At PCMS we continually look at learning new skills and encourage our agents to develop new skills, so most of our agents are cross trained in sales and customer services. Whilst I was running a skills workshop in appointment making this week one of our customer agents suggested I write a blog about some of my tips, I thought this was a great idea so quickly got to work. Thank You Poonam for the inspiration!
Here are a few of my top tips that I give to our telemarketers here in the PCMS contact centre:
- Think about why you are calling? What do you need to find out from your prospect in order to find out if you can help them?
- If you can’t obtain the result you want, what result will you be happy with?
- Receptionists are our friends, as telemarketers we need to appreciate that they are doing their jobs. Being nasty to or lying to receptionist is not going to help us build relationships with our prospects.
- Ask for the receptionists/PA’s help, most people want to ‘help’
- PAs usually know as much about the business as their boss does, tell them your value statement and ask if it is their boss’ department and when you can talk to them.
- Always confirm who you are talking to, this shows interest and helps you to keep accurate notes.
- When introducing your company, add a value statement. Why should the prospect listen to you? What will get their attention?
- Be honest about why you are calling and what you hope to achieve from the call. The prospect will respect your honesty and they will focus on the conversation instead of wondering what you want from them.
- Silence is your friend, after asking a question wait for your prospect to respond.
- After you prospect has answered your question, pause, this gives you time to take in what they have said and think of your next question. Also the prospect may fill in the silence and give away to much information.
- Close with a value statement, so they know why they should call you in the future or to remind them why they have agreed to the meeting.
These are a few of the tips I have learnt over the years that help with calling. The most important tip of all is to always listen more than you talk. As a telemarketer your main objective is to learn about the prospect, the company and their needs.
Carly Smith
New Business Specialist
Tags: Best Practice, Calling, How To, Telemarketing, Telesales, top tips