Telephone Sales

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With the ever increasing reliance on email, there is a feeling that sales people are forgetting the basics of actually getting on the phone and selling. Not too many years ago, sales departments were alive with the general hubbub of chatter and “sales noise”. Nowadays I find myself walking through sales departments and being struck by a wall of silence, only broken by the click of the keyboard. The big problem is that email although hugely convenient, does not sell! The telephone conversation should always make more progress.

What is stopping sales people from using the phone? Firstly, as I mentioned, convenience; it is easier to send an email to a client than phone them and still feel like you are working hard. First tip: if you are about to write an email to a client, ask yourself the question “could I phone instead?” Inevitably the answer will be yes.

Sales people get themselves into to what could be referred to as “avoidance focus” behaviour. This is where they have got themselves into what is effectively a rut. Their expectation is low and so their phone calls lack impact and that leads to failure so they start to talk themselves out of making calls because they don’t like the result. To get out of this rut, the sales person has to start developing “approach focus behaviours”.

To do this, try these ideas:

1) Start making calls early in the day and in doing so get some momentum going. You will feel much more positive about your day generally if you have made twenty five calls by ten o’clock.

2) Set yourself targets. Can you call ten potential clients by the end of the day? Can you find out a new need from your existing client base? Sales people tend to respond better under pressure. When the deadline is not upon you, you need to create your own pressure.

3) If you have a successful call, don’t rest on your laurels and have a celebratory cup of tea, make five more off the back of that success and momentum.

4) Equally if you make a call that does not get the desired result, do not sit and mull it over and become depressed by you lack of progress. Analyse the call, try to identify areas or techniques that you could improve and call someone else.

5) Don’t be put off by an abrupt or rude response. People react in all sorts of ways for all sorts of reasons. It is almost always not personal and should not be taken as such.

6) Turn your email off for a day and concentrate solely on telephone sales. Email by its nature is not an “urgent” tool. If people need to get in contact they can call you. Likewise if people don’t want to respond to you they don’t have to if you send an email. Admittedly they don’t have to take your call but it is harder to turn down.

7) Make sure you have an objective for your call. Think about how you can gain attention quickly. Do not sound like you have made fifty calls that day (even though you might have)

8) Variety can help to maintain momentum. Call different types of clients, present different products (if relevant), mix up your calling pattern to maintain impact.

9) Back yourself! Have belief in your ability to make the call and get the result. Use techniques and objectives to create interest and engagement.

10) Positive, imaginative and creative telephone sales can be extremely effective, certainly more effective than a stream of emails. Think about what sort of impression you are making on your client if you phone them and ask them not if they got your proposal but whether they could see how it would benefit them and if they had any questions. Sales is all about impact, the telephone call does that far more effectively than the email.

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Sales Training Delivery Methods

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Technology and the internet have given many more options with regard to how training is actually delivered. Most of the key methods are shown below.

A quick Google search will show over 15 million entries for elearning. Its a big, and growing, topic with many potential application areas and a great many supporters. However, we believe it has limitations in sales training.

Most elearning being commercially developed and delivered today is not interactive (called asynchronous). Elearning can also be synchronous, where there is interaction between the facilitator and participants, and we have participated in trials of video technology (webinairs and webcasts) for synchronous sales training.

These trials were complex to set up and run, for both the training team and the company's IT department. But we are sure these issues can be remedied in the future, especially if the training is being run on a campus basis.

Currently, we would recommend elearning modules as a way of bringing participants up to a common level of understanding. Somewhat like DVD/CDs, but probably with an interactive web-based assessment at the end of each module that can be captured by L&D.

Both standard modules and tailored elearning training is available, with the normal cost versus effectiveness equation to be considered.

Face to Face Training

Many consider this to be the "old way" of sales training. Getting a small group of 10 to 15 sales people in a room and getting them to learn by role playing, working in teams on case studies or working on their own live accounts.

We believe if done properly, face to face training still is very engaging and can actually translate into changes in behaviour back in the field. However, it is often a mismatch of thinking, part product knowledge dump, part case studies that aren't appropriate to the participants and part humiliation of the people chosen to stand at the front and role play in front of their peers.

Our view is simple, we want to create an environment where real learning can take place, and sales people are encouraged to try new things. So small teams of three for the role plays, with each team member taking it in turns to play the sales person, the customer and an observer, who leads the feedback sessions positively.

We also now make a virtue of not using PowerPoint. Each participant has their own workbook containing the exercises (individual, pairs, threes and teams) and space to note down the information from the various exercises and flip chart sessions. Why do we recommend this approach. Its fresh, its fully interactive and very engaging for both the facilitator and participants. Too many facilitators hide behind a snow storm of PowerPoint charts and technology.

Add some DVD sessions into the mix plus some team competitions and we are starting to get a lively session. We would also recommend finishing off with action planning - what are they going to change, what will they do differently following the training. Even better if this is shared with their managers and sales coaches.

Launch Events/Seminars

Some people label this form of training the "sheep dip". It is often carried out at the yearly sales team meeting or the launch of a new product. Most of these events are seen as team bonding sessions that tend to involve lots of liquid being consumed late into the night!

At best, we feel that the effectiveness of such events is limited. But you answer, we have the sales force all in one place at the same time, what better opportunity to train them (and it won't cost much!)?

We see the logic, but we are still concerned about how engaged the audience will be especially as "death by PowerPoint" is often the chosen method of delivery.

If you do want to do this, please make the sessions short, focused, interactive and based on small teams, maybe competing for prizes. We find teams of about 6 works well, and we have developed some interesting ideas for how to get the teams functioning and interacting, even after the night before!

Power Hours

The "Power Hour" concept isn't new, but maybe the way it can be used can improve the effectiveness of your sales training.

We have seen the idea used in the past by companies that want to reduce sales time away from the desk or off the road. The idea is to fire the training at the sales team for just an hour, often at 8.00 am, and hope something sticks.

We would recommend that power hours are used more for re-enforcement than the first line training. In fact, if your own sales managers are trained to do this, it becomes very cost effective and an excellent way of both sales and management working on the same ideas.

DVD/CD Training

What can we say? Probably the least engaging of all the various training options. However, it still has its place and can be used effectively to distribute technical information to a large, disparate sales team.

It also has one advantage over elearning, it that the demands placed on I.T. are not as great. Everyone just needs access to a DVD/CD player on a PC. With elearning there can be minimum configuration issues on desktops/notebooks as well as network access issues for remote members of the sales team.

On The Job Training

We all do on the job training as part of our normal roles within our companies. What we are talking about here, is a more formal approach to on the job training.

Learning by watching experienced people and then doing it yourself in the real world under supervision, with feedback, is the very best way to learn. Unfortunately, much of the so-called on the job training is really no training at all. New sales people are left to struggle along by themselves, without role models, with no real supervision and with no effective feedback.

We recommend that on the job training is built into any training program, but with thought given to how it is achieved and how best practice can be effectively shared throughout the team.

For more information about sales training please visit http://www.sales-training-consultants.co.uk

By: John Fowler -

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John Fowler is a sales and management trainer designing and delivering workshops across the world specifically for the IT industry. John can be contacted on his website at Sales Training Consultants.

10 Simple Ways To Improve Sales Performance

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Are your business goals to sustain growth, increase revenue, and increase market share? While there are numerous ways to go about this, the simple fact is expanding your business is not possible without increasing sales. Often times, we focus so much on improving our products and services that we don't concentrate enough on sales performance. And when we do, we focus mainly on attracting new customers. So much so that we sometimes forget about our most prized possessions; our existing and past customers. This article discusses ways to attract new customers while at the same time enticing past customers to buy again.

1. Communicate organizational and sales goals throughout your sales department.

Are your organization's goals and objectives clearly stated and documented. Does your entire sale force (including managers, salespersons, and support staff) understand executive management's goals and objectives. Do they understand how their sales goals and objectives support the overall organizational objectives? This is the number one, first thing that must be in place in order to have a successful sales program. It's very easy to find out if this critical step is in place, just ask your team members.

2. Gain executive management Buy-In.

It is critical that executive level managers buy into your sales strategy. Studies have shown that senior level management that places value in leveraging sales performance data into overall strategy increase their organization's chances for success. Compound this with strong sales leadership that is able to translate the sales strategy into action and these organizations are often able to quantify extraordinary results through sales performance management. Executive management can also ensure that your sales program has the necessary funding it needs to implement a successful strategy.

3. Define and communicate competencies for salespeople.

You may already have sales competencies. If so, reevaluate them and make sure that they are specific, unique and drive organizational goals. Make sure that they are not generic job descriptions that don't support objectives. What makes your top salespeople successful. Document these characteristics and the processes that these top performers have in place. Mimic these behaviors throughout your sales force.

4. Strengthen your sales efforts on products and services that generate the most income.

Now I'm not saying that you shouldn't try to increase sales in many different areas. I encourage organizations to explore new avenues for generating sales. But if there is something that your customers really buy into and you see greater sales from that area, you should be maximizing your profits in these areas even if it means reallocating resources from weaker areas.

5. Link sales training and performance-management systems to your business goals and competencies.

Make sure that your sales staff are properly trained to most effectively execute their function. Do they have all the resources they need? Does training address specific challenges that your sales force encounters? A detailed, competency-based selection process will give you a profile of each sales person's strengths and development needs. Identify which areas each salesperson is weak in and provide the necessary training for them to improve in those areas. Identify their strengths and leverage their knowledge and processes to help train other staff. Integrate their development plan into the performance management process.

6. Set up a sales incentive program.

Let's face it. Most people are not the motivated goal reaching machines they are capable of becoming. Give your sales staff a reason to achieve great things. Reward them for their accomplishments. They will continue to return the favor. Be creative. If that dinner for two to the local restaurant isn't stirring up competition find something that will. Remember, the more people you can get to compete for incentives the more successful your sales team as a whole will be.

7. Encourage your sales staff to upsell.

Upselling involves persuading customers to buy additional products or services, which normally relate to, benefit and compliment the original purchase. But just throwing additional products at them won't work. For example, if you own a pet grooming business, you may try to upsell your customers to buy pet grooming supplies to maintain their current look. Not a great example, but you get my point.

8. Tier your customers.

This is an effective technique, however it must be used with care. Customer tiering is assigning different values to customers to ensure that your best customers get the best treatment. While there are customers that you want to ensure top level service, it's important that you value all of your customers. More and more companies are using this technique to decide whether you're a customer worth taking care of and it is very troubling to know that careless, almost discriminatory practices may be taking place. Ways you may want to show customers that they are important is by recognizing them, greeting them by name or going out of the way to contact them, and offering them discounts or referral bonuses.

9. Set up a customer rewards program.

We talked about sales incentive programs. Now we need to focus on customer reward techniques. Customer reward programs can be as simple as providing a discount for every additional product your customers purchase, to offering them referral bonuses and incentives, to providing them VIP status. These simple techniques can build customer loyalty and repeat sales.

10. Offer customers free valuable, products or services.

Giving away something for free to your customers is one of the easiest way to get viral marketing benefits. This means that your customers are more likely to refer a product or service to their friends or business partners if you can provide a free sample. This is why you see so many 'free trial' or 'test drive' offers.

About Victor Holman

By: Victor Holman

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Victor Holman is a performance management expert who provides fast, simple and inexpensive ways to transform organizational performance Check out the FREE Performance Management Kit and learn the secrets of high performing organizations. Learn all about performance management at The Performance Portal.

7 Quick Read Tips For More Sales

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I read perhaps fifty sales advice articles every month. While some of what I read is theoretical, technical or simply a disguised sales pitch, most of it is pure gold. I believe this little grab bag of power tips is on target and can make a big difference in your sales. Ranging from commonsense advice to counterintuitive ideas these gems can be put to work for you right away.

Investigate your buyer

Before calling that important prospect, go online and do some investigation. Check the person's profile on LinkedIn, Xing or Spoke. Learn a little about the buyer's background, interests and education. Then go to their company web site and read their latest press release. Take a few notes. Armed with this information, you'll have a much better chance of establishing that all important first contact rapport. This only takes a few minutes and will be time well spent. You'll build your relationship with the buyer quicker and have a much better chance of ultimately closing the deal.

Make your follow-up email sing

Given the high volume of email flowing into most in-boxes, your follow-up note might not get read. To avoid this, always use your prospect's first name in the subject line. Example: "Bob, here's the summary you requested." Keep your email short! Most buyers, who are already dealing with information overload, are not inclined to wade through volumes of product data along with your company's history and mission statement. Summarize and provide links in case they do want more information.

Remember to carefully proofread before you hit send. In fact, you might invest in proofreading software. Many are free or relatively inexpensive. Spelling and grammatical errors in follow-up letters can be a real buyer turnoff.

Think outside the in-box

Because in-boxes are increasingly crowded and noisy, marketers are rediscovering the power of regular mail. Consider following up your initial email with information delivered via regular mail. Include your business card along with your brochure, report or product spec sheets. It doesn't matter if they have already received this information electronically. The main purpose in doing this is to beat the email "fatigue factor" and stay in touch with your prospect.

Power Tip: Write a very brief personalized note on the front of the envelope. Example: "Mary, I enjoyed our conversation. Enclosed is a hard copy of the information you requested." Call a few days later to confirm receipt and renew your conversation.

It's not what you say; it's how you say it!

Persuasive speakers communicate by using positive language. Example: Instead of saying, "We can't ship your order until next Tuesday," say, "We can ship your order as early as next Tuesday." What a difference! Put yourself in your listener's shoes; which version is more appealing? The habit of using positive speech has helped me to achieve more results than I ever thought possible. You can practice this skill all the time, too. Try it with coworkers, family, and friends. You'll begin to see things in a whole new light!

Learn to listen

Develop your listening skills. Good listeners close far more sales. Period.

I recently received a call from a salesperson with an annoying rapid fire staccato delivery. This poor soul didn't even allow me to answer his questions before plunging forward and talking over me. Within a few minutes I was developing a headache and had completely tuned this guy out. When he had finally finished his pitch, I jokingly asked, "Could you repeat that?" He didn't respond. I then offered to send him a link to information that would help him improve his phone skills. He declined my offer and rushed off to his next victim.

Obviously Mister Rapid Fire never heard of the 80-20 rule where the prospect does 80 percent of the talking and the salesperson 20 percent. Frankly, I think the rule, while a good guideline, is a bit difficult to observe especially on a first call. However, if you will slow down and ask intelligent questions that get the prospect talking you'll close a lot more sales. Shoot for a 70-30 split and you'll be in excellent shape.

State your business

Some telephone cold-call gurus will tell you to offer a pleasantry or two after introducing yourself. They are wrong. Avoid the opening, "How are you?" When spoken over the phone to a stranger, the phrase reeks of insincerity. You might as well scream, "I am going to try to sell you something!" Instead, employ a more businesslike opening, such as, "The reason I'm calling you this morning is to learn about your company's personnel needs, and to see if we can be of help." In other words, after introducing yourself, state the reason for your call. Prospects will appreciate your directness and respect for their time and intelligence. Only ask, "How are you?" after you've progressed beyond the initial contact and a relationship has been established.

The more you learn, the more you earn!

This is the most important advice I can give you. Make a commitment to your success. Every day invest a little time sharpening your sales skills. The number one mistake salespeople make is neglecting their ongoing sales education. No excuses. This doesn't have to be a huge investment of time or money. There are plenty of free or low-cost sales skills improvement resources on the Internet. Get started today!

Michael Dalton Johnson is the Editor and Publisher of "Top Dog Sales Secrets", bestselling book featuring advice from 50 renowned sales experts. He is the Founder and Publisher of SalesDog.com, an educational resource for sales professionals. Johnson is a successful entrepreneur and business leader. For a free subscription to the SalesDog weekly sales newsletter, visit http://www.SalesDog.com

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Management Courses - A Great Investment

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Management courses have become really popular recently and what's more important effective way of investing companies in their workers. Nowadays specialists in different professions not only wait for a good payment but also what challenges in their professional life. That kind of employee wants also develop his skills and gain more knowledge. Management courses has become a good way of saying employment that we appreciate their work.

Courses like that might be a good award for those who are willing develop and are working hard. The same, big and small companies, need good and talented workers to make the company grow. That's why it is worth to invest in people. Effective work of each employee is a solution to make a work of whole company effective. In that cases good management training courses can bring really amazing results and are worth every penny spend.

But it is not the only reason why to invest in business course. We live in times when people who are specialists in their work don't have to fight each other for a job. Specialists are still needed in companies and the company should do as much as it can be done to make the specialist want to stay in there. Investment in professional training courses is something that is needed today - to make the talented person want to stay in particular company. That's what young people want even more than money - they want to learn and grow.

Business courses should be chosen wisely. Managers usually have a good knowledge and have a great expectations to business course that they are about to attend. That's why it is better to choose course and company which name is well know, has a good experience in coaching and trainers with years of practice in their work. Only that kind of course can be worth its money. And only people who know more about management and coaching then managers can teach them something new.

Are you interested in finding good management training and leadership training? Phoenix Training and Development might have something interesting for you!

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Sales Training Tip: How Does One Convince Somebody To Buy From You?

My partner, was searching recently for a replacement gate for our cottage and had set on the precise vogue that she wanted. Jo had seen a collection of gates that she liked on a address and had taken some pictures so that we could get quotes.

Jo went about scouring the local suppliers and also the Net and came upon three blacksmiths/gate manufacturers who appeared to be capable of making the gates. We have a tendency to exchanged some emails with our potential suppliers along with footage of how we tend to wanted the gates to look.

Provider one: They came back with a value of around £one,two hundred

Supplier a pair of: They came back with a price of £650

Provider 3: Called us on the phone, organized to come back and visit the house to seek out out what precisely we have a tendency to needed and then quoted £300.

We have a tendency to were initially surprised by the large value differences and logically you would suppose we have a tendency to immediately decided to go with Supplier 3.

Not thus!

When a momentary pleasant surprise, Jo began to query Suppliers 3 ability to create the gates. She had doubts concerning the quality of the product and the flexibility of the company to try and do a good job and is considering one in every of the opposite options. At the moment it's so much from probably that we will purchase from Supplier 3.

Currently we tend to have looked into things a touch more we tend to will guess at a number of the reasons for the value distinction:

* The most affordable provider visited site, asked queries and revealed we tend to were having the front wall rebuilt thus the gate fixings could be designed straight into the wall. Additionally we tend to didn't extremely require installation as our builders may simply do that.
* That they had a better manufacturing process and made a lot of gates thereby allowing the price saving to be passed on to their purchasers

The points that you'll be able to learn from this are:

* If you are significantly cheaper than the rest of the advertise could be a disadvantage to you rather than a benefit. Human nature makes us query why there is a big price difference between suppliers.

* If you are doing have a rational, logical reason that you'll provide significantly reduced prices compared to your competition then build certain you tell everyone you cater to — in every communication they have with you.

* Don’t assume that price is the determining factor. It probably isn't.

By: Peter ODonoghue

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Sales Training - Empowering Company Front Runners

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We are now in finances where all the powers and efforts of the association have to be concentrated on trading, marketing and sales training. You have a vital problem if you don't want the 'S' word. Marketing, advocating, coordinating, designing will not get you during this enterprise cycle; trading goods and services is the important make shatter issue of every association in today's market!

Literally not anything have additional affairs except sales training. The efforts involved in sales training should override the power and assets of every business at this instance from the very peak of the association along to the part time workers with entire aim and enthusiasm on going the company's goods and services in the marketplace. Without the proper sales training, the frontrunners and the spokespeople of the company would just go around the bush blindly whilst facing potential clients or customers.

This is a latest for most enterprise persons today approaching out of decades of development, very easy cash and buyer confidence. This is a different occasion where all of us starting the CEO to the receptionist should make the move into advertising.

The detail is there is no cause to design and coordinate if you can't deal your products. There is no cause to buy more inventories if you are incapable to deal out of the inventory you have. While chopping allowances and costs is the well liked activity of boss administration today, allowances might only be slashing so deep before administration recognizes that in alignment to develop income you have to deal products.

Companies that can't deal what they want would not be adept to support advocating and marketing. If you can't deal what you have now you can't pay for to evolve new goods for tomorrow. The issue is when free cash, very easy borrowing and buyer self-assurance goes away each of us are force to recognize that our futures count on selling. Selling is the centre of every association and is the lone most significant ability required of both the engaged and the unemployed. Those that are adept to deal the goods and services will not ever be with no work and not ever be without the proficiency to visualize income.

While the CEO may be the peak dog in the association he desires to wear the head covering of peak sales individual like he has not ever damaged it before. This concept of trading should become the mantra of the association and bleed through to every worker of the organization. Selling is no longer restricted to a sales group and or to 'certain' people. The one-by-one and organization's survival is reliant upon the organization's proficiency to deal goods regardless of the economy. From accounting to administration the ability of trading should be made the heartbeat of the association and this can only be finished through reliable and every day sales training where the assembly is recalled every day that trading is anyone's job and the merely way out!

If you are in confirmation in these localities, that's fine. If not, hold consideration of these matters to a smallest and when they do arrive up, don't cut into your mends in and get overly passionate about your outlook point. But in any way that we can see this case, sales training will always be an essential part of employee empowerment and, therefore, management.

Sales Training and Team Development - that's what might interest you a lot! Look also at Phoenix Training and Development Blog