, sales development training, Sales tips, Selling advice, small business marketing | No Comments »
Wednesday, November 23rd, 2011
Our next 2 day telesales masterclass will run on 12th & 13th December 2011 in Coventry.
Telephone sales masterclass - December 2011 East Midlands
Just 3 weeks away. This course will cover all the key elements of communication skills and how to structure an effective sales call. We’ll be covering top tips and techniques for dealing with objections, listening skills, questioning skills – what the different questions are, when to use them and how to structure a powerful telephone sales call around good questioning. Add into that an introduction to the 2 stage process for directing the conversation, and a couple of hours on how to structure powerful telesales and telemarketing calls and you have the basic tools to make sure you convert more opportunities, for more value, more often. Business conditions are challenging for many organisations at the moment. Those who are best at converting the opportunities that are there, will prosper. Contact us for more details on 01858 461148. You can download a copy of a telesales course schedule directly from the site http://www.tomarket.co.uk/course-schedules.php
Course fees are £399 + VAT per delegate for the 2 day course, although there are discounts for 2 or more delegates attending from the same company.
This 2 day course is ideal for anyone in Coventry, Birmingham, Derby, Nottingham, Leicester, Cambridge, Peterborough, Northampton, Kettering, Corby, Wellingborough, Oadby, Market Harborough, Hinckley, Oakham, Warwick, Leamington Spa, Stratford on Avon as well as wider parts of Leicestershire, Northamptonshire, West Midlands and East Midlands.
BOOK NOW for places on 12th - 13th December 2011 Telesales masterclass course.
Tags: telemarketing courses, telemarketing training, telesales courses, telesales masterclass, telesales skills, telesales techniques, telesales training, telesales workshop, training for telemarketing, training in telesales
Posted in Cold calling, communication skills, Forthcoming courses, sales development training, Selling advice, telemarketing, Telemarketing management, telephone techniques, telesales, telesales team management | 2 Comments »
Friday, October 14th, 2011
Inbound calls represent the best selling opportunities there are. They do really. Just consider it. They’ve decided to call you. Generally speaking they will be for one of a number of reasons ;
- To gather information or advice
- To enquire about a price or some other factor relating to a direct sale
- To check progress of their order
- To complain
Well let’s start by discounting the 4th one. You’ve got your customer service sorted, so you don’t receive many complaints right?! But seriously, you will have another process set up and designed to take care of this situation. Even this represents an opportunity. Good, caring customer service builds the relationship and increases your chances for sales next time. However don’t be too hard sell when they’ve got a problem or a crisis. You hold your ‘sales’ fire and the opportunity will come. But for the rest, make the most of the golden opportunity that has just landed in your lap.
Internal sales - making the most of inbound opportunities
First, the very fact that they’ve called you is significant because it shows motivation. Everyone’s busy and so for them to have called you indicates a desire for action on their part. They’ve called for a bit of advice. Great. You can demonstrate your expertise and knowledge and guide them to a great solution for them based on good attentive listening and questioning. These 2 aspects of communication are underrated and will increase the chances of a sale greatly.
If they phone to get a price from you, or to check delivery times, that demonstrates at least that they’re thinking about your product or service. Again, demonstrate interest, spend some time with them on the phone, and who knows you may in many instances guide them to a better solution or alternative product – better perhaps than the one they thought they wanted. You can sense that they’re unlikely to go elsewhere once you’ve gone to all that trouble. Especially if they’ve contacted other suppliers already and been quoted for what they thought they wanted! They’re far less likely to go back and ask the other suppliers to requote. It is simply so much easier to give you the business. And quicker too.
Also be a bit intelligent about it too. If they’re a previous customer, use your questioning skills to mention or introduce new products. “I see you buy the xy machine from us, but do you know we also supply the consumables that go in it?” Or if they’re a brand new prospect, once you’ve found out a bit about them, you can use that to introduce relevant products. “oh, that’s interesting, so you’re in electronics? We already supply DEF Electronics and they buy a lot of product a & product b from us. Who do you get those products from at the moment?”
This is one of the central themes that we cover on telephone sales training courses for inbound sales teams. These courses are run across the Midlands, in towns including Leicester, Northampton, Kettering, Corby, Birmingham, Coventry, Derby, Nottingham, Daventry, Wellingborough, Cambridge, St. Ives, Huntingdon, Milton Keynes, Leamington Spa, Warwick and Stratford on Avon. Contact us with info@ and then tomarket.co.uk or call us directly on 01858 461148 if you want to generate more business from your inbound sales calls.
Tags: cross-selling, increasing sales, internal sales training, selling more, selling more on the phone, switch selling, upselling
Posted in communication skills, Complaint handling, customer handling, Inbound sales, Internal sales, sales development training, Sales tips, Selling advice, telemarketing, telephone techniques, telesales, Telesales tips | No Comments »
Tuesday, August 23rd, 2011
Telemarketing scripting – the case in favour. Scripts have a bad press. Many people recoil in horror at the very mention of the word – but wait – hear me out! The reason I suspect that many people don’t like scripts is because we associate them with half-witted telesales and telemarketing people calling us (often at home), not knowing what they’re talking about, with poor knowledge of their products or services. Furthermore if you DARE to ask them a question, they’re thrown, because you are taking them off script.
Telemarketing scripts maybe not such a bad idea
However, it is important to have a structure for your call. So perhaps it’s semantics – we need a call guide rather than a script. What is important though is that you sound like it’s your words. Learn to ‘act’ and ‘feel’ the script, not just ‘read’ it. Remember all movies are scripted. Those presented with Academy awards and Oscars are not ad libbing. They are won by people who make the script sound real, they ‘act’ the script. This takes thought and practice, but it can be done.
Have a strong idea of what you want to say and where you want to the call to go. This includes the ability to respond to any specific comment or qusestion your prospect asks. Deal with it, and then you can return to your script (sorry call guide.) Following this will ensure you make more consistent calls and surprise, surprise you’ll achieve more consistent results.
To Market runs telephone sales and telemarketing training courses across the East Midlands, Peterborough, Cambridge, Leicester, Northampton, Derby, Nottingham, Kettering, Corby, Wellingborough, Coventry, Birmingham, Lichfield, Solihull, Peterborough, Wolverhampton, West Midlands, Milton Keynes, Lincoln, East Midlands as well as wider parts of Leicestershire, Northamptonshire, Cambridgeshire, Suffolk, Buckinghamshire, Warwickshire, Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire
Tags: advice on telemarketing, telemarketing training, telesales calls, Telesales tips, telesales training
Posted in Cold calling, sales development training, sales lead generation, Sales tips, Selling advice, telemarketing, telephone techniques, telesales, Telesales tips | No Comments »
Friday, August 19th, 2011
Travel industry – sell your way out of trouble. As we recently saw another travel company fold, Holidays 4U trading as Aegean Flights, we understand that the travel industry is in choppy waters. These problems are all the more significant when you consider that the travel sector should be making money at this time of year.
Get more people here!
As all business people know making profit and survival is about increasing revenue, cutting costs and managing cashflow. Other sites will give you what you need on the latter 2 topics but here we’re interested in maintaining and increasing revenue.
Selling in the travel industry is about the following key principles ;
- Increasing conversion rates. It is vital that you convert as many enquiries as you can at the point when they’re on the phone (or in your shop, or on your website.) Training in closing and benefit selling is important to ensure they don’t go elsewhere for comparisons.
- Selling higher value products. Customers spend money on a whole package of services and it’s important your team looks for opportunities to sell these higher margin products. Do you adequately reward this to keep them focused on the goal?
- Better customer service experience. With many operators seen as offering similar products and services, it all comes down to the customer experience doesn’t it. If they like your agent, they seem knowledgeable and keen to help, you’re much more likely to convert aren’t you? Make sure you give them adequate product training and you keep them motivated. If not, you’ll lose the business that floats under your nose.
- Better contact with past customers. So many industry sectors have haphazard plans in the way they deal with previous or lapsed customers. And yet they’re the easiest people to sell to. Check how you keep in touch with them after their holiday with you. Ensure you have a programme to make them feel valued. You want to be their number one choice before they even start looking around for their next holiday.
You and any business grows in 4 ways. By ;
- Selling to more people
- Increasing average order value
- Selling to the same people more often
- Reducing churn (the rate at which you lose customers)
Of course none of this is rocket science, but ask yourself if you really understand these metrics in your own business and make sure you have a plan to achieve each of these 4 things. Your livelihood depends on it.
To Market runs telephone sales and telemarketing training courses across the East Midlands, Peterborough, Cambridge, Leicester, Northampton, Derby, Nottingham, Kettering, Corby, Wellingborough, Coventry, Birmingham, Lichfield, Solihull, Peterborough, Wolverhampton, West Midlands, Milton Keynes, Lincoln, East Midlands as well as wider parts of Leicestershire, Northamptonshire, Cambridgeshire, Suffolk, Buckinghamshire, Warwickshire, Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire
Tags: how to generate additional sales, increasing sales, telesales advice, telesales training, training for sales teams, travel sales agents, travel sales training, travel sector training
Posted in benchmarking telesales teams, business growth, sales development training, Selling advice, telesales, Travel industry training | 1 Comment »
Friday, June 3rd, 2011
7 things to help you close that sale. More things than steps to be honest.
We are all in situations where the sale is there to be taken. Some you will win, some you will lose. And that in itself is important not to get too hung up about.
Sure you should do everything you can to ensure you get the deal. I think you should also be aware of and monitor your win ratio. Certainly in our business To Market we track the percentage we win, the percentage we lose and the percentage where the order is never placed (to the best of our knowledge.) You should do the same to ensure the market isn’t changing without you being aware of it.
7 steps to selling more - make them yours
There are many things to do that will give you the best chance of winning more and losing less. And remember the more you win, the more it turns up the heat on your competitor doesn’t it ?!
- Be Subtle
Obviously, you don’t want to just shout out “Well, let’s get the order signed then shall we?!” You need to be subtle about the entire process and build trust with them.
If they throw objections your way, you MUST deal with them. Otherwise they will feel you’re not listening.
- Ask questions. Ask plenty of questions. These are vital for 2 reasons. First it shows interest in the other human being. They will like this and it builds trust. Secondly it allows you to gather all the information you need. In turn, this will make it more likely you will sell them the right product or service to fit their needs.
- Offer Choices
Your potential customer doesn’t want to feel like they’re being pushed into anything. You need to give them choices. This could be something like the specification of the product or service, the quantity, the colour, delivery options, upgrades etc.
• Demos and trials
One of the best ways to close a sale is to let the customer test the product or service. Show them how it works and how it fits into their lifestyle. Allow them to try it in their application, using it in the environment and way that they would normally. This allows them to ‘buy it’ in their mind. Once they’ve done that, you’re there!
- Use careful language
Remember to speak positively, and with benefits. But you must also keep your credibility intact. Making fantastic claims or using manipulative language won’t win you friends. Even using their language back to them (as you are taught within NLP) will help them feel you are just like them. It makes rapport building considerably easier.
- Ask for the order. Once you’ve done what you think you need to do to secure the order, just simply and smoothly run into the next bit which is to ask them if they want to go-ahead, or do the paperwork or book it in. Closing shouldn’t be scary and is merely the next part of the sales process.
- Build future sales opportunities. Keep in touch regularly and always be looking to build the next sale. This could be an upgrade, a new improved product, whatever. Bear them in mind for other things your company could offer them that would make their life better and also tie them in stronger with you.
In selling we never stop learning, but these are certainly 7 steps to ensure you win more, and lose less! The best of luck.
We cover sales and customer service training for clients around the UK including Leicester, Northampton, Kettering, Wellingborough, Coventry, Birmingham, Solihull, Lichfield, Cambridge, Milton Keynes, Peterborough, Leamington Spa, Warwick, Stratford on Avon, Nottingham and Derby. Call us on 01858 461148 if you’d like more details.
Tags: advice on telemarketing, free sales tips, telemarketing training, telesales advice, telesales top tips for free, telesales training, tips on telephone selling
Posted in Cold calling, Field sales training, sales development training, Selling advice, telemarketing, telephone techniques, telesales, Telesales tips | No Comments »
Friday, May 20th, 2011
How the Jaguar salesman missed a sale, by ignoring one of the basics of good selling. Get to know your customer first, before you try and be all clever and sell to them. Remember the old adage LISTEN FIRST, TALK SECOND.
This is of course a true story – one I heard from a client. 
A business man went to look at the Jaguar XF in the showroom. He went with his father, who had recently bought a top of the range Jaguar XJ from the same dealership. He was happy with his purchase so persuaded his son to try Jaguar.
They went out on the test drive which was by all accounts an interesting experience. The young salesman was keen to demonstrate how fast it was – WHOOSH ! And how quickly it accelerated, and generally how powerful it was. All sounds fantastic doesn’t it? Just the ideal type of car any young business man might want. Probably just the type of car the salesman likes to drive.
Only problem is, he isn’t the customer is he? At the end of the test drive, the older, wiser father, the one with the XJ put one simple question to the salesman. “Do you know what he does for a living ?” he asked referring to his son” “No”, the salesman replied, looking a little quizzical. “He’s an accountant” said the prospective customer’s father. It seems he’s much more interested in mpg than mph.
And that was it, the car wasn’t bought. The point is the salesman forgot the very basics of getting to know his customer first and it probably cost him a sale. And some commission.
It is really important to get to know your customer and work out what makes them tick. What is important to them? What are they looking for from your product or service? What do they use at the moment? Who supplies them and why? These are all crucial things to know and will tell you all the key things you need to know in order to sell to them.
IGNORE THIS AT YOUR PERIL. You have been warned!
To Market runs telephone sales and telemarketing training courses across the East Midlands, Peterborough, Cambridge, Leicester, Northampton, Derby, Nottingham, Kettering, Corby, Wellingborough, Coventry, Birmingham, Lichfield, Solihull, Peterborough, Wolverhampton, West Midlands, Milton Keynes, Lincoln, East Midlands as well as wider parts of Leicestershire, Northamptonshire, Cambridgeshire, Suffolk, Buckinghamshire, Warwickshire, Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire
Tags: free sales tips, retail sales training, sales advice, sales techniques, selling skills
Posted in Car dealerships, Field sales training, retail sales, sales development training, Selling advice | No Comments »
