Posts Tagged ‘getting past the gatekeeper’

How to get your field based sales team into the office making calls

Wednesday, February 4th, 2009

Does this sound familiar ?

Business is quieter, your sales team don’t have so much to do (and yet there’s more to do). They need to be more proactive and stimulate the market, it won’t come to you.

Not only this of course, but also in tandem a need to keep a lid on costs and having the team in the office allows them to use their time more effectively than simply driving around, adding miles, fuel bills and killing polar bears.

Often though the sales team isn’t particularly motivated to want to do this, and this might partly be because they’re not that good at it. If you can identify with this, please read on.

 

We are currently offering a short, sharp one day course aimed at sales people who are making customer calls from the office. This can be held on your premises (or somewhere of your choosing) and so it can be flexible in terms of content, timings and number of delegates.

It is fully interactive and is designed to be stimulating and fun. It will be based around your requirements, but typically a course may cover such topics as ;

  • Listening skills
  • Questioning skills
  • Directing the conversation
  • Getting past the gatekeeper
  • Call planning (OPTs are opportunities – Objectives, Preparation, Timeliness, Success)
  • Successful call openings
  • Identification of needs
  • Call wrap up

If this is of interest simply e-mail us info@tomarket.co.ukWe will then send out a more detailed course schedule via e-mail. We will then follow it up by phone of course. We like to practice what we preach !

This course offers you a number of benefits ;

  • Gives support to a key part of your business process. It is people who make things happen.
  • To add to their skills in an area where they may not feel especially confident.
  • To help them get more motivated.
  • Signals a company commitment to them and their role. Many sales people are finding selling less fun at the moment (and maybe feeling a bit unloved !)

Let’s get busy ! 

We have telephone sales training courses for field sales coming up in Leicester, Northampton, Derby, Nottingham, Birmingham, Coventry, Kettering, Corby, Loughborough, Coalville, Solihull and Lichfield.

Advice on getting past the gatekeeper

Monday, December 1st, 2008

We’ve already got some advice posted in the tips section but if you’ve got here from the blog, here are some tips for getting around the gatekeeper (bane of our lives !)

If you can’t get hold of the person you need to speak to, try calling them at one end of the day or the other when the receptionist is unlikely to be there. Before 9 and after 5 are always good times. Second always store direct dial numbers when they’re given to you or you hear them on voice mails. The same goes for mobile numbers. Another tip is to try another person – such as someone in their department and ask them some questions. They’ll often be able to tell you the main things you want to know.

This is one of the subjects we often end up discussing in our telesales training courses, and the telesales tip on getting past the gatekeeper relating to storing mobile numbers comes from a recent telesales training course in Birmingham West Midlands.