Telemarketing Techniques

A ringing phone is the result of your marketing efforts, which you pay good money to develop and implement and the fact that your phone rings indicates that you’re marketing is working. Don’t squander your hard-earned marketing dollars (and reputation) by underestimating the value of each phone call.

The value in any business is its customer and prospect list and the fastest way to build that list is to ask for contact information.

Have you heard - - cold-calling doesn’t work - - but “warm-calling” does. Warm-calling happens when you call someone who has already had some type of experience with you. Whenever you call a prospect, have a valid reason to call.

People call you because they want something. Let me say that again, people call you because they want something. They might want a price, an explanation, to report a problem, to speak with a manager etc. Whatever the case may be, they want something.

The key to selling is to give people what they want. What better time to listen to what somebody wants than when they call you up? If you listen well enough, your prospects will tell you just what you need to know to sell them your product or service.

One of the most common challenges to telephone marketing is how to handle price checkers, people who call you up just to get a price. This is especially dangerous if they have not yet received enough information to determine value.

It leaves you to compete price alone. This leaves you at a disadvantage unless you sell a bottom-end, cheap-as-dirt product. If you do, hopefully you have a cost advantage over your competitors.

Perhaps the most detrimental result of giving out your price over the phone is that you have just taken away the single most powerful motivation for people to come into your business and speak with you personally. You’ve just set yourself up to be price shopped.

A phone call without an appointment is like building a website and not getting visitors. Why work to make your phone ring if you’re not going to try and get an appointment? You should ask for an appointment on most every call.

There’s no better time to market to somebody then when they are waiting to speak to you. Instead of telling the person waiting on the phone about how great you are, help them to solve their problems. Here is a typical message that I hear often: “Thanks for calling ABC Pools, our store hours are from 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Please call back during our normal business hours. Thank you.” Click.

Your telephone can be a powerful marketing tool if used correctly. With some know-how training you’ll be able to see results immediately.