1 Telephone Selling Skills
Alan Stewart on Aug 02 2007
Telemarketing Woes
Picture this scene:
You’re finally home from a long, hard day at work. You’re about to sit down to have your favourite meal. Feeling totally famished, it’s great to sit and finally relax, but then you hear the phone ring.
You resist the urge to salivate like Pavlov’s dogs and think to yourself, “Who would be ringing now!” As you pick up
the phone your psychic ability is confirmed – it’s a Telemarketer.
As a Business Owner you realize how challenging selling on the phone can be, so your sense of fair play kicks in. Much to the disgust of your growling stomach, you decide to courteously listen to their spiel.
Of course, what happens next requires the patience of Job as you listen to someone blatantly reading a script with a tonality and language patterns that sound more like an android than a human being. The punishment continues until
your stomach determines that you’ve had enough. You assertively tell them you’re not interested whilst reminding them that it is dinner hour and that your meal is going cold.
Unfortunately, most of us can relate to the above scenario. It is clearly an example of somebody on the phone doing more to infuriate you, than to influence you into buying their product or service.
At the other end of the spectrum is the Telemarketer who sounds like an old familiar friend, a real person that you have an instant connection with, a confidant who gives you wise advice on how to invest your time and money.
Obviously in any business interaction on the phone you want to model this type of Teleprofessional – a person who is able to communicate in a way that others will find compelling and understandable.
Why are these Teleprofessionals so few and far between, and the dinner spoilers the norm? Well apart from the obvious poor timing, there is often an over emphasis placed on the content of the script with very little focus on how clients
process the information. You can plan on using all the fancy selling phrases but none of them will work if your client never picks up the phone.
You’ll be equally ineffective if there is no connection with the receivers of your clients mind.
The purpose of the Phone Skill Secrets site is to take you beyond what to say (content) to how to say it (process). For brevity’s sake, I am keeping the explanation on why you say it (motivation) to a minimum. Experience has taught me that in today’s demanding business world of information overload one must abide by the rule of “less means more”. People appreciate being able to access the information they need quickly.
How to get the most out of this site:
1. Read it. It has been kept short so that you’ll have no excuse not to!
2. Reflect on it. How does the information apply to you and can it be used in other contexts other than telephone skills. Perhaps you could consider applying some of the information to copy writing.
3. Apply it. The power of the concepts comes from applying them. Anything less would be like swimming on dry land.
Applying this information will change your whole way of thinking about how you communicate with others in both your personal and professional lives. Who knows, with a little bit of luck you may even get to understand your spouse!
4. Clarify it. Remember, you’re welcome to leave comments and questions on the Blog.
5. Teach it. Teaching this information to others is ultimately the best way to ensure that you thoroughly understand it.
Check out the next post where you’ll learn about what goes on inside your client’s head.