Telesales Techniques That Bring Success

Modern Telesales Techniques You Must Know

Are you sick of the same old telesales techniques: worn out old scripts, preaching the same tired old message to uninterested prospects; bored staff, robotically going through the motions, trying desperately to meet their targets; opportunities slipping through your fingers which your competitors are ready to pounce on?

That’s not how it should be.

Telesales has the potential to generate unlimited leads for business, bringing in new clients left, right and centre. Even traditional telesales techniques are pretty much guaranteed to bring a modicum of success. Make enough calls and someone has to be interested, right?

But that’s the wrong way to go about it. By introducing these unique, modern techniques, you could skyrocket your telesales results:

Ditch the Telesales Script

If your telesales marketers are reading from a script, prospects can tell. And this sends a message. It tells them they’re just another name on a list, a list you’re working through mechanically, delivering the same, ready-made message to each and every person. It tells them they’re not special, that you don’t care about their own particular set of circumstances.

And it makes them less likely to become a client.

On the other hand, when a human being calls, with a personality, who tries to instigate a real conversation, prospects receive a very different message. They feel like someone has truly tried to reach out to them, that you care about them, that you’re actually interested in their problems and are able to provide a solution.

Get rid of the script, and start connecting with clients.

Listen

“What can I say to convince prospects to become clients?”

This is the holy grail of telesales, the question all marketers ask themselves at some point. But, as any successful salesperson knows, there is no universal answer. And, just as this rule applies in face to face sales, it also applies over the phone.

But don’t worry, your prospect normally provides the information you need to make a sale. All you have to do is listen.

So, instead of focusing on what you can say to make your product or service sound irresistible, focus on what the prospect is saying. Get them talking and they will reveal their problems, their needs, the keys to securing their business.

Pay attention to your prospects, bring the discussion round to solving the issues they identify, and watch your telesales results go through the roof.

Help Prospects Deal with their Problems

If you want to make a sale, you have to establish trust, which is difficult to do over the phone. So you must make a big effort to prove yourself trustworthy. And what’s the best way to do this? Provide your prospect with some useful assistance.

Even once you know to pay attention to a prospect’s individual concerns, if you keep banging on about your own company, and how you offer the best solution, you’re less likely to make a conversion. Instead, offer up your own ideas and opinions as to how to a prospect might address their current predicament. Let them take advantage of your knowledge and expertise.

If you offer some free, useful advice over the phone, your prospect sees you as a real expert, the perfect person to turn to, rather than a salesperson interested in money. Help a prospect out, and prove your worth. Once you’ve gained their trust, closing a sale is so much easier.

Know Who You’re Speaking To

In telesales, getting the right person on the phone is half the battle. Don’t launch into your best sales pitch with the first person to pick up, more often than not you’ll be wasting your time.

Instead, your first task is to identify who’s on the other side of the phone. Is it the decision-maker, the person ultimately responsible for deciding whether to take you up on whatever you’re offering? If so, great, it’s time to get down to business, but many times it won’t be, so you have to figure out how to get there.

Dealing with gatekeepers is one of the most important telesales techniques to develop. These people are specifically tasked with screening incoming calls, so only the truly important get through. Talking to them is a completely different challenge from making a sale, and should be treated as such. Your goal is not to sell, but to reach a decision maker. So make sure you identify who you’re speaking to, and adapt your approach to meet the immediate objective.

Telesales Training

If you or your staff are not making use of the aforementioned methods, it’s likely you’re in need of some professional training. The right telesales training is a worthwhile investment which repays itself many times over in terms of leads generated.