This is a Guest Post by Mark Hunter.

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 in telephone sales 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.

This is a Guest post by Jill Konrath of Selling To Big Companies.

What are the things that you can do when your potential clients disappear into “the black hole?” When you don’t know the reason why you haven’t heard from them, determining how to respond can be a problem, especially since you don’t want to be annoying.

Here are some methods that you can use in dealing with “the black hole:”

● Persevere.

Keep in mind that clients expect you to keep in touch all the time. It usually takes 8-10 contacts before you can get in contact with them again. Don’t be terrified. This is completely normal in business nowadays.

● Value each connection.

Don’t just say, “Hi, Alex. Just getting back to you as I promised about your _______ decision. If you have questions, just let me know.”

Instead, say this: “Alex, based on our meeting last week, I know how vital it is for you to shorten your sales cycle. There’s a white paper on our website that focuses on this. I’ll email you the link in a while.”

● Have a sense of humor.

Inject some humor on your communication. Leave a funny message such as, “Alex, I know you’re extremely busy. But I also know that your sales cycle is of great importance to you. That’s why I keep bugging you. I am looking forward to reconnect with you at last,” after 4-5 contacts with the prospect.

● Use different media.

Combine different approaches. Combine voice calls with voicemails, emails, mailings, invitations to events, and articles in the mail. Ensure that each contact informs and educates.

● Establish different modes of entry.

Recognize and cultivate several relationships concurrently. Don’t just let one person be your total gateway to a company. And reference others you are speaking with in your messages or emails, when appropriate.

● Re-assess your initial connection.

How can you double their urgency? How can you find out if you are just column fodder? How can you link your offering more into their business priorities? Too many a time, salespeople focus on product or service information when speaking with prospects. Instead, concentrate on significant business results and the difference that you can make.

● Prepare for your next action.

Don’t leave a meeting without a homework assignment for the salesperson and the prospect and a scheduled definite follow-up appointment. If they’re not cooperative and are reluctant to do this, it is a sign that something might be wrong. Dig deep into this and explore their need and urgency better.

● Let them off the hook.

Email them saying that you thought that they were engrossed with the offer, but maybe you got the wrong idea about the situation because you haven’t heard back from them in a couple of weeks. Believe it or not, this approach often receives a reply and an explanation from a potential client who is feeling guilty about not reconnecting.

● Lessen your contact frequency.

If you contacted them 10 times already, and still you didn’t get a respond, lessen your contact with them. A quarterly schedule might be more suitable. Or, you can reconnect at a more fitting and proper time with the client.

By using one or more of these methods, it is highly likely for you to reconnect with a prospect who has disappeared into “the black hole.” These strategies may not work all the time, but these often get the job done. And if you have repeatedly given value and concentrated on the impact your offering will bring, they will likely be prepared to apply your solution yesterday.

Jill Konrath, author of Selling to Big Companies, helps sellers crack into corporate accounts, shorten sales cycles and win big contracts. She’s a frequent speaker at annual sales meetings, kick-off events and professional conferences. For timely and provocative sales advice, visit www.SellingtoBigCompanies.com.

It may seem far-fetched to have posture and phone sales training go together, but they do complement each other very well. Putting those two terms together gives you another term: higher sales.

Bringing back to mind your telephone sales training, you get a vivid picture of steps you had to practice to hone your phone sales skills, your cute trainer and his phone sales tips, of how you touched base on topics in phone sales courses, and other things basic to selling over the phone. I’m guessing though that the clearest picture among those mentioned is your cute trainer and his phone sales tips, which includes smiling and being in proper posture as you take calls, and his execution of those tips thereafter.

Proper posture or smiling when speaking over the phone may seem trivial, phone sales tips you may do without. But practicing them can make all the difference when selling over the phone. Important calls are better handled when standing up. Should you opt to sit down, make sure that you maintain a good posture; seating ergonomics will surely benefit you in the long run.

Practicing proper posture or standing up when making an important call makes your voice stronger, clearer, and firmer, hence making your statements more believable and sincere. That in turn will have your clients take you seriously; communication with them will then be easier.

Here is another tip to add to what you have learned from your phone sales training: Free yourself of visual distractions when selling over the phone. Nonwork-related websites open on your computer and your mobile phone buzzing with personal messages may pose as distractions. Speaking to someone over the phone may require more focus than speaking to someone who is right in front of you. It may take more effort to give your complete and undivided attention. Clearing your computer and desk with unnecessary things will help you focus on the conversation with your client.

Aside from clearing your desk of unnecessary objects is to place in it necessary tools; that is, you have a notepad or MS Word ready for you take down notes with. Jot down the name of your client, of his company, and other information. It is advisable that you don’t rely on your memory too much; those notes may just be the handiest thing you have.

With your sales prospecting techniques and phone sales training, the phone sales tips you learned, the phone sales skills you developed, and the phone sales courses discussed to you, you are sure to perform better and gain more when selling over the phone.



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.

Attitude is EVERYTHING in telesales. Regardless of all the telemarketing tips, or business phone help books you read, if you attitude is not in the right place then you can forget about ever becoming successful. Bottom line, successful people are successful because they see themselves as successful. Plain and simple.

Training of any kind can often, and almost should, pretty much start with a shift in attitude.

Before we can begin to sell consistently and professionally, we need to rid ourselves of all the negativity and ‘anger’ of being hung up on, on a regular basis. And lets face it, it does happen a lot!

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Here’s Part 2 of a guest post by regular Telesales Magic contributor Paul Archer of Archer Training, based in the UK. Paul completes this two part look at how to effectively listen on your sales call by looking into beating distractions.

Eliminating Distractions

One of my first sales jobs was working as a financial adviser for a busy estate agent in a major city.  My desk was right by a large picture window opening up to Guildford High Street.  On a Saturday or a busy lunchtime, hundreds of people would walk by, some would stare in at me. Cars and trucks would drive by and there would always be some movement going on outside.And meanwhile I had to use the phone to speak with customers.

I also recall the very next day being told in the morning that the company I worked for was up for sale.  Suddenly the external distraction of the window didn’t matter, as my head was full of internal distractions this time to prevent me from listening to my customer. Its so difficult selling on the phone when the world is full of distractions.

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Here’s the first of a two-part guest post from regular Telesales Magic contributor Paul Archer of Archer Training. This time round Paul discusses how important it is to listen to your prospects and clients when selling them on the phone (or face to face, even).

Your Own Volume Control – Listening on the telephone in fact listening in general, has to be one of he hardest things to do continuously.  Yes we can all listen for five minute bursts but to do it all day every day, just has to be hard graft.

So next time you feel your listening ability has taken an early bath imagine your very own personal volume control. Now your volume control has 3 levels – 1, 2 and 3.

Most of the time it’s on level 1 which is selfish listening and there’s nothing wrong with this. Only the other day I was on a business trip to a strange airport and I was operating on level 1 listening.  I was looking out for signs and noises that would help me on my journey.  I wasn’t interested in anyone else just myself and my next steps. But in selling or dealing with people on the phone, we mustn’t focus on just ourselves.  We need to get into their shoes and that’s level 2 on your volume control.

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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 telesales floor. 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.

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