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Developing Successful Sales
Building Essential Telephone Sales Skills - Phone
Sales. Set your Call Objectives. Decide on the Approach. Determine the
Offer. Draft an Opening Statement. Write a Benefit List. Draft a List
of Questions. Prepare Some Benefit Statements. Rehearse Possible Objections
with Staff. Evaluate the Script Regularly.
Set your Call Objectives
1. Decide what you hope to gain from the call. An appointment, sale, referral,
to qualify the prospect for a sales visit.
2. If you don't achieve this, what is the minimum information you'll be
satisfied with?; eg. the correct name and telephone number of the prospect.
Decide on the Approach
1. Verbatim scripts are fully scripted, and delivered word for word. They
are ideal for surveys.
2. Guided scripts have some word for word components such as Introduction,
Benfits Statements and Closes, but allow for sales flexibility.
3. Outline scripts are essentially a series of checklists and are the
right choice when detailed customer information is available.
Determine the Offer
1. Write out sa statement of what you have to offer your prospect.
2. Ask yourself why they should buy from you and what will make them act
now rather than later.
3. Decide and focus on what problem will be solved and what need will
be fullfilled by this offer.
Draft an Opening Statement
Write at statement which gives a readson for the prospect to interrupt
their activity for the call:
1. Trade reference - "I'm calling because many dentists, such as
John Smith, are using our services."
2. Personal referral - "I'm calling at the suggestion of one of your
colleagues, Joan Brown."
3. Brand name identification - "I'm calling because IBM, Dunlop,
and Mitsubishi use our services."
4. Competitor usage - "Our organisation is able to offer low cost
marketing services to John Smith..."
5. Affinity Groups - "We have special rates for members of the XYZ
organisation."
6. Event - "I'm calling because 30% of homes in your area were affected
by an earthquake last year, and most were not covered by their insurance."
7. Customer Relationship - "Mr. Jones, as one of our key customers..."
Write a Benefit List
1. Make a list of the main features of your product or service; eg. Something
built into your product such as a hadle on a cup.
2. List the advantages of each feature. For example, a handle protects
fingers from heat.
3. Now write the benefit of each feature; ie. The handle protects fingers
from heat which means you don't get burned.
4. Each product or service should have at least 3 main benefits
Reason: Using your Benefits List as a guide, you'll be able to draft questions
to obtain responses which match your benefits.
Draft a List of Questions
1. Using the Benefits List as a guide, write questions to match them.
2. Always start with open ended questions such as: "What, when, where,
how, and why?" eg. If you are selling office chairs, and the key
benefit of your chair is that the people don't get back ache because of
the unique design, then ask: "What will the people using the chairs
be doing?"
3. Move to closed answer questions; eg. "Do they need to sit for
long periods of time?".
4. Try to build a pattern of positive responses.
Reason: When you ask the right questions you can offer the right solutions.
5. Use scales - "On a scale of 1-5, how important is (Your major
product benefit) to your organsiation?"
6. Ask the prospect about the key features which they would like - "If
you could design the perfect XYZ system, tell me the 3 most important
features it would have?"
7. Ask multiple choice questions - "My current computer system:
a. Suits my curent needs.
b. Is bigger than I currently need but will allow me to upgrade in the
future.
c. Is too small.
Prepare Some Benefit Statements
1. Compose some benefit statements you could use. For example, "You
mentioned speed is important to you. One of the key advantages of our
system is that it operates at very fast speeds".
2. Use persuasive vocabulary.
Rehearse Possible Objections
with Staff
1. Write down responses to them; eg. If your customer mentions another
supplier is cheaper say, "Many of our customers thought that too,
Mrs Smith, until they compared apples with apples. For example... "
2. When a prospect raises an objection you haven't heard before note it
down and think up a response for next time.
Reason: If you can turn an objection into a benefit, you'll win the sale.
Evaluate the Script Regularly
1. After the first ½ dozen calls evaluate the performance of the
script.
2. Make changes if necessary
3. try different alternatives and combinations of opening and closing
statements.
