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Boost Your Business... Pay Attention to the Phone

Written by: Lorraine Pirihi

Article Overview: This week I was doing some research for a conference I 'll be speaking at shortly. One of the people I rang from the industry I was researching answered the phone with "How can we help you change your life today?". Well that blew me away. How often do you ring a business and are greeted with a fantastic message like that? I knew then that this business was different. I immediately thought that if this is the way the phone was answered, then what they offered would be superior to other businesses who offered similar services and products. If the salon was located nearby I definitely would have booked in. It wouldn't take much convincing for me to spend money with them.

Boost Your Business... Pay Attention to the Phone

Hi,

This week I was doing some research for a conference I 'll be speaking at shortly. One of the people I rang from the industry I was researching answered the phone with "How can we help you change your life today?".

Well that blew me away. How often do you ring a business and are greeted with a fantastic message like that? I knew then that this business was different. I immediately thought that if this is the way the phone was answered, then what they offered would be superior to other businesses who offered similar services and products. If the salon was located nearby I definitely would have booked in. It wouldn't take much convincing for me to spend money with them.

So what's the point I'm making here? How often do you ring a business only to be greeted by " Hold the line please", "John's phone" or a bored and disinterested person speaking in a monotone voice saying for the thousandth time " Morley Partners". What impression would that give you?

How the phone is answered either good or bad, is the responsibility of the business owner or manager, not the person who takes the calls. In most instances, people aren't trained on this very important role so they do their own thing. The reason for this is generally down to ... the business owner or manager has no idea or hasn't taken any notice to the way people are greeted when they call and secondly they haven't trained their people (and I could add they don't understand or have no idea about people development).

In many businesses the reason why training and development is forgotten or ignored is because the person in charge is often too busy and snowed under to pay any attention to staff development and training or they don't see the value of investing in their people.

Just like you, I would have rung hundreds of businesses only to be left with a poor perception of the company because of the way the phone was answered and on many occasions I have rung somewhere else looking to spend my money.

What You Can Do
It's always the little things that make a major difference. Being organised and having the time to address the many facets of running your business is vital.

Hopefully you'll swing into action and use the above information to make improvements in your business.

If you're the owner or manager, the responsibility is up to you. You could be losing thousands of dollars a year because of your lack of time and personal organisation. How would you like to reclaim that time and money by dramatically improving your organisational skills so you can free up your time to work on your business so that you work less and earn more? If you seriously want to then give me a call on 1300 857 756.

Just remember if you keep doing the same things, you'll get the same results and if you do something different you'll get different results.

Have a great week!

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How do i answer the phone? - I learned this technique from a successful businessman who earns over a million dollars a year. He just uses his name like this... Phone rings... " This is Dwayne..." It kind of throws people off who have a preplanned script and gets right into it. Phone rings... " This is Dwayne..." No Hello, no good morning/afternoon/evening Phone rings... "This is Dwayne..."
My entry - 1. The Best Business Books Ever: The 100 Most Influential Business Books You'll Never Have Time to Read - this is a fascinating book about the history of Business theory, and I'd recommend it to anybody. 2. The Big Book of Small Business: You Don't Have to Run Your Business by the Seat of Your Pants, by Tom Gegax. Ditto. 3. PADI: The Business of Diving Book Okay, so this book won't be of use to anyone who doesn't want to start a scuba store, but I did, and this book was of course invaluable to me in reaching that goal.
Re: Can you read body language and convert it into a sale? - I can definitely read their mood by how they speak on the phone. You can usually also tell by the way they respond to the things you are saying. Phone sales aren't as easy as when you see them in person, but I still believe their tone can tell a lot.
Re: Attention Age Doctrine - Hi Andy, So how did you find of "The Attention Age Doctrine" Part 1? And has following its guidelines yielded any positive results yet?
Advertisement that sales - Plan your marketing programme. It should include commitment to capital resources. If you run a small business, you aren't likely to have a generous enough advertising budget that will allow you to run costly branding or campaign ads. Every advertisement you run must convey to your prospect a solid offer and attractive reasons to act quickly, and result in increased sales and an enhanced image of your company. Good advertising always pays its own way through increased sales and profits, improved cost-effectiveness, reduced selling costs and shortened selling cycles. A useful formula that will help you increase the effectiveness of your advertising efforts is A-I-D-A, which stands for Attention, Interest, Desire and Action. When creating an advertisement, always remind yourself that it should: (1) capture your prospects' Attention, (2) arouse their Interest in your offer, (3) create their Desire for your product or service, and (4) provide a powerful spur to Action, that is, turn your prospect into buyers. Remember, bad advertising is an unproductive expense, and good advertising is an investment in future profits!


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