TeleSales Pro

Effective Selling Over The Phone

Jim

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Telemarketing Tips – Telesales Tips

Here is my list of Telemarketing Tips and Telesales Tips.

They will help you focus on getting better at what it is you do!
Sell your products and services over the phone.

These Telemarketing Tips are general to any business and if you incorporate them into your selling approach, your sales will improve.

This list of sales tips can be your roadmap.
It can provide you with the essential ingredients to improve your personal sales performance and hopefully put more money in your pocket.

If you are a sales manager, this is also a great list of Telemarketing Tips and Telesales Tips. You can use them to help guide the activities of your sales associates.

These tips can also help in your telemarketing training or telesales training for new hires.

If you’ve been selling for a long time, these telemarketing and telesales tips can be very useful for reminding yourself of the basics. The fundamentals rarely change.

However, don’t just read these directives. Absorb, understand and incorporate the selling tips into your daily phone calls.

Even though these sales tips are numbered, they are not rated. They are equally important and work best in concert.

Telemarketing Tips | Telesales Tips


  1. Set Goals

    You’re in sales! You must have goals.

    You know what you want your life to be like. How does your job help you get the life you desire?

    Have a clear roadmap that leads to accomplishing those goals.

    Be able to measure your progress.

  2. Be Prepared

    Yes! Just like a boy scout, be prepared!

    Know your position and where you want to go.

    Understand what you need to do to reach the goals you have set.

    Do the diligence!

    Make a daily plan and put it into action.

    Like the old saying goes “If you fail to plan, plan to fail!”

    Be ready for every day and every call you make.

  3. Know Your Products and/or Services

    Understand your products and services.

    Know the benefits they bring to a customer.

    Sell the benefits. Sell the sizzle!

  4. Know Your Unique Value Proposition

    You must be able to state simply what makes your product so great for the customer.

    Why you’re unique. Define what sets you apart.

    Clearly define the benefits you can deliver to your prospect when they buy from you, benefits they cannot get elsewhere.

  5. Know Your Presentation

    Know your pitch, verbatim!

    You must follow your script and be able to deliver it with unbridled enthusiasm.

    The moment your prospect answers the phone, you are on script.

  6. Sell to The Decision Maker

    Always pitch to the person that can buy! Know who that person is before you call.

    The person that has the authority to make a purchase is the person you need to pitch.

    Many salespeople waste their time presenting a product or service to a person that cannot make a buying decision.

    You must confirm that the person you have on the line is the decision maker.

    Ask them – “I understand that you are the ____________?”

  7. Be Confident

    Your Voice

    Speaking to someone over the phone is an intimate act.

    Your voice is touching a persons ear!

    The unique frequency of your voice and the vibe you transmit establishes who you are in a visceral way. This happens incredibly fast.

    Be confident.

    If you do not convey an air of confidence immediately, your call could be over quickly.

  8. Be Enthusiastic

    Your smile and demeanour will translate over the telephone line.

    Have fun and be enthusiastic.

    It often helps if you are standing while speaking.

  9. Be Direct

    Don’t beat around the bush – get right to the point!

    It is really easy for someone to hang up! No Thanks… Poof! Gone!

    The faster you get to your pitch, the better.

    Be assertive. Don’t be pushy or aggressive. Be professional, courteous and speak clearly.

    You have only seconds to convince a person to continue a conversation with you.

  10. Engage Your Prospect

    Involve your potential customer in the conversation.

    Ask questions.

    Get your prospects attention. Establish Interest. Ask for a Decision!

    Get your Prospect to Act Now!

  11. Control The Call Agenda

    It is up to you to control the flow of the sales call.

    You are the seller.

    Lead the dance and take the conversation where you need it to go.

  12. Create Urgency

    You must give your prospective client a reason to act now! Immediately!

    An offer where the client receives a benefit to commit immediately is commonly used.

    An offer where the benefit will go away after your meeting or a limited time offer that specifies an end date.

    There are many ways to inject urgency into a sales call, but that is a story for another time.

    Remember, buyers will do whatever they want to do. Give them a good reason to buy now, and they will!

  13. Ask for the Sale

    Close! Always Ask For The Sale!

    It’s called closing. It is asking the prospect to commit, to decide.

    A B C – Always Be Closing!

    A sales call should evolve through a series of agreements in a conversation between a seller and potential buyer. A well crafted sales presentation should engage your prospects by asking questions.

    Answers to your questions will either affirm your assumptions, lead to an agreement or present conditions that can be met or not.

  14. Know How To Handle Objections

    Knowing how to overcome common objections is essential.

    Empathize with your prospects concerns! Then inform your prospect exactly how your offer neutralizes their concern.

    Resell the sizzle – the direct benefits!

    Then Ask for the Sale!

  15. Record All Sales Calls

    I cannot emphasize strongly enough the importance of recording all of your sales calls. Equally important is to analyze these calls.

    I am amazed when companies don’t record all sales calls. I am also amazed when companies that do record sales calls don’t use them systematically to improve sales performance.

  16. Analyze All Sales Calls

    Review and analyze the recordings of all your sales calls.

    You will be able to identify areas where you are weak or lose control of the call.

    What you will learn by reviewing and analyzing every call you make will astound you. You can implement immediate changes and constantly improve.

    This activity will automatically improve your closing ratio – it’s inevitable!

    This is an essential tool for managers and if is not part of your process,
    you need to get with the program.


It is absolutely necessary to understand the fundamental process of selling if you are to be a successful sales professional. It doesn’t matter whether you sell face to face or over the telephone, learn the basics and build on them.

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Cold Calling Techniques | Breaking The Ice

In any kind of sales job you have to be aware of various types of Cold Calling Techniques. You must also be able to use these highly effectively Sales Techniques at the drop of a hat. This is extremely important in Telesales and Selling Over The Phone.

Cold Calling is used quite often in a lot of businesses and is sometimes the main method of Prospecting as well as getting orders to quickly increase sales. Many industries use the telephone for Business to Business (B2B) introductions, appointment setting, and surveys.

In other cases a company might use the phone to actually make cold calls that go from product introduction through to the final sale in one call.

If you look at the sales process Telemarketers of Newspaper Subscriptions follow, it’s a Cold Call designed to get the customer to subscribe during the Cold Call.

These types of Cold Calls rely heavily on a script that is followed to the letter.

The script is mapped-out through experience and each Telemarketer is usually given a list of prospects or is setup on a Predictive Dialer which dials the phone number and shows the customer information on a computer screen.

Handling Objections in this type of environment can make a big difference to the outcome of any sales call and the Telemarketers who can best deal with Sales Objections and think quickly will get more deals and are often promoted into the Sales Department.

I am a big advocate of Being Prepared Before You Make A Cold Call. The Art of Cold Calling is best suited to those of us that take the time to be prepared before we pick up the telephone. This means having up-to-the-minute Client Intelligence! I’ll return to this subject later.


Introducing Yourself | Breaking The Ice

The crucial moment of any Telesales Cold Call is the moment your Decision Maker answers the telephone.

Many salespeople freeze at this moment and ruin any chance at all of making a connection with the person on the other end of the phone line.

Face it, even though Cold Calling may seem impersonal, it’s exactly the opposite when you are using the phone. When was the last time you got really close enough to someone to whisper in their ear?

At this crucial moment several things can happen but there are five critical impressions you must satisfy for your prospect.

  1. You Are Not A Threat

    2. One of the easiest ways to get a person to let their guard down is with a little humour. If you can make your prospect laugh or smile in the first seconds of a Cold Call you’ll be half the way there.

    There are many methods to make this work for you but you have to remember – there is a big difference between being humorous and silly.

    You must come across as lighthearted yet professional as well and witty yet inoffensive. You’re not looking for someone to fall off the chair laughing, you’re goal is to be engaging and charming without going off the deep end.

  2. You Are Relevant

    3. One of your goals in Cold Calling is to quickly establish that you are speaking to the correct individual without making that person feel like a mark.

    You have to be clever about this.

    Let’s say you are selling a line of industrial cleaning supplies.

    You may not want to ask:

    Are you the person responsible for purchasing the cleaning supplies?

    You may rather say:

    I understand that you’re the person that makes sure your building has the latest and greatest cleaning supplies on the market.

    When they say Yes, I am – you’ll answer:

    That’s great, My company just came out with a brand new line of cleaners that I knew you would like to hear about.

  3. You Are Informed About Them

    4. As in the pervious example you’ve shown the person you’re speaking with that you’ve done your homework and know who they are. If you are paying attention to what is happening in your industry you should be alerted to when a company is doing something that can benefit from what you sell.

    It all goes back to being prepared

  4. You Could Present A Beneficial Opportunity

    5. As in the above example you’ve demonstrated to the prospect that if they buy cleaning supplies, you could be a potential supplier.

    The prospect knows you are talking to the right person, if not, they may point you in the right direction.

  5. They Like You

    6. By satisfying the above conditions there is no reason the person wouldn’t like you. We are not talking about setting up a date!

    We are talking about being comfortable enough with you to continue a conversation about their business and the opportunities you might bring to the table.

Breaking down barriers is very important in the first moments of any Cold Call. You have to Warm-Up the person you’re talking with and the best way to do it is to be friendly, engaging, professional, and interested in the prospects business.

If a potential customer is comfortable speaking with you in the initial stages of your phone call, you’ll find they will be open and forthcoming in the rest of your conversation.

By quickly developing a good rapport with someone over the phone, you will come to realize how much fun Cold Calling really is!

Breaking The Ice and making a connection with a prospective buyer of the goods or services you sell, is one of many Cold Calling Techniques. Throughout TeleSales-Pro.com I’ll continue to explore how you can employ more Cold Calling Tips to help you be successful in Telesales.

Jim

Telesales-pro.com is primarily concerned with B2B Telesales. Selling over the Phone to business is a highly specialized activity and depends on many Sales Techniques specific to Telesales.

Whether you are looking for Sales Jobs or Sales Leads, TeleSales-Pro exists to provide you with valuable Sales Tips and Resources.

If you are trying to build your Sales Skills, improving your Telephone Sales Skills will give you a great foundation in Sales. After all, as salespeople, we all want to be Selling more.

Learning to Sell over the Phone will help you understand the Sales Process and will enable you to improve your overall Sales Negotiation Skills.

If you have any comments, feel free to comment about anything you read on telesales-pro.com. If you want to contact me you can email me: jim@telesales-pro.com

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Objection Handling

Having a great Sales Presentation is essential in Telesales but it’s only the starting point for any Sales Process on or off the telephone. A compelling presentation should illuminate the features and benefits of the products and services you’re selling. However, the real work starts when you are Handling Objections and attempting to close the deal.

It’s been said over and over that the selling starts after your presentation ends, you know the part where you actually ask for the order. This is where the objections show-up and this is where someone usually ends-up in control of the sale. If you are successful at Objection Handling, it will be you.

How To Handle Objections

Let me say this right from the start – if you expect to deliver a long-winded sales pitch from start to finish without involving the potential buyer and then effectively handle numerous objections, you’re setting yourself up for a huge fail.

  • Overcoming Objections Starts With You Listening

    • It is never enough to just let your prospect tell you their concerns, you also have to hear and understand an objection for what it is. Many salespeople relegate the listening process to mere lip-service and stay quiet long enough for the objection to be said without actually hearing what is the real impediment to closing the sale.

    If you pay close attention to your prospective customer, they will usually tell you what is necessary for them to make a purchase. Many believe Objections are Buying Signals and unless you are way off-base and pitching someone that has absolutely no reason to buy what you’re selling, you’d better pay close attention.

  • Be Conversational

    • Use A Conversational Approach When Selling Over The Phone. It is really important in Telesales that at strategic points in your sales presentation you involve the prospect – be as conversational as possible.

    Don’t come across like someone reading a script, the person on the other end of the phone will know. If you inject your personality into your conversation and engage your prospect it will create a favourable climate.

  • Anticipate Objections

    • As you construct your sales pitch, identify areas where you believe certain objections could logically be raised. You must understand the objections and the answers to them so you can be ready to overcome them.

    Be aware of all the common objections and have a complete set of solutions. This is where your Preparation Skills are put to the test.

    For more check out: Objection Handling | How to Reduce Objections.

  • Ask Questions

    • Ask your prospect questions throughout your sales presentation at strategic places to draw-out an objection so you can deal with it before you proceed.

    You can pepper the answers of some common objections in your Sales Presentations. When you make a point which you believe handles an objection, ask a probing question. If you get a negative response, you must deal with it then and there.

    There is no point moving forward if your prospect has an objection you can’t overcome.

    Do this correctly and it will help you gather your prospects’ compliance throughout your sales process.

  • Be Your Prospects Avocate

    • At every opportunity you must let the prospect know you are in his corner. If an objection is raised or the customer wants something, you have the opportunity to let them know that you will go to bat for him or her.

    If you are looking out for the clients best interest and they know it, many sales objections will never come up.

  • Always Be Positive

    • When answering any type of Sales Objection it’s very common for salespeople to repeat, parrot fashion, the remark the prospective customer has raised. Never, I repeat, Never do this if the comment is in any way negative!

    Prospect: I don’t have this expenditure in my budget!
    Salesperson: I assumed you didn’t have it in your budget… but, what if I could?

    When you repeat a negative conclusion or response made by your prospect, you are validating it and reinforcing that position in the prospects mind. This is such a common mistake and very simple to overcome. Remember, when you are Selling Over The Phone, every word counts.

    Prospect: I don’t have this expenditure in my budget!
    Salesperson: I understand, If we could put your Budget Aside for the moment – what if I could?

    In the example response above we have shown some empathy for the clients situation and not reinforced his objection.

    Try to eliminate negative words from your speech. No, Not, Can’t, Don’t, Won’t… you get the idea.

  • Ask For The Sale

    • One of the most serious offences made by salespeople when dealing with objections is a relaxing of the rule – Always Be Closing. Every time you satisfy a problem in your prospect customers mind you must get some kind of commitment from the person.

    It doesn’t necessarily need to be an immediate buying commitment but you have to close them on something, get their agreement, get them to say yes! This is what closing is all about. If you are overcoming an objection about anything, the resolution has to be an agreement.

    Prospect: I don’t have this expenditure in my budget!
    Salesperson: I understand! Let’s put your Budget Aside for the moment. What If I could set-up a convenient payment plan? Would you be able to fit small payments into your budget?

    If you get agreement here, not only have you overcome the objection, you’ve closed on a payment plan which gets you closer to the sale! No agreement, you still have work to do or you’re done.

Objection Handling

When you are delivering a Sales Presentation you have the rare opportunity to control how Sales Objections are put forward. If you understand what the potential objections will be beforehand, you can satisfy the majority of them as you probe your prospect with questions throughout your conversation.

Involve your prospect, be enthusiastic, and positive. The more adept you are with Objection Handling, the better you’ll be at closing deals!

Jim

Telesales-pro.com is primarily concerned with B2B Telesales. Selling over the Phone to business is a highly specialized activity and depends on many Sales Techniques specific to Telesales.

Whether you are looking for Sales Jobs or Sales Leads, TeleSales-Pro exists to provide you with valuable Sales Tips and Resources.

If you are trying to build your Sales Skills, improving your Telephone Sales Skills will give you a great foundation in Sales. After all, as salespeople, we all want to be Selling more.

Learning to Sell over the Phone will help you understand the Sales Process and will enable you to improve your overall Sales Negotiation Skills.

If you have any comments, feel free to comment about anything you read on telesales-pro.com. If you want to contact me you can email me: jim@telesales-pro.com

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Psychology Of Selling
Be Prepared

I like to say whenever you call someone on the telephone and try to sell them a product or service, you need to be prepared, just like a Boy Scout.

So… It’s no stretch to say the Psychology of Selling Over The Phone starts with You.

This philosophy is true of any type of salesmanship and being prepared is what makes a good salesperson a great salesperson.

I also believe if You are not ready to sell and You don’t have all your ammunition ready and in front of You, You are not ready to even pick up the phone.

Some while ago I was in a sales meeting with a group of hotshot salespeople who are all very accomplished in the art of Selling Over The Phone.

As a matter of fact, these sales professionals are quite accustomed to closing deals for well over $20,000.00 USD all the time, and guess what, they do it by Cold Calling Over The Phone.

Forget Everything You Think You Know About Selling

Aside from the fact they all know every trick in the book when it comes to effectively presenting their service, answering objections, and closing, they all have come from areas where they sold face to face.

A common thread in my conversations with each of these people is that they all have totally changed their Modus operandi. No longer can they rely on the cues that all salespeople rely on to develop and maintain client relationships, cues from selling face to face, they have all learned new skills that work in the new environment – telesales.

In essence, their skill set has been tweaked to suit audible feedback and cues, and for many salespeople it’s not an easy transition.

I Know I Can Sell

They also understand one very important detail about themselves that enables them to effectively perform the job.

They are all Believers but it’s not what you think.

What these individuals believe is they CAN SELL and that they WILL SELL!

The belief they have has nothing to do with the product, although they all believe the product is well worth the cash. What they believe in is – their own Ability and Talent to Sell.

This belief is deeply rooted in each persons psyche along with the conviction that they can alter their financial situation at whim. It’s very true, they can and do, every day.

This type of ability comes from years of successful selling and hard work. But more importantly, they’ve all spent a considerable amount of effort learning to manipulate their own attitude. That’s right, they constantly have a conversation with themselves.

Another common trait among these salespeople is they have all done their homework and have spent time and energy developing their sales skills to a point where they are confident. As a result they are very successful and almost every one of them makes 6 figures a year.

So the moral of the story here is this – if you are confident in Your Ability To Sell, you will! Simple!

The Psychology of Selling Starts With You.

It’s up to You to know you’re product inside and out.

It’s up to You to know your competitors as well as you know your own products.

It’s up to You to know why your product is the better choice.

It’s up to You to understand what your customer wants.

It’s up to You to find the right leads.

It’s up to You to be ethical.

And I could go on an on and on…

When you are confident, you will sell anything, anywhere, at anytime to anyone. Build your skill-set, know your product, study the competition, and study your customers.

Most importantly – Study Yourself. If you do, you will be confident of your ability and you will be Effective Selling Over The Phone.

If you are selling over the phone, be prepared, it’s the best thing you can do to have confidence!

You Can Do It!

Jim

Telesales-pro.com is primarily concerned with B2B Telesales. Selling over the Phone to business is a highly specialized activity and depends on many Sales Techniques specific to Telesales.

Whether you are looking for Sales Jobs or Sales Leads, TeleSales-Pro exists to provide you with valuable Sales Tips and Resources.

If you are trying to build your Sales Skills, improving your Telephone Sales Skills will give you a great foundation in Sales. After all, as salespeople, we all want to be Selling more.

Learning to Sell over the Phone will help you understand the Sales Process and will enable you to improve your overall Sales Negotiation Skills.

If you have any comments, feel free to comment about anything you read on telesales-pro.com. If you want to contact me you can email me: jim@telesales-pro.com

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How Do You Close A Sale Over The Phone

Many salespeople don’t know how to close a sale over the phone. They struggle with basic closing techniques in any selling situation.

When it comes to Telesales, I have watched many salespeople hang up the phone without even bothering to close on anything.

For some reason they don’t believe closing applies to selling over the phone or they just do not understand what closing is.

So what exactly makes the process of selling on the phone different?

Not much really – If you already know how to close a sale!


How do you close a sale over the phone?

As with any other sales situation, closing is nothing more than asking your prospect to do something, anything really.

If you have done a great job of presenting your product or service and have developed a level of comfort with your prospective customer, asking the person to buy should be a very natural progression in your communication.

This is where salespeople drop the ball and refuse to ask for an order. I don’t care what you sell, if you don’t ask for an order, in very few circumstances will the customer offer it up.

I’m not saying it never happens, it does, but as a professional salesperson you should be asking for the deal. It is the reason you called.

ABC – Always Be Closing

Most people I know have watched the movie Glengarry Glen Ross with Jack Lemon and Alec Baldwin. The movie is quite memorable if you are in sales because of a couple of acronyms Alec Baldwin delivers as he chastises a rag tag group of salespeople who he believes haven’t deserved to get the new leads – The Glengarry Leads!


He talks about why a salesperson should always be closing, it’s basic stuff. It applies to every sales presentation you do. It’s no different in Telesales.

If you are not going to get a sale you must ask your prospect to do something. You are looking for the prospect to make a commitment. It’s then up to you to use that commitment to get closer to the final goal of getting a sale.

Always Be Closing is the same as Always Ask Questions and when you ask questions, you will get answers which should give you actionable information.

You can use the information to either deal with objections or decide whether or not the individual is someone that might be a purchaser or not.

So, How Do You Close A Sale Over The Phone? You ask someone to buy, you give them good reasons and they will, but you have to ask for the deal!

Jim


Telesales-pro.com is primarily concerned with B2B Telesales. Selling over the Phone to business is a highly specialized activity and depends on many Sales Techniques specific to Telesales.

Whether you are looking for Sales Jobs or Sales Leads, TeleSales-Pro exists to provide you with valuable Sales Tips and Resources.

If you are trying to build your Sales Skills, improving your Telephone Sales Skills will give you a great foundation in Sales. After all, as salespeople, we all want to be Selling more.

Learning to Sell over the Phone will help you understand the Sales Process and will enable you to improve your overall Sales Negotiation Skills.

If you have any comments, feel free to comment about anything you read on telesales-pro.com. If you want to contact me you can email me: jim@telesales-pro.com

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Call Screening

One of the hardest things to do in Telesales is get through to the decision maker. Call Screening is designed to stop you. If you can’t speak to the right person, you’re finished before you even start.

Many salespeople are oblivious to the purpose of a call screener and view the individual as a greeter of some sort. If you are calling a customer that you do business with on an ongoing basis, the screener may know your relationship and may help you get through. If you are making a cold call, they’ll try to stop you!

The job of a call screener is to decide if you are going to waste the time of the person you’re trying to contact. They will try to get information which will help them decide where to direct your call. If the screener can’t redirect your call, they’ll try to get enough information to judge whether or not to ask the decision maker if they want to take your call, or they will decide not to put you through at all.

In the case of Cold Calling or any other selling skills, there are some rules you need to know, understand, and follow, and what I’m saying now is the mother of all sales tips and it is especially true of Telesales.


Never Sell To Call Screeners

This is a huge no no! I have listened to salespeople pitch the receptionist believing that the receptionist will be some kind of champion of their cause.

To begin with, this person cannot buy anything from you, the only possible decision they can make is a no, N O ! If you already know the outcome will be no, why even go there!

If by some rare stroke of luck you happen to turn-on the screener with your idea and they do approach their boss, what assurance do you have they will present the product or service on offer correctly. None.

You are the best person to deliver a presentation to the decision maker, not the executive assistant, personal assistant or call screener. They won’t care about the outcome or be complete; how could they.

Let’s assume you sell sanitation supplies over the phone. You cold call people responsible for purchasing such items anytime you have a new product launch or a special introductory offer as a way to build new customers.

Let’s say you try to get a certain purchasing agent on the phone and the call screener keeps asking you what the call is about. Frustrated you finally tell the screener you have a revolutionary new garbage bag that is twice as strong and half the cost of any other industrial garbage bag on the market. And not only that – depending on the volume of garbage bags they order, they could possibly qualify for deeper discounts!

So the call screener takes your phone number and says if they are interested Mr. Purchasing Agent will call you. After you hang up this person asks the boss if he wants to buy any garbage bags which he responds no – he already has a reliable garbage bag supplier. End of story!

Was that worth your effort? Definitely not! Did Mr. Purchasing Agent know what he turned down? No! In this instance, everyone lost. No sale for you and no cost saving for them.

You must get the decision maker on the phone, no one else will sell your products or services like you do. There is nothing more important in Telesales, or any other sales for that matter. Talk to people who can give you an order.

Call Screening is a fact of life and it’s your job to get past that obstacle. I will be talking more about how to get around the dreaded call screener in another post.

Jim

Telesales-pro.com is primarily concerned with B2B Telesales. Selling over the Phone to business is a highly specialized activity and depends on many Sales Techniques specific to Telesales.

Whether you are looking for Sales Jobs or Sales Leads, TeleSales-Pro exists to provide you with valuable Sales Tips and Resources.

If you are trying to build your Sales Skills, improving your Telephone Sales Skills will give you a great foundation in Sales. After all, as salespeople, we all want to be Selling more.

Learning to Sell over the Phone will help you understand the Sales Process and will enable you to improve your overall Sales Negotiation Skills.

If you have any comments, feel free to comment about anything you read on telesales-pro.com. If you want to contact me you can email me: jim@telesales-pro.com