4 tips for telephone sales calls.
Often we can overlook the basics when it comes to sales calls.
1.Prepare for your call.
This includes doing your research and finding out as much as you can about this company person before your call.
I am not a fan of sales scripts, however, you need to consider what you want to say.
Focus on your opening, what will grab their attention, what is the middle message, and what do you want to leave them thinking about.
Structure your call to have a beginning – middle & end.
Have 3 objectives for each call you make. Be clear about what you want to achieve. If the client was to only remember 1 thing, what do you want that to be?
Having 3 objectives for each call ensures that you achieve something on each call, which will build your confidence for the next call.
2. Think about your tone of voice.
People don’t just communicate with their words. Messages are also conveyed in the way that words are delivered. If you sound bored, distracted or disinterested, the other person may well pick up on it and your call is now at risk. It’s true that they can’t see you, but a lot can be communicated through your tone of voice, so make sure that it matches the message that you are trying to get across.
Don’t forget to smile and standing up is a great way to increase your confidence, energy and your tone. (Give it a go and see what happens)
3. Listen carefully.
Communicating is not just about speaking. You need to listen as well.
The easiest way to listen is to ask open questions. When you uncover opportunity, by asking the right questions, you need to link the answers back to how you can help them.
Throughout the telephone call, try to bring your ideas across in a structured way.
Think about the most important thing you want them to remember after your call. Write that 1 thing down to help you stay on track. If you don’t understand something, always look for clarity.
To learn more on questioning skills check out:
https://lms.salesperformance.ie/courses/module-2-questioning-skills/
4. Summarise the conversation.
Where possible try using the customer’s own language on what they shared and discussed with you, this will demonstrate that you really listened and were invested in learning about them. You can either do this at the end of the call, by paraphrasing:
Repeat what you heard and get agreement on the next steps. It’s good to be clear about what was agreed during the call, who is responsible for carrying out which tasks and when you will be in contact again. By summarising and agreeing on any actions, you are making the next step in the sales process easier for yourself.
Bonus Tip:
- Introduce a telephone power hour across the week.
- This time is dedicated to outbound calls.
- Be ready for action, have everything you need to make an effective telephone call.
- Start with 5 telephone calls and do them one immediately one after the other. The purpose here is the more calls you make the more confident you will become.
- Do your calls in blocks, review the 3 objectives that you set yourself for each call, reflect and learn.
This helps remove the fear out of outbound calls, as you will achieve something on each call, plus as you approach them in blocks it will improve your confidence.
I am a big fan of Simon Sinek and I like his quote. ”emails will get a reaction, telephone calls start a conversation”. Sales is about having conversations about possibilities. Plus remember there are going to be some calls that have better results than others, but you will learn something that you can either improve or repeat in your next call.