TELEPHONE SKILLS THAT SELL
TELEPHONE SKILLS THAT SELL
By Abraham Yakobi
How to get the most out of your phone!
All of us use phones, the question is do we get the maximum benefit from our phones? Anyone can learn the art of using the phone profitably. Successful people have excellent telephone etiquette. Learn how they do it.
Be pleasant!
Have you ever called a company and a gruff voice at the other end answered, “Yes”? Or maybe you called a company and a smiling warm voice answered, “Good morning, Thank you for calling company XYZ, how can I help you?” What was your reaction to the two voices?
Using the phone is the easiest way of reaching many prospects for a sales person. Successful sales people employ telephone skills that sell.
Cultivate your voice
A telephone conversation limits your presence to just your voice. There is no body language, No samples, no brochures,
and no graphic presentation. You must therefore cultivate your voice.
Be pleasant and interesting to listen to; Smile as you talk. The other person can ‘hear’ your smile! Speak clearly, audibly, enunciating every word. Be sincere and downright friendly. Rehearse and record your voice if necessary to improve on your diction.
Plan
Planning your calls means that you set objectives. Whom do you want to reach? What will you tell them when they come on the line? How will you arouse their curiosity? How will you get through the get keepers to the decision makers?
Think out your answers to these questions.
Before launching into calling your prospects, list down all the prospects you want to talk to, leave empty margins against their names where you will write comments, names of people to talk to, the best time and day to call them, and any other relevant
piece of information you may learn.
Making the call
Be relaxed and comfortable as you make your call.
Unless you are making a cello phone call directly to your would be prospect when calling a company you will get to the switchboard first. Switchboard operators are trained to prevent sales people from getting through to the decision maker.
To get through explain your reason of calling as a discussion in a new, technique, product or service that the company is offering.
For example, if you are selling handset components you could say something like,
“Your company is producing new handset xyz; I would like to discuss the features of this handset.”
Alternatively, you could say something like, “There is a new set of handle bars that your company can profit from, who can I talk to.”
Or, “our company is a farm implements manufacturer
I am sure your director will be interested to know how he can profit from a new line of products that we have introduced.”
Do not get into a sales pitch with the operator.
Arouse Interest
When you get through to the decision maker, arouse their interest.
You could say something like, “I know your company will profit from a new detergent that has been introduced in the market.”
Or, “I would like to offer a service that will reduce your carpet cleaning expenses by half at a faster turnaround time of only two hours!”
Arouse interest, and move on to booking a face-to-face appointment.
As a response to the question, “And what is this new product or service?” you could say something like, “Our new duo core computers have a processing ability that is a hundred times better than the current P4s, I can come to your office at a day and time of
your convenience to show you how they work.”
Or, “Our services are tailor made I would therefore request to come over to your premises, so that I can find out more about what you do before I can recommend what might be of interest to you.”
What to say
Speak spontaneously; respond to the flow of conversation. Avoid written scripts if you can, use scripts only as a guide.
Picture the person you are talking to as though they were in the same room with you. The person’s voice will tell you a lot about whether they are excitable, young, old, bored, tired, or just nice. Your approach should be to open them up so they can talk.
People love talking about themselves, their businesses, their families, achievements etc. Open your conversation with a remark like, “your company was in the papers yesterday….” follow it up with the ‘who’, ‘what’ ‘when’ or
‘how’ questions.
Listen
Listening will help you to discover your prospects needs. Listen to identify their objections and needs.
Remain interesting through out the conversation. Respect their time. Hang up after The prospect it is polite
Telephone selling need not be a nightmare use it with clear objectives and watch your business skyrocket.
I love Selling! I am a professional marketer, Member of the Chartered Insurance Institute, Having worked in the last seventeen years with five insurance companies as an underwriter later as a marketer, I currently run Insurance consultancy services in addition to being a motivational speaker, preaching the theme “Go Get It” to inspire the youth to go after their dreams and vision.
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