Professional Telephone Selling 6 Check Points To Evaluate The Call
Professional Telephone Selling 6 Check Points To Evaluate The Call
Each time you have made an important telephone call take a couple of moments to ask yourself the following questions - and be sure to answer them honestly (no-one else is going to hear).
1) Did I identify myself at once - and clearly?
Let us assume the reason for your telephone call was legal, decent and honest and that you have not spoken with the target individual before.
Why on earth would you not give your full name and that of your company (if you have a company name)?
There are no excuses on this.
Maybe I’m in the minority but I cannot stand receiving telephone calls from individuals who rush over the name of the company they represent (as though it’s an embarrassment), give me only their own first name and immediately try to treat me like some long lost buddy, despite the fact that we have never spoken before.
2) Did I talk to the person I wanted to contact?
This is, arguably, the million-dollar question. It is usually not only absolutely pointless, but potentially downright counter productive, to go into any amount of detail with anyone other than your target individual.
Why? Because if the person you speak with is not in your target audience there will be no real interest or reason for them to listen to you properly. Any information you glean from them may not be accurate. At best they will only remember a fraction of what you have said and, at worst, they will relay a garbled, inaccurate account of the purpose of your call to your real target who, understandably will be disinclined to speak to you when you call again.
During your sales activities you will come across people whose sole aim in life in most situations seems to be keeping you from talking to your target prospect. They are called gatekeepers and come in the guise of receptionist, assistant, voicemail, secretary or PA in the office, or husband/wife/partner or answer machine in the home. In certain circumstances they can perversely actually help further your cause. It’s in your interests to learn how to deal with them and get around this potential problem.
3) Did I have a specific goal in mind and a plan on how to achieve it before I called the number?
I know this one seems unbelievably daft at first glance, but when we delve a little deeper you will see that it raises a valid point.
I live in the UK; my mother is in her eighties and has lived in Canada for many years. We don’t see each other that often so I telephone her regularly. I don’t need to plan what I will say and, to be honest, it probably doesn’t matter that much what we talk about because the call itself achieves the goal which is to show I care about her and to make her feel wanted.
Actually, I have just read the previous sentence and realise that it isn’t true! The calls have a pattern:
I identify myself in case she mistakes my voice for that of one of my sisters We exchange notes on health and well-being.
We discuss how she enjoyed the show/film/whatever she had mentioned on the previous call that she was going to see, and what plans she has for the following week and talk about anything particularly interesting that we’ve been doing our side of the pond.
Tell each other about any good books we’ve read recently.
Check how the rest of the family is doing.
Generally put the world to rights Compare notes on the weather (what can I say - we’re British!)
And lastly I assure her I’ll call same time next week, or, if that isn’t possible, say when I will next call her - and it is that pattern (in this case so ingrained that it is subconscious) that achieves the goal.
It is not enough just to have the goal clear in your mind, you need to also have a plan on how to achieve the goal.
4) Did I give information clearly, ask relevant questions and listen to the answers?
Let’s have a couple of bold statements:
Good conversationalists are actually very good listeners.
The most successful sales people rarely appear to be selling.
If you think about social gatherings, the conversations you remember as being most enjoyable are those where you have been an active participant and the conversation freely flowed both ways. This applies equally to your prospect.
Interestingly, much research has been undertaken into what motivates people to buy, and most recent findings indicate that nearly all human desires and needs stem from one of three areas:
Approval - respect, acknowledgement or appreciation on one level; love, friendship and affection on another.
Control - some say that our degree of happiness is directly related to the level of control we feel we have over our lives.
Security - not just financial, but physical as well.
Asking relevant questions gives your prospect a chance to ‘open up’, and listening to the (often subtle) signals in the answers will help enable you to understand which of these motivates him most so that you can ultimately position the presentation of your offer and select the most pertinent benefits to show how you can help meet this need.
There’s a caveat here that you should be aware of:
Any buying decision carries with it an element of risk, so the average individual will wait until the pain of his problem or problems exceeds the preference to stay in his comfort zone and do nothing (anyone who has ever suffered from an intermittent toothache will know exactly what I mean)!
Only then will he resolve to find a solution. If your first contact with your prospect is then, you are likely to find yourself in competition with every Tom, Dick and Harriet. There are ways you can avoid this.
5) Did I achieve my goal?
If your goal was clear and focused before you made the call, this one is easy to answer. For example you made the sale, qualified the prospect to the next stage, arranged an appointment, etc.
But don’t fall into the trap of telling yourself the prospect is “interested” and you’re going to call him back in say a couple of weeks time:
What is he interested in?
What are you going to discuss in a couple of weeks time that you couldn’t have covered today?
Be constructively critical with yourself and you will learn from each call you make.
Looking at your answers to this and the preceding four questions should guide you to the correct answer to this next one.
6) Did I put over a good, positive, personal image?
The initial impression you made will have determined whether you were given a hearing - and you have only seconds to affect this. It is such a waste to successfully clear that hurdle only to fall at the next through lack of confidence.
If you are nervous, your prospect will hear it in your voice. Preparing the call in advance will help give you that confidence.
Make a quick check after each telephone sales call to assess your performance against each of the six points outlined previously.
Remember, with increasingly similar products, services and solutions on offer, people ultimately prefer to buy from people they like.
Practise liking yourself, it helps! And don’t beat up on yourself when all doesn’t go to plan, just keep aiming to improve, and you will.
Each successful telephone call you make to the prospect in order to arrange a meeting has already set the scene and achieved two preliminary goals:
You are meeting with a Decision Maker, the M.A.N. - he or she with the Money, Authority, Need (or, at the very least at this stage, someone who has influence with him or her).
He is aware of the purpose of the meeting and has agreed to see you.
Forgive me if this sounds like I’m stating the obvious, but don’t blow these advantages!
“Whether you think you can or you can’t - you are right.” - Henry Ford.
Professional Telephone Selling 6 Check Points To Evaluate The Call - To learn more about this author, visit Linda Mattacks's Website.
Like this article? Share it with your friends
Let’s use some simple checks to help you identify the strengths and weaknesses in your telephone manner.
Each time you have made an important telephone call take a couple of moments to ask yourself the following questions - and be sure to answer them honestly (no-one else is going to hear).
1) Did I identify myself at once - and clearly?
Let us assume the reason for your telephone call was legal, decent and honest and that you have not spoken with the target individual before.
Why on earth would you not give your full name and that of your company (if you have a company name)?
There are no excuses on this.
Maybe I’m in the minority but I cannot stand receiving telephone calls from individuals who rush over the name of the company they represent (as though it’s an embarrassment), give me only their own first name and immediately try to treat me like some long lost buddy, despite the fact that we have never spoken before.
2) Did I talk to the person I wanted to contact?
This is, arguably, the million-dollar question. It is usually not only absolutely pointless, but potentially downright counter productive, to go into any amount of detail with anyone other than your target individual.
Why? Because if the person you speak with is not in your target audience there will be no real interest or reason for them to listen to you properly. Any information you glean from them may not be accurate. At best they will only remember a fraction of what you have said and, at worst, they will relay a garbled, inaccurate account of the purpose of your call to your real target who, understandably will be disinclined to speak to you when you call again.
During your sales activities you will come across people whose sole aim in life in most situations seems to be keeping you from talking to your target prospect. They are called gatekeepers and come in the guise of receptionist, assistant, voicemail, secretary or PA in the office, or husband/wife/partner or answer machine in the home. In certain circumstances they can perversely actually help further your cause. It’s in your interests to learn how to deal with them and get around this potential problem.
3) Did I have a specific goal in mind and a plan on how to achieve it before I called the number?
I know this one seems unbelievably daft at first glance, but when we delve a little deeper you will see that it raises a valid point.
I live in the UK; my mother is in her eighties and has lived in Canada for many years. We don’t see each other that often so I telephone her regularly. I don’t need to plan what I will say and, to be honest, it probably doesn’t matter that much what we talk about because the call itself achieves the goal which is to show I care about her and to make her feel wanted.
Actually, I have just read the previous sentence and realise that it isn’t true! The calls have a pattern:
I identify myself in case she mistakes my voice for that of one of my sisters We exchange notes on health and well-being.
We discuss how she enjoyed the show/film/whatever she had mentioned on the previous call that she was going to see, and what plans she has for the following week and talk about anything particularly interesting that we’ve been doing our side of the pond.
Tell each other about any good books we’ve read recently.
Check how the rest of the family is doing.
Generally put the world to rights Compare notes on the weather (what can I say - we’re British!)
And lastly I assure her I’ll call same time next week, or, if that isn’t possible, say when I will next call her - and it is that pattern (in this case so ingrained that it is subconscious) that achieves the goal.
It is not enough just to have the goal clear in your mind, you need to also have a plan on how to achieve the goal.
4) Did I give information clearly, ask relevant questions and listen to the answers?
Let’s have a couple of bold statements:
Good conversationalists are actually very good listeners.
The most successful sales people rarely appear to be selling.
If you think about social gatherings, the conversations you remember as being most enjoyable are those where you have been an active participant and the conversation freely flowed both ways. This applies equally to your prospect.
Interestingly, much research has been undertaken into what motivates people to buy, and most recent findings indicate that nearly all human desires and needs stem from one of three areas:
Approval - respect, acknowledgement or appreciation on one level; love, friendship and affection on another.
Control - some say that our degree of happiness is directly related to the level of control we feel we have over our lives.
Security - not just financial, but physical as well.
Asking relevant questions gives your prospect a chance to ‘open up’, and listening to the (often subtle) signals in the answers will help enable you to understand which of these motivates him most so that you can ultimately position the presentation of your offer and select the most pertinent benefits to show how you can help meet this need.
There’s a caveat here that you should be aware of:
Any buying decision carries with it an element of risk, so the average individual will wait until the pain of his problem or problems exceeds the preference to stay in his comfort zone and do nothing (anyone who has ever suffered from an intermittent toothache will know exactly what I mean)!
Only then will he resolve to find a solution. If your first contact with your prospect is then, you are likely to find yourself in competition with every Tom, Dick and Harriet. There are ways you can avoid this.
5) Did I achieve my goal?
If your goal was clear and focused before you made the call, this one is easy to answer. For example you made the sale, qualified the prospect to the next stage, arranged an appointment, etc.
But don’t fall into the trap of telling yourself the prospect is “interested” and you’re going to call him back in say a couple of weeks time:
What is he interested in?
What are you going to discuss in a couple of weeks time that you couldn’t have covered today?
Be constructively critical with yourself and you will learn from each call you make.
Looking at your answers to this and the preceding four questions should guide you to the correct answer to this next one.
6) Did I put over a good, positive, personal image?
The initial impression you made will have determined whether you were given a hearing - and you have only seconds to affect this. It is such a waste to successfully clear that hurdle only to fall at the next through lack of confidence.
If you are nervous, your prospect will hear it in your voice. Preparing the call in advance will help give you that confidence.
Make a quick check after each telephone sales call to assess your performance against each of the six points outlined previously.
Remember, with increasingly similar products, services and solutions on offer, people ultimately prefer to buy from people they like.
Practise liking yourself, it helps! And don’t beat up on yourself when all doesn’t go to plan, just keep aiming to improve, and you will.
Each successful telephone call you make to the prospect in order to arrange a meeting has already set the scene and achieved two preliminary goals:
You are meeting with a Decision Maker, the M.A.N. - he or she with the Money, Authority, Need (or, at the very least at this stage, someone who has influence with him or her).
He is aware of the purpose of the meeting and has agreed to see you.
Forgive me if this sounds like I’m stating the obvious, but don’t blow these advantages!
“Whether you think you can or you can’t - you are right.” - Henry Ford.
Professional Telephone Selling 6 Check Points To Evaluate The Call - To learn more about this author, visit Linda Mattacks's Website.
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Dave KurlanDave Kurlan is the founder and CEO of Objective Management Group, Inc., the industry leader in sales assessments and sales force evaluations, and the CEO of David Kurlan & Associates, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in sales force development. Dave has been a top rated speaker at Inc. Magazine's Conference on Growing the Company, the Sales & Marketing Management Conference and the Gazelles Sales & Marketing Summit. He has been featured on radio and TV, including World Business Review with General Norman Schwarzkopf, in Inc. Magazine, Selling Power Magazine, Sales & Marketing Management Magazine and Incentive Magazine. He is the author of Mindless Selling and Baseline Selling – How to Become a Sales Superstar by Using What You Already Know about the Game of Baseball. He created and wrote STAR, a proprietary recruiting process for hiring great salespeople, and he writes Understanding the Sales Force, a popular business Blog and is a contributing author to The Death of 20th Century Selling and 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life, Volume 2. - Visit Dave Kurlan's Website |
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Linda RichardsonLinda Richardson is the Founder and Executive Chairwoman of Richardson, a global sales training and performance improvement company. As a recognized leader in the industry, she has won the coveted Stevie Award for Lifetime Achievement in Sales Excellence and she was identified by Training Industry, Inc. as one of the “Top 20 Most Influential Training Professionals.” Ms. Richardson is credited with the movement to Consultative Selling and is the author of ten books on selling and sales management, including Sales Coaching — Making the Great Leap from Sales Manager to Sales Coach, and Stop Telling, Start Selling. She teaches sales and management at the Wharton Graduate School of the University of Pennsylvania and the Wharton Executive Development Center. Linda is a frequent speaker at industry and client conferences, has been published extensively in industry and training journals, and has been featured in numerous publications, including The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Nation’s Business, Selling Power, Success, and The Conference Board Magazine. Learn more about Richardson's sales training and performance improvement solutions at http://www.richardson.com web - Visit Linda Richardson's Website |
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George LudwigGeorge Ludwig is a recognized authority on sales strategy and peak performance psychology. An international speaker, trainer, and corporate consultant, he helps clients like Johnson & Johnson, Abbott Laboratories, Northwestern Mutual, CIGNA, and numerous others improve sales force effectiveness and performance. Though it's George's strategies and processes that help corporations increase productivity and performance, it's his tremendous energy and dynamism that spark the transformation. Again and again, clients remark on his amazing ability to unleash human capacity and inspire men and women to break out of their comfort zones. The result is a whole new type of salesperson. His customized presentations teach achievers to make stunning advances in their lives. From helping salespeople realize cherished dreams to helping corporations exponentially accelerate revenue streams, George Ludwig leaves audiences and individuals empowered, emboldened, and clamoring for more. George is the best-selling author of Power Selling: Seven Strategies for Cracking the Sales Code and Wise Moves: 60 Quick Tips to Improve Your Position in Life & Business. - Visit George Ludwig's Website |
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Leanne Hoagland-SmithAre your sales where you want them to be? Will you be one of the few who achieves sales or business success or one of the many who have failed to change? Are you tired of being told you are like everyone else? Then you may find my first book on sales of interest. Be the Red Jacket in the Sea of Gray Suits, The Keys to Unlocking Sales available at Amazon or at http://www.processspecialist.com/red-jacket.htm. This book is a reflection of my no-nonsense approach to improving sales to overall business results. If you are truly committed to making sustainable changes, then I can help you secure a positive return on your investment because I focus on executable solutions not telling you the problems you already know you have. From training to corporate (group) coaching to executive one on one coaching, my approach is to assess, create awareness, build a goal driven action plan and then execute. The bottom line question is "Not do you or your employees know it, but do you or they want to do it?" Please call for a free strategy session at 219.759.5601. - Visit Leanne Hoagland-Smith's Website |
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Jay Kubassek(Jay's Full Bio: EvanCarmichael.com/jaykubassek) In five years, Canadian-born entrepreneur Jay Kubassek went from selling mufflers at a Midas franchise to revolutionizing Internet marketing with the 2004 launch of CarbonCopyPRO, a online marketing education company, now worth over $20 million with customers in over 160 countries.
As an independent film producer, his upstart film fund Aliquot Films is currently producing a films with Spike Lee and Abel Fererra (starring Ethan Hawke and Dennis Hopper.)
Jay's entrepreneurial spirit is irrepressible. He’s the owner of five companies, a professional speaker and trainer, international real estate developer/investor, extreme sport enthusiast and emerging philanthropist. Jay resides in NYC with his wife Jamie, son Milo and dog Cooper. Visit Jay's official website: www.JayKubassek.com - Visit Jay Kubassek's Website |
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John PowerJohn Power, founder of Biltmore Franchise Consulting, has extensive experience developing and marketing franchises and business opportunities. He has been in and around franchising for over twenty years. From 1980 through 1990 he conceptualized, organized, and developed the American Video Association. He grew AVA to 2,000 national members, before selling the company it 1990. It was later merged into another home video marketing company. From 2000 to 2005 he worked as a contract marketing and human resources consultant to several local and national companies. In 2005 Mr. Power began working as a franchise development consultant on a full-time basis. Since that time he has helped more than three dozen companies initiate and develop their franchising program. He notes that there are many companies interested in developing a franchise program, and who need his specialized assistance. Mr. Power is a “hands-on” franchise consultant. He said, “I am the ‘nuts and bolts’ person who tends to the details for my clients.” Mr. Power holds a B.S. degree with a major in Marketing. See: www.biltmorefranchise.com You may contact Mr. Power at: jpower@biltmorefranchise.co - Visit John Power's Website |
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Staging DivaDebra Gould, aka The Staging Diva®, is President of Six Elements Inc., an internationally recognized home staging company. Inspired by many requests from aspiring home stagers wanting to start similar businesses, Gould created the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program. Gould has trained over 1000 Staging Diva Graduates worldwide to start staging businesses. Buying decorating and selling six of her own homes in four years lead to an interest in real estate staging which she turned into a career with the launch of sixelements.com in 2002. Since then she has staged hundreds of homes in addition to teaching home staging training. Gould is the author of several home staging resources including a series of popular ebooks made up of a Design Guide, Color Guide and Portfolio Guide. For more information about Debra Gould visit stagingdiva.com. - Visit Staging Diva's Website |
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David BarrDavid Barr is the President of Venture Opportunities, Inc. David has been a professional business broker/intermediary since 1980 focusing on General Business Brokerage and Mergers and Acquisitions representing client transaction value from $400,000 to $20,000,000. Mr. Barr has handled the sale of over four hundred and fifty companies. David earned a university degree from the State University of New York majoring in economics and business. David holds the Mergers and Acquisition Master Intermediary and the Certified Business Intermediary designations from the International Business Brokers Association. He is also a Senior Business Analyst and a Texas licensed Real Estate Agent. For more information about David and Venture Opportunities, visit www.bizdealmaker.com. - Visit David Barr's Website |
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