Despite hearing that telesales is dead by many sales advisers and trainers many businesses / companies still find this a useful method to use for selling their product and whether you agree with it or not for some products it is often still one of, if not the best, way to go.
With that in mind please find 10 top tips should you look to go down the telesales route with your business:
1. Set Realistic Goals and understand what you need to do to achieve them:
2. Ensure you are using Good, Clean data to call from:
In order for any telesales campaign to be successful the most important starting point is good, clean data. There is no point in paying someone (or a company) to make phone calls using old data, out of date, badly targeted or error filled data. There is nothing worse then constantly calling people who have no interest in the product or service you are selling or data which is constantly wrong or filled with wrong numbers or details etc. Your data must be up to date, highly targeted and ideally cleaned on a regular basis.
3. Get your staff to perfect what they say, when they call:
Your callers should always sound unscripted. If they sound like a robot reading from a script on every call they will put people off straight away. I always recommending starting with scripts but moving away from them as quickly as possible. There should be core parts of a script which should be rehearsed and made sure they are part of any pitch, but the more the person can input themselves, their own personality and language etc. the more comfortable and happy/energetic they will sound which will improve their results.
Your callers should get plenty of time to rehearse and understand fully what they are calling about, and what they are hoping to gain from the call! They should also be well trained and rehearsed in order to be able to deviate from the basic outline of the conversation in order to be flexible to react and work with what's happening on the other end of the phone. The prospect is not working to a set pattern or script so being able to adapt is key.
4. Ensure you make use of a good CRM system (especially to help out with point 5):
There are lots of CRM systems on the market including many combined with sales data and many free, so get yourself a good system to ensure your callers can record they required notes and schedule updated calls correctly without missing them.
5. Ensure Staff Make good notes and have good calanders, and time keeping for call backs / arranged quotes, demonstrations or closing calls etc.:
If your callers speak with someone and get asked to call back, they should get a good time for doing this and then diarise this and make sure they call back at the right time (calaenders and reminders can help). This will massively improve KPI's. If they take good notes from previous calls too, then they will be better prepared when they call back. In addition if they are not around to call back (off sick etc.), others can step in using they well written notes to make that cover call as smooth and painless as possible for the customer as they now and and where to step in and take over.
If your product or script requires you to speak with a particular person, job role or person from a specific department, then your callers should make sure they know who they are speaking to when they call! Making sure your data is up to date as in Tip 2 is important for this but also ensure your callers do it automatically. There is no point speaking to the wrong people, or in the wrong way to the wrong person in the decision making process. If you have users, influencers and decision makers or people who sign off then you need to speak to them differently. For users it all about the benefits to them and their usage (often its not down to price or business benefits and efficiencies with these people. For Influencers it often about what in it for them. How they can benefit by recommended your product or service to the decision makers or sign off people. For the Decision makers and Sign off people it can often be more about cost and business benefits and efficiencies rather than the direct benefits of the product or service to the people using them.
7. Don't Be Afraid of leaving messages on Voicemail & sending Emails:
One thing people really dislike about ‘cold calls' is their impersonal nature and inconvenient timing. If you do find that you are calling at awkward times, leave a voicemail or send an email. Leaving a voicemail message is good as people would rather know who was calling than hear you hang up and a well left message (with your 10 sec elevator pitch including what's in it for them) can prepare them for you calling again (and might that time get you an answer) or can even get them to call you back, whilst sending a short sharp and well written email (again with a straight to the point - "whats in it for them" 10 sec elevator pitch) can ensure they read it in their own time and get back to you if it is of interest.
8. Ensure Staff Remain positive and keep a positive focus:
Cold Calling can be a very hard and monotonous job, especially on bad days so you should be aware of this and constantly work on ways to keep your staff positive (including good breaks which get them away from the situation for a bit, if things aren't going well). You also need to ensure that the calls they are making are always kept positive, pleasant and ‘soft'. Callers should make sure they are focusing on the features and benefits of the service or product on offer and they should never be allowed to talk negative or aggressive to the prospect, no matter what they might get from the other side. If they get involved in negative response, ensure they take a break to clear their head before carrying on, in their positive mind set. Staff should be trained not to get upset by the nos or the lack of interest. As long as some of the people you call want what you have to offer, then they shouldn't get upset by those that do not want it. That's life and no product or service is suitable for everyone.
9. Ensure staff interact with prospects and get them to open up by asking lots of open questions (especially early on when rapport building and fact finding):
Asking open questions will get the person you are speaking to engaged in the conversation. Especially if you ask them about things they like or are interested in (hobbies, their business, family etc.) to start with which will often get them to relax before you ask them about business orientated (and maybe less interesting questions).
Many sales calls start of with a long rapid fire pitch where the person at the other end is sitting patiently, waiting for a break in the conversation, so that they can get in with a "i'm not interested" before politely hanging up.
10. Ensure you constantly evaluate the results and train the staff to do the same:
"If you don't measure it you can't manage it and all performances can be improved upon"
You should always evaluate the effectiveness of any campaign. If it isn't working in its current format there is no point in continuing, at least without making some changes.
Common KP'is n Telesales are things such as: Cold call to Diary Call Ratios, Call Answer to No Answer Rates, Call to Demonstration or Next Action (Such as Email, Info Pack, Trial Set up),
Demo or Next Action to Quote Ratio, Conversion Rate, Calls to Conversion rates, Average Sales Order Value, etc.)
If you are a UK Business or Company in England / London, Ireland, Scotland or Wales / Cardiff, that is looking to increase the performance of an existing Telesales Team or are thinking about trying Telesales for your business and you require some Telesales Training, Consultancy or related services (Data acquisition or Advice, CRM system advice or more) please get in touch via my contact page?
