Honing your telephone techniques to produce the best possible result makes good sense! It makes your time on the phone more enjoyable for you and for your client. Your telephone technique and it’s level of effectiveness will also clearly have a huge impact on the end result you get from your work.
On this page, we will look at the basic things that anyone can do to improve their telephone skills considerably. A good place to start is with a common issue…
Overcoming Call Reluctance
It is not unusual for a Telemarketer, particularly when new to doing phone work, to experience call reluctance or call inertia.This is where the telemarketer finds any excuse to do anything else but pick up the phone! They will shuffle paper, look up things online, do other paper work, make notes or just about any other activity….just not the phone!!
Why is it so common? It can normally be attributed to one or more of the following;
- Lack of confidence in self: This can be a personal issue, but is more likely to be attributed to not knowing what they are doing. When we have no clear guidelines for the call and/or not great product knowledge, then the thought of making calls can be overwhelming!
- Lack of conviction or belief in the product or service they are selling: This can be overcome by getting some good product training and finding out how your product or service has helped others to date.
- Fear of rejection: Hearing “no” after “no” can be hard initially. The secret is to realise that it is usually not about you and that sales is largely a numbers game…. meaning, we expect to have to make a certain number of calls to get a “yes”. Expecting a positive result from EVERY call is just setting yourself up for failure.
- Unsure of how to get their message across clearly: This is all too common amongst sales people and telemarketers. We have the information in our minds, but getting it out clearly and concisely and in a manner that means something to our client can be tough. Using a script or call guidelines and having good product knowledge are the best ways to overcome this.
- Feeling intimidated by the clients: If you are feeling intimidated by your clients then either a) you are ill-prepared for the calls or b) you are lacking self confidence or c) you are calling clients you should not be calling. Obviously a and b can be overcome with help. c on the other hand may mean that you are just not right for this role, maybe this job needs someone with relevant industry experience.
- Lack of organisation: Being unorganised can leave you feeling frazzled! Hardly the state of mind you want to be in before you pick up the phone.
- No clear goals or reason to be making the calls: I have always found that setting very clear call goals makes the process far easier. You know exactly what outcome you want, so you are far more focused and confident during calls.
So, the answer to overcoming Call reluctance and having a confident telephone technique is to have a clear call goal, set aside a certain amount of time for your telemarketing, be organised before you pick up the phone, have good product knowledge and know how your product fits your customers needs, use a call script or call guidelines and speak with confidence and conviction.
Click here to find out more about Sales Skills and how they can help to better your phone technique
Confidence on the Phone
Condidence on the phone comes with time. Until then, my advice is to fake it!
Think about the most confident person you know. Do you have an image of them in your mind? Can you hear them? Can you sense how they feel about themselves and their ability?
Great! Now copy that. Do exactly what you think they would do. Hold your body upright the way they do, eyes wide open, smile, look people right in the eye. That’s confidence!
You should also regularly have an opportunity to role play all of your call scripts and objection handling scripts with someone. This allows you to become very comfortable and familiar with everything that could come up in any call – which creates a lot of confidence.
The other thing to consider when we talk about telephone techniques, is the words you are using. Do you use words like “perhaps”, “is it possible?”, “do you think you could maybe?” or any other phrases that lack confidence? Be aware of those words and replace them with assumptive phrases like, “I’ll tell you what we’ll do”, “Would option A or option B suit you best?” or “What we do next is….”
By being assumptive with your language, you show your client that you believe they should take you up on your offer. Without it, you sound unsure and if you are unsure (and you represent the company) you can bet they will be unsure too!
When you have great rapport with your customers, you can be extremely assumptive and they will appreciate your enthusiasm…..but you must be in rapport.
Conviction and Belief
When it comes to Telephone Techniques, this is a must have! As I said earlier, if you don’t think that your product or service is great, then neither will your customer. Clients will pick up easily on your lack of conviction and belief and it will definately turn them off. So, if don’t have belief in what you sell, get it or get a new job. Really, it is that simple.
I hope you choose to get conviction and I hope you choose to believe in the great service you offer clients!
A telemarketer who feels that the customer is doing them a favor by buying will always struggle – you must realize that you are doing the customer a favor and providing a great service.
As an example, if I were selling widgets to businesses, I would learn about the quality of our widgets, what a great job our widget does. I would find out how cost effective it is and how it has improved the turnover for a number of past clients. I would want to know about the great people at the factory who do such a great job of making widgets and how all of us are working together, keeping the widget industry a viable one and providing jobs for a vast array of people.
Find ways to learn about your business, be a part of it and be proud of what you do. Loving what you do and being proud of your work is a certain path to naturally great telephone techniques!
Voice
We have already spoken about the importance of the words you use and of having a script or call guidelines so that you have complete clarity on what you will say during your call.
Now we need to consider your voice and the impact it has on your telephone technique.
The tone of your voice, your modulation, speed or tempo and your volume will all determine the actual meassage that your client gets from the call. These are all much more important than your actual words.
Of course you should speak clearly and fluently at all times. We also need to know how to match, pace and mirror our clients voices so that we can build rapport with them. Your volume, tone and tempo should also be changed to emphasise certain points, to slow down or speed up the conversation, to indicate a question or a statement and to show your level of enthusiasm for your product.
Great Telephone Techniques come naturally to some people. For others it takes a little practice of some new skills and some time spent planning and building confidence.
The great news is that over time, with commitment to bettering your telephone techniques you will soon find it comes naturally to you too!
