Why Selling over the Phone is Crucial for your Business

By: Corporate Training Options, Australia

When your team are selling over the phone, are they turning as many phone enquiries into sales as they should be?

Despite the advance of technology, and the numerous ways we can now reach our potential customers, selling over the phone remains an important strategy for almost any business.

Using the phone, we can proactively mine for leads or respond to customer enquiries.  Also, phone sales staff who have the right training, are more effective in driving home new and repeat sales.

To learn more about the Professional Selling over the Phone course from CTO, please click here.

What skills do your Salespeople need when selling over the phone?

Organisations today find selecting and training phone sales staff more challenging than ever before. The generation now reaching adulthood grew up in a time when phone calls were no longer a primary way for people to reach out to each other. As a result, they lack the natural phone “soft skills” that previous generations learned organically.

Some of the skills needed for business phone sales include:

• Opening a call with conversation
• Writing telesales scripts
• Generating telesales prospects
• Using questions to engage a potential customer
• Presenting solutions
• Ability to focus the conversation on subjects related to the sale
• Basic telephone etiquette
• Handling confrontational or insulting individuals professionally
• Cold call strategies

Organisations that rely on selling over the phone must have sales staff that grasp these basics of telephone communications and strategies.

On top of this, sales staff need to also learn advanced telephone sales techniques, such as:

• Using proper language and approved terms when speaking with customers
• Developing effective messaging and closing skills
• Using phone outreach as part of an overall plan for customer service excellence
• Developing skills to deliver negative responses in a positive way
• Knowing how to effectively perform follow-ups
• Integrating a personally positive attitude into a plan for phone sales success

Acquiring and using these skills benefits your sales staff, who will perform better and earn more.  In fact, teaching your team the skills for selling over the phone will allow your organisation to maximise sales across the board.

The Benefits of a Trained and Talented Phone Sales Team

Succeeding at sales isn’t about being pushy, or manipulating your customers.  It’s about following a process, and problem solving.  It’s learning about your customer’s pain points and then providing them with a solution, which is your product or service.

But here’s the thing. You may have the most fabulous product or service in the world, but your business isn’t growing if you’re not making sales.  And learning the skills for selling over the phone is one of the fastest ways you can increase your sales – this month, this week, tomorrow!

Developing a sales system, for selling over the phone, is vitally important.  Because it will make your sales team more successful.  And that provides you with a win-win.  A win for your business through increased sales, and a win for your customers who now own your amazing products or have access to your awesome services.

How your Sales Staff can acquire these Skills

In times past, organisations could train their phone sales teams by planning their curriculum around the assumption that almost everyone had basic telephone skills to begin with.  We can’tmake that assumption anymore with text, instant messaging, and email replacing phone use to a large extent.

It’s vital that your phone sales teams understand basic telephone etiquette, know how to write and use a great sales script, and can use questions that engage a customer’s emotions to the point where they really want to buy from you.

After a day of training for your team in Professional Selling over the Phone, you’ll understand the things you’re currently doing that are stopping your customers from buying from you.  You will also understand that a step by step process will allow you to improve your close rates and ultimately make you more money.

In Summary

Selling over the phone is a skill which can be learned and improved over time.  It revolves around the basics, such as having a great phone manner, quickly understanding a customer’s pain points, and using questions to stimulate emotions, that make your customers want to buy.  It’s about being compassionate, taking ownership of the conversation and uncovering your customer’s hidden buying motivators.

Selling over the phone is about a process.  It’s easy to learn and simple to follow and will increase your phone sales from day one.

Learn more about the course

Learn more about tapping into the power of Professional Selling over the Phone with Corporate Training Options.

The course focuses on developing your telephone skills, improving your communication, building relationships with your customers, and sales closing techniques.

The skills covered in the Professional Selling over the Phone course include:

• Positive self-direction
• Being prepared prior to answering the telephone
• Asking questions, listening effectively and taking action
• Focussing on your customer, to enable you to listen to them with empathy and with a sense of care
• Following up, following through and going the extra mile

Who is the Professional Selling over the Phone training course for?

This course is for Telesales professionals and sales staff who sell over the phone.  It starts with the basics, including preparing your workspace, writing sales scripts, handling calls, generating prospects, and closing sales over the phone.

It also addresses everyday telesales challenges, and ways to maximise performance when selling by phone.   Topics covered include:

• Preparing for telesales
• Writing sales scripts
• Communication essentials
• Handling calls
• Generating prospects
• Interacting with prospects
• Cold call strategies
• Closing sales over the phone
• Addressing sales challenges
• Maximising sales performance

You can click here for an overview of the Corporate Training Options Professional Selling over the Phone course to learn more about how you, your team and your organisation will benefit

For more information or to book your training, view the details of the course here.

About Corporate Training Options

Corporate Training Options (CTO) is a Business Training Company, which provides training in essential business skills, via onsite and online professional development courses.

The courses provide a cost-effective way of ensuring you and your team are presenting your best image to the world.

CTO onsite courses are presented around Australia and in many international locations.  Your training is customised to meet your requirements and will assist you to develop strong skills in:

• Customer Service
• Leadership & Management
• Strategic Business Planning
• Project Management
• Marketing & Sales
• Business Administration
• Finance & Accounting
• People & Culture
• Computer Software Training
• Personal Development

For more information on the range of Business Training Courses available, please visit the CTO website – cto.com.au

We look forward to working with you, to build your confidence, improve your efficiency and maximise your potential.

Rosy King

Corporate Training Options

Professional Training  –  Exceptional Results

training@cto.com.au

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