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Smiling
and dialing
A
well-planned, coordinated telemarketing effort can be a cost-effective
way to keep in touch with busy customers.
by
Richard Vurva
Studies
show that busy customers don’t have time to see outside salespeople.
But that doesn’t mean distributors can’t maintain regular contact
with those customers. A coordinated telemarketing program can be an
effective and inexpensive way to keep in touch with current customers
and introduce your services to prospective customers.
Although
it’s difficult to turn customer service representatives (CSRs) into
salespeople, distributors can effectively use existing inside
salespeople for outbound calling if they follow some simple tips from
professional telemarketers.
Tip
No. 1: Set the stage
Customer
service representatives sometimes feel uncomfortable doing sales
activities. They’ll relax if you point out that the objective of
every telemarketing call doesn’t have to be a sale. The goal might
be to verify the names and contact information in order to update your
database. Another goal might be to introduce existing customers to a
new service or product they didn’t know your company offered or to
conduct a brief survey to help determine demand for current or
potential services your company offers. Many companies have inbound
sales staff place calls to gauge interest in having an outside
salesperson give a presentation or before mailing a catalog or
information packet.
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The
ultimate telephone sales quiz
You sell widgets. A
caller phones you and says, “Hi, I need two widgets, can you
tell me the cost?”
1) What
is most important about the prospect’s statement? A) The
buyer is probably a price shopper. B) It’s a buying
statement that indicates at least a potential readiness or
ability to buy. C) The buyer has qualified himself as a good
prospect.
2) What
should your immediate response be? A) Ask the prospect for
critical information about their needs. B) Tell the prospect
you have good pricing. C) Tell the prospect you have the best
widgets in the world. D) Trial close by asking the prospect
for the shipping address for the order.
3) If you
decided not to respond directly to the buying statement, what
would your immediate goal in this call be? A) Gain control
of the call using questions. B) Find out what price the
prospect is looking for. C) Tell the prospect the requested
pricing. D) Develop a relationship with the prospect.
4) What is
the primary goal in this or any call that, when accomplished,
will lead to the best possibility of a sale?
A) Knowing the prospect’s needs.
B) Quickly developing a good relationship. C) Negotiating a
good price with the prospect. D) Making sure you destroy any
competition.
Answers:
1) B. Yes, the prospect could be a buyer, but you
really don’t know yet. You shouldn’t assume at this point
that you have a price-shopper either, or you may create a
situation where price is the critical issue in the sale.
2) D.
Whenever you are given a “buying” statement, a trial close
is very useful to understand the status of the buyer’s
intention. Telling the prospect how good your products are
could lose the order should you say the wrong thing or bring
up an item that puts the prospect in decision mode. Talking
about pricing could also be dangerous without first
understanding needs and creating value.
3) A.
This allows you to learn about the customer. This is true on
any call, but especially on an inbound telephone call. If you
just answer the prospect’s questions, you may end up in
service mode rather than in selling mode. When the prospect is
done with their questions, they often eject.
4) B. It
is too early to discuss price, discover needs or try to
destroy the competition. You must first develop value, which
requires a relationship with the prospect that will allow you
to tell your story.
Source:
Penoyer Communications, www.penoyer.com. |
If
CSRs start by phoning the people they deal with on a regular basis,
they’ll build confidence over time and have greater success when
they transition to making cold calls. By keeping the conversation
positive and ending with an action item, callers learn the effort can
be rewarding.
“The
hardest part of telemarketing is getting the right person on the
phone,” says Rich Madzel of Custom Telemarketing Services. The best
way is simply to say, “I hope you can help me. I’m trying to reach
the person responsible for . . .”
Another
common fear CSRs have is not knowing all the right answers. The best
response: “That’s a good question, but I’m not able to answer
it. Let me have so-and-so get back to you.”
Tip
No. 2:
Provide training
Training
callers in proper phone etiquette and how to ask probing questions
without sounding pushy can go a long way toward making your staff feel
more comfortable.
“Have
callers spend a half-hour or more doing role-playing before they place
their first call,” says Dave Fitton of Marketing Partners Inc., a
business-to-business marketing and telemarketing company.
Have
them sit back-to-back or in separate rooms so they don’t make eye
contact. Encourage them to pay attention to the inflection in their
voice and the voice of the person to whom they’re speaking.
“I’ve
even recommended to supervisors to purposely make mistakes on the
first five or 10 practice calls. They’ll never be afraid to make a
mistake after that,” says Fitton.
Tip
No 3: Stay on track
Fitton
recommends using a script as a guide, not an actual speech. It should
contain all of the relevant talking points in a logical order to bring
the caller and the listener to a positive conclusion or action. He
cautions against following the script so closely that it sounds
stilted. Be flexible enough in the presentation to sound natural and
attentive to the listener.
“A
script also helps you stay focused when objections arise, and provides
you a logical point to re-enter your presentation,” Fitton adds.
Madzel
uses a “guided discussion” approach to calls.
“We
don’t follow rigid scripts. Our callers know the program objectives,
and are tasked with achieving it by holding a conversation. Script
reading is boring for the callers, and offensive to the person
called,” he says.
Whether
scripts or loose guidelines, remain flexible to suit the purpose of
the call. The purpose of one script might be simply to obtain the fax
number of the correct contact person and ask if they’re available.
Another might ask if the company does a certain type of work that
would make it a viable customer. The first approach would require a
soft close such as, “Can we send you some information?” The second
requires a hard close such as, “Do you have anything we can bid on
right now?”
Tip
No. 4: Make it fun
Every
week or two, run a contest for your telemarketers. Keep it simple to
score and make it fun, says Fitton.
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Spruce up
your image
Effective telemarketing isn’t limited to outbound calls
only. Companies should also pay close attention to how they
handle incoming customer calls.
When a
customer calls your company, do they get a menu of options? If
so, listen to it carefully. See if it makes sense and quickly
routes the caller to the correct person or department.
Before
putting someone on hold, ask permission first and try to get
back to them every 30 to 45 seconds, says Rich Madzel of
Custom Telemarketing Services. Don’t use a local radio
station for background music when placing callers on hold.
Instead, use a professionally prepared message about your
business.
Dave Fitton
of Marketing Partners Inc. suggests turning your voice mail
into a sales tool by changing your greeting into a 10 or
20-second commercial describing a new product or service or a
weekly special your business offers.
Use
your voice mail to dispense a tip or information that would be
useful to your customers and prospects. Make sure you keep
your message fresh. If
your message is not a daily tip, at the very least, change it
weekly. That way, you’re giving your callers new information
on a regular basis. |
Contests should
reward telemarketers for achieving company goals, such as
reorders from past customers, new customer appointments or sales to
new market segments.
“Build
in a nice reward system, using dinner for two, movie tickets or other
small incentives,” Fitton says. On-the-spot bonuses of candy, cash,
soda, dinner coupons or other small gifts can be effective to reward
someone for a job well done.
Urge
callers to take a 10-minute break after the first hour of calls and
additional 10-minute breaks every 90 minutes. Fitton says structuring
breaks into the day provides a psychological boost.
“Your
mind and your voice can use the rest, and you’ll find yourself
compartmentalizing your work schedule into three or four goal-oriented
phone sessions a day, rather than view it as one long, exhausting
day,” he says. Fitton adds that callers should spend no more than
four hours on the phone a day. Any longer than that makes the
experience frustrating.
“Break
up the day by letting callers do inbound calls for several hours,”
Madzel says. “Don’t expect them to sit there and make the same
call hour after hour.”
This article originally appeared in the
May/June 2003 issue of Progressive Distributor magazine. Copyright
2003.
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