Preparing for a Sales Call Part 3

In our last post we talked a lot about phone sales call preparation. We explored trying to get into the head of what your prospects might need -- before calling them. I think we covered that pretty well in our last post, so we won't repeat it here.

Just remember, as you start to call prospects with the script you have created, you won't really learn what gets a good response -- until you call your prospects and get objections.

This will be the case no matter how much as you think you have planned and prepared yourself in advance to be successful.

Don't take objections or even hang ups as a negative thing. It could be an important part of the learning curve that you have to really find out the wants and desires of your prospects.

Getting objections is a good thing because it starts you down the road of success. Now let's get started with putting together our sales presentation.

Good Preparation for a Sales Call part 2

By Kamau Austin

In our last blog post I outlined the anatomy of preparing for a sales call. This is the first thing you should concern yourself with before making your sales call.

It is quite simply: Try to THINK like your prospects. Look at your sales call from the perspective of what’s in it for them. How will your product or service help them?

It is the driving force behind developing a sales script. As we mentioned before in an earlier post you should always work from a sales script.

However your sales pitch shouldn’t sound scripted to a call prospect. It should sound natural. Your sales script will only sound natural with your practicing it enough until you know it by memory without having to look at it to deliver it. You should only look at it for reference -- or to consider changing it if you are getting too many rejections and hang ups.

Now back to the driving force of your sales script: the needs and most importantly the wants/desires of your customer. If you are making business to business sales calls in most instances your prospects is concerned with two things:

1. How can you make them money or…
2. How can you save them money?
   

If you are involved with telemarketing to consumers they may be interested in the above issues also but they have a bunch of other concerns. Their other desires may be things like how can:

• you help them lose weight;
• feel better;
• be more sexy or attractive;
• reach out better to friends and family;
• or... be successful.

Their desires may not always be obvious when it relates to why they may or may not buy your product or services. You may be selling phone service with a pitch about cheaper rates but they may consider switching to your phone service because they can use the cheaper phone service to call parents or family in another country more often.

It is good to try to conceptualize different desires that your customer may have in using a service or product like the one you will be pitching. Since this concept is so important we will cover it in more detail in our next post.

Good Preparation for a Sales Call

90% of an effective sales call is preparation in my view. The most effective sales calls that I have made and I have heard are delivered with great preparation. These are some of the things that you should do to prepare for an effective sales call.

(1) Try to think like your prospects:

• From their vantage point: "what's in it for them"?;
• How will what you are selling them benefit them?;
• What could be their emotional triggers?;
• How will your product appear to their rational decision making process?

(2) What will be their fears, reservations, and potential objections to your products or services?

• Try to anticipate what their objections will be in advance
• Create replies or responses to their objections to overcome them
• Think about how to pre-qualify them before sending them extra info

(3) Create a Power Pitch which peaks gets their Attention

• Make an offer that peaks their interest
• Modify your response sequence after the pitch to bring them closer to the sale
• Learn as you phone and hear objections to modify your pitch for better sales conversion

(4) Practice your Close

• Create a Close or ask for the sale
• Develop a few alternate close sequence based on their potential objections
• Learn from objections and create strong closing sequences

We will return to these issues later in the week

Amp'd Mobile Dies and Wireless Broadband is again Delayed

I would be lying if I said I was suprised Amp'd Mobile filed chapter 11 and just died. Their service was aweful with the average wait for customer service about 20 minutes in my experience.

They padded my bill with extra fees and charges and would not take off the fees. The company constantly bugged me for payments even though I had made them days earlier. It was a horrible experience to say the least.

There was so much wrong with this company I could speak volumes against them but I won't waste your time. The video content was nice but they just needed a wider selection.

I hope another wireless broadband broadcast media company steps up to the plate with a good customer service policy.

Kamau

Listen to Your Prospects in Your Phone Pitch by Kamau Austin -- Post 6

By Kamau Austin © Copyright 2006, AdPro Media Sales -- All Rights Reserved

As we have been claiming in the last 6 posts in this series acquiring good listening skills (LISTEN in -- Guys) is the strongest attribute of truly great professional telemarketers. Simply stated you have to listen to the needs, wants, and desires of your prospects to make the sale.

You have to listen to the objections of your prospects. On a more profound level you have to do marketing research (or the company you work for) in order to be prepared to respond to the questions - suggestions - reflections - or objections of your targeted phone prospect.

After giving them a good pitch and piquing their interest it is a good idea to start asking them questions about their business. This changes the conversation from your focus to sell them something, to a reflection of their needs and desires -- which of course you will fill with your product or service.

The formal question part of a phone sales call is called different things by different people. Some call it "the Interview".

I have found the legendary sales guru Tom Hopkins very illuminating on techniques to Interview your prospect. He calls his technique in his classic 1982 book "How to Master the Art of Selling": Stimulus - Pause - Response (S-P-R) on Page 18.

He claims S-P-R is the difference between "Have and Have Not". In short his technique is an insightful way to lead a prospect to a close by controlling the interview with a series of well thought out questions, and even as important listening to responses of the prospect.

The he uses a good number of closes to end the Interview or S-P-R. This technique has given me countless sales over the course of my sales and business career. However it is important to have good stimulus.

In other words if you don't have a good initial sales pitch to engage the prospect and good questions to lead them towards the sale -- you will get hung up on. Developing good Stimulus in Hopkins' and also my view requires great preparation. In our next post we will discuss what exactly is good preparation.

Kamau Austin makes a living selling on the phone and is a regular contributor to www.TelemarketingCallCenterInfo.com.

Beyond Your Fears -- 7 Steps to Successful Telemarketing

Copyright © 2006 Kamau Austin, All Rights Reserved

Telemarketing and its more profitable cousin telesales are not for the faint of heart. You have to be able to face your fear of rejection to be an effective telemarketer.

Most people feel telemarketers are losers who aren't very ambitious and because they are slackers, they end up in boiler room telemarketer jobs with little job security or benefits.

This image is quite counter to the abilities of the true telesales professionals who I have found to be people with a lot of practical business and professional experience which propels them to success in their sales careers. Many people who like selling over the phone love this profession.

As I mentioned in the past I have sold and have seen phone professionals sell hundreds of thousands of dollars of products and services for themselves, clients and bosses year after year. Imagine if you had a roomful of dedicated telesales professionals each generating hundreds of thousands of dollars for your business.

You would have quite a business. And ironically I read some Internet types saying cold calling is a waste of time or dead.

These doomsday foretellers predicting the end of cold calling are just ill informed or asleep at the wheel. Telemarketing takes a good amount of focus and dogged determination and dedication.

Telemarketing is not as easy as it looks. Telemarketing involves talking on the phone to someone you do not know and trying to convince them to buy a product, use a service, or sign up for a special offer. Many times, telemarketers fail because they are not doing the job properly. Speaking is a skill, and there are techniques that can be applied to speaking that will help anyone become a successful telemarketer. These are the seven steps to successful telemarketing.

Step #1: Motivation. One of the most important things in telemarketing is motivation. Someone has to want to do the job. The overall motivation will determine how they speak to people. So, successful telemarketers are very motivated to do the job.

Step #2: Product knowledge. In order to successfully speak about a product or a service, the telemarketer must know about the product or the service. Customers will ask questions before they buy or sign up for something, so the telemarketer should be able to answer the questions. Knowing the product or service will help the telemarketer make a successful deal.

Step #3: Know the call format. There telemarketer should have a call format or a call plan. They should know the order of the call: the introduction, the description of the product, the price, the value of the product, how to order, and the closing. Many companies will have a script to follow. A successful telemarketer will know the script and use it to their advantage.

Step #4: Attitude. Attitude is evident on the phone. When someone is happy and excited, those emotions will palatable, even on the phone. Angry, upset, or frustrated telemarketers are usually not successful. So, the successful telemarketer will have a positive attitude while doing their job.

Step #5: Know the customer. A good telemarketer will know the customer. Know when it is a good time to call. Calling during dinner, early in the morning, or late at night will not be successful. If you call at a bad time, ask the customer when a better time to call would be. Know what they are looking for.

Do not try to sell them something they are not interested in. This will create hostility. Listen to what the customer has to say. Their comments and input can help you guide the direction of your call. Respect the customer's feelings and comments. Knowing the customer is a successful technique for any telemarketer.

Step #6: Visualize your success. Many telemarketers receive bonuses or rewards for a job well done. A successful telemarketer will visualize his or her success. They set goals and work towards those goals. Having a vision of what you want to get out of this job will help create a successful telemarketer.

Step #7 Enjoy the success. A successful telemarketer will always take the time to enjoy the fruit of their hard work. They will be proud of their successes and will continue to strive for future success.

In conclusion, these seven steps are simple techniques that any telemarketer can immediately apply to be successful. The way the materials are presented, the attitude, the knowledge, and the motivation are all integral parts of a successful telemarketer. Telemarketing is not an easy job, but it can be a very successful and rewarding job by following these seven proven steps to
success.

Listen to Your Prospects in Your Phone Pitch by Kamau Austin -- Post 5

In earlier posts we talked about the importance of first getting your prospects attention with your phone sales pitch. We went into detail on how to pitch something that would get their attention in 20 seconds or less.

The success of your sales pitch and selling success of course has something to do with preliminary marketing. We also alluded to making executive sales over the phone and what is an executive phone sale.

Next we talked about the types of people who sell well over the phone. Usually people with a professional or entrepreneurial background do well in executive sales. But most importantly people who can learn to listen to the needs of prospects are usually good executive sales type phone sales people.

I have worked with people who didn't (on the surface) look the part, but the person on the other end couldn't tell what me or my colleagues looked like. I have worked with part time school teachers who could generate hundreds of thousands of dollars in sales per year.

There have been times when a moonlighting hard rocker dude could generate tens of thousands of dollars in sales a month as a telesales executive in his day job. He had long hair and tattoos but knew how to sell to business people over the phone in a business like manner. I had a beard and dreadlocks and generated hundreds of thousands of dollars a year in phone sales.

In matter of fact some of the best telephone sales people have dreadlocks that I have worked with (a woman and mentor I know has sold and managed others selling about 25 million dollars over the phone in her career). This is the beauty of phone sales done right: it doesn't matter what you look like -- Its the sales production that counts.

Well if it isn't the professional appearance that counts in phone sales (unlike traditional sales where appearance makes a difference) -- what makes a good telephone sales person? We will return to the importance of listening skills in my next post.

BizBar® Strikes Global Toolbar Distribution Deal With Word-of-Mouth Wireless Phone Radio Network

BizBar.com has joined forces with the Word-of-Mouth Wireless Phone Radio Network (wirelessphoneradio.com) to leverage the billions of cell phones, landlines and Internet browsers on the planet to deliver high-quality, interactive radio programming while providing listeners with an opportunity to access multimedia content on demand through their cell phone, landline or via the Internet. Under the agreement, the proprietary world class BizBar web search results will be displayed through the WirelessPhoneRadio.com Toolbars including Pay-Per-Click and Pay-Per-Caller™ Ads with a percentage of the revenues generated from the Ads being paid to the toolbar publishers.

April 13, 2006 -- Biz Bar has joined forces with the Word-of-Mouth Wireless Phone Radio Network (wirelessphoneradio.com) to leverage the billions of cell phones , landlines and Internet browsers on the planet to deliver high-quality, interactive radio programming while providing listeners with an opportunity to access multimedia content on demand through their cell phone, landline or via the Internet. Under the agreement, the proprietary world class BizBar web search results will be displayed through the WirelessPhoneRadio.com Toolbars including Pay-Per-Click and Pay-Per-Caller™ Ads with a percentage of the revenues generated from the Ads being paid to the toolbar publishers.

BizBar.com provides and hosts its free, customizable toolbar builder to a vast network of leading online and offline businesses. These businesses, in turn, customize and distribute the branded toolbars to their constituents, bolstering communication and content channels among their online communities and generating new revenue streams. BizBar invites those interested in learning more about how to use a community toolbar to generate real revenues to www.bizbar.com.

“We are extremely excited about our relationship with BizBar.com. In just a few days we have convinced some of our top business partners to distribute BizBar.com embedded technology; including the Wireless ProFlow Radio Show, Music Highway Radio Show, Ken McCoy Radio Show, Life Records, O Entertainment, KOSRadio.net and WalkingPaperz.com, to name a few,” said Precana Thompson, VP, Matrix Development, WirelessPhoneRadio.com. “We are well on our way towards helping BizBar.com achieve 1,000,000 additional new installations.”

“The Partnership is truly a breakthrough marketing strategy for both of us,” explains Scott Long, CEO of Entrepreneur’s Place, Inc., the parent company of BizBar.com. “By aligning ourselves with WirelessPhoneRadio.com, we significantly increase our reach and have the opportunity to really showcase our new World Class Search Capabilities. With its vast community network, WirelessPhoneRadio.com is a perfect partner for our BizBar toolbar solutions.”

The Wireless Phone Radio format is similar to terrestrial, Internet and satellite radio. However, several key enhancements, namely the integration of voice-over-internet protocol (VOIP) and embedded browser technology enables the following:

* Listeners simply call a Regional Wireless Phone Radio station at (416) 410-WORD (9673) or visit http://www.wirelessphoneradio.com to access pre-recorded programming.

* Listeners call their local access number to consume radio programming through their cell phone or landline or may access content via the Internet on demand.

* Listeners can interact with radio personalities and other listeners in real-time.

* Listeners can record their own comments, publish advertisements, participate in live-to-airs or make shout-outs from any cell phone or landline and have the programming aired on the Internet, wireless phone network or the Public phone network.

* Listeners can use hybrid local access numbers to place free member-to-member long distance phone calls, and listeners can install embedded browser toolbar powered Wireless Phone Radio streams.

www.bizbar.com provides and hosts a free, customizable toolbar wizard. Their user-friendly online application enables web communities to create and promote their own community toolbars. The BizBar solution increases community stickiness and monetizes community search traffic. www.bizbar.com is part of the Entrepreneur's Place community, one of the largest business portals serving the entrepreneurial community on the Internet. Entrepreneur’s Place includes, among other destination websites, www.mergerplace.com, www.bizclassifiedsplace.com and www.thebizplace.com in partnership with an unequaled global network of branded business websites.

The Word-of-Mouth Network is the founder of the world’s first and only Wireless Phone Radio Network accessible by cell phone, home-phone, pay-phone, and NOW, embedded browser toolbar and via the Internet. The Word-of-Mouth Network boasts more than 7,422 agents, regional partners and hosts who have grown our audience to include 5,100,000 listeners generating more than 500,000 opt-in e-mail subscribers and 8,000,000 page/voice-views internationally. BizBar.com and Word-of-Mouth Wireless Phone Network are setting the pace in a vertical market they are pioneering.

If you would like to learn more about Wireless Phone Radio Technology please contact:
Precana Thompson, Word-of-Mouth Network, Inc.
Tel: (416) 657-2278 ext 1, http://www.wirelessphoneradio.com