When mail-outs go bad!

I’ve just had this feedback from Lynnaire Johnston, The Word Wizard, about a call she received that perfectly illustrates the problems that occur with continuity between a sales phone call and a request for information. Some valuable feedback here for sales teams.  Lynnaire was a buyer until ...

 

I feel sorry for telemarketers. They often get a tough time from the recipients of their calls, maybe that’s because they always seem to call when I’m in the middle of something. If I’m being generous I’ll listen to their pitch but more often than not they’re so dreadful I get rid of them using an objection their training hasn’t equipped them to deal with.

Generally, too, their training seems pretty poor so it’s quite refreshing when one phones up who seems to have a few clues and a bit of personality.

I received a call like that today. From my power company wanting to sell me telecommunications services.

The young lady had a nice manner about her. I could understand what she said, she seemed to have some personality and wasn’t obviously reading from a script.

But several things went wrong which meant she wasn’t able to close me on the phone (good luck with that, I very, very rarely will oblige on that score). She chose as her pain point (hot button – as the Telephone Man would say), price.

That might work with most people but not with me. I’m more interested in service because the small amount of money I could save by taking up their offer could easily be eaten up in the time it might take me to deal with any attendant problems. In other words, there are risks to me of changing provider. I want to know what guarantees are available to me if any changeover all goes pear-shaped. So, any caller needs to know what my hot button is. Don’t just assume it is price.

I often get rid of callers by asking them to send me something in writing. I almost never receive anything and when I do it is generally pretty dismal. As it was in this case. All the young lady did was email me the company brochure. Which there was a disconnect between her call and her email.

It also means I have to do the work of calculating whether I really am going to save money. And given it’s such a small amount, why would I bother? I won’t. It would have been easy for her to bullet point the prices she’d offered me so I could compare them with what I’m currently paying. But she didn’t make the effort and instead treated me like a number. She failed to make me feel special which would be more likely to motivate me to take the desired action.

So, here are the lessons I think need to be learned here:

• ·         Don’t assume you know what motivates your customers.

• ·         Don’t make them do your job for you.

• ·         Make it easy for them to say yes by providing guarantees.
•         Connect your call and your written material properly, providing what you’ve been asked for.

• ·         Make your prospect feel special and not like every other person they’ve spoken to today. 

 

Ten Quick Tips to Improve Your Business by Phone!

1. Call preparation:
Make sure you know what you’re going to say, when and why! The last thing you want is to be on a call to a client and not know what’s going to fall out of your lips next. Make sure you create at least a short guide so you can map your way through to a successful call.

2.Call review: This is where we learn what works!
Try and review your good calls. Forget the bad ones or what didn’t go well and focus on what we did do well. Was there a phrase you used that your prospect or client liked? Did the timing and pace of delivery go as planned? What could you do better? Then you can incorporate these points into the next call. Develop and evolve what works for you.

3.Introductions: Don’t mess about!
On a business to business call don’t ask if they have a couple of minutes, they answered the phone so they must have. Secondly try not to ask how they are today. You need to get to the point and not sound like a run of the mill tele-marketer.

4.Use a successful formula for your introduction: Tell them; who you are, where you’re from and the reason for the call and then ... ask a “hot-button” question. The great Alan Pease explains a hot-button when pressed should make a good prospect or client interested in what you have to say. Create your own hot-buttons and use during the call.

5.Call disciplines: Manage time and continuity for better success.
If you have several or many calls of a similar type to make, keep focused. Try not to make one call, have a break or do something else in between. Also, where possible keep similar types of calls together. This helps your flow. Start and finish the calling session in one go. You’ll get continuity, warmed up for calling and more confident as you push on. Plus, you get through what must be done!

6.Have you seen our website? Its www ....
Instead of just blurting out a web address or even a contact point you might want someone to call, ask them “have you got a pen handy?” Most people scramble around and find one or just say “Yes”. Guess what they do now when you tell them your web or number? Yup, they write it down!

7.There’s a problem: About service, product, money or objection.
Use two of the most powerful words you can ever say on the phone. If you are faced with conflict, pricing problems, complaints or anytime there is an uncomfortable issue, Just say “I Understand” Do you know how difficult it can be to argue or even get cross with someone who understands?

8.How to soften your qualifying and questioning: 
Sometimes we need to qualify a prospect or just ask a customer a question about their needs, maybe even about our own delivery of service. Try to bridge with phrases like; “and we wondered John ... if you ever felt ...” or you can use third party examples like; “I was speaking to a business owner the other day and he said to me, ... “Matthew ... we turnover more than 800,000 dollars a year” ... would you say your company was similar John?”

9.Be prepared for all the objections:
You know you’ll get a few and after all, haven’t you heard them all before? Even though they’re said in a different way, most are familiar. Too busy, no budget whatever they are and whichever you face in your business, be ready and have a quality response. Nothing works all the time but handling objections effectively will always increase your sales.

10.Just before you pick up that phone: Imagine!
As you punch in the number to call your prospect or client, ask yourself this. What would it be like to receive a call from me? How do I sound to others? Do I sound the way the prospect expects to hear me? Is my tone okay and not too selling? Am I too fast usually or too slow? Imagine ... and then you’ll hear yourself on a call.