This is a Guest post by Art Sobzcak.

Guess who says the following:

“Hi, I’m just calling to check in with you.

a. Parolees out on probation, checking in with their probation officer.

b. Sales reps who call customers or prospects and can’t come up with anything more creative or interesting to say.

c. Teen-aged girls, every two hours on the weekend, calling their parents.

d. All of the above.

The answer of course, is “d.” What we will concern ourselves with is “b”, the Probation Officer call.

These calls are most often placed by reps who call regular customers on a regular basis, or when placing follow-up calls to those lukewarm prospects.

And the result usually is not very good.

No wonder. There’s nothing of interest or of value there for the listener. Are they supposed to get excited simply because you called to check in with them?

What to do? Have a reason for calling. Have something of interest. Search your notes from previous calls and make that the reason for this call. For example,

“Stacy, it’s Ken Mackeral with Fish Supply. I’m following up on our last conversation from January. At the time you mentioned that you were going to be expanding your catfish operation in May, and I wanted to share some information about what another customer of mine did to help keep his expansion costs low and increase his capacity.”

Use Your Database

Here’s a specific way to help you come up with great reasons to call, and call the right people.

Let’s look at a scenario using something that every company experiences: changes.

For example, has your personal or business bank changed names and/or ownership within the past couple of years? A friend told me his has changed. Three times. One astute bank sales rep who has been pursuing him manages to contact him after each change while the effects are fresh in his mind. Although he hasn’t moved yet, the timely calls combined with the annoyance of the changes are beginning to wear down his resistance.

Let’s look at the sales ideas and strategy at work here … the ones you can use too for a variety of situations.

1. Prospects can be particularly vulnerable after their existing vendor is acquired, merged, or undergoes some other type of change.

2. Taking advantage of it requires you to track who a prospect uses, and be able to sort your database accordingly, just like the rep mentioned above probably did.

Most contact management and CRM programs allow you to customize fields and sort accordingly. Consider assigning a field for “Current Vendor.” Then it’s a breeze to do a quick sort of all the prospects who have the competitor’s name in the field, and plan your next contact.

When calling these prospects, naturally you don’t phone with an attitude of, “So I see your vendor was just acquired. I bet things are a mess there!”

Instead, treat the call just like you would a normal follow-up. But, be prepared to ask questions designed to get them to tell you the problems and pains they might be experiencing as a result of the change.

For example,

“Mike, you’re still with AB Vendor, right? I see. With the recent acquisition, some of my other customers have noticed some changes in the promptness of getting orders delivered. If that is an issue for you, we have some options that might be worth taking a look at. What has been your experience?”

You could use this technique with any number of changes or events that customers or prospects might have interest in, that could be a great reason for calling if that situation occurred.

For example, let’s say a prospect told you that if you ever came out with a left-handed adapter for your product, they would get them in minute. You would then put LHA, or “Left-handed adapter” in your notes, and when your company introduced one, you’d simply do a sort on that code or term and have a great list to call, with a great reason for calling.

The only reason to make the Probation Officer call, (unless you actually have one) is a lack of creativity or work. Use these ideas and you’ll go further with these prospects and customers.

Art Sobczak has helped sales pros say the right things by phone for over 27 years.  Get a free ebook of tips at http://www.BusinessByPhone.com, and see more free sales and prospecting tips, hear recorded calls, and watch videos at http://www.TelesalesBlog.com

This is a Guest Post from Peter O’Donoghue of  Sales DNA.

If you didn’t read my  last blog post then it might be a good idea to head over here and find out why the following voicemail will get you 50% call backs from your targeted prospects.

As a reminder, the voicemail is:

“Hi John, It’s Joe Bloggs from ACME INC. I was in a meeting this morning and your name came up. I have a couple of quick questions that only you can answer. Can you give me a call back on 0000000000”

So what happens when the prospect hears the voicemail?

Firstly, they are intrigued and curious. Why are they calling me? Why did my name come up in a meeting? What questions can there be that only I can answer? These internal questions and inner dialogue will compel the other person to want to call you back to find out just what is going on.

Secondly, they call. What do you think the first thing they want to know is?

“Why were you talking about me?”

What would you say?

The main thing is that you have a natural and probable answer that will act as a bridge to the thing that you really want from the call – a conversation.

Here are a few ideas:

“Hi John, thanks for calling back. Yes, we had an internal meeting today.”

That’s it. It’s not complicated or underhand and can lead to a natural bridge to your value statement.  A complete example can go like this:

“Hi John, thanks for calling back. Yes, we had an internal meeting today, where we completed phase 1 of a project with ABC Corp. In six months, we reduced their staff churn from 29% down to 19% and we are on track to save them over 500,000 this year. We wanted to help other companies in that industry and as a top 3 player, we immediately thought of you. How is staff churn affecting your business at present?”

OK, let’s break it down to some component parts:

1)      The fact that it is an internal meeting is delivered smoothly and confidently with no apologies. It makes sense and it’s natural.

2)      You have ‘name dropped’ a company that is in their line of business and probably a competitor.

3)      You have proven value in business terms – percentages and money.

4)      There is a little ‘ego-stroke’ – “as a top 3 player.”

5)      It ends in an assumed question “How is staff churn affecting…” It either is or it isn’t and if you have done your homework well then you will know that it probably is. It is open and bridges straight into a conversation.

Now you might be thinking that this might be deceiving and the other person is likely to go:

“Hey wait a minute. You tricked me into calling you!”

I guarantee you it isn’t and they won’t. It naturally flows and as long as you make your reason sound natural, focused on them and relevant, the other person will be more than happy to engage in a conversation with you.

For more golden nuggets like this sign up for my free sales newsletter using the links below…

Peter O’Donoghue is the Director of Sales DNA who help Business To Business Sales Professionals increase sales profitability with Sales Training and Telesales Training.  Sales DNA work with clients in Europe and Worldwide through their Online Sales Training.  Visit his blog at  www.salesdnaltd.com/blog.

This is a Guest post by Alen Majer, CEO of The Science and Art of Selling.

If your prospect does not see the value in your product or service, and if the only difference between you and the competitors is in pricing, you didn’t do a good job as a sales person. The main description of your position inside the company is to create the value, not just to show your price list. Teaching and educating customers is no longer enough, giving them information about your products or services is no longer necessary. They can get them by themselves, without ever talking to you or your company, and know more about your product and positioning on the market than you.

If they know so much about you, how can you try to sell them the same product without knowing their business situation or their needs?

Remember that customers are sophisticated; they either have or believe they can get product information more reliably on their own. Information is readily available through many different sources, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Internet is full of different forums, blogs, and review or research websites where they can get information about your product easily.

Customers don’t just want a specific product; most of the times they want to solve their pain point or business issues. A customer in today’s competitive sales environment does not expect to educate the sales professional about their business.  Therefore, you must already possess a solid understanding of the customer’s industry, competitors, and business direction.

Developing such a comprehensive view of the customer is a task that requires extensive researching and education to get an overall picture of the customer’s business industry. The modern sales person needs to focus on understanding the customer’s business initiatives, strategic plans, IT environment, and key customer preferences.

If you are still seeing yourself as someone who is there to educate customers, you are living in the past. The time of product-centric sales is gone. Welcome to customer-centric approach in sales.

You need to move away from the focus on presenting your products. Instead, a customer-centric approach shows that you recognize and understand your customers’ needs, which is necessary if you want to survive in a 21st Century sales environment.

Your customers are tired of salespeople who come in and are unable to address real business needs, but talk about their company and the hottest feature, or unique one that nobody else has. There are many dimensions that you are selling, and price is only one of them.

Alen Majer consults and trains entrepreneurs and salespeople how to harness their (sex) energy and use it for the success of selling. He is the founder and CEO of The Science and Art of Selling – a sales training, coaching and consulting company in Toronto, Canada; co-founder of Sales Academy – Croatia and Sales Institute of Croatia. Visit his blog at http://www.alenmajer.com.

This is a Guest post by Art Sobczak.

“I leave voice mail messages all day long for prospects,” the salesperson bemoaned. “Why don’t people call me back?”

I didn’t need to listen to his calls to give an answer. The same reasons apply to all telesales people leaving voice mails. Pick any three (or more) of the following reasons:

• The message is too long. Grab their attention within 10 seconds or you’re “sixed” (or whatever their delete key is.) Picture someone picking up their voice mails in a busy, noisy airport; they don’t have time to listen to your life story.

• It’s not about them. They don’t care about you, your products, or that you’re their new “account manager.” And really, why should they?  They’re just like Toby Keith in his song, “I Want to Talk About Me.”

• You sound salesy. Mention that you have a new product, a service, that you want them to advertise with you, or that you want to meet with them, and you evoke the same resistance as when the retail store sales rep says, “May I help you?”  Face it: most people run the other way when a salesperson approaches them.

• Most people don’t return voice mails from telesales reps. News alert: They’re swimming upstream as fast as they can just to stay up with their daily piles of work. Very few say, “Oh, good. Another call from a telesales rep. Move that to the top of the to-do list.”

• You only called once. Even if someone returns the occasional voicemail, who do they call? Probably not the one-time caller. A buyer I interviewed told me that he never returns calls, and the only sales reps who have the remotest chance of even getting through his screener next time are those he recognizes as having left several interesting voice mails.

So is voice mail a lost cause for sales reps?

On the contrary, it’s a great tool to separate you from the majority of reps making mistakes. Here’s what to do:

• Learn about them first. Be a detective. Glean info wherever possible. Go to their website. Enter the company name and prospect’s name into search engines. Use LinkedIn and other Sales 2.0 methodologies. Read trade publications, your local Business Journal, and the ones in your territory. Then use that information in your message as it relates to how you might be able to help them get or avoid something.

• Talk to others in the company. Anyone and everyone. Continue your info-gathering. Identify yourself and company and say, “I hope you can help me. I’m going to speak with Ms. Byer, and I want to be sure that what I have would be appropriate.” Then ask questions.

• Be prepared. Voice mail is not new technology. It shouldn’t be a surprise that you will be asked to speak after the tone. So why not be dead-on prepared for what you’ll say?  (Just notice how many messages you get that begin with, “Uhhh.”) There’s no excuse to not be smooth and confident.

• Use a “possible results” statement. This is the grabber. Mention what you might be able to do for them. Personalization increases their interest level: “I understand you’re now looking at ways to increase the number of long-term leases at your Highland Park property. We specialize in some unique marketing methods that help property managers minimize vacancies…”

• Use a multi-media approach. Don’t rely on voice mail to carry the entire load. Back up your message with an email, a fax, a letter, or a message that you ask the screener to write on the pink message pad and give to the boss. And don’t overlook the lowest tech, but highest touch approach: handwritten letters.

• Say YOU’LL call back. You need to control the communication. It’s your responsibility to reach them. Tell them you’ll call back Thursday morning. Then DO it. But do give them options to reach you, leaving your phone number and email just in case they want to contact you.

• Use a “last resort.” At some point of repeated futility, depending upon their future potential and the size of your prospect pool, you need to punt and leave a final, firmer message. What is that point?  If you sell office supplies, everyone could be a prospect, so the magic number at which you let go would be smaller than for someone selling train locomotives to railroads. What to say?

“… I’ve tried several times to contact you about how we might be able to help cut your cost of customer acquisition by 20% like we have for B.O. Industries. If I don’t hear back from you I’m going to assume this is not something you’d like to discuss at this time …”

This often elicits a response (I’ve even heard apologies) from people who are interested and simply were too busy to reply.

While most sales reps are ensuring they never get through because of their voice mails, you can set yourself apart and pave the way for a productive conversation. Avoid these mistakes, use these ideas, and the sound of the tone will be like the music of a cash register!

Art Sobczak has helped sales pros say the right things by phone for over 27 years.  Get a free ebook of tips at http://www.BusinessByPhone.com, and see more free sales and prospecting tips, hear recorded calls, and watch videos at http://www.TelesalesBlog.com.

This is a Guest Post by Mark Hunter.

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’t be 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.

The following is a Guest post by Mike Brooks, AKA Mr. Inside Sales.

One of the largest dupes telesales professionals tumble into is the “Just Send Your Material” objection. In their enthusiasm to set up leads to call back, majority of the telesales professionals will agree and send their demos, quotes, and other information believing that they at least have a luck to close the sale once they call back. However, the question is: “How many individuals who tell you this objection actually close?”

Most likely, if you’re like most telesales professionals, the answer is “very few”. So, how do you handle this obvious brush off? The experienced telesales professional utilize cautiously prepared telephone scripts to manage objections like this and to get prospects to reveal how interested they really are.

Below are top five telephone scripts to help split the real buyers from those prospects who will end up wasting your time:

“Just Send Your Material”

Response #1:
I’ll be happy to do that __________, but until we know if this is truly a fit for you, we’d be wasting your time.  If you’re sincere about learning how this can actually help you, then I’d propose we take a couple of minutes right now to discuss your situation.  After that, if you’re really interested, I’d be glad to get something out to you – is that fair?”

Response #2:
“I’d be happy to _________.  Quick question though and please be honest with me: When do you think you’ll be serious about moving on to something like this?

Response #3:
If you like what you see, when would you be ready to place an order?” Or, “Sure, and after you review it, how soon are you looking to make a decision on it?”

Response #4:
“Before I do, I want to make sure you’d be ready to act on it if you like it.  Let me ask you a quick question: (Ask qualifying questions on budget, decision-making process, etc.)”

Response #5:
___________, my experience is that information like this, even when it’s this good, usually just gets buried under a stack of paper and that doesn’t do either one of us any good.  Now that we’re on the phone together, I can answer any of your urgent questions and then you’ll be in a better position to make a decision whether or not it makes sense to send you information.  Let me ask you about your needs for this type of (your service or product).”

If you found this article helpful, then you will love Mike’s Ebook: “The Complete Book of Phone Scripts,” 110 pages packed with word for word scripts and techniques you can begin using today to make more appointments and close more sales.  You can read about it by clicking here: http://www.mrinsidesales.com/scripts.htm

The following is a Guest post by Mike Brooks, AKA Mr. Inside Sales.

Many business owners and sales managers ask me if I have a proven system or a way to identify and hire top telesales reps. They have tried everything, they tell me.  They check references, review similar work experiences, talk to ex co-workers, hold multiple job interviews, and sometimes they even spring for some high priced fancy telesales aptitude matrix tests.

Even with all that, however, many sales managers still haven’t found a way to identify who will actually perform well and work hard, versus who will merely show up, take up space and drive up costs by sending out brochures, running up phone bills, squandering leads etc.  “How can you tell?”  They ask me.

Well I’ve got good news for you.  There is one telesales technique that I’ve used successfully for years that will immediately separate who is for real and who’s not.  It doesn’t require any special tests, it can be done on the first interview, and it will always tell you what kind of sales rep you have in front of you. Here’s what you do:

During the course of the interview simply describe the service or product you’re selling, and ask them if they think they would do well selling it.  Almost all that will say, “Oh, of course!”  (Those who don’t, dismiss immediately!)

After that, tell them you want to get an idea of how they would handle some of the common objections you get with this sale, and then give them a couple of objections (one at a time, of course) and let them respond to them. That’s it! Several things happen here — all of which accurately reveal what kind of sales telesales rep you’re dealing with.  They usually have fallen into three categories:

The “A” Players — Top reps, or telesales reps who are well-trained and confident, will handle each objection with a recognizable rebuttal, and the really good ones will even ask for the sale at the end.  You will instantly know who they are.  You hire these reps right away.

The “B” Players — This group of telesales reps will also answer the objections, but their responses will be less polished.  With this group the lack of any formal training will show through, and you will be faced with the decision of whom you think can or can’t be trained.  Part of this group will be uncomfortable with the objections and you will be able to tell that they probably never will be comfortable with them. Your choice of who to hire from this group should be pretty clear.

The “C” Players — A common response from this group will be something like this:  “Well, I really don’t know your product so I really wouldn’t be able to answer these objections.” What they’re really saying, of course, is that they have no idea how to respond to an objection, they have no confidence, and the reason they are here looking for a job will be glaringly clear to both of you.  You pass on this group altogether.

Try this powerful technique during your next interview.  You will be amazed by how well it works.  Simply give them an objection, then sit back, listen and observe.

You will know instantly if you’re dealing with a real closer or someone who is just going to fill a chair.  Happy hiring!

Mike Brooks, Mr. Inside Sales, works with business owners and inside sales reps nationwide teaching them the skills, strategies and techniques of top 20% performance. If you’re looking to catapult your sales, or create a sales team that actually makes their monthly revenues, then learn how by visiting: www.MrInsideSales.com

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IMPORTANT NOTE TO ALL READERS!!! Prompted by visitor demand, we recently launched our FREE eBook on How to use Email and Voicemail to Support your Telesales Efforts. If you haven’t already got your hands on your copy of this 22-page, professionally designed eBook, jam-packed full of great, exclusive content, then download it now by signing-up for it on the right hand side of our site…!

First of all, let me welcome each and every one of you to the first post of 2010 here at Telesales Magic! What an amazing year 2009 was for us all. I must say, in the 7 months since we launched the blog we have seen a treasure trove of telesales tips, telemarketing techniques and cold calling tactics come our way thanks to our fantastic contributors and awesome readers!

We had some awesome articles posted in 2009, but there were a handful that received more attention than the rest, and so, it is my pleasure to present to you The Top 5 Telesales Magic Posts of 2009, in order of popularity. And let me say I am quietly humbled by the fact that one of my posts was at the top of the heap!

BEST OF 2009 #1: The Ultimate Tip Ten Telesales Tips

BEST OF 2009 #2: Preparation – The Key to Successful Cold Calling and Telephone Selling

BEST OF 2009 #3: Telesales 101 – How to Build Gust Busting Rapport!

BEST OF 2009 #4: 15 Steps to Easier Cold Calling Success

BEST OF 2009 #5: Softening Your Telemarketing and Telesales Questioning Techniques

As the New Year kicks-off, a lot of sales pro’s will be looking to sharpen up their skills on the phone, so I sincerely ask you all to spread the word of Telesales Magic and what we’re all about… We’ve just added the ‘Retweet’ button at the top of each of our posts, so please USE IT! Along with the ‘Social Bookmarking’ buttons at the bottom of every post. And you’ll also see that we’ve started a new Facebook Page, too – please click on the link to the right to ‘join us’…!

So, what can you expect in 2010? Well, actually, quite a lot…!

Along with the above-mentioned FREE eBook on Email and Voicemail, we will also soon be completely the redesign of the site (you’re currently seeing it at around 70% – didn’t see the point in holding it back!); including several new features, like our Podcast Library, our Video Library, and an extended Resource Area of the site, too – plus, much more!

However, the BIG NEWS will be the launch of our first Companion eBook, entitled “Telesales Magic!” (catchy, huh!?!). In fact, we hope that the eBook becomes the staple diet for all our readers and we’re looking forward to seeing what you guys have got to say about it once its launched, following a WHOLE YEAR in the making! There will be a one-off SPECIAL OFFER for the launch to all subscribers of the blog. We’ll be sending details through via email to everyone once the time is right!

Thank you again for a great first year (well, 7 months!) for the blog, and we look forward to hearing more of your comments and feedback in the coming months!

Have a killer 2010, everyone!

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The following is a Guest post by Mike Brooks, AKA Mr. Inside Sales.

Most telesales reps hate getting objections.  Their hearts sink into their stomachs, their palms start to sweat, and they start wondering how they’re going to pay the rent.  Sound familiar?

When telesales reps ask me how they should handle objections, they are often surprised by my answer.  I tell them they should never answer objections.  When they look at me like I’m crazy, I explain:

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This is a Guest Post from Paul Archer, of Archer Training.

Move Backwards

When you first meet a customer in person, move backwards about a foot as soon as you make eye contact. This is a great little technique to show that you are nonthreatening and do not want to put them under any undue pressure.

It gets the meeting off to a relaxed and level beginning. Try it next time you meet a customer particularly in a retail environment where customers expect pushy salespeople…it works.

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