8 Tips to Make Your Job Easier
If your job is to sell something over the phone, you know how hard it is. It is not for the faint of heart! Selling over the phone is a completely different experience from selling something face-to-face. You have to rouse your courage every time you pick up the phone – it can be terrifying, especially if you’re new to the business. You know your product, so explaining it to other people isn’t the hard part – the hardest part is keeping someone on the phone long enough to tell them about it! As a phone representative, you have the hardest job in sales – if you’re face-to-face with a possible customer, you can analyze the conversation as you go, and tweak your approach as needed. But if you’re on the phone, there are a few obstacles you face every time:
- The customer can hang up at any time, thus ending a possible sale before you ever get started with your pitch.
- It’s much easier for someone to say no over the phone than when you’re face-to-face
- You lose the advantage of non-verbal communication, like making eye contact or having a strong handshake.
There are a few basic things that can help with your sales techniques over the Phone – having a script, gleaning from your leaders, using the best technology. But if you’re accustomed to more traditional techniques for sales, how can you utilize those techniques over the phone? Here are 8 tips you can use to combine your traditional techniques with today’s best phone sales situations:
- Confidence is key.
Whether you’re talking to someone in person or on the phone, being confident is evident to your customer. Your confidence will shine through in a lot of areas – the tone of your voice, the structure of your conversation, your ability to intrigue a customer from the get-go, etc. If you’re confident in your ability and in your product, you will grab the prospect’s attention, and hopefully keep it! It’s not your job to control the prospect, but you do want control how the call goes.
- Smile!
A smile can change the way your voice sounds, no matter who you’re talking to or how you’re communicating with them. If you’re frowning or apathetic when making sales calls, you will automatically lose the interest of your customer. Even if your smile isn’t 100% authentic, just making the effort can make a big difference.
- Be yourself.
If you’re talking to someone face-to-face, it’s easy to be yourself. But if you’re talking to someone over the phone, it can be tempting to assume a different posture or personality, or try to imitate someone else. A prospect will see through that in a heartbeat, even if they’re only hearing your voice. Use your personality – if you’re better with humor, use it! If you are a more serious person, be fully engaged in a serious way. Your prospect will appreciate your candor and your authenticity.
If you’re serious about phone sales and want to triple the number of calls you make in an hour, you need to give Call Logic a try.
- Do your homework.
If you’re meeting with a potential customer, you’re going to make sure you really know who you’re meeting with before you get there. The same goes for calling a potential customer – know your leads inside and out before you make the call. You can cut the small talk more efficiently and focus on their needs better if you have done your research ahead of time.
- Create a sense of urgency.
It’s easy to exude energy and provide a sense of urgency when you’re talking to someone face-to-face – they can read your body language, hear it in your voice, see it on your face. But trying to create that same sense of urgency over the phone is a lot harder. You need to focus on the task at hand, use power statements that will catch the prospect’s attention, and if your know your lead well enough, you can clearly communicate to them how your product can fill a need they have.
- Know how to actively listen.
Active listening means that you give your new prospect time to process your offer and respond, instead of you rushing through your script to finish the call. You can only listen actively if you clear your mind (and even your actual physical space) of clutter – this isn’t the time to be thinking about the next call or what the rest of your day holds. Focus on what your prospect is actually saying and adapt your responses accordingly – engage the customer in actual conversation. Balance your enthusiasm to talk about your business with enough control to pause and really listen to what your prospect has to say.
- Practice makes perfect.
If you’ve been in sales for a long time, think back to how you felt when you started meeting with potential clients for the first time – you probably practiced your speech in the mirror, worked on your facial expressions, figured out what type of demeanor was needed for each sales situation. It took some practice, right? The same goes for selling over the phone – it takes practice to get into your groove, especially if this is new territory for you. Take the time to work on your script, figure out what works best for your personality, and practice your pitch on a regular basis.
- Use the best tech.
When you meet with a potential client in person, it’s easy to be persuasive with just your words, your tone and your body language, but some of that gets lost when you’re selling over the phone. It’s easy to fumble over your words, make mistakes when dialing numbers, have a few too many “ums” and “ahs” when you talk. By using a tool like a power dialing phone system, you can remove all of the nerves and remain consistent with every phone call, not to mention increasing your call numbers exponentially.
Traditional Sales Techniques over the Phone
If you want to enhance your sales techniques over the phone, and you want to use the best tech for the job, Call Logic is here for you. We’ve created a cloud-based, TCPA compliant auto-dialing software that can be used anywhere, on any phone and by as many people as your business needs to make your sales calls more successful. Give us a call today to request a free demo!
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