First time Telesales

Soldato
Joined
14 Jun 2009
Posts
4,172
Location
North East
I've some advice - Don't call me :p

but seriously, I'd probably say you need to be persistant and don't get disheartened when people call you all sorts of names ;)
 

Kol

Kol

Man of Honour
Joined
8 Jan 2003
Posts
14,201
Location
London
Well if it's b2b then nothing like the above. If it's about google, too, then it will be easy. All my clinets are raving about google so it will be an easy sell.
 
Soldato
Joined
27 Dec 2005
Posts
17,281
Location
Bristol
What i want to know is where telesales get ex directory numbers from:mad:

take the abuse with a pinch of salt and do not let it get to you!

Google? :rolleyes:

I used to do "sales" for the company I used to work for. You'd always get the occasional douche who would shout down the phone "We're ex-directory, where did you get our number from?!" to which the answer would always be "Your website".
 
Associate
Joined
19 Jul 2005
Posts
2,239
Location
Lonetrek
Make sure you've got the right info.

The chap that cold called me a few months ago asking if I was happy with my t-mobile contract was quite perturbed when I said that I wasn't on t-mobile.

He got even more flustered when his second guess was also wrong.

After his third wrong guess I politely advisd him not to call me any more as it was obviously as much a waste of his time as it was of mine.
 
Associate
Joined
7 Jan 2007
Posts
640
Location
Cambridge
My personal way of dealing with them now is to stream some porn and leave the phone handset by the speakers.....at home, obviously, might raise a few eyebrows at work.

Doesn't having someone screaming "yes, Yes, YES!" down the phone at them result in you being signed up for a lot of stuff you don't want?
 
Associate
Joined
9 Nov 2006
Posts
272
Location
Leicester
Ignore all of the nay-sayers above. I worked in telesales for years and it is a great job. The problem is that there are a lot of people who think they are great but are actually shockingly bad. Don't be pushy, try to have fun and talk to people. Never fall into the trap of talking at people to get through a script.
 
Associate
Joined
12 Sep 2009
Posts
856
Location
Edinburgh
I did a fair amount of telesales in my younger days, I don't want to put you off but you do have to have thick skin to do it for long. The problem is that people don't like to be interrupted, especially people in small businesses. In a small business when the 'phone rings people are hoping for a call that is going to make them money not a call that is going to cost them money (even though spending money will bring them more business - or at least your sales pitch says it will).

Telesales calls are the equivalent of spam emails, it takes up someone's time, they generally don't want the call, and they generally don't want the product but, also like spam, it does work otherwise companies like the one you work for wouldn't do it.

There are certain things you need to do to make it work most of which will be covered in your sales training but there are things they won't tell you;

1 - If they make you use a script then all you can do is turn off your brain and make the calls. Apart from the intro and the exit a sales call should never be scripted, every call you make is to an individual with different drives and needs. If they are making you use a script then ignore the rest of this post...except for the last point!

2 - Know your product - I don't mean know your sales pitch, if you didn't write the pitch then about 90% of it will be exaggerated. Use your brain, take their pitch and read it, sift out the truth from the hyperbole. The only smell that does transmit over a 'phone line is the smell of bull! If they are being dishonest in their sales pitch then don't use that bit of the script, if they don't like it then leave because if they are dishonest in their script then at some point they'll be happy to screw you over as well.

3 - Don't waste time talking to someone who can't authorize payment. The biggest problem with b2b telesales is the 'gatekeeper', the receptionist who won't put you through to the person that you need to speak to. If you're cold calling and they won't put you through move on to the next call. Don't try to talk them round - if they've decided you're not speaking to the boss then you won't. If its a warm call then politely point out that Mr Smith asked you to call him - NEVER lie about this. If you do and Mr Smith hadn't asked you to call him you are NOT going to get a sale!

4 - Treat every call individually. Just because the last person you spoke to turned you down, hung up on you, swore at you, or just wasted your time doesn't mean the next one will.

5 - Don't worry about your conversion rate - only about sales. Many companies will use conversion rates as a measure of success which is a really stupid thing to do. If you make 100 calls in one day and get one sale your conversion rate is 1%, if Joe sitting next to you makes 10 calls and gets one sale his conversion rate is 10%. According to the 'stats' (and how they love their precious 'stats'!) Joe is ten times better than you - when actually Joe is ten times lazier than you - it's still one sale. Which leads me nicely onto the next point - the most important one.

6 - Telesales is a numbers game. Once again we're back to spam email comparisons, in a scripted environment no one is any better than anyone else, the only thing that matters is how many calls you make. The more calls you make the more you will sell. Just like spam email, it's profitable because it's cheap, in email terms it's millions of contacts but only one or two responses will make the numbers add up. It's the same with telesales just on a different scale. Of course if it's not a scripted environment then you have a chance to increase your success by using your brain and your personality, but you'll still make more if you make more calls!

Hope this helps and good luck!
 
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