How do I ensure results from phone prospecting?

“Whada ya rates? ‘Cos I’m a wholesaler and I can do better rates than them. I can look at your thingos and give you a better deal…”

This is an excerpt from a call I received from a telecommunications wholesaler the other day. As you can see this is not someone asking about my business rates but what I am paying for a particular service. I am the supposed client in this exchange. To make matters worse, when the caller introduced himself he said his name was John – that’s it, not where he was calling from or why he was calling. This information only came to light after I asked him ‘who’ and ‘why’.

Furthermore, what is with “your thingos”? After he blurted this out he did try to correct himself by replacing “thingos” with “bills” but the damage was already done.

On the same day as John, there was also the young woman from a well-known travel agency who rang to offer me their services for corporate travel. While pleasant enough (if not a bit too familiar for my liking) she had trouble listening to what I had said. I had to repeat myself on numerous occasions which I found rather annoying and a waste of time. I was later informed that her poor listening was due to a recent case of pneumonia – which she went on about for a few minutes. This listening issue further escalated when she called back to our office three times to check the details I had given her.

As my staff took these calls on my behalf, here are some of the things that caused us to think less of this company: She didn’t know who she had spoken to when she called back (even though I gave her my name initially); she assumed she was speaking to me when she was speaking to another member of my team; she didn’t take down my email address correctly and had to call back to get the correct one; and so on.

I am sure you can see me throwing up my hands in despair.

I do, however, give them credit for making the calls, as this is usually the first and hardest step for people. To then go and ruin it all by poor telephone skills such as poor manners, poor diction, poor listening skills and no clear purpose that the client/prospect can understand – what a waste.

You may wonder why I bother taking these calls. Well, it is research. And you never know, I might just find something I want or need from them as well (this does actually happen).

While I get a few very good calls every now and then (and yes I do let them know that they did a good job), sadly, the vast majority of calls we get are below average or substandard.

Businesses must understand that this substandard approach to prospecting and telephone sales is ruining their business – both in terms of lost sales opportunities in the short-term and tarnished reputations in the long-term.

The good news is there are no secrets to making effective prospecting calls. There are well documented processes and tips, some of which I have written about before.

Please train your people in how to make proper, well-intentioned business/sales phone calls – it’s not difficult. A half day session in the ‘how to’ will get you started, followed by some pithy little sessions with your team on a regular basis to share what’s working well, etc. I know I sound like June Dally-Watkins but as the saying goes: ‘You never get a second chance to make a good first impression’. Good manners, grace, and courtesy go a long way.

Training your people does work. For instance, a large sales transformation training project we worked on earlier this year has seen their people having great success with their prospecting and sales conversion rates despite tough markets. One of the key factors is that their people have been well trained in how to make purposeful, client focused, prospecting calls, and how to have effective client meetings. Their conversion rate from call to appointment is at an all time high. And their client meeting up-selling and cross-selling rates have improved markedly as well.

The feedback from management is that they have noticed that a number of people who were initially afraid to prospect via phone are now much more confident, having been given the right skills training. Others who were doing it instinctively but with no conscious framework have lifted as well. This has helped them transform into professional business people who can prospect and sell well with dignity and grace.

It makes good business sense to train your people in the right way to conduct telephone prospecting and sales calls.

As we have seen from previous articles there is a chorus of people who think no one is allowed to prospect to anyone via the phone, however as I have written before, prospecting by phone is a legitimate and effective way of opening and forging good business relationships.

If and until, the web can do all our prospecting for us (which seems unlikely for the foreseeable future) telephone prospecting is here to stay. So, please for your own, your people and your prospective client’s sake, please train them in how to prospect in a professional and purposeful manner. If done properly, it can be a great source of revenue and a quick and efficient way to unearth new opportunities.

Happy telephone prospecting.

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Sue Barrett is a Thought Leader on 21st century sales training, sales coaching, sales leadership, sales capability and sales culture. She practices as a coach, advisor, speaker, facilitator, consultant and writer and works across all market segments with her skilful team at BARRETT.  They help people from many different careers become aware of their sales capabilities and enable them to take the steps to becoming effective, and productive when it comes to selling, sales coaching or sales leadership. Sue and her team are your first and best reference when it comes to forging out a successful career as a competent sales professional and leader . If you have an idea, capability, product, service or opportunity that can benefit another and make their life better in some way then Sue says you need to be able to sell – ethically, honourably, and effectively.  To hone your sales skills or learn how to sell go to www.barrett.com.au.