Posts Tagged ‘advice on telemarketing’

How to close a telesales call – properly!

Tuesday, January 17th, 2012

How to close a telesales call – properly! It is easy to lose focus on your call at the end of your conversation with your customer or prospect. You know it’s about to end and so do they. However there are still certain things to do to ensure your telemarketing or telesales call is professional.

telesales verbal handshake

get the sign-off right at the end of the call

  • summarise
  • build in some ongoing continuity
  • the verbal handshake

Summarise

You may have had a long call, or maybe not. Either way remind them of what you’ve both agreed. You may have covered a lot of ground and it is unrealistic to expect the customer to remember it all. This way you’re starting to set some expectations of what you want from them too. “OK, so I’ll send you an introductory e-mail. I’ll get that out to you within the next hour or so. And then I’ll call you in the middle of next week, once you’ve had a chance to talk to Sarah about it.”

That way you’ve told them what to expect from you, and setting a timescale for when you’ll do it reinforces your professionalism and sense of action. Then it lets them know that they better speak to Sarah, because you’ll be on their case in a few days time! But all done respectfully, politely and professionally of course.

Build in some ongoing continuity

With the vast majority of outbound calls you make, you want to contact them again in the future. By seeking permission subtly to do this, you make sure your next call to them isn’t a cold call. “Ok, so you’ve got your board meeting at the end of the month, on the 28th then. Is it ok if I call you to find out what happened the middle of the following week?” Very, very seldom do people say No. It works. Try it. Furthermore remember that I always advocate asking questions. Questions are the answer. The fact that you’ve framed it as a question gives them the chance to offer you feedback. They might say, “I tell you what, make it the following week, because I’m away for a week straight after the meeting.” Or more promisingly “yes, and if the management team are keen on it, we’ll ask you to come in to discuss what you could do for us……” If you’ve not signed off with the question, they are less likely to volunteer information are they?

The verbal handshake

I am sure you will be polite at all times. This is important as you conclude your call. Even if they’ve given you chapter and verse on the 14 reasons they’d never buy from you, at least you’ve learned some interesting and potentially useful information. So thank them. “Thank you for your honesty and your feedback. I appreciate it.” And more common sign-offs may include “thank you for your time today” or “it’s been great catching up again.” Let them know that you as a human being respect them as a human being. Remember always that ‘people buy from people’ or other versions ‘people buy from people they like’ or ‘people buy from people like them.’

Follow this practice and you will ensure the last impression they have of you is a positive one. Happy selling!

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Posted in Cold calling, communication skills, Sales tips, Selling advice, telemarketing, telephone techniques, telesales, Telesales tips | No Comments »

Telemarketing scripting – why it’s a good idea

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.

Telesales and telemarketing training

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

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Posted in Cold calling, sales development training, sales lead generation, Sales tips, Selling advice, telemarketing, telephone techniques, telesales, Telesales tips | No Comments »

7 steps to close the sale

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. 

sales training helps get better results

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.

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Posted in Cold calling, Field sales training, sales development training, Selling advice, telemarketing, telephone techniques, telesales, Telesales tips | No Comments »

Getting past the gatekeeper – 5 top tips

Tuesday, January 19th, 2010

Getting past the gatekeeper – 5 top tips. One of the parts of our interactive training sessions I particularly enjoy is when we brainstorm ideas as a group. This is one of the fun parts of our training work on getting past the gatekeeper, or getting past the receptionist as it often is.

Here are 5 top tips that have come from training groups we’ve run ;

  1. Build in continuity if you’ve spoken to them before “He asked me to call him” or if untrue, instead try “we agreed to speak round about now ……”
  2. Go via another department (accounts or HR for instance) and ask to be transferred. This also often helps get the name.
  3. Ask for them by name : directly, assertively and confidently. You could also simply ask for them by their first name if appropriate.
  4. Use the fear close. Spell out ‘dangers’ of not taking your call. Does depend on the industry you’re in. This can work with compliance industries such as Health & Safety. Not many receptionists will be brave enough to block you in response to lines such as “I just wanted to chat to him about the forthcoming legislation and I’ve got some information for him that will help you stay the right side of the law” will they ?! 
  5. Be prepared to engage the receptionist or PA in conversation. Use their name back to them, and use words like help, advise and suggest. You will be appealing to their ego and sense of power.

There are many m0re of these tips and we are collecting more all the time, but I hope these help you. They certainly help us, and the countless people we work with. The best of luck, and I mean that most sincerely folks !

To Market runs training sessions to include this bane of our lives across the Midlands including Birmingham, Coventry, Leicester, Northampton, Corby, Kettering, Loughborough, Daventry, St Ives, Cambridge and wider parts of the East and West Midlands

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Posted in communication skills, Getting past gatekeepers, Overcoming objections, sales development training, Selling advice, telemarketing, telephone techniques, telesales, Telesales tips | 2 Comments »

Don’t apologise for your sales call

Friday, December 11th, 2009

Don’t apologise for your sales call. What you or your team does is an important job. It was Robert Louis Stevenson who said “everyone lives by selling something.” You should never feel guilty about doing a sales role. I notice from team audits sometimes http://www.tomarket.co.uk/teamaudits.php that telesales or telemarketing staff routinely apologise to the decision maker, but this gets the call off on a submissive foot.

When working with an I.T. software provider recently and carrying out some work to benchmark their team, Nicole said on one call “this is just a brief call.” 

Tips and advice on making telesales calls

Tips and advice on making telesales calls

I don’t particularly like this phrase as it undermines what you are doing. It makes it sound a bit apologetic, and therefore indicates you’re ready for them to say they haven’t got time to talk to you. On one call in particular, when the decision maker wasn’t ready to move forward, she used the phrase ‘no problem at all’ three or four times in quick succession.  To show that we are mentally engaged it is important that we don’t overuse phrases too much.

So be loud, be proud ! If someone doesn’t want to speak to you, that’s fine, but always find out as much as you can about why not. Perhaps another time would be more convenient. In any case the more you can find out the better placed you’ll be. If they don’t want to talk, there is always a reason why. It may be that they don’t have a use for your services or product, but then you want to know that don’t you ?

And whatever you do, don’t ever say “this is a courtesy call !” Or at least not in my earshot anyway. I strongly dislike this phrase ! After all, what IS a courtesy call. An apologetic sales call ? Don’t get me started ………..

We regularly carry out telesales and telemarketing team audits in Leicester, Northampton, Corby, Kettering, Wellingborough, Loughborough, Coventry, Daventry, Birmingham, Cambridge, Milton Keynes, and Rugby and we now have a bank of team audit reports from industries such as vending machine suppliers, beverage systems, fork lift trucks, car leasing, car dealerships, plastics manufacturers, I.T. software developers, local councils, outsourced business services, telemarketing agencies, fire detection systems, industrial manufacturers and many more.

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Posted in communication skills, Independent audit of telemarketing team, sales development training, Selling advice, small business marketing, Telemarketing management, telephone techniques, telesales, Telesales team assessment, telesales team management, Telesales tips | No Comments »

Shall I leave a voicemail ? Tips for telesales and telemarketing teams

Thursday, March 5th, 2009

Shall I leave a voice-mail message is a question I get asked a lot. And it is complicated in that the answer is “it depends !”

 

Certainly when I am training telephone sales and telemarketing people or anyone making outbound calls I suggest that you have to consider it on a case by case example. Not very helpful you may think. But let me explain. Generally, and the majority of the time if you get put through to someone’s voice-mail I suggest not leaving a message. First of all if you did this on every call where this happened, it would take more time. Admittedly it might only take 45 seconds or so, but imagine if you did that 50 times in a day, that’s nearly 40 minutes gone that will never come back. Most of the time people won’t call back anyway.

 

The second reason for not leaving voice-mail messages is that if you’re leaving them frequently it makes you sound more desperate. And whatever the reality you certainly don’t want to give that impression ! Added to that of course if you keep leaving messages you remove the incentive for them to call you back. They’ll be thinking “I do want to talk to Tom, but he keeps on calling so I’ll wait for him to call again.”

 

So that’s the advice – don’t leave voicemail messages. HOWEVER there are exceptions, and here are the main 3 I work with.

 

1.             This is a new prospect you’ve not spoken to before. You will often be calling people you have no previous call history with. It could be a brand new company, or perhaps more likely it may be a new contact at an existing company. Either way you have no dialogue with this person. And remember it’s people who buy your products and services not companies or organisations. So in this instance it may be a good idea to leave a message on their answerphone. Because it may just be that they are looking around for the types of products or services that you supply. And if they don’t know about you, well ………. they don’t know about you, do they ? Don’t rely on the fact that you sent the previous job holder an e-mail or brochure a year ago either. Somebody new into a role will frequently look to stir things up a bit and look at new ways of doing things. Now is your time to strike ! In this instance leave them a message to let them know what you do, and of course leave your contact details.

 

2.                  You’re following up a proposal. Frequently you will be following up some work you’ve done on their behalf, such as a proposal, or a demonstration, or you’ve sent a brochure with product details and prices. In this instance it is worth leaving a message as you have had a dialogue with them about something specific. People buy more frequently if you make it easy for them to buy. So leave your details. It also shows you’re professional. That is what professional people do – they follow things up, and see them through – so be a professional. Professionals get paid more because they are more successful more of the time. Finally you’ve put some time and effort into this person and their company and so you have a reasonable right to expect something back, in the form of some feedback from them and a definitive response. Otherwise you’ve just wasted your time haven’t you? It certainly doesn’t mean they owe you an order (however much effort you’ve put in), but it does mean that you have the right to expect a response. So leave a specific message that you’re “following up the recent proposal I sent you through…………. and I was wondering if you’d had anymore thoughts on it.” That sort of thing.

 

3.                  It’s been a while since you’ve spoken. Marketing is all about brand awareness and so you do want to make sure they remember you, and recall you if they’re in the market or even talking about it within their company. So if it has been a long time since you’ve spoken to them, or you’ve taken the advice in section 1 here and not left a message on the previous 8 times you’ve called them over the last 6 weeks, it might be a good time to do it now. You want to avoid a situation where you lose an order simply because you weren’t talking to them at the right time – especially if you’ve been trying to make contact and can never get through.

 

 We run training courses all around the UK, both in-house and off site open courses, follow this link to the telesales and telemarketing training page http://www.tomarket.co.uk/training.php

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Posted in Field sales training, Getting past gatekeepers, Selling advice, telemarketing, telephone techniques, telesales, telesales team management | No Comments »