Telesales Teams: 4 Steps to Messages that Sell

Your Inside Salespeople are all talking in slightly different messaging.  Your marketing people are tearing their hair out.  And customers aren’t buying because your messages aren’t moving them to take action.

“When you have clarity of intention, the universe conspires with you to make it happen.“ - Fabienne Fredrickson

Marketing creates the right product message, sales people then learn it, and customers hear that exact message every time.  Right?

Back to the real world…where your Telesales are all talking in slightly different messaging.  Your marketing people are tearing their hair out.  And customers aren’t buying because your messages aren’t moving them to take action.

Why?  Well, it’s because Inside Salespeople live in a world of distortion.

– Value propositions get distorted, one word at a time, like Chinese Whispers*, until they carry close-to-zero meaning.

– Messages get distorted by a lack of insight into the customer’s world.

– Voices get distorted by poor connections and background noise.

– Customer attention spans are distorted by keyboards, Facebook and lack of eye contact.

– Vendors are all competing for messaging mind-share at Resellers

In this world of distortion, only the clear prosper. Which is why, if you do nothing else to help your Inside Sales Teams, focus on the following 4 areas of clarity:

1)  Clarity of purpose

Compare these two statements:

Mr Customer, I’m calling to discuss your ICT challenges.

Mr Customer, I’m calling to explore whether a hybrid cloud solution could mobilise your data whilst keeping your costs to a minimum.

There is something wonderful about a purposeful opening to a call. It shows the customer that you’re a professional, and you won’t waste their time. You can still have that more general discussion, but a ‘thin edge’ of clarity and purpose creates a powerful opening.

2) Clarity of message

“Never put a policeman in an automobile, when a cop in a car will do.” Jack Forde, copywriter.

Most people could cut their word count by two-thirds. The words should be simple. What’s your version of a ‘cop in a car’?

One way to reduce your word count is the game “Half Life”. Keep halving the length of your message. Fewer words will make your message clearer, as will language that the customer will absorb more easily.

3) Clear and memorable stories

We know that stories sell. When your story is clear, brief and vivid – well then they sell ten times as much. At Natural we use our CSR Story Tool to create stories that are so effective customers pass them around like wildfire. What success stories can your team use with prospects?

4) Clear next steps

Customers like to know they’re in safe hands. They like a proven process to move them from pain to gain, from problem to solution. Make sure your technology telesales team is clear with prospects about the next steps at every stage, to give customers a feeling of direction and comfort.  (Tip: Don’t keep all the next steps to yourself – the customer needs 1 or 2 as well to keep them engaged!).

At Natural, we press the ‘simplify’ button with our learning and development programmes. Our simplest and most effective programme is Natural LIVE. We sweep away the clutter, and focus your team on simple messages that sell. The training takes place live on your sales floor, so your team carry on selling while they learn. Typically you will see a 22:1 ROI from the programme.

If you’d like to learn more, give us a call today on 0207 043 1582 to clarify how to reach your sales goals.

*We checked for how PC ‘Chinese Whispers’ was, and it’s okay to say, as it’s a game.  Just to make sure we are still friends, here’s a list of the different version names of the game from around the world:  Russian scandal, whisper down the lane, broken telephone, operator, grapevine, gossip, don’t drink the milk, secret message, the messenger game, and pass the message…