How to Become a Telephone Sales Professional

The position of telephone sales professional actually encompasses a wide variety of job descriptions, from telemarketer and customer service representative to more specialized professions, such as customer retention specialist and professional calling agent. When you become a telephone sales professional, you will be expected to follow rigid sales protocols, including the use of scripts. You will work closely with supervisors and managers. Read on to learn more.

Things You'll Need

• Tape recorder

Instructions

Become a Telephone Sales Professional

1. Determine if being a telephone sales professional is the right type of job for your particular temperament. Telephone sales professionals need to maintain an upbeat, friendly and professional tone at all times. In addition, you should refrain from taking rejection personally, since the vast majority of calls will result in a "no."

2. Choose which type of sales professional you want to be, which may be dependent upon the amount of customer service experience you have. For instance, the position of telemarketer, which involves closely following scripts under constant supervision, is an ideal entry-level job for someone who has no experience in the customer service industry.

3. Consider a more advanced position if you already have experience as a basic telemarketer or customer service representative, and are looking for more challenging work or better career opportunities. Customer retention specialists, for example, focus on keeping current customers from discontinuing ongoing services. Professional calling agents, on the other hand, conduct more complicated sales calls, such as follow-ups (warm calls), charity fundraising and even debt collection.

4. Be knowledgeable about computers, and the way basic operating systems, such as Microsoft Windows or Linux, work. Modern telephone sales are extremely automated, with many types of software used to evaluate and improve your performance.

5. Find telephone sales professional jobs through a variety of methods, including classified ads in local newspapers, which is a very common way to search for these positions. You might also try an online source, such as Monster.com, which will make your job search more efficient (see Resources below).

Tips & Warnings

• Use a tape recorder to listen to your speech patterns before you become a telephone sales professional, so you can determine whether your "phone voice" is appropriately friendly and professional. Make sure you are not speaking too quickly or slurring your words, which is a common mistake made by novice telephone sales professionals.

• Be prepared to receive constant feedback from supervisors, which you should be able to take in stride and instantly apply to your next phone call.

Resources

• Monster.com for jobs