If it's done properly, telesales is an effective way to help your business grow. This series of telesales articles sets out some of the basics that can make the difference between being one of the best or one of the rest.

Cold Calling

Cold calling can be a daunting prospect for the inexperienced or unprepared.

To help calm the inevitable nerves that you are bound to feel when you first start to call.

Remember the 4P's

Preparation - Prevents - Poor - Performance

Prepare a script, but do not recite it parrot fashion. Your telesales prospect will know in the first ten seconds if you are just reading it. You are far better using it as an "aide memoire" to prompt you if you start to falter.
Read it through before you pick up the phone, it will help to boost your confidence.

Ask questions, remember it's not "How do I sell" it's "Why do they buy", so you need to understand what they want and need and what their buying motives are. By asking questions, listening and interpreting what your telesales prospects is saying, you will be able to formulate a solution for their problem that matches their expectations.

If you are in the Business to Business market, research the suspect company wherever possible, look at what it is that they do and where your product or service can assist their business.

Compile "value statements"; put a value on your product or service that outweighs the cost. Talk about value rather than cost or price. Value implies an investment and therefore a return. Cost or Price implies a drain on resources.

Rehearse the conversation, preferably with a colleague or a manager.
Visualise possible scenarios that might arise and have variations and answers ready.

You Never Get a Second Chance to Make a First Impression

Make the 1st 30 seconds memorable, make a powerful opening statement. What you need is something that gets a reaction from your prospects that makes them want to say "That's interesting, tell me more". Remember that you may be the tenth person today, that has rung your prospect to try to sell them something, so you had better make a good impression quickly and differentiate yourself from the pack otherwise you have lost it.

You need to get their ATTENTION, establish INTEREST, create DESIRE, encourage ACTION. (AIDA). Remember the acronym and test your opening gambit against it to see whether it addresses all four points. If it doesn't, you need to re-visit it; otherwise you will lose your prospect very quickly.

This article has only been able to cover part of the telesales process, if you have found it useful, please check out the other articles in this series, they are:-

How to Excel at Telesales
Techniques to Improve Your Telesales Success
Make Effective Prospecting the Key to Telesales Success
Make the Initial Approach Count in Telesales


Source: Bernard Richards link