Telephone Sales Training, US - Canada Outbound Telemarketing Tips and Phone Selling
Over the past few years, we have had the pleasure of conducting
telephone skills training across North America. Phone skills may be one of the most powerful, efficient
and cost-effective business tools you have at your disposal.
If things start out badly on the phone, they may never progress
beyond the first call. Whether you use your phone skills for customer
service or for sales calls as part of a telemarketing
strategy, telephone manners and etiquette are critical components
of a professional image.
 Through experience, you will develop your own telephone skills into a personal style. You will also find customers and prospects responding positively when you smile, listen and show personal interest.
The following phone skills training tips will help you use your "telephone tool"
to its fullest:
- Smile when you are talking on the phone; your customers will hear it!
- Answer the phone pleasantly and maintain a pleasant demeanor
while on the phone.
- Never answer the phone with food in your mouth or try to eat
quietly while talking. Drinking, chewing gum or sucking on a mint
are amplified over telephone lines.
- Return all phone calls within 48 hours.
- When you place a call that you know might be lengthy, ask if
it's a good time to talk before you dive into your spiel.
- Know what you want to say before making an important call. Practice
the words out loud until they feel comfortable.
- Don't read from a script during a call. Instead either memorize
your script as an actor would or use "thought starters"
such as a word or two on index cards to guide you from one idea
to another.
- Make a telephone appointment when you want to have a focused,
longer (15 minutes or more) conversation with someone who is normally
busy.
- Don't do things such as open mail, flip through the newspaper
or do paperwork while on the phone. The person you're talking
with will know you're distracted.
- Listen and respond to the person on the other end of the line.
When you focus on them rather than on what you're going to say
next, the phone call becomes much more conversational.
- When you're doing a lot of telephone work, energize yourself
after every hour.
Give Your Voice Some Telephone Sales Skills Training
Your voice is your personality over the telephone. It makes an
immediate impression that can portray you as friendly or
distant, confident or timid, spontaneous or mechanical, relaxed
or nervous.
So, how do you come across over the phone? Make a tape recording
of yourself while on the telephone and evaluate the following attributes:
- Pitch - Is your voice too shrill or strained? Do you
speak in a monotone? In normal speech, pitch varies. These variations
are known as inflection. The more inflection you use, the more
interesting your tone of voice is. Keep in mind that when you
are under emotional stress, the pitch of your voice will tend
to rise and become shrill or strained. Watch it! The pitch
of your voice is an index of confidence and poise.
- Volume - Check the volume or loudness of your voice.
(You might want to get a friend to help you with this.) Is it
too soft or too loud? Often when people are tired or upset their
voices tend to fade, and they will be asked to "speak up."
Be sure to speak loud enough to be heard, but not so loud that
you sound forced.
- Rate - If you speak too slowly you'll likely lose the
attention of the listener. Conversely, your listener won't be
able to follow you if you speak too rapidly. In either case, your
message won't get through.
- Quality - The quality of your voice is its most distinctive
and individual characteristic. This is where the essence of warmth,
understanding and "likability" come into play. Smiling
as you speak enhances your vocal quality. Being angry, upset or
in a hurry negatively affects your vocal quality.
- Articulation - The price of poor articulation is high,
particularly in business. You must enunciate or pronounce your
words very clearly or your listeners will misunderstand you. Faulty
articulation and incorrect word pronunciation give your listener
the impression that you are sloppy, careless and lack knowledge.
Check these pages for more telephone skills training tips that will help you become a sales wizard, on or off the phone:
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