TITLE : SECRET OF SUCCESSFUL TELEPHONE SELLING: HOW TO TURN COLD CALLING INTO HOT PROFIT.

Preface

This book has been written and designed to introduce buginess people to the world of selling over the phone, and how to recruit, train and motivate a telephone selling team. For those already involved and experienced in this form of selling, I hope that it will serve to enhance their existing knowledge and stimulate their thoughts and ideas.

People who have been in the selling game for a number of years will appreciate that part of the fun of the job is that they are always learning. Nobody can ever be in a position to say 'I know it all', because the world we live in is subject to constant change. This change affects not only our clients and the markets we serve, but indeed the products we sell. Since no two calls arc the same, we are faced with the constant challenge in keeping ourselves fresh to meet our targets and to derive satisfaction from what we ar5,1&ing. We need to be properly equipped in the lates"r selling techniques. Once these techniques have been mastered and practised, performance improves, leading to immense job satisfaction and ultimately to a tremendous feeling of succcss. This is why those of us who set out on a sales career and are bitten by the sales 'bug' usually remain in this field.

As with any other profession, selling needs to be worked at. Yet sheer hard work plays only a small part in the role of salespeople. Success is developed through proper training. Being able to criticize one's own performance is essential, and the desire to improve can be nurtured by a caring and knowledgeable sales management team. Companies must never forget that while targets need to be reached in the competitive environment we live in, it is our salespeople who present the company's profile to tMe outside world. It is they who create the vital goodwill of our costomers on which business empires depend.

Selling by telephone is undoubtedly one of the major growth areas in the UK at present. It has taken us years to recognize the enormous potential of this form of selling in our business world. Yet telesales people are still being employed and put into place without being properly equipped for the job. Bad scripts, patchy product knowledge and lack of formal training will give a bad impression to our existing and potential clients.

The purpose of this book is to demonstrate how correct training and understanding of the problems encountered by telesales personnel can lead to a more fruitful and profitable business.

I have included a comprehensive section on training towards the end of the book. While it is appreciated that many small firms will not be in a position to employ a trainer initially, its importance cannot be overemphasized. If this is the case, use the section yourself to enable you to gain maximum results from your staff.

Training is as critical as thejob in hand - which is to sell. Selling over the telephone has distinct advantages which we'll explore later. It is also a completely unique form of sales as you rely totally on the verbal transmission of ideas. The voice alone is mustering the prospect's enthusiasm for the product and prompting him to purchase it. Telephone selling can be an extremely powerful and productive method for businesses to achieve maximum results while ensuring that a good reputation and image is maintained.

The telephone is extremely versatile and can be used either as your only sales tool, or in conjunction with mailshots and brochures, or as a method for making appointments for fieldsales. It can even follow fieldsales by being used to service the account and maximize on continued orders.

To avoid any misunderstanding, and for that reason alone, the female gender has been used to represent the telesales person and the male for the client. Use the book as a guideline to set up your own unit, to start your own training sessions or to enhance existing programmes.

Much of what is written in the bckpk may be obvious to you - but then how often do we hhink of the obvious? Listening to the weather forecasts for the summer of 1987, and the promises of a heatwave as evidenced by the frog spawn in the centre of our British ponds, it transpired that as it was the last part of the pond to dry out in a drought and nature's way of protecting the species - 'Of course,' I thought! It was obvious, although it was not a reliable source that year and nature did get it wrong!

Finally I must acknowledge my previous employers Thomson Regional Newspapers. To take a trainee straight from college and show her the basics of sales, training and management was a gamble. Although individualism was strongly encouraged I could not possibly have written this book without the expertise that has been implanted during the years I worked with them. The techniques learned apply to any given situation within an environment built on communication.

Chris de Winter January 1988