When I’m training individuals I will encourage them to use a ‘guide’ or ‘word track’ – this might simply have some key words, or questions to keep the individual focused. It won’t necessarily give lengthy sentences. It might give an idea of how to ‘close’ a call using the right type of phrases but what it encourages is the individual to use their personality and what it doesn’t do is try and change their ‘style’. It allows individuals to use their initiative which in turn means that prospects receiving the call feel the approach is more natural.  Another great thing about ‘natural’ word tracks or guides is they allow you to stay in control of the call. I’ve observed many individuals who go to pieces as a result of an unplanned call with no fall back when they are asked certain questions by the decision makes they’re trying to get hold of.

Consider this some of our best soap or film actors have all read a ‘script’ before acting out their scenes – yet they come across natural when we watch them on television. So it’s clear you to, should you choose to use a script, can sound natural if you practice enough. Using a ‘word track’ or ‘guide’ is no different. A ‘word track’ or ‘guide’ can be seen like a ‘prop’ to use until you feel confident enough to do your own thing. Remembering of course the main focus in any script needs to be to ‘engage’ the prospect you’re talking to.

Scripts that do not allow prospects to talk continue to give the general public and businesses this poor impression and perception that anyone who makes cold calls or prospecting calls is a nuisance.

Below are some tips on putting together a more ‘natural’ script:

1. Be clear on what you want to achieve from the call and have a primary and secondary objective. That way you don’t feel like a failure if you’ve not achieved your first goal.
2. Remember that your objective is to build relationships and encourage a flow of conversation in order to generate an opportunity for you.
3. Your script should have 3 parts, an initial introduction, the main heart of the script and an ending or close.
4. Within the first 2 seconds use the prospects name – to grab their attention.
5. Refrain from asking ‘How are you today’ – this will only create barriers. Although some people use it and get great responses. I never have!
6. Within 2 seconds during your opening express simply and succinctly what you do. Remember you only have a matter of seconds so aim to get straight to the point. Instead of saying ‘good morning, it’s Audrey Bodman calling from a company called XRS resources’, say ‘Good morning, it’s Audrey Bodman here from XRS Resources’. Notice I’ve got rid of ‘a company called’. Waste of your time and theirs!
7. Don’t say ‘it’s a quick call’ – doing this makes the call sound unimportant.
8. In the heart of the script – aim to engage them, so choose questions that encourages the prospect to give you information and more importantly interactive with you. So avoid too many close ended questions like ‘would you be interested…’. The response to that will be a big NO and even worse the sound of a dead line in your ear!
9. Your script should be 30% you engaging them and 70% them interacting with you – doing all the talking. So if you ask good questions you’ll get great responses
10. To practice ring an answer machine (maybe the one on your mobile phone) and practice your approach. Then listen back and judge how you sound!

So my conclusion is this. Scripts do have a place BUT put yourself in your prospects shoes – how would you react if it was obvious the person calling you was reading from a ‘script’. Would it turn you off?  I know the answer to this so avoid sounding too rehearsed and tune into connecting with your prospect.

Happy calling!

I trust you’ve found this article useful. Please do let me know.

Audrey Bodman

www.telephonetraininguk.co.uk

Why is it important to your business to attract staff effective on the phone?

Over the last few years I’ve seen the role of ‘telesales’ raise its profile within businesses. No longer is telesales just aimed at ‘sales’ people. Telesales, telemarketing, business development all play an important part in all types of companies. Whether it’s accountants, charities, service industries, solicitors or manufacturing, all of them need good telesales staff.

What makes a person effective on the phone?

If I had a pound for all the times I’ve been asked that question I could have retired years ago.  The first thing to consider is what do you want that person to achieve for your business?

Telephone tasks can range from, ‘upselling on incoming orders’, ‘making appointments’, ‘identifying opportunities on incoming calls’, ‘selling our products or services over the phone’, ‘ringing our dormant customers and seeing if they will buy from us again’, ‘I want my staff to find jobs for the unemployed people we work with’, ‘I’d like someone who can ring employers to raise awareness about apprenticeships’ and the list goes on.

So being clear about the role you have to fill is vital… before you interview.  After that there are certain pitfalls to avoid in interviewing.  Here are some of the reasons companies end up with the wrong people.

1. They believe everything the individual tells them at the interview is true.
2. They fail to carry out a thorough telephone interview but instead resort to a one to one interview.
3. They don’t aim to understand more clearly what the candidate’s previous roles were.
4. They have poor inductions for individuals and ‘assume’ they will know what they are doing.
5. They fail to share key benefits of their products and services. Without that information, the sales person can’t relay this comfortably over the phone to their customers and prospects
6. They refrain from carrying out any refresher training with the individual again because they ‘believe’ they’ll know what they are doing.
7. They use the standard interviewing skills of recruiting face to face and go on their gut feeling they’ve got the right person.
8. They fail to set targets to measure success.

If any of these apply to your company, you need to address them, before they cost you time and money.

Put yourself in their shoes and think about your own reaction when someone is trying to sell you something. How does it make you feel? Do you feel resistant? Do you feel tense? Do you feel that all the seller cares about is making a sale instead of caring about you? Do you want to leave the conversation as soon as possible? If you feel like this, it is only natural that the person you are talking to will also feel like this if you are trying to sell them something.

The key to overcoming sales resistance is to forget about selling!

When you’re having a conversation with someone, it’s best not to have the intention of selling him or her anything. Forget about selling. Instead have the intention of having a conversation to explore whether you can help the person get what they want. If it turns out that they have a want or need for your service, they will decide to buy.

If someone is having a conversation with you and you feel they sincerely want to help you, how does that make you feel? Relaxed? Interested? Keen to know more?

Again, this is an automatic reaction we all have. Notice there is no “sales” resistance with this approach.

Do not try to fake sincerity. You can’t pretend you really want to help someone and at the same time be thinking that you really want to make a sale no matter what. What you are “really” thinking will be picked up by the person you’re talking to. They’ll know right away if you’re sincere.

There is another way to overcome sales resistance: get yourself known.

If people don’t know you, they may perceive you and what you’re selling as a high risk and people naturally and automatically tend to resist what they perceive as high risk. Even if there is no cost your offering your services for free initially – they still will feel there is a catch.

When you make an effort to get known by trying to build relationships with those prospects you come into contact with they will automatically and naturally perceive you as lower risk.

In summary, if you want to overcome sales resistance forever there are two things you need to do. The first is don’t have the intention of making a sale when you’re talking to someone. Instead, have a conversation with the intention of helping them. Trust that those who have a need or desire for your services will buy them. The second is to get known fast as this will, amongst other things, overcome the risk perception of doing business with you.

Audrey Bodman (Telephone Training Specialist)

www.telephonetraininguk.co.uk

Please take time and browse through all the pages. Remember to download your free report on the Home page.

My experience of training advisers within the Welfare to Work sector has lead me to understand that picking up the telephone to enhance and develop relationships with prospective employers is a stumbling block for many. This results in phone fear and lost opportunities.

Every time you fail to pick up the phone, you also fail to help find an opportunity that could be ideal for your customers and their employment prospects.

Securing Employer Engagement is a major part of ensuring customers have access to “genuine, real opportunities” when seeking to gain employment.

We work with customers who might have a barrier to getting into work, yet in many instances, our not using the phone has become our barrier to identifying that elusive job for customers.

When we are working especially with customers who are disadvantaged in some way, how we feel about Employer Engagement has a huge impact on our ability to help those customers. In my opinion, we have aresponsibility to help our customer find the right job with the right employer or training organisation and yes, that means sometimes we have to overcome our fear and change what we do.

Cold calling: Does it get Results?

The answer bluntly is YES,YES and YES!

So should we be cold calling? Of course we should! And I’m sure you’d expect me to say that, because I’m passionate about it. But I haven’t always been this way. When I was a personal adviser getting long term unemployed people into work, my success was down to my ability to connect with both customers and employers and more importantly, embracing cold calling.

Cold calling doesn’t have to be as we fear it. Picking up the phone might be to find out more about a specific industry that your customer wants to work in, or checking what training opportunities there are for your customer or ringing an employer to find out where they advertise their vacancies. Any cold call should simply be seen as the first step in ‘warming up’ a contact you don’t yet know well.

Avoiding these five mistakes can improve your results.

I run a number of webinars and courses on cold calling and thought I’d share some of the common mistakes people make. Any of these tips when put into action will improve your success rate.

1. Stop giving too much away to the receptionist. He/she is not the decision maker so don’t reel off your full presentation to them. Do this and you’ll encourage the dreaded  “We’re not interested”, “Can you send it in the post”. Get straight to the point and speak with confidence. Avoid phrases like “Is it possible to speak to….” and instead say “Good Morning Sarah Wilson please. Sound as if you know the person!
2. Don’t ignore objections when you hear them. Focus on building your company’s credibility by overcoming them. Stop and ask the employer a question when they make the objection to ensure you understand why they’ve raised it.
3. Don’t be put off with some vague promise. If you want to ring back, get some commitment from the employer by asking, “When might be a good time to call you back for some feedback” Or “What is a good time to review your current arrangements?”. .Avoid suggesting to an employer “I’ll give you a call in a few days/weeks”. This means nothing, and if you call back in a few weeks you could easily have lost the opportunity.
4. Make sure you have your contact’s name before you speak to them. Find out from the gatekeeper and ask them to spell it if you’re unsure about it. Nothing is worse than the employer hearing you say at the end of the call “I’m sorry I didn’t get your name, what was it!”. Get the name first and continue to build rapport by using it.
5. Don’t ask for decisions before you’re clear about the employer’s needs. If you want to ask for a decision about an appointment, job interview or training opportunity do you understand their current needs, challenges or fears? Are your questions all closed ones resulting in a YES/NO answer or are you engaging them by giving them the opportunity to talk? Spend time preparing good questions to establish a genuine need.

I trust you’ve found this information useful. Do visit our RESOURCES page as we have some resources that can help you on some of the issues we’ve mentioned here.

Audrey Bodman

www.telephonetraininguk.co.uk