Posts Tagged ‘increasing sales’

Inbound calls represent the best selling opportunities there are

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

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.

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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 »

Travel industry – sell your way out of trouble

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. 

Travel sales training

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 ;

  1. 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.
  2. 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?
  3. 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.
  4. 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

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Posted in benchmarking telesales teams, business growth, sales development training, Selling advice, telesales, Travel industry training | 1 Comment »

Benefit selling on the phone

Friday, February 18th, 2011

Benefit selling on the phone is really important. You only have 4 seconds to make that impact, and at that point the customer or client will decide whether to mentally switch off from what they were doing and ‘engage’ with you.

So you have to make it sound attractive.

Benefit selling on the telephone is key to effective selling

Benefit selling on the phone - Master it - for better results

Make your call stand out from the crowd. Make them want to sit up and pay attention. Talk specifics where you can. Inane phrases such as “we’re one of the leading suppliers in the UK of ‘blah-blah’” doesn’t cut it any more. Anyone can say that and many do. However saying we supply 40 of the FTSE Top 100 companies would make me sit up and take notice. So would “we are the only company in the UK who offers a full 5 year warranty on our products” as would “we are the second largest company in the UK who ……”

Work on identifying what makes your company or products stand out from the crowd. Then nail it. Say it frequently and often (is that the same thing?!)

That’s the reason special offers and campaigns work. There is a benefit from buying it from me today!

Also use evocative adjectives to describe your products. Words like New, extended the range of, improved, now come with ……… and even ‘exciting’ if you feel comfortable using it are all words that will motivate the customer to want to listen. And if you achieve that, you’re half way there. The best of luck.

To Market runs a range of telephone sales courses all across the Midlands : Birmingham, Leicester, Coventry, Derby, Nottingham, Northampton, Kettering, Corby, Wellingborough, Coalville, Milton Keynes covering this subject and a range of communications skills topics. Find our more here http://www.tomarket.co.uk/courses.php

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Posted in Cold calling, communication skills, sales development training, Selling advice, telemarketing, Telemarketing management, telephone techniques, telesales, Telesales team assessment, telesales team management, Telesales tips | 1 Comment »

Travel industry sales training – holiday companies

Thursday, August 20th, 2009

Travel industry sales training – holiday companies. Travel companies often have a particular interest in working with training providers who have a detailed knowledge of the travel business.

Sales training and customer service training for these companies is as important now as it has ever been. We are pleased that we secured the services of a top travel industry trainer. Alan Cook has over 25 years experience working as a trainer and most of them with travel companies. He joined us back in 2007, with a wealth of experience in the travel and leisure industry. 

Alan Cook - specialist travel industry trainer

Alan Cook - specialist travel industry trainer

If you are looking to increase your conversion rates on the phone, to sell more, to make more bookings of your overseas, or ski or UK based holidays we know a man who can. He’s already been doing it for a number of years. Alan Cook has many years experience having worked for Thomas Cook at Peterborough, and Page and Moy a Leicester based travel company now owned by Market Harborough based travel group Travelsphere.

Contact us info@tomarket.co.uk if you are a travel industry company wanting to do more. We can help.

Expert travel industry training in Leicester, Market Harborough, Peterborough, Manchester, Brighton, London, Birmingham, York, Cambridge, Coventry, Nottingham, Derby. In-house training, coaching programmes and mentoring for customer service, telesales and sales agents for UK breaks, ski holidays, tours, cruises, chalets, escorted tours etc.

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Posted in benchmarking customer service teams, benchmarking telesales teams, communication skills, customer handling, Customer service management, customer service team assessment, customer services, Overcoming objections, sales development training, Selling advice, telephone techniques, telesales, Telesales team assessment, telesales team management | No Comments »

Don’t apologise for your sales call !

Friday, December 12th, 2008

When making an outbound call, don’t appear submissive by apologising in any way about your call.

I was carrying out a team audit with a company earlier this week in Birmingham, and I noticed that on one call one of the telesales team opened by saying “thanks for taking the call. I will be brief.” Whilst this is very polite, and respectful, nevertheless it does undermine the value of the sales call.  We all need to be be proud of the fact that we’re salespeople, and what we are attempting to do adds value to the customer’s business. And we must believe that !

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Posted in communication skills, telemarketing, telephone techniques, telesales | No Comments »

Customers like to say yes

Monday, April 21st, 2008

The most natural thing is to want to say yes when someone asks you a question. We all like to please I think.

I was away staying in a hotel in Warrington (while training), and I was about coming to the end of my meal. I’d had a bottle of beer and couldn’t decide whether to have another one or not. The waitress came by and said “Are you ok for drinks ?” I instinctively said “Yes.” There it was, the word was out and she was gone. I realised that if she’d asked the same question in a different way the outcome would have been different too. She could have said “Can I get you another beer ?” to which I’d have said “Yes !” and an extra sale would have been made. I wonder how many sales opportunities are missed because of this !

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Posted in telesales | No Comments »