Don’t take rejection too hard! At no time are you more likely to be rejected than when you try to sell something – especially if you’re making cold calls.
All the prospect has to do to get rid of you is hang up. This is just what many of them will do. If you are to succeed in telemarketing, you will have to get used to prospects hanging up on you.
It’s a numbers game; when a prospect turns you down, shrug it off and dial the next telephone number.
Salespeople must also take careful notes during negotiations to make sure they know what the client wants and is willing to pay.
While this practice could annoy a client sitting across from the salesperson, a prospect on the other end of a telephone line won’t even know they’re doing it.
Another common pitfall associated with the traditional face-to-face sales pitch is that negotiations between principals often turn into meetings with employees who aren’t involved with the decision.
This means that decisions are delayed, thereby creating extra expenses for your company. With the telephone, you can reach the decision-maker and keep your conversation to the point.
On the telephone, you can keep sales negotiations much more brief than they tend to be in traditional sales meetings.
You can avoid much of the small talk and conduct business efficiently. If you reach a stalemate, it is much easier to hang up the phone and call back in a few hours when you have a new approach than to leave a meeting and come back later.
Whenever you make a call, you must eliminate all distractions from your work area. If you lose concentration on the call because you start looking at other work on your desk, you will not be able to listen to your potential client, who may realise that you are not giving him or her your undivided attention.
Remember that nothing makes a client feel less important and less inclined to buy something from you.
Keep an open mind
You should keep an open mind when calling. Don’t assume that you know what a client will say before he or she says it.
When making sales calls, be patient. Let the potential client complete his or her sentences, and whatever you do, don’t interrupt clients.
Letting the speaker talk without interruption can be the best way to get information. However, if the speaker starts to wander, you can keep him or her on track by asking for clarifications and leading the conversation in the direction you want it to go. Try to do this tactfully without offending the prospect.
Encourage your prospect to continue talking by interjecting short comments that let him or her know that you are listening.
If you don’t say anything at all while the prospect talks, he or she may think you aren’t listening and become annoyed. Saying “I see” or “Tell me more” may be all you need to do to let the caller know you’re interested in what they have to say.
Everyone knows that body language is important in face-to-face meetings, but it can also aid in telephone negotiations.
Adopting an upright posture as opposed to a slouching one can help you remain alert and attentive to the caller. While this is more of a psychological boost than anything else, salespeople say it really does work.
The most effective way to avoid misunderstandings is to repeat and verify all key facts. You should take responsibility for getting the message right. Don’t make it sound as if the potential client is unable to get a clear message across.
Don’t say something like “What you just said, Mr. Rice, was very confusing. You didn’t explain yourself well. Could you repeat that for me?”
Instead, you should say something like this: “Before we move on, Mr. Rice, I want to make sure that what I’ve understood is perfectly accurate. Let me verify the information I have. . .”
By taking these simple precautions, you can save a tremendous amount of time and money that you would otherwise spend on follow-up calls to verify unclear information.
Not only do calls of this sort take up your employees’ time, it can also delay the delivery of products or services, and bother clients who have to repeat what they thought they had made clear.
By following these guidelines, you should improve your phone negotiating power and ultimately increase sales.
The importance of voice tone
Although speaking clearly will ensure understanding, experienced telemarketers agree that it’s not always what you say that sells the client, but how you say it.
The tone, volume and inflection you use are often more important than the words you choose.
When making your sales pitch, you should pay attention to volume, diction and speaking rate. Speaking too loudly, too quickly, or too slowly can irritate a potential customer and distract him or her from the purpose of the call.
Even though the way you say something is often more important than what you say, your choice of words is also critical in shaping your phone image.
Speech experts claim that positive, active words are the best choice for creating a good phone personality. You will appear more authoritative and responsible if you use active verbs and stay away from negatives.
