Selling Over the Phone
How to Cold Call
Cold calling: the dreaded sales technique that can make even hardened salespeople shake in their shoes. In fact, cold calling doesn't have to be an ordeal. Here's how to cheerfully turn your cold leads into warm prospects.
8 Tips for Productive Phone Sales
Sales is a numbers game. The more potential clients you reach, the more sales you will make. But this doesn't mean you can ignore quality in favor of quantity. Deploy a few basic sales strategies and you can make every call count!
Cold Call Openers
The first few words you utter during a cold call are by far the most important! If you have a good opening statement, you'll grip your prospect's attention and they'll actually ASK you to tell them more. If you don't, you'll get a lot of "not interested," followed by a click as the prospect hangs up on you.
7 Voicemail Message Tips
Hate leaving voicemail? These tips can help you leave voicemail messages that will have leads actually returning your call.
Warming Up Cold Calling
If you dread cold calling, then it may be extremely helpful to try one of the following approaches.
Closing Cold Calls
You probably know all about closing sales, but how good are you about closing cold calls? It's just as important to close your cold calls because prospects aren't likely to ask YOU for an appointment.
Crafting a Cold Calling Sequence
Making multiple contact attempts is a basic part of any cold calling campaign. It can be tough to decide just how many contact attempts is enough (without being too much). Too few attempts, and you're throwing away sales... too many, and you're wasting time and annoying your prospects.
Gatekeepers Are Your Friends
If you think of gatekeepers as cold calling obstacles or (worse) as opponents to outwit, you are missing the point. True, there are a few receptionists out there who delight in giving salespeople a hard time. But the vast majority of them will treat you much the same way as you treat them.
Preparing for Cold Calls
The more planning you put into your cold calls, the easier and more successful they will be. Prior planning will take up some of your time, but once you've laid out your calling plan you will be amortizing that time with each call. It won't be long before your time investment pays off!
Alternatives to Cold Calling
Hate cold calling? You do have other options to generate those leads. You may not be able to completely stop cold calling, but you can at least reduce your phone time substantially.
Phone Scripts That Work
A well-written phone script can help your cold calling efforts immensely. Cold calling is hard enough without being forced to ad-lib. By using a script you'll always have the right words on the tip of your tongue.
Anatomy of a Cold Calling Script
Good cold calling scripts are built along similar lines. It's up to the salesperson to flesh out that framework with individual details about herself and her products.
5 Ways to Reach an Evasive Decision Maker
When a decision maker seems to vanish in the middle of the sales process it's awfully aggravating. You've already sunk a fair amount of time getting him this far. Why give up now?
Quick Tip: Ways to Improve Your Phone Voice
Want to put more life into your cold calling? Try these tricks.
Voicemail Survival for the Sales Professional
Some tips on leaving effective voicemail from the About.com Marketing site.
Increase Sales With Good Telephone Etiquette
Every call you receive is a potential new customer (or existing one) so each call is an opportunity to either earn more sales or build a better relationship or rapport. This is one you will want your entire staff to read.
Supercharge Your Sales with Follow-up Telemarketing
How to generate sales using door-to-door business canvassing, the phone and the internet. Includes a free telemarketing or follow-up script that you can customize to your own business.
Tips for Telephone Sales
Twenty simple tips for effective telephone sales.