Seventeen Tips to Increase Your Telemarketing Profits

The single most important quality that a telemarketer must have is a good attitude. Attitude is reflected in every nuance and phase of the call. Whether making calls or receiving them, the customers or clients on the other end of the line know a lot about you from your voice. They can tell if you are in a good or bad mood, or if you are in a hurry. They will hear your attitude.

A customer will make decisions about your whole company based on the first 20 seconds of the call. Of course, it doesn’t seem fair to judge an entire company, or even a particular office, on one person’s attitude. However, that is how the public reacts, and you probably won’t know it until it’s too late.

The choice is yours. You can have the sound of a person who honestly cares about the customer, or come across as someone who has an ax to grind. You can be an honest, smiling person who answers the telephone with alacrity or someone who answers with a bored, tired or busy tone and rhythm. Being the representative with enthusiastic tones, ready to help, is the obvious choice.

The following are tips that can enhance telemarketing’s effectiveness.

Incoming calls

* Greet with “Good morning” or “Good afternoon,” the name of the company and then your name. Then ask, “How may I help you?”

* Never give the price of your product. If you do, you probably won’t see that customer again.

Instead, say, “I’d be glad to give you all that information. May I ask where you heard about us?”

* Have five or six questions ready to ask the incoming caller so that you can control what happens next.

* The one who asks the questions is in control of the call. Take control.

* Do not answer on the first ring. This implies that you are not busy and may be too eager.

Answer during the second or third ring.

* If circumstances cause you to answer occasionally after the third ring, do not apologize. Greet with, “Good morning. Thank you for waiting. This is ABC Cleaners. How may I help you?”

* Put a mirror by that phone and look in it when you answer. Put on a happy face and smile.

* Hang up last. The caller may think of something at the last minute and he or she should hear your voice instead of a click.

Outgoing Calls

* Preplan the objective of the calls. Is it a public relations call? A referral call? A sales call? A call or an appointment? An invitation to come in to the store?

*Never say, “How are you today?” to a stranger on a first call. This is a warning to the prospect that you want to sell him something. He is already put off.

*Set up a telephone script to keep you on target with your purpose and objectives.

A telephone script should have six parts.

1. Greeting with clear identification. It should include the company name and your name, the purpose of the call and the time needed for the call.

2. Qualify the buyer. In consultative selling this is where you ask open-ended questions and let the customer talk.

3. The sales message. This is a simple statement of the benefits the customer will realize in doing business with you.

4. The close or recommendation that you make to the customer.

5. Confirm all information and state the next action to be taken.

6. Your complimentary closing. Remember, hang up last.

If a price is quoted, use the customer’s name in the same sentence. When he hears the price or terms, he will have heard it right after he heard the sweetest sound he knows…his own name.

When giving a customer a choice, state the one you prefer last.

When asking alternative choice questions, phrase them in a way that you can respond in the affirmative to either answer. For example, “Do you need quick and speedy handling of your orders or do you order large quantities in advance?”

Tape yourself at least once a week for an hour. Listen to yourself and then correct your errors. You will hear tone and mood changes corresponding to the times you were performing well and when you weren’t.

You never profit in the long run with the hard fast sales approach.

The professional telemarketer determines the needs of his or her customers and works towards satisfying them. Putting out a little extra through this planned program will achieve the results needed by both company and client.