5 Sales Tips for Selling over the phone
Selling over the phone has been a constant focus on my sales blog. Unless your a door to door salesman (and even then) you better become familiar with selling using the phone. Phone sales are very difficult and can be intimidating. Often times the prospect on the other line can be very forward and often times rude. Expect a couple prospects to get nasty with you. I get hung up on at least once a week, and what do I do. I call them right back! Phone sales is not for the weak of heart. Sales representatives that engage in this type of selling really need to have a high level of confidence and be able to withstand rejection. Here are 5 sales tips for selling over the phone. I’m going to add more sales tips for phone sales in the future, but for now let’s stick with these five tips and enjoy my sales blog.
1. Get your presentation together: practice, evaluate and improve
I do not believe in reading a script. I think script reading sounds like exactly what it is and comes of unprofessional, impersonal and is ineffective. What I recommend is a flow chart that documents themes or words and helps shape the flow of your opening line. For example mine is something like this :
Oliver Feakins -> Quick Sales tips.com -> Sales training and consulting -> improve your sales team -> increase revenues -> What are you doing now -> compliment-match-fit (Thanks Schiffman)
I would also recommend you practice your opening with a friend or fellow sales representative. Try to tape it if you can. This way you can play it back and hear how you come off. Remember, it’s not only the words you say but how you say them. Tone and connotation are extremely important to the sales process. Record multiple variations of your practice sales call so you can evaluate the differences.
2. Target your prospect aggressively.
With phone sales you have to call the right person. If you didn’t do you homework the person on the other end of the phone will let you know about it. Remember, you’re interrupting their day and if they can’t use your product or service then its going to get them mad. Most prospects are impressed if you demonstrate that you have taken the time to get familiar with their company. I pull up their website as I’m calling and try to grab a couple pieces of useful information that i can toss in the conversation.
Example: ” ah.. i see on your site that you have an office in the UK. That’s great, I was born there.. Have you had a chance to visit lately?”
send a message of familiarity is personalizes the sales cycle and often times increases you likability and subsequent attention rate.
3. Break Past Gate keepers and answering machines
Find ways to get past the gate keeper and to the decision maker. There are numerous sticks here (research on the company helps with this). You’ll have experiment and see what works for you. Bottom line… if you cant get past these people it will be very hard to get a sale. You need to engage the decision maker not his mailbox. If you get transferred to voice mail you need to learn how to leave a effective message. Try to keep the message short with either what I call a teaser line and a call to action. Do not record your entire sales pitch to a mailbox. click here for more voicemail tips.
4. Get streamlined: you have 30 seconds to introduce, impress and engage
You have less then 30 seconds to get a prospect’s attention. Some people say you have the first 10 seconds. It’s important that you find way to engage the prospect as quickly as possible. The first three you say should be your name, where your calling from and what you want. Right after that should by why the prospect needs to hear about it. Use this line to engage the prospect ask questions about his business or his life, anything to engage his interest.
5. Keep going, don’t stop
Regardless of what sales trainers say. Sales is a numbers game and phone sales is no different. There are thing you can do to increase your success rate (training and experience) but at the ends of the day the more good qualified calls you make the more you’ll close. It’s important to try to set goals and keep yourself accountable with the number of calls you make. Whether you’r making 5 calls a day or 50, keep going and don’t stop.
Phone sales are completely necessary and the easiest way to become a confident sales professional. Most of your business is done on the phone and it’s important to learn how to use this tool effectively. I”ll post some more tips next month. Good luck and keep calling!
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Sales over the phone are a challenge but as evident by the emails above, the internet is creating some rather odd opportunities.