Brush up the telephone skills of your field sales team. The business world is now a very different place post-CoVid. Your sales team who were previously used to racking up the miles in their Audi or Mercedes are now resigned to making much of their contact from their home office. Or worse still from the breakfast table alongside the baby toys and this morning’s breakfast dishes.
The telephone skills of your field based sales team can be easily overlooked.
You don’t need me to remind you that field based sales people cost significant amounts of money. With many sectors finding the current business environment challenging, it is important to make the most of their time and their skills.
Setting appointments is a skill
Their ability to use the phone effectively to close deals and book themselves appointments is key. And the phone is a great tool to simply keep in touch. With the correct frequency of call and the right type of questions, they can maintain contact and find out the things they and you need to know. However they’ve probably never had training for this sort of thing. Yes they know how to sell things face to face. Good quality sales people will know instinctively how to read people. That is why many of them MUCH prefer to meet face-to-face rather than talk on the phone. They may not have ever done work on how to get past the gatekeeper. This is not a problem you face when out on the road. Another significant difference with telephone work is that you have to do the same job : explain yourself, introduce the company, explain your products and services clearly, but in much less time. It’s a bit like speed dating I always think. You will average an hour or so with someone that you visit. But you will rarely get an hour on the phone to make your pitch to a prospective customer. So you have to do the same job – much, much quicker. It therefore needs structure and the ability to be able to build rapport quickly and navigate their way through the call. Not using a script – obviously – they’re far too experienced and skilled for that – but at least to be able to know how to progress the call.
We offer telephone skills training for your field based sales team. If you have 4 or more field based sales people we can run an in-house ‘commissioned’ course on your premises. If you have a smaller team, why not get them involved in one of our open courses, where they will learn alongside sales people in other business to business or industrial sales environments. Whatever you decide to do, it is important you do something. And at the moment To Market is still offering a range of online sales modules too. You can book a programme made up of a series of short 60 – 90 minute modules.
We also have a range of audio CDs which offer tips and advice on many of the communication skills topics needed to make an impact on the phone. There are general based communication topics as well as a range specifically for sellers.
Field based assessments
We can also attend appointments with members of your sales team and give you an independent assessment of how they conduct their sales calls. Just a few things identified, can have a dramatic effect on sales results. If you already attend appointments with them – great, if not why not get our independent assessment ? Find out more here.
For more details on how this could benefit you, let’s talk on 01858 461148 or drop us your details on our contact page. We run telephone skills training courses and workshops across the East and West Midlands including Birmingham, Leicester, Coventry, Northampton, Wellingborough, Corby, Milton Keynes, Bedford, Nottingham, Derby, Oakham, Peterborough, Cambridge, Newmarket, Bury St. Edmunds, Kenilworth, Stratford and Leamington Spa