sales | selling | Sales Tips | Sales Training | cold calling | small business | strategy | leads | Pipeline Management
By Steve Bookbinder, CEO, Digital Media Training
Inbound telesales is all about telling your story from the customer’s point of view. It means carefully considering and really understanding the customer/client. There are four strategies we want to focus on, which are: attention, adjust, help, and personalize.
1. Attention
When someone first calls us, do we really have their attention? It may feel like they are listening and that we must have their attention, but we need to consider the opening moments of the call. The caller may not have been able to reach us right away and when they’ve finally connected, they may be uncertain as to if they’re calling the right person, right department and if we’re able to help. Think about what you say and how you say it. Often times, inbound telesellers are classified as not being able to actively listen, unwilling to help and really not that professional. If you’re an inbound teleseller, the next time you receive a call try adding a smiling and brightness to your voice. This approach will make it sound like you actually want to be there and we will be more likely to get their attention.
2. Adjust
As an inbound teleseller, we must learn to adjust. We might start off the call by asking how we can help, then we begin to answer, they listen to the answer, and now we want to ask another question. The next question should help us gain insight into why the person is calling. For example, a question like: “what made you call today?” is not only short and easy to answer, but it reveals they're underlying motivation and their urgency that will help us present our offering in a more compelling way.
3. Help
Inbound telesales is all about helping people find the right information. Often times, if we offer help in the right way, people are open to it. But if it’s done in the wrong way it can come off as unsolicited advice. But what's the difference? In order for the other person to be open to listening and accepting our help, we must first ask, listen and learn. Consider starting off by saying, “before we begin…” which will allow us to position our help in a friendly and conversational manner as well as to ensure we are both on the same page. When asking for help, most people are concerned that the person offering the help doesn’t really understand them, their goals, or anything about the considerations they're making.
4. Personalize
Tell your story from a customer’s point of view. When we’re delivering answers, asking questions or explaining our offering, we should be sure to include comments like: “Let me tell you what my other customers are saying.” “Here's what a lot of other customers are thinking about, and these are the types of questions they’ve been asking.” By sharing relevant examples that the person can relate to, we are personalizing the call in a way that they’re more likely to listen to our answers and buy our offerings.
