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.

Making the Initial Telesales Approach

Another way in which telesales differs markedly from face to face sales is that you are intruding into your prospects day unannounced. Remember that your telesales prospect isn't sitting with bated breath in anticipation waiting for your call. When the phone rings, he/she will undoubtedly be busy and concentrating on the issues of the day. The phone ringing will therefore be an interruption that they can probably well do without. Their initial reaction will be to try to get you off the phone as quickly as possible.
So your opening statement has to break their pre-occupation with whatever they were doing when you rang.

Plan and rehearse your opening statement, ask a question that both qualifies and intrigues. Remember it should provoke the reaction "That's interesting, tell me more". Put yourself in the shoes of the buyer - why would they be interested in your product or service? Know your USP's (Unique Selling Proposition's). Look at how you can use these to develop an opening statement that will make your prospect stop what they are doing and give you their full attention. Know the competition; understand what they do and how they do it. Understand where and how you are different and how you can exploit that difference. Again use this to develop that opening statement that will stop your prospect in their tracks, put down what they are doing and listen to what you have to say.

Your opening statement is crucial to your success; it's a fact that you can't close the sale in the 1st thirty seconds, but you can lose it!

Set Objectives

Be clear about what you want to achieve, is it to;

Get an appointment

Obtain information

Leave information

Make a sale

Adjust your approach accordingly, have a primary and a secondary objective. Be clear what they are, if you can't reach the primary, have a plan to achieve the secondary.

Post Call Analysis

After you put the phone down, take a little time to replay the call in your mind.

What went well?

What could have been improved?

What could you have done differently?

Did you achieve your objective?

Primary

Secondary

If not why not?

What did you learn from the call?

And most importantly what will you do differently next time? Make each call a learning experience and strive to improve every time you pick up the phone. Do this and your success rate will be assured.

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
Be Brilliant at Cold Calling and Watch Your Telesales Soar

Source: Bernard Richards link