A Comprehensive Guide for Talking to Prospects by Phone

How do you sell over the telephone?

1. Define your purpose. What are you looking to achieve?
2. Ask questions.
3. Prepare answers: Summarize the answers to the most likely questions.
4. You can practice: Record your voice to see how it sounds.
5. Imagine: Take a picture of the caller or another individual. Visualize yourself talking to someone, not a disembodied voice.

Sales are not the right career choice if you aren’t comfortable talking on the phone. Salespeople must be able to grab and hold attention without physically being there. This skill requires constant practise and improvement.

Phone Sales Tips

Be Comfortable with Your Phone

A sales career that is phone-centric requires a few key characteristics. Are you not able to demonstrate the following characteristics? You can either practice until you master it or find another job.

1. Enthusiasm: Be open to discussing your client’s past, goals, and pain points. If you sound uninterested or bored, your prospect will notice and be less likely to share their thoughts. You can increase your enthusiasm to make sure you both are excited about finding a solution that suits their needs.
2. Have patience: Be ready to listen. Do not rush your prospect through the conversation. You never know when a tangent will lead to valuable insights that can help you close. You should be firm but flexible in your direction and allow the prospect to speak freely.
3. Passion: You can’t expect anyone to love what you are talking about. Selling is only possible if you have passion. Selling software, cars or service packages is not something that many people are passionate about. We need to find an angle that makes us happy. Your software can help users get promoted or give them more time to spend with their families. That’s something you should be passionate about. You can inspire others by telling a story that motivates or inspires you.
4. Feel confident: Share your opinions. Everybody, including prospects, wants honesty. Tell prospects if you feel they might not be a good match for your product/service. Tell prospects if you don’t have the feature they want. Be open about it. Offer solutions or roadmaps to show that you are proactive in thinking about how you can make it happen. Be confident and assertive in your call.
5. Have a sense of humour: Don’t make your sales calls too seriously. Let your prospect have some fun and relax. Try telling a trusted joke (“Want to hear about a piece of paper joke?” It’s not so bad, it’s tearable”) Or self-deprecating humour. But break the ice, and you’ll find it much easier to press for the next steps.

Make sure you are prepared

Do not dial the phone without prepping. Before you make your first or 400th call, here are some things to do.

1. Identify your purpose. Think about what you want to accomplish during this call and how you will get there.
2. Ask questions ahead of time: Which questions are you required to reach your goal?
3. Brainstorm Answers: What will be the likely answers your prospect has to your questions? These are the questions you should anticipate and be prepared to answer.
4. Practice: You can pitch a new product or repeat the same pitch 100 times. Check-in every few months to check how you are doing. To improve your demo, record yourself giving a practice presentation.
5. Visualize: Take a photo of your caller (or another person) and pretend that you are talking to them on the phone. Does this sound creepy? Maybe. It might help you speak to the voice at the end like they are a real person. Absolutely.
6. Look at the part: Would the caller be confident if they saw you? You will project that confidence over the phone if you don’t. Your caller will notice if you dress in a way that makes them feel good.