Master Phone Sales
Call center managers have the difficult tasks of monitoring the quality and measuring the effectiveness of sales calls. Since they often have large groups of agents to monitor, they can improve outcomes with these powerful phone selling techniques and tips. The key to success in outbound sales calls is to teach sales reps to develop these skills as habits.
1. Cut Filler
When people say “uh” or “um” frequently, it’s distracting to the caller or call recipient. Messages must be concise but thorough. Also, use descriptive words strategically but sparingly since customers typically have a short attention span and are busy.
2. Create Immediate Bait
If agents don’t attract call recipients in the first few seconds of outbound sales calls, they may lose them forever. There should be a strong message that indicates a solution to a pain point, and the pain point should be something that all people in that target market share.
3. Practice Speaking
Employees should regularly practice speaking slowly enough that callers hear them clearly, and they should practice enunciating their words carefully. Also, a genuine smile boosts the power of the message. Ask agents to practice talking with a smile.
4. Listen To Calls
One of the most useful aspects of recording conversations is to play them back for people after the fact. It’s surprising how much agents can learn by hearing how they sound when they interact with callers. This technique gives them continual opportunities to take self-improvement steps.
5. Clear Away Clutter
A messy workspace contributes to messy thoughts. If agents keep their desks clean and organized, it’s easier for them to stay calm and be more effective sellers. Managers can look for ways to reduce desk clutter by implementing more electronic programs. For example, an intuitive program that gives them responses in real time is better and more efficient than a bunch of tabbed scripts and reference books.
6. Build Confidence
Managers should always focus more on encouraging agents than reprimanding them. Encouragement fosters confidence, and nothing is more powerful than confidence for helping close a sale.
7. Speak Naturally
When agents hear their own calls, they can better understand if they sound natural or not. Call recipients are more likely to lose interest or hang up if the caller doesn’t sound natural. If agents read scripts, have them practice doing so with a focus on maintaining natural speech and tone.
8. Avoid Assumptions
Employees must always remember that they don’t know the recipients. Showing them respect and asking polite questions are always better ideas than asking personal questions or stating assumptions.
9. Listen Carefully
As agents read cold calling scripts or answer questions based on searchable prompts, it’s easy for them to get distracted and miss important parts of the conversation. Teach them to actively listen to each caller or call recipient and to base their next steps on what they hear.
10. Use Names
Saying the customer’s name in every sentence is excessive. However, agents should try to say the call recipient or caller’s name about three times during a short call. This assures people that they are important and are not just a number on a list.
11. Paraphrase
Part of actively listening is demonstrating understanding. Employees should paraphrase important things that customers say to ensure that the message is perceived correctly. This can reduce merchandise returns, bad service reviews and many other negative effects in the future.
12. Plan Rebuttals
It may be hard to plan for all rebuttals or questions. It’s helpful to have multiple options for variations of objections. A software program with intuitive answers is ideal and eliminates the need for flipping through books or searching on an electronic program.
13. Built Rapport Effectively
Acting chummy and asking personal questions are common but ineffective tactics since people often get offended by them. Have agents identify ways to empathize with callers or call recipients. Empathy is a powerful tool for building and maintaining rapport and for closing a sale.
Ready to Close More Sales?
When implementing phone selling techniques and tips, the overall goal should be efficiency in each of these aspects, and this is why intuitive call center coaching software is helpful. If the software has deviation alerts, resolutions, real-time prompts or replies and other useful tools, it’s ideal. Some programs such as Balto take it a step further and offer a competition feature that gives agents even more incentive to reach and exceed sales goals.
Want to see how artificial intelligence can help you put these sales tips into action? Request your Balto demo today.