How to Close Sales Over the Phone

Telemarketing is a challenging job because body language and facial expressions that play a pivotal role in face-to-face marketing prove are useless over the phone. With telemarketing, tone and modulation play a major role in closing a deal. Apart from this, the content delivered is also important. It takes skills to contact more than 100 people a day and yet attempt to build a rapport with every person each time.

Things You'll Need

• Questionnaire
• Script
• Telephone

Instructions

1. Know your product. The key to selling any kind of product is belief in the product or service. This applies more so to a telemarketing call. Research the product or background of the service and be well-versed in all nuances relating to the product. Come up with any questions that a client might have and ensure that the research answers them.

2. Have a script in advance for the call. The first five to 10 seconds of the call is all you will get to create an impression on the prospect's mind. Therefore, plan everything that you are going to present, and be prepared for questions from the prospect. The script should be persuasive. Include reasons why your prospective customer should listen to your entire presentation.

3. Make the call. Dial in the correct number and wait for the person to answer. Sometimes people might not answer the first time. In such a case, avoid pestering the customer by contacting them immediately after the first call because the person may have other engagements. Respect this and make a call a few hours later. Meanwhile, move onto the next caller on the list.

4. Start the presentation. Once a phone call is answered, begin the presentation. Initiate this politely with questions about how the person is doing, and then proceed on to your sales pitch. All you get is a few seconds to make an impression, so ensure that the presentation is effective by talking about how learning about your product will change the client's life. Grab attention by talking about the unique selling point of your company and product and get the customer curious so he is motivated to find out more about the offer.

5. Ask questions. Once the prospect gets interested in the offer, ask questions. Six to seven questions about the prospect should do. Questions must be regarding services previously used by him and those that co-relate your product and him. The questions must advertise the utility of your product or service while at the same time should be about a problem that the client is experiencing. For example, if yours is a product that helps people lose weight, the question asked should be about how much time is spent at the gym.

6. Listen to the prospect. Ask open-ended questions and listen to the prospect's needs. Patience is the key here, once the prospect gets talking you know that your sales tactics are working. Answer all questions, doubts and feedback that the client comes up with. Convince the prospective customer and rid him of all fears about the product.

7. Close the deal. Ask the customer whether she would like to accept your product or service and get a commitment from her. Do this with confidence, once you have delivered your presentation of the product, and clarified all of her questions.

Tips & Warnings

• Do not be afraid to quote the price for your product or service.

• Conviction is the key to telemarketing. Be well-prepared mentally to go through with the call with confidence.

• Expect rejection of calls and services. Do not be discouraged by this. Persuasion is important to close a telemarketing deal.

References

• Telemarketing Tips: Tweak your Telemarketing for Success
• Telesales Pro: Effective Selling Over the Phone
• Business Knowledge Source: Telemarketing Tips and Tricks
• Marketing Mine Field: Telemarketing Tips and Advice
• Consumer Protection BC: Hold the Phone- Telemarketing Tips for Business
• Business by Phone: 42 Telesales Tips you can Use Right Now