I’m not talking about the dial tone. I’m talking about the tone of voice your prospect is using. More specifically, I’m talking about what to do when you hear a change in their tone of voice. We communicate with our voice, but it goes way beyond just the words we say and the volume with which we speak. The real telling signs are in the tone of the voice, particularly pitch.
Listen carefully to the next person with whom you talk, and you’ll detect slight variations in the tone. What you are listening for is when the tone or pitch goes up and when it goes down. When this happens – when there has been a change – the person to whom you are listening is reaching a conclusion of some type. Typically, a customer’s tone/pitch will go up slightly when they become excited or enthused, and it will go down when they’re resigned or view something negatively. Often, this change of tone is also accompanied by a change in the speed with which they speak. An increase in the words per minute signals excitement and a slow down signals calmness.
The trick with all of this is to know how to use it to your advantage. A customer’s change in tone, pitch or rate of speech is not as important as how you respond to it. When a customer’s pitch/tone goes up, you should immediately ask them a question that gets them to build on what is making them excited. Then, immediately follow with a question to close the sale. If, on the other hand, the customer’s pitch goes down, you should ask them a question that pertains to the biggest need they’ve expressed to date. If they have not expressed any need to you thus far, then ask them a question that would draw out what you believe is the biggest need or pain they’re facing. Follow that question with another question that gets them to build even more on what they just told you. The key is to draw out as much as possible the need they’re facing. In doing so, you’ll be in a better position to close the sale.
Another key way you can use the tone/pitch is to help validate what the other person has just told you. It’s very easy for a person to say something that is not the truth from a vocabulary standpoint. However, it is incredibly difficult to mask their tone/pitch. Again, this can be a clear sign when someone is talking to you as to whether or not what they’re telling you is factual or merely something to help end the call.
This is the reason I tell anyone who is spending any degree of time on the phone to use a headset that covers both ears. Using an ordinary phone will not give you the listening advantage you need to discern the slight differences in a person’s voice. These slight differences are exactly what can help you dramatically distinguish what the customer is really saying. Ultimately, you will be better equipped to close more sales.
Mark Hunter, “The Sales Hunter,” helps individuals and companies identify better prospects, close more sales, and profitably build more long-term customer relationships. He is a consultative selling expert, specializing in custom-tailored sales programs. You can read his blog at http://thesaleshunter.com/blog.
Never view any two calls in the same way. Instead, have different styles depending on the type of customer you’re calling and the outcome you expect to achieve. Top performing salespeople will have a distinct calling strategy for each type of person they call. The best way to do this is to break your customer list down into segments based on their size, their potential, and, if you know, the contact’s personality and approach to decision making.
Using the Inquisitive Approach
This is an excellent approach to use when dealing with a small customer and especially when contacting the person who owns the business. The Inquisitive Approach is based on the strength of the question you’re asking. It needs to create interest and a sense of ego-satisfaction with the small business person / owner.
Using the Assumptive Approach
If you use the Inquisitive Approach with large customers, you will be seen as somebody who hasn’t taken the time to research and appreciate the size of the customer you’re calling.
Big customers want to be treated as big customers, and they only like to do business with others who they believe are equally big. Big customers find safety in talking to their peers (others who understand how big companies work).
Your opening needs to be statement-focused and deal with an area of pain the customer is experiencing. Don’t allow your statement to come across as if you’re asking a question about what the person does or, worse yet, what their customer does. A large customer expects you to have done your homework prior to the call. Demonstrate that you value their time and company.
Whether you are prospecting or calling existing customers, make sure you are thoroughly prepared with an approach that fits that particular customer.
Mark Hunter, “The Sales Hunter,” helps individuals and companies identify better prospects, close more sales, and profitably build more long-term customer relationships. He is a consultative selling expert, specializing in custom-tailored sales programs. You can read his blog at http://thesaleshunter.com/blog.
It may sound odd to mention “phone sales tips” and “body language” in the same sentence. Do the two go together? Yes! In fact, you can even say when you add the two together, you get a third phenomenon: Increased sales motivation. Your body language comes through loud and clear with every phone call you make.
I often tell salespeople to make sure they are standing up anytime they make an important phone call. In the instances when you do have to be sitting for a phone call, make sure you have good posture. It’s amazing how much stronger your voice will be when you’re standing up and/or maintaining good posture when you make a call. It is no surprise that when your voice is stronger, your confidence is stronger too.
Another reminder I offer is this: Make sure when you are on the phone, you are free of visual distractions. What are some common visual distractions? Email would possibly be the biggest one if you are at your computer. Other distractions include television, miscellaneous papers on your desk or anything else that can take away your focus. When you’re having a conversation with someone on the phone, it’s no different than speaking to them in person. They deserve your complete and undivided attention. If you have something else that may take away your focus, you are doing your customer a disservice. Simply move it out of site.
Finally, an item I love to do when talking to clients on the phone is to have something on my desk to remind me who I am talking to, including their name and their company. There is nothing more embarrassing than to suddenly forget who you’re talking to. No matter how good you think your memory is, this will happen to you at least a couple of times. That’s all it takes for you to realize how important it is to have the person’s name and company in writing in front of you.
Selling on the telephone is a key part of anyone’s job, whether it be using the phone to establish an initial contact or using it to stay in touch with a loyal customer. Use extraordinary phone skills each time and you will see a positive difference in your results.
Mark Hunter, “The Sales Hunter,” helps individuals and companies identify better prospects, close more sales, and profitably build more long-term customer relationships. He is a consultative selling expert, specializing in custom-tailored sales programs. You can read his blog at http://thesaleshunter.com/blog.
Many times when I’m working with inside salespeople, I hear the common complaint how they don’t feel they’re at their best until later in the day. The first few people to whom they talk on the telephone wind up being disastrous calls. What makes this painful is these same salespeople are usually the ones who are not making their numbers. These are the same salespeople who spend way too much of their time – and the time of their fellow salespeople – complaining about how screwed up things are.
Rather than wasting the first several calls on customers you know are going to answer, take the first 10 minutes of each day calling people you know won’tbe there. In other words, their voice mail will pick up. In fact, go one step farther and make the first call to yourself – yes, yourself. Here is why: By calling yourself first, you have the opportunity to engage your mouth, to get your brain working and to warm up. Consider it similar to the way an athlete warms up before a game.
Make the first call to yourself as if you were a prospect and leave a voice mail. But don’t just leave a quick voice mail to yourself. Go ahead and share with yourself one key benefit as to why you should buy from yourself. By leaving the message to yourself, you’ll get a chance to hear yourself later when you get the message. More importantly, you’ll start warming yourself up by sharing a benefit of what makes you different.
After you have left yourself a message, then call 2- 3 people who you know will not answer their phone. Leave your normal voice mail message.
Using voice mail as a way to warm up will help you be more focused and engaged when you do talk to somebody live. It will prevent you from stumbling through your first several live calls. Only after you’ve had several live conversations and you’re fully engaged should you then even think about sitting down. Yes, that’s another tip: Standing up when making a phone call will always increase the strength of your voice and help you be focused. It gets your energy going!
Mark Hunter, “The Sales Hunter,” helps individuals and companies identify better prospects, close more sales, and profitably build more long-term customer relationships. He is a consultative selling expert, specializing in custom-tailored sales programs. You can read his blog at http://thesaleshunter.com/blog.
This is a Guest Post from Paul Archer, of Archer Training.
Christmas is almost here and I’m so excited. I love Christmas so here’s a smashing little tip which will be very useful if you ever ask questions when selling. And let’s face it, who doesn’t.
This is a Guest Post from Paul Archer, of Archer Training.
Hello isn’t the weather just rotten outside. Enough for you to want to curl up in front of a warm log fire and go to sleep. Unfortunately this sense of sleepiness may face us when presenting in public. I hope not but in case you’re a little bit concerned, do read on.
The following is a Guest post by regular Telesales Magic contributor Mike Brooks, AKA Mr. Inside Sales.
CHRIS SAYS: As telesales tips go, when it comes to closing sales, they don’t get much better than this! Check out Mike’s fantastic closing tip right here and then get to work closing more sales than ever before, with this simple and easy to follow technique!
I talk a lot about the techniques that separate the Top 20% of the money earners from the other 80%. As you know, this ezine is dedicated to providing you, often word for word, with the exact tools, tips and strategies that you, too, can use to become a Top 20% producer.
This is a Guest Post from Karen Andrews of Shine Sales.
Are you asking questions that make your customers & prospects THINK?
Questioning or probing as it is also known, is most of the most important skills you can learn when dealing with customers and one of the most powerful. The ability to ask questions that uncover important information about a customer’s needs, current supply and willingness to change is a strong characteristic of a ‘consultative’ sales approach.
Most importantly, when you ask great questions it can help you to win new business much quicker and with fewer objections. When we help prospects to think about the needs of their business and to really think about current or potential problems or challenges they may face, they start to see us differently and understand the value we can add to them or their business.
Today we welcome a new guest writer, Shaun Gisbourne, from Phone for Business, and his first contribution to the Telesales Magic archive. Shaun kick’s off what we hope will become regular contributions with a look at the important role of building strong rapport with your telesales prospect. Enjoy.
What is rapport? Well, it’s a word that comes from the French language whose meaning essentially is connection, relation, link, communication, affinity. Establishing rapport can be natural, or it can take time. Sometimes it seems that it may never happen at all.
Suppose we were to accept on faith that there are no bad prospects, only bad salespeople, then we set the bar for establishing rapport very high indeed. It’s about attaining a level of comfort in your dealings with others, a mutual degree of respect and understanding. Whilst we can say that interactions can vary depending upon who you’re calling, the time of day, the pressure they’re already feeling from their environment and events in their lives, let us also be clear that the same is true of you, the person doing the calling.
This is a Guest Post from Julian Blee, of Fat Cat Ideas.
Way back in 1993 I was given my first opportunity to run a telesalesfloor. I was working for a firm of stockbrokers in London and I was super bullish and proud to be a broker. I marched across London Bridge each morning with the Financial Times under the arm of my chalk stripe suit. The wind would sometimes blow my jacket open to reveal the salmon pink silk lining and the bright red braces that held my trousers up. (I can’t even look at the pictures of me then without my face turning redder than the braces I wore.) I was 25 years old and full of myself.
In my new position I was intent on only taking on the loudest and most aggressive salespeople in the City. I had every intention of breaking all of the sales targets that I was given in record time. Admittedly, I did do very well there. However, I also made a complete hash of things for the first 3 to 6 months. I was lucky that my boss at the time believed in me and perpetually guided me and stopped me from crashing my sales floor into a proverbial tree every month.
