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Whether your goal is an immediate sale or to begin a process that may result in a
future sale, telemarketing represents a powerful sales tool for your company. The
following are the second ten of 42 ideas to make your telemarketing work harder:
Telemarketing Idea No. 11
Sell one thing at a time. Your goal is to convert each prospect into a customer.
After the first purchase is completed, then it is time for add-on sales.
Telemarketing Idea No. 12
Measure, measure, measure. Try out your new sales script and measure the
percentage of calls that convert to active leads or sales. Then vary just one small part
of the script and measure again. Continue this process to learn what works best in
practice.
Telemarketing Idea No. 13
Don't feel compelled to change a good telephone sales script. If your script is
working -- producing the same results over time -- leave it alone. If you feel its results
are slipping, and there are no other factors in the marketplace that would account for
this slip, try a variation on your usual script for a brief period of time, and then go
back to your old script.
Telemarketing Idea No. 14
To thine own self be true. Everyone in your company, all your friends, your
spouse -- and perhaps your dog -- will give you advice on how to improve your sales
scripts. All of them spend less time than you do actually listening to your customers. So
follow your own instincts about what makes your business special to the customers you
value most.
Telemarketing Idea No. 15
Tell the truth. If you say or imply something which people later learn to be
untrue, you've lost them forever as customers. Lies and exaggerations nearly always cost a
business more than any benefits they generate.
Telemarketing Idea No. 16
Shorter is better. Short sentences, even if they are grammatically incorrect,
work better than long sentences. Short words work better than long words. Start by writing
your sales script the way you think it should be. Then attack every sentence and find ways
to delete words and shorten words.
Telemarketing Idea No. 17
Talk like a real person. Before you start writing your sales script, try this:
using a tape recorder, describe what you have to offer in 50 words or less. Then
transcribe the tape and edit it as little as possible.
Telemarketing Idea No. 18
Sow what you want to reap. Price-oriented script openers lead to customers for
whom price is important. Ditto quality, service, expertise, etc. In your opening, and
throughout your sales script, promote something you are very good at. Then be prepared to
offer other advantages to help you close.
Telemarketing Idea No. 19
Tell customers what action to take. It's not enough to make people want your
product or service. You have to tell them the next step towards purchasing it. That's why
the last thing in your sales script is a statement asking the buyer to take some specific
action -- and what will happen of benefit to them when they take that action.
Telemarketing Idea No. 20
Offer choices. If you offer one option, you leave the customer to choose between
"yes" and "no." Offer two or more options, and the customer is more
likely to chose one those instead of no.
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