Do you know what you are doing from the moment you call a prospect’s phone number to when you hang up the telephone? Salespeople often wing their calls and lose opportunities to have great conversations that lead to sales meetings and revenue.
It’s time for you to look at your phone habits if you want to improve your prospecting.
Telephone Sales Mistakes Can Destroy Your Ability to Close
Don’t put off your calls
Although it may sound obvious, the worst thing you can do in phone selling is procrastinate in making calls. This is one of many ways salespeople undermine their phone selling goals. Are you constantly checking your email, organizing your desk, or reviewing your to-do lists when you should be making phone calls? Don’t let distractions stop you from calling. Set a limit on the number of calls you make each day. Then dial the numbers and then repeat.
Greeting like a salesperson
If you greet your prospects with enthusiasm when they pick up the phone, they will immediately know that you are trying to sell them something. It’s that simple. The walls are raised, and the call is finished before it begins.
Try a more natural and casual greeting to greet your prospects instead of opening the phone with a cheery, enthusiastic greeting. It won’t surprise your prospects, and they’ll be more likely to remember it. This will increase the likelihood of you setting up a sales meeting.
Do not follow a call structure
You don’t have enough practice if you feel that following a call structure or template makes you sound scripted. Structure helps salespeople stay focused on sales calls. That’s always a good thing. Failure to plan the key points that you will be addressing in each telephone sales call will do more harm than sounding scripted.
Failure to address prospect’s problems
What are your prospects looking for on the phone? It’s simple: How to solve their most fundamental problems. What makes them unhappy, loses them money or causes them to work harder is what you must address in every sales call. You will lose your prospect’s interest and generate no interest in a second call, a meeting or any other follow-up conversation if you do not.
Too much talk about your offer
Phone sales calls are not intended to inform prospects about your product/service. This is a dangerous misconception that many salespeople fall for. You sound more like an infomercial than an expert when you talk about your offer in an initial sales call. Prospects aren’t interested in your product or services. They only care about their own needs. It’s human nature. It’s just human nature.
No clear next steps
Even though you had a successful first phone call, it doesn’t guarantee that you will be able to get the prospect back on the line. Make sure you have the next step clearly defined. Have your prospect confirm the details in your calendar and put the follow-up call on the first call. This simple task will help you keep your prospect’s attention until the next call.
Calling between 9:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m.
You read that correctly: Salespeople often make the most common mistake of calling prospects outside of normal business hours. Odd hours are the best times to reach a prospect of high importance. You should make sales calls before 8:30 a.m., after 5:30 p.m., and even on weekends. You will be able to bypass the fearsome gatekeepers that prevent you from connecting with prospects directly.
No contingencies
What is your strategy if a prospect says, “Sorry, I can’t speak right now” You’re not the only one who doesn’t have one? Salespeople often get caught off guard by prospects who want to hang up the phone. This can lead to losing the sale and possibly the call. In the case of this scenario, you must have your contingencies. You can say, “I completely understand.” Would you mind if we took 20 seconds to explain why I am calling? If it doesn’t make sense, we can hang up.”. This preparedness will help close any sales that you might have lost.