This is a guest post from Karen Andrews of ShineSales.Com

Below are strategies to aid you in increasing your revenue in 2010:

1. Examine your Customer spend.

What percentage of sales did each customer contribute to the overall profits? What product or service was the most salable? What other value or benefit can they get from these products and services?

Examine your records and group your customers according to spend, percentage or value to the company. You can categorize them into A, B and C level.

2. Show your customers some TLC.

Take the time to sit down with your customers. Confer with your Class A, B and C customers regarding goals and objectives. Ask them:

• What are your plans for 2010?
• What do you want to achieve this year?
• What can we do to help your business?
• Do you know that we also offer (mention latest product or service)?

Set meetings with your customers and share your plans for the year and inform them of your latest products and services that they could benefit from.

3. Create a Management Plan.

Strengthen your relationship with your customers by developing an organized plan. Decide how many visits your sales team will give to your customers. By doing this, the customers will be satisfied and loyal. The frequency of visits will depend on what type of business you have. Below is an example:

• Class A- 6 visits per year
• Class B-3 visits per year
• Class C-1 visit per year

4. Look back.

Go through your records and compare your sales in the previous years. Identify consumer trends. How many customers lessened their spending? How many stopped spending with you?

If your customers didn’t buy from you last year, call them up and introduce the latest products and services that might interest them.

5. Talk to your customers personally.

This may be a time-consuming approach but closing sales will be easier and quicker if you talk and discuss with customers face to face. Although it is more convenient to just send emails and leave voicemails, don’t underestimate the power personal meetings have in speeding up the sale.

This sales article was written by Karen Andrews, Director of Shine Sales Solutions, a Sydney based Sales Coach, Strategist and Sales expert that works with businesses to increase their sales through strategy development, sales coaching and mentoring.

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.

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

HELP SPREAD THE WORD! If you liked this post, please ‘Be Sweet & ReTweet” by clicking the button at the top of the page, as well as bookmarking it by using any of the options below. Thanks so much!!!

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!

HELP SPREAD THE WORD! If you liked this post, please ‘Be Sweet & ReTweet” by clicking the button at the top of the page, as well as bookmarking it by using any of the options below. Thanks so much!!!

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.

Ask for their Autograph Read the full story

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

Sounds too good to be true, doesn’t it?  Stan Billue, a top telemarketing sales trainer in the late 80’s, claimed that he had a sure fire telesales technique that could double your sales in 90 days if you just followed it. So I did.  And it worked! Read the full story

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.

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

I talk a lot about the cold calling techniques that separate the Top 20% of the money earners from the other 80%.  As you know, my Ezine is dedicated to providing you, often word for word, with the exact tools, tips and strategies that you can use to become a Top 20% producer.  And today I’m going to share with you one of the most effective and easiest telesales ways to double your sales. And it has to do with what you say when you call a telesales prospect back to close the sale.

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

Hello, we all like trade secrets don’t we so today I’m going to let you into a trade secret from the telesales industry. It’s a goodie too. Read on and I’ll explain.

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