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The
Five Biggest Phone Selling Traps
Many salespeople, even veterans,
go through periods when they're not effective on the phone.
Salespeople who are new to a company face this challenge when they
must tell the new story or ask the new questions. But most
salespeople don't know exactly what to change when what they're
doing on the phone isn't working. Today I'll provide you with
a checklist of the five biggest phone trouble spots.
- Tonality - when
you're too loud, too fast, too abrasive; too soft, too slow or
too "sing-songy", you're guilty of violating the "how you're
saying it", not the "what you're saying" part of the call.
- Intro - if you
find yourself using "this is" and then your name you're guilty
of calling attention to the fact that your prospect doesn't know
who you are - an obvious cold call. Use "it's" instead of
"this is".
- Positioning Statement
- In Baseline Selling this is the opening statement.
If your positioning statement fails to identify potential
problems that you solve while telling your prospect what you do,
all in less than 10 seconds, you're taking too long to get to
the point.
- Closing - You
must be able to ask two questions to get an appointment at the
end of the phone call: "Is it a problem?" and "Do you want to
fix it?" This must all occur within 5 minutes of your
intro and the conversation must support these two questions.
Are you talking about the right issues and are you closing?
- Put-Offs -
Getting them is a fact of sales life. Taking them is a death
sentence. Are you recognizing them as put-offs or
accepting them at face value? Whether it's "can you call
back?" or "I don't have my calendar" or "I don't know what my
schedule is" or "I'll call you" or "talk to so and so" or "not
interested" or "we're happy with who we're using" or "send me
something"; are you dealing with the put-offs effectively or
falling into the trap of accepting them?
All of these issues are dealt
with extensively in "Baseline Selling - How to Become a Sales
Superstar by Using What You Already Know about the Game of
Baseball" in the chapter on Getting to 1st Base.
Review it for more tips!
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How
to Become a Sales Superstar