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This article will provide you with some of the best phone sales tips that we have found in our research. These tips are from different industries, including finance and retail. In 2022, these types of devices will be required for all employees to maintain their jobs as they’ll need them to connect both personally and professionally via social networks like Instagram or Slack.,
The “best phone sales techniques” is a guide that provides 12 tips to improve sales performance in 2022. The article includes a list of the steps that can be taken to increase revenue and make your company more successful.
Some rookie sales representatives, as well as some seasoned reps, are unsure of their phone sales abilities and often wonder how to sell over the phone. Phone sales, like any other professional talent, can be improved. Fortunately, there are a variety of tactics you may use to help you radiate confidence and achieve excellent outcomes. Let’s look at 12 crucial phone sales strategies to help you engage prospects and customers more effectively.
1. Carry out extensive research
The remaining phone sales strategies on this list will be easier to implement if you undertake comprehensive research before cold calling or making sales calls. Using online tools, such as a LinkedIn profile or a prospect’s website, to be proactive in this regard helps you better engage prospects in a meaningful discussion by addressing the following questions:
- Is this the proper individual to make a choice on my product or service?
- Is there any personal connection I have with this individual, such as going to the same high school, living in the same neighborhood, working in the same position, or knowing the same person?
- Is there anything current about this individual that I may bring up on the call?
- What kind of issues would this individual be dealing with?
- What kinds of inquiries might I think of to have a deeper understanding of this person’s requirements?
Doing research on the leads you want to call, in addition to directing the discussion, helps you develop confidence going into the conversation since you can be confident you already know something about the contact. You could even have a personal connection with them that would be advantageous throughout the conversation if you hadn’t done your homework beforehand.
Use customer relationship management (CRM) software to arrange information about your leads to help yourself and your sales team. Popular systems like Salesforce, for example, allow you to keep track of things like contact information, position, possible connections, and recent activity that you may refer to the next time you call them.
Record of Salesforce Leads (Source: Salesforce)
2. Create a call-friendly work environment
Phone sales conversations are often hampered by being in the wrong setting, which makes it difficult to concentrate on the discussion. You may have many papers on your desk, multiple tabs open on your web browser, be in a noisy environment of your workplace or home, or even have your smartphone next to you, enticing you to check your alerts.
Set yourself up with a distraction-free, peaceful office for making sales calls. Only have tabs on your computer that are related to the call you’re making, like the contact profile or the lead list. During this period, the only paper documents on your desk should be a notepad or a printed version of your lead list. Finally, keep your smartphone concealed so you don’t feel compelled to check it all the time.
3. Get to Know Your Script
Writing and mastering scripts is a crucial component for success when it comes to selling over the phone during cold call introductions. When it comes to phone sales advice, having a well-written script can help you get started and modify the discussion when different events arise throughout the chat.
It’s also beneficial to develop scripts depending on various call situations. You could have a script for cold calling to set up an appointment, another for dealing with a gatekeeper, and still another for certifying a lead. There would be scenario-specific choices for each of them. Let’s imagine you completed your introduction and selling pitch, but the lead expressed disinterest due to a particular concern, like as the price of your product.
Alternative dialogue depending on cost or other financial limitations would be included in your script. You’d also have discussion starters for other possible sales obstacles, such as apprehension about switching to your solution or the fact that they’re satisfied with their existing supplier.
While a script is useful for navigating a conversion, reciting it verbatim might come out as robotic, which is why we stressed “mastering” rather than “creating” your script. Check out our how-to article on building cold dialing scripts to get you started. Free downloadable templates and script samples are also included in the post to provide you with extra information.
4. Create a High-Energy Project
While making cold calls may seem dull and uninteresting, it’s critical to project a high level of enthusiasm to avoid boring leads, especially if you’re performing repeated tasks. Standing while calling is a good phone sales strategy to use in this situation.
Because there is less physical strain on your diaphragm and lungs when you stand, your voice seems louder and more lively than when you sit. It may also make you feel more secure and in charge of the discussion, as well as make you seem more natural, since you can perform things you generally do when talking, such as gesturing. We suggest utilizing a cordless phone or a headset so that you may wander around while talking.
High energy levels also demonstrate to the individual that you are confident in your abilities and enthusiastic about what you have to give. A glum salesman gives off the impression of being self-conscious. This makes them difficult to listen to and may be a huge roadblock to keeping a lead engaged in your solution, even if it is incredibly beneficial to them.
5. Be certain of what you’re selling.
Continue to build confidence in your ability to sell over the phone by being dedicated to what you’re selling. Consider choosing a different firm to sell for if you honestly don’t believe your unique selling offer reflects reality. You should be able to embrace your job as a salesman without being constrained by sales stereotypes like “sleazy” or “pushy.”
Instead of merely selling a product or service, change your perspective to perceive yourself as someone who offers value and solves issues. Asking questions to completely grasp the prospect’s requirements, giving viable solutions, and even admitting if your solution isn’t the greatest match for them are all simple ways to convey this. This boosts your work happiness over time since knowing that what you do helps others is a powerful professional motivator.
6. Incorporate personal information
Don’t be scared to exhibit your human side while speaking with a lead or prospect over the phone. You may use humor, inquire about their day, or remark anything you found about them through your study, such as “I couldn’t help but notice you also knew Cameron Eck,” for example.
This not only breaks the ice, but it also distinguishes you as a more memorable sales representative in comparison to the other sales calls they may receive. You may even pique their attention by mentioning a personal connection you discovered throughout your investigation that provides you a significant advantage over the competition.
7. Never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever,
You’ll get a lot of rejection while cold calling and sales presentations. It’s thus beneficial to know ahead of time that you should keep contacting. Sales is a numbers game, and you can’t allow a bad call from the past affect your next one.
The 100 calls approach is a well-known sales advice that states that your mentality should be to go into calling with the objective of making 100 calls as rapidly as possible. This serves two important reasons.
The first step is to adjust your expectations such that you no longer dread rejection and any other outcome is a pleasant surprise. The second benefit is that it keeps you focused on the next call rather than on the last one. With this approach, you’ll be able to improve volume by dialing more numbers, generating more leads, and eventually closing more transactions.
Pro tip: Invest in a CRM with power dialing features so you can swiftly, hands-free, cycle through your lead lists depending on your preset contact list. To make outgoing calls, the Freshsales CRM, for example, interfaces with its own Freshdesk platform. In the Freshdesk module, the Freshsales contact list may be utilized as a power dialing list.
Power Dialer by Freshdesk (Source: Freshworks)
8. Maintain your focus on the prospect
Prioritizing the prospect is one of the most important components of learning how to sell successfully over the phone. Make sure you respect the prospect’s time during a sales call, particularly if the conversation was planned inside a certain time range. Arrive on time for a planned sales call. When cold calling, say something like “Is this an appropriate time to chat?” before going into your introduction to show that you appreciate their time.
In addition, ask questions to completely comprehend the prospect’s pain areas, budget, and goals for a product or service. As part of your call preparation, you should have pre-written questions throughout the prospect research process. In our post on how to prioritize leads using the BANT technique, which stands for budget, authority, need, and schedule, you’ll discover some valuable sample questions to ask.
Many salespeople believe that in order to maintain conversational dominance, they must continue to discuss how fantastic their product or service is. Making the conversation more about the lead, particularly in initial conversations, is beneficial since it offers you more information about how you can assist them address their problem points.
While it’s crucial to steer the discussion, even if you’re not doing the most of the talking, you can still keep control by just asking questions. Finally, most sales calls are made to create introductions in order to generate or qualify a lead by verifying buyer fit.
9. Keep a record of your phone calls
It’s a good idea to record sales talks over the phone since they may be difficult to get accustomed to. This enables you to assess your own performance and make adjustments as needed. Additionally, sales management executives may utilize these call records as chances for coaching to enhance their team’s abilities and approaches, and hence boost sales performance.
Many CRMs, such as Zoho CRM, include built-in or integrated telephonic features that enable you to simply record outgoing conversations. After the calls are recorded, they are kept in the CRM database system, where you, your boss, and any other sales staff with access may examine them.
Enable Call Recording in Zoho CRM Phonebridge (Source: Zoho)
10. Anticipate Objections
Because you can’t interpret the prospect’s body language during sales phone conversations, it’s already tough to improvise. If you aren’t prepared to deal with sales objections, things will get even more chaotic. List probable objections a prospect could have to what you’re selling before making calls, and have written replies ready and prepared.
Include them in your scenario-based calling scripts, and have replies ready for financial limits, fear of change or committing to your solution, preferring a known brand, and happiness with the present provider, at the very least. When you’re on the phone, being prepared will help you stay focused and confident.
11. Make an investment in your professional development.
No matter how well you believe you’ve mastered any or all of these phone sales tactics, the best methods to conduct sales discussions are always changing. As a result, sales training should be an ongoing aspect of both individual and team growth.
In terms of how to sell over the phone, training aids representatives in adopting new phone sales tips and strategies while also reinforcing existing abilities to boost sales effectiveness. While there are hundreds of professional sales training courses available, we’ve picked 17 of the best, divided down by sales specialty.
12. Clearly define the next steps
Even if you master all of these phone sales tactics, your work isn’t done until you have a strategy in place to take the prospect to the next level of the sales funnel. This is the same as a call to action in an email or an online marketing campaign. Based on your study and calling campaign goals, the next step should be planned before phoning.
During first sales conversations, for example, you can try to organize a presentation or product demo for a later date. To do this, you might end with a CTA like “I’d love to arrange a brief presentation next week to show you how we can assist you in achieving your particular objectives.”
Even if the lead seems uninterested in what you have to offer, you should take the next step. For example, if a lead declined to arrange a call, you might respond, “no problem, but if it’s all right with you, I’d love to have your email address so I can send you some marketing materials to save for reference.” You might also ask if you can contact them again at a later time to check if their requirements have changed.
Statistics on Phone Sales
Check out some of these crucial phone selling statistics for additional information on how using these phone sales tactics might help you enhance your sales performance:
Conclusion
Whether you’re making cold calls or giving sales presentations over the phone, it’s critical to project confidence and problem-solving salesmanship throughout your interactions. These professional phone sales tactics can help you be more confident in your sales presentation, particularly when used in combination with sales enablement tools like a CRM. You’ll be able to better engage with prospects and keep your abilities honed, resulting in improved sales performance.
The “phone sales skills” is a tip that will help you improve your sales performance in 2022. The tips include things like knowing what to sell, how to price it, and how to market your product.
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