Better business by phone workshop

Do Your Staff Make These 5 Common Mistakes
on the Telephone?

• Asking if the prospect has time to talk?
• Saying, “How are you today?”
• Failing to say who they are, where they’re from and the reason for the call.
• Not using hot-buttons to interest the prospect?
• Not planning the call before picking up the phone?
• Not getting the appointment!

If the answer is “yes”, you need to attend the Better Business by Phone workshop with international sales trainer, Matthew Mewse the Telephone Man.

Better Business By Phone
Date: Next Tuesday
4 May 2010 10am until 12:00
Penrose

Almost every person in every company uses the telephone at some point yet it is highly misunderstood. Whether your staff are taking incoming calls, phoning suppliers or making outbound sales calls, they need to know how to handle common telephone problems. For instance:

• How to deal with difficult customers
• How to turn “no” into “yes”
• How to handle complaints
… and many other everyday difficulties.

In this entertaining 2 hour workshop you will learn powerful techniques to harness the phone and show you how to:

• Overcome the fear of cold calling with a simple, successful system already used by thousands of callers
• Handle such common objections as “I’ve got no budget” and “Just get to the point, I’m too busy”
• Develop proven customer care techniques that retain clients and increase your business with them, too!
• Use scripts with winning ways to secure face-to-face high quality appointments
• Handle tricky customers and complaints, and keep their business loyalty
• Get past screeners and PAs to reach your prospect
• Create winning scripts for all selling situations
• Learn telephone skills to deal with every type of call in your business
• Lead management techniques to help grow your client database
• Effectively deal with “send me mail”
• And much more…

Give your staff the information they need to do their jobs better and expand your business.

To learn more or register click below.
http://salesstar.trainingplatform.co.nz/courses/34-better-business-by-phoneworkshop

Or

Tel 09 524 0999 ask for Paul or email paulp@salesstar.com or paulo@salesstar.com

Check List for Building Winning Proposals

Sometimes, when we make a fantastic phone presentation, when we’ve qualified the prospect’s needs, we managed to successfully identify their main areas of interest and, even when we’ve closed the call properly ...
there will still come a genuine request from your prospect for a proposal in writing.

Sometimes this is to help the prospect in the decision-making process. Others may want to work through the
issues with the rest of their team, they might even want to take a proposal to the weekly meeting as part of their brief, while some people just prefer to have the clarity a written proposal can provide to confirm the deal.

Whatever the reasons, you need to make sure your written proposal reflects your skills on the phone and is a “user friendly” document for your prospect to work through. Here are some ideas and a check list that help build written proposals that really get the job done!

What problems are you going to solve?
Show you understand the different elements of the situation or problem.
Define the problem from their viewpoint.
Seek to explain the needs from your prospect’s point of view.
Understand their priorities: it might not always be a dollar decision!

How are you going to solve it?
Prove that your plan, service, product or methods are feasible.
Show that a solution is possible in the time frame available.

What exactly will you provide?
Specify in exact detail the products/services you seek to provide.
It’s almost like writing an inventory.

Can you deliver what you promise?
Show you have both the knowledge and resources to do what you say you will.
Give examples of previous work in this area and the qualifications/ability of your team.

What benefits can you offer?
Specify what makes you stand out from what the rest of the crowd who may also be pitching.
For everything you’re offering the prospect, show clearly the benefits of each feature.
Discuss the benefits – direct and indirect – that you will provide – when they purchase.

When will you complete the work?
Provide a schedule that shows when each phase of the service, product, delivery etc will be completed.
A time line is always important!

How much will you charge?
Provide a detailed budget which includes costs for materials, salaries and overheads.

General considerations:
Use language appropriate to your audience, watch for technical jargon.If the proposal is long, write a one-page cover (summary) letter: Catch the reader’s attention early and summarise three main benefits. Discuss each benefit in the same order as the first paragraph. Deal with any objections the reader may have raised during your call. You could also, in closing, briefly mention other fringe benefits and … always ask for your proposal to
be viewed, decided upon or approved in a timeframe. Make sure you give the prospect good reason to act promptly. Always give your proposal a title!

Cold calling systems that work!

Finding the good prospects quicker!

There are times when looking at a long list of telephone numbers or sifting through business or residential directories can be a soul-destroying task. Especially when faced with cold calling day after day.

The secret of cold calling success is to get organised!

Make sure you have your leads in a manageable state, your schedules identified and the targets or outcomes decided for each calling period. Sound obvious? Well … maybe … but just in case, the next few paragraphs explain why this system can mean the difference between being a little cold calling success or becoming a BIG ONE!

Many people make the mistake of always attempting to make a presentation to anyone who answers the phone. If you think about this for a moment, you can soon see that this will quickly become a negative way to cold call.

Not every prospect is a good one. For starters, some may not respond well to being called, some fall into the 10% of no-hopers, while others are just plain rude! If you spend your time trying to present to everyone in order to turn each prospect into a buyer, the chances are that not only will you be exhausted at the end of a week, but you’ll also lack enthusiasm and fire in your presentation.

On the phone, you only have a mind and a voice. If the prospect picks up anything but enthusiastic confidence, they’ll quickly be turned off your call.So how do you weed out the good from the indifferent? It’s not rocket science, but it does require technique and self-discipline along with the persistence to be different from the rest of the tele-sales crowd.

The first secret to successful cold calling is to create an introduction that makes the good prospect stand out from the not-so-good and allows you to find those prime prospects as quickly as possible.

The prospects we’re looking for should react in a positive way to the “hot-button” introduction crafted into our script. This hot button, when pushed, creates interest and attention in our good prospect and their reaction means they deserve the next part of the presentation.

If the prospect doesn’t respond well to your introduction and proven “hot-button” question; I recommend you say:

“Thank you very much for your time.”

And then… move on!

You see, when cold calling, if you spend too much time with the wrong kind of prospect, they drain your energy and keep you away from the good prospects and all the “yeses” you know are out there somewhere!

When you find a good prospect who responds well to your “hot-button” you’ll be ready to make your presentation and also be on form. If you follow the “block calling” method as well (see below), you will find that while you might make 30-40 high quality introductions, you will usually only make five full presentations through to the close, in each calling session.

Block Calling

This is a system for approaching cold leads that allows you to take a manageable number of leads and schedule them into a single calling period.

Example: If you’re working from a directory like Yellow Pages, mark off 25-35 numbers in a block. If you’re using other lead sources like magazines, lists etc, just pick the same number of leads and have them ready and visible before you start.

You can adapt similar calling strategies even if you're working from a database on screen.

The trick here is to discipline yourself to make a complete block of calls in any one session. Sometimes marking the blocks or leads with a highlighter pen makes a session easier.

Once you start, finish! Whatever the outcome of a particular call, press on and ring the next number. All your admin, database entry and other activity can be completed at the end of the block of calls.

Sometimes you might find that there’s a sale or appointment on call two. Don’t get suckered into any other thought than “I’ll write that up later” and just carry on calling.

Ask yourself this: After you’ve closed or sold a prospect, when is the best time to make the next call? Exactly! Straight away.

You’ll find that you fly through the calls using this “block system” and before you know it, you’ve found the good prospects and got the desired results.

One tip though, after you’ve called each block of leads, give yourself a five minute break. You can write up the deals, send out the info or grab a coffee. Make sure you stop and review the last block of calls and then take the positive into the next series of calls.