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Professional Telephone Selling 6 Check Points To Evaluate The Call

Written by: Linda Mattacks

Article Overview: You’ve just made a telephone call to somebody you want to sell to (either now or later) - is it “Eureka!” or “I blew it!”?

Professional Telephone Selling 6 Check Points To Evaluate The Call

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.

Related Articles
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  The Go For The No’s Network Marketing Game.
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  43% of business is initiated by a telephone call
  Selling on the Telephone Part 2

Article Tags: target, target audience, telephone calls



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