Contents of the free course
Introduction
What is Selling?
Telephone Selling
Have you also considered these aspects of the course?
Part I - Personal Selling Skills
- Don’t Just Order-Take
- The Building Blocks that Lead to a Sale
- How to Handle Incoming Calls
- How to Make Appointments by Phone
- How to Reach the Decision Maker
- The Sales Presentation
Part 2 - Telephone Techniques
- Telephone Selling
- Objections
- How to Keep Records
- How to Motivate Yourself
- Your Personal Action Plan
-
Answers to Exercises
Enroll on a complete business course and receive nationally recognised qualification or call us free at 08000-75-8000 for further information
Introduction
This Business Skills course has been designed to improve your selling skills by:
.
- helping you to recognise selling opportunities
- coaching you in successful techniques.
You will be able to increase sales through:
- a greater understanding of why people buy
- greater persuasiveness
- more confidence in using successful selling techniques.
An American Corporation has a sign inside its main entrance. The sign simply states:
“If everyone‘s gonna eat, sure as hell someone‘s gotta sell”. John Fenton says . . . production - sales = scrap!
The message is that, regardless of the thoroughness of your market research, the excellence of your product or service and the efficiency of your operations, if you don’t make sales, you don’t have a business!
Some people find this aspect of their business frightening - a mental stumbling block.
Exercise
1 How do you feel about selling and salespeople? \ - -
Have a look at the following list. Do you think the statements are true or false?
Salespeople are born with a natural ability to sell
The ‘gift of the gab’ is needed to get people to buy
Shy people never succeed in the sales world
Good salespeople tell what they have to offer and ask for the order
Salespeople carefully explain why you need their products
Good salespeople can sell almost anything to anybody
Enroll on a complete business course and receive nationally recognised qualification or call us free at 08000-75-8000 for further information
 What is Selling?
Selling has been called the ‘best paid hard work and the worst paid easy work’. The ‘hard work’ is contacting lots of potential customers so you can help them. It requires motivation.
Selling is about ‘helping people to recognise what they want, and then helping them to have it. Only through helping people can you sell to your customers.
It needs many skills but, especially, enthusiasm. The customer catches your enthusiasm and buys your product. You also need the ability to listen so you find out what they really want.
Selling isn’t about manipulating people. This would produce a ‘win:lose’ result. It’s about motivating people to have things that will make them happier. It’s about ‘win: win’.
In the typical fish and chip shop, the queue of people already know what they want. The staff make no attempt to sell anything extra - they just order-take.
People won’t buy from you unless they:
- want it
- want it (badly) from you.
So:
- Find out what they want
Sell matching benefits which get them to realise how badly they want your product or service (want not need).
Enroll on a complete business course and receive nationally recognised qualification or call us free at 08000-75-8000 for further information
 Telephone Selling
Like calls to arrange appointments, you need a prime objective and a fall back objective when making telephone sales calls. Obviously, the prime objective is to make a sale or a multiple sale.
Your fall back objective might be:
- to arrange a visit
- to call back at a later date
- to send literature.
Telephone selling is difficult because you are not talking to your customer face to face. Try the following two exercises to illustrate why telephone communication requires extra skill.
Exercise
Without drawing anything on paper, or using your hands, describe a spiral staircase to somebody you know.
This exercise demonstrates the extent to which we rely on hand and body gestures to communicate with other people. You aren’t able to use these gestures when trying to sell over the telephone. To get over these problems, you need a script.
The script, of course, differs from the ‘appointment making’ one. This is because you now need to discover customers’ needs and show how you can satisfy those needs.
The sequence is as follows: IRABCC
Introduction - Introduce yourself, your organisation and what it does. Use the statement-question technique.
Reason - Explain the reasons for your call - and how the customer will benefit.
Ask - Ask them if you can ask some questions. Use open questions to obtain information.
Bargain - Bargain with your potential customer. Get confirmation that, if you can provide what they want, then you will do business together.
Correspond - Show that what you are offering corresponds with your customer’s requirements. Prove, to the customer’s satisfaction, that you can provide what they want.
Confirm - Confirm the order or the next step and ring off.
Example
Here’s an example of a script using the IRABCC sequence.
Objective ? To get a sale.
Fall back? To visit when you (or your staff) are next in the area.
Introduction “Good morning, Mr. Smith. My name is Alan Jones from Bitz and Partz. Are you aware of our services, Mr Smith?”
(If yes) “Oh good. Well . . .“
(If no) “Well, we are in the motor parts business, Mr Smith . . .“
Reason “. . . the reason for my contacting you today is to talk about how we may be able to help you.”
Ask “Could I just ask you, Mr Smith, what parts you use on a regular basis?”
“Do you normally collect parts as you need them or do you have them delivered?”
“Presumably another delivery service, provided that the cost was right, would be useful to you? Obviously, it would save you time and give you a better chance of really quick delivery wouldn’t it?”
“Do you, Mr Smith, have any items that you keep in stock?”
Bargain “Mr Smith, if I can satisfy you on our level of service - particularly our speed of delivery - then, presumably, you would be happy to use us?”
“We are used by a large number of companies such as yours, many of whom you probably know, but obviously real proof is best obtained by actually making a delivery to you.”
“What is the next order for parts you are intending to make, Mr Smith?”
“And what sort of price would those be?”
Correspond “Well we can match those, Mr Smith; when would you need delivery?”
“That is no problem, we can certainly have them to you by then.”
“I know you will be impressed with our service, Mr Smith, and I look forward to meeting you.”
Confirm the “In the meantime, I’ll arrange for delivery of by at the latest.”
“Thank you very much, Mr Smith. Goodbye.”
Now do that for your own organisation
Exercise 26 Your Telephone Script IRABCC
Objective(s)?
Fall back(s)?
Introduction
Reason
Ask
(Ask open questions)
Continued overleaf
Bargain
Correspond
Confirm
the Order
How to be successful
- You must be persistent. Failure cannot live with persistency. - You must keep on keeping on. - Did you know that Thomas Eddison tried more than 1 000 ways to make the incandescent electric light bulb before he made it work?
Colonel Saunders (of Kentucky Fried Chicken fame) made more than 1000 calls before persuading someone to use his recipe.
- Selling - be it of a product, service or an appointment is a ‘numbers game’ . The more calls you make, the more sales you will win.
Enroll on a complete business course and receive nationally recognised qualification or call us free at 08000-75-8000 for further information
You must be able to accept the “Nos”
However proficient you become in the sales world, some people (let’s be honest, most people!) will say “no” to you. On the face of it, that is a good reason not to start!
But consider this. Unless you run the risk of getting a “no”, there is no chance of getting a “yes”.
Making sales (and obtaining appointments by telephone) is easy - as long as you stick to the rules and learn to accept the “no ‘s”
Exercise
Get together yourself and two other colleagues. Work in your group of three. One person acts the role of someone making an outgoing sales call. A second person acts the role of the person receiving that call. The third person acts the role of overlooker. The ‘caller’ and the ‘receiver’ sit back to back to role play the situation. The ‘overlooker’ takes notes and finally reports back on the conversation.
Every prospective customer has a right to say “no”. Your product or service will not be right for everyone. Remember that you are not being personally rejected. Your job is to make as many people as possible aware of the opportunity you offer. Nothing more or less than that.
Reminder. Learn to accept the “no” for, without it, you will not get any “yes”.
Some Do’s and Don’ts of Telephone Selling
Do
Stand Up We sound more enthusiastic when standing up. Enthusiasm sells!
Prepare Have as much information to hand as possible about your product/service and about your prospective customer.
Find the name Get to know the name of the buyer before you are connected.
Explore problems Discuss their problems and future worries.
Talk benefits Remember the buyer will only be interested in what is in it for his company.
Correspond Tailor information to the person you are speaking to.
Don’t
Waste time Buyers will not thank you for idle chit chat.
Invite rejection Don’t say, “Might you/could you be interested?”
Ask closed questions “Yes” or “No” answers aren’t usually the quickest way to gain information.
Be a ‘pitcher’ No quick talking hard sell tactics. They simply do not work.
Knock Running down their existing suppliers is not professional and often causes your prospective customer to fight their corner.
Enroll on a complete business course and receive nationally recognised qualification or call us free at 08000-75-8000 for further information |
