Picture the scene: Someone is asking you if you’ve got “Time”: Time to answer or fill out a survey, time to look at this latest report or website, time to attend a particular meeting or event… How are you feeling now? Chances are, a little more overwhelmed and somewhat resigned to the fact that more people seem to want more of that precious commodity we seem to have so little of: Time. Draining, isn’t it?

This issue relates very well to telemarketing. It has to do with the image that we help to create in people’s minds, an image of being a time thief, a situation less favourable to them, more favourable to you. It’s far from being ‘win/win’ in their eyes, so you can hardly blame them for thinking and feeling this way.

Permission is one that people have greater control over. They grant you permission to ask them questions related to their situation, goals, etc. Permission to come to their offices and permission to send them email updates periodically for example. Does that feel lighter on your senses already?

So you’re looking for permission to ask questions, and to get to a point with the person you’re speaking with where they feel more comfortable sharing some issues or concerns that you can potentially help them with and they agree to taking a specific step toward further action with you (a “Yes”). Conversely, you’re seeking permission to get to a point where the person you’re speaking with tells you “No” or words to that effect.

People are less inclined to be offended when you ask their permission to do something. After all, unless you can be sure you have their permission, how can you be sure you even have their attention? Without their attention you’re wasting everyone’s time including your own! Here’s a quick example to illustrate how you can break the ice whilst acknowledging the truth of the situation:

“Hello John? John Smith?”

“Yes”

“John, it’s [YOUR NAME] here from XYZ company. Before I say anything else, I’d like to ask your help please: I’m conscious of the fact we’ve never spoken before and feel a little nervous. John, if you feel uncomfortable or the conversation between us gets awkward, can I count on you to say so?

“Well yes” / “Depends what it’s about”/ “What’s this about?” / “What do you do?”

“We work with business owners /directors that [Insert three or four statements about Problems, Issues, Concerns, Situations you resolve]”

or

“John, I was wondering whether you’d be open to looking at some new ways to tackle/overcome/deal with/review [Insert three or four statements about Problems, Issues, Concerns, Situations you resolve or that you know they have]”

When you’re on the telephone, the language we use as well as the way we phrase our words have a bigger impact. There are no visual cues from our prospect to take into account. Too much enthusiasm can kill a call stone dead as much as none at all. To go back to the subject of this post, people tend to prefer that we get to the point and be matter-of-fact. Time is, after all, something we cannot buy back.

Copyright: Shaun Gisbourne 2009

Call +44 208 133 0702 or +44 203 348 8702.

Email: shaun@phoneforbusiness.com

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Whilst it is true that telemarketing can provide a “shot in the arm”, a surge in your sales pipeline, a leap in the number of leads you have, what many people seem to forget is that telemarketing works best when continued, consistent effort is made to engage with both new prospects and existing clients alike by telephone. It is more personal than email, provides greater scope for sharing ideas in the early stages and cements relationships. We can always commit our conversations to email afterward.

Which would you rather have? A flurry of high-intensity telemarketing activity in one quarter of the year, and then nothing for the remaining 9 months (campaign), or a lower-intensity, consistent level of calling to both your new prospects and existing client base (continuity)? The latter is much easier to manage than the former for several reasons. Let’s look at the key differences between the two approaches:

With the campaign approach, when a high-level activity agenda is established, often it sets high-level expectations, parameters and pressure for all parties concerned, including the prospects that receive your calls: They have a sixth-sense for sales pressure. It may be that for some organisations many of their other marketing initiatives have under-performed, and now a telemarketing campaign is the “last roll of the dice”: An unhealthy and all too common occurrence. It may be that they have left it for too long to do the all-important continuity work (e.g. in response to an event, or after-sales care) and now they’re scrambling to salvage any possibility of building relationships long after the initial conversations took place. We refer to this as “calling for yesterday” and whilst it can and often does produce positive results, it is very much a re-active rather than a pro-active approach to telemarketing.

With the continuity approach, you set an agenda for your calling activity over a longer period, typically across the year with quarterly reviews. It is pro-active and we refer to this as “calling for tomorrow”. Based on consistent levels of activity it is so much easier to manage, monitor and adjust. You have much greater control and can make changes in approach based on results generated with much greater ease simply because your vision is longer term. In short, you’re not in such a rush, have planned with greater clarity and have less pressure. You can guarantee activity, even if you cannot guarantee results. Experience has shown us that, in most cases, results from pro-active, continuous “calling for tomorrow” outperform re-active campaign based “calling for yesterday”. In summary:

CAMPAIGN: Re-active, higher pressure, less control, “calling for yesterday”. CONTINUITY: Pro-active, lower pressure, greater control, “calling for tomorrow”.

Copyright: Shaun Gisbourne 2009

Call +44 208 133 0702 or +44 203 348 8702.

Email: shaun@phoneforbusiness.com

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For many of us, the default reaction to a variety of situations is to pick up the telephone and call someone. Here are some situations where using the telephone may be considered less than productive:

- In response to an interesting post or comment on a blog. The blog has been posted to encourage and stimulate conversation online. Why not join that conversation where several people can view and comment on your contribution too?

- Calling on professional people without stating any purpose or agenda for the call. If you cannot quickly articulate purpose and value for both parties when making a call, it’s better to avoid making the call.

- In response to online profiles or advertisements (e.g. online networks or job postings) where it has been clearly expressed that no calls should be made to the person posting the profile or advertisement. It tends to upset people to the extent that they think of you in an exclusively negative light. Where possible, why not send an email explaining why you believe there will be great value for both of you to speak rather than communicating purely by written means? You may also ask some questions relating to what they are trying to achieve in their role.

- Whilst this is rare, it has been known to happen: Insisting that people contact you exclusively by telephone. The late Marshall McLuhan said “The medium is the message” and it’s important to observe that for other people, some of whom you’d like to do business with, their preferred method of communication is by means other than the telephone. If you have too many people competing for telephone time with you, you may run the risk of being unable to respond adequately to everyone and being overwhelmed yourself. Some people will feel left out when they’re repeatedly treated to your voicemail greeting and may just give up trying to contact you altogether.

Some of you reading this may have other situations to add to this list. We’d be grateful if you’d share. It’s always a privilege to hear from you so feel free to add your pet peeves about what you deem to be inappropriate use use of the telephone.

Copyright: Shaun Gisbourne 2009

Call +44 208 133 0702 or +44 203 348 8702.

Email: shaun@phoneforbusiness.com

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The only advice I could offer her was: Calling a stranger on the telephone is like asking a stranger for directions during a journey when you’re unsure of how to reach your destination.

Having sent that message out on Twitter, a handful of people replied or sent me a direct message saying that they liked the analogy and could relate to it.

If you are struggling to pick up the telephone and make those important calls, remember all you’re doing is looking for some facts. You’re on a mission to gather some information. How much information you’re able to gather will be in direct relation to the rapport that you create with the people on the other end of the phone.

To overcome the fear of making cold calls, one highly recommended and effective way is to call some people you haven’t spoken with in six months or more. These people could be friends, family or former colleagues. Better still, they could be suppliers, clients (past or present), or contacts you’ve met or spoken with before but been unwilling or unable to follow up effectively.

Whatever your situation I hope you find these tips helpful and easy to apply. Often what holds us back is not the thing we need to do, but what we think of it. To quote Shakespeare: “There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so”.

Copyright: Shaun Gisbourne 2009

Call +44 208 133 0702 or +44 203 348 8702

Email: shaun@phoneforbusiness.com

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Call your contacts before sending mail / email. That way you can establish correct contact, correct contact details, address, email, everything. In addition, the mail / email ceases to be an unsolicited surprise for them.

Be clear, specific and certain at all times with your contacts:

“I will be sending you a letter /email highlighting issues that business owners and directors have been sharing with us lately, just to find out whether they merit any discussion between us. Here’s what I intend to do: If it makes no sense to do this or you’re not comfortable with this you will be happy to tell me so, yes?” It’s very important to get agreement here.

Confirm the address /email address and explain you’ll be calling regarding the information in 48 - 72 hours to see if it has been received and find out if the content merits any further contact between you. All you’re looking for is a “Yes” or a “No”.
If your contact deems it more appropriate to speak in several weeks or months time then set a time and date aside for this. Ensure that they are happy with that, again, agreement is all important. Confirm at what time in 2 or 3 days will make sense to call again. Confirm the time and date you agree upon by email (including the information you’re sending by email).

Our client was very happy with this and is now implementing the Mail Sandwich approach.

Call +44 208 133 0702 or +44 203 348 8702

Email: shaun@phoneforbusiness.com

Copyright: Shaun Gisbourne 2009

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In the end, on a call the bottom line is we’re looking for two things:

1. A “Yes” or “No” outcome in terms of whether it makes sense or not to engage in a conversation based on Problems or Pain at the prospect organisation (Situation).

2. Gathering information in response to specific questions to which the person at the other end agrees to reply.

Your other goal should be to avoid uncertainty, vagueness and “maybe”. Your calls will generate results. Your role, then, should be to focus on the generation of results. A “No” is always better than a “maybe” or other vague response.  Information will help to determine how your organisation respond to the conditions or concerns of those in your marketplace. The more results you generate, the better off you will be in determining the value of telemarketing in engaging with your target audience.

Getting “Yes”, as a goal for every call you make, is not foolish. It’s absurd and self-defeating. How many people do you know that truly thrive on working in situations where “Yes” is all that counts? If you’re producing a lot of “No”s then rather than take this as a bad thing, ask prospects at the end of your calls if they feel there was anything you could have done to make the communication better for them. How would they prefer to start new relationships with companies with whom they’re not currently working? Go on, humble yourself a few times and you’ll be surprised at what you learn.

Some people call this “selling after the fact”. It’s just a way of letting the other person know you’re human and that you care
about what the work you’re doing.

If you struggle to distinguish rejection and results for what they are and your beliefs are holding you back, either:

Call +44 208 133 0702 or +44 203 348 8702

Email: shaun@phoneforbusiness.com

Copyright: Shaun Gisbourne 2009

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If people buy for two main reasons, namely avoiding pain or attaining pleasure, then how will people ever consider talking to you, much less buying from you, if the calling you do represents these negative stereotypes?

This can be changed largely by ensuring that when you start a call your attitude and approach is based on honesty (how good do you feel about willfully deceiving people?), and that you will ask questions to continually assure yourself and the person you’re speaking with that you both understand each other and are comfortable discussing a given topic or situation. Nothing of mutual value can happen between two parties without agreement.

Let’s look at each word individually:

Pitch: Let’s take a couple of the definitions found online: “Promotion by means of an argument and demonstration” and “inflexible ‘formula’ or ‘canned’ sales presentation delivered in every sales situation without regard to the needs of the prospect.

On a call, that’s exactly what should not be happening. You cannot sell without both you and the prospect first agreeing there is sense and purpose in having a discussion based on situations (aka shortcoming/lack/excess/pain/issues/problems/concerns, etc) that your product or service does an outstanding job of addressing.

Push: What typically happens when someone pushes you? You resist, your force counters theirs. If you push features and benefits, people resist those too. They feel like they’re being sold to. How many people do you know that like being sold to? What happens then are objections… and you created them! Did you mean to start a war of wills? Well, if you’re getting objections that’s what has started and the longer it goes on the less chance you’ll have of developing a relationship with the person you’re warring with.

Pressure: There’s an economic downturn or recession happening currently. Don’t you think people feel enough pressure in their lives anyway without adding to it? You can still remain in control of what you’re doing on a call whilst always making it clear to the person you’re speaking with that they can cut the call short at the moment it makes sense for them to do so.  And if you sense any pressure, say so! Ask the other person what they think could be causing it. Their feedback could be invaluable and you can still save face by accepting responsibility and apologising for it on the spot.

Panic: This can set in before, during or after calls and it can paralyze you in a sense. If it does, the chances are that it’s due to what’s raging on in your head about the Pitch, Push and Pressure you’re subjecting yourself and your prospects to.

If you identify with the issues in this post and want to start tackling them so they no longer hold you back, either:

Call +44 208 133 0702 or +44 203 348 8702

Email: shaun@phoneforbusiness.com

Copyright: Shaun Gisbourne 2009

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The prompt for this came from celebrated Time Management Coach, Clare Evans. Having received multiple calls from the same company, it was obvious that for Clare, their telemarketing staff weren’t interested in the former (conversation), and largely as a result of that, wouldn’t realise the latter (conversion) in any case.

What was evident was that the staff from the company that called her were so poorly trained that they couldn’t deviate from their script, nor were they interested in the answers given to the very few questions they posed… except of course when (after more than 25 minutes in some cases) they’d finally reached the point of the call and the price was announced.

Is it any wonder that people who use the telephone as a primary business tool are viewed unfavourably? These people have lost sight of the purpose they’re using the phone to achieve in the first place: To find out if there are grounds for dialogue, based on the problems their business excels at solving or based on a stated aim of the company/person being called.

To communicate a caller’s intent to a callee, then agree an outcome for the call, and build rapport to the point where a dialogue can flow naturally with the caller listening and noting the callee’s responses isn’t rocket science. And yet, people can make this so difficult and wonder why no-one buys! Trust isn’t built from a script.

What’s your goal when you pick up the phone? Do you see a person and a conversation? Or do you see a spreadsheet entry with £ / $ next to it?

If your current mindset isn’t helping you to be as effective as you’d like, either:

Call +44 208 133 0702 or +44 203 348 8702

Email: shaun@phoneforbusiness.com

Copyright: Shaun Gisbourne 2009

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To satisfy curiosity, I ran a search on Google with the phrase “Fear of the phone” and the results were startling. Not only in the sense that there were a range of options to help people overcome their fears and phobias, but in the people that actually confessed to having such fears and wanting to overcome them.

In the coming months, phoneforbusiness will be offering web chats, tele-sessions, and tele-classes/tele-seminars conducted for people with pre-defined concerns and issues related to cold calling and telemarketing.

After all, as other professionals testify, cold calls are responsible for generating between one-third and one-half of new business.

You’re probably reading this and it doesn’t apply to you, right? Chances are you probably know a few people who would rather be burned at the stake than make a constructive call to a potential client, supplier or vendor too.

There’ll be more on this during the course of May, so stay tuned. If you want more information about the tele-sessions, call +44 208 133 0702 or +44 203 348 8702, or email shaun@phoneforbusiness.com

Copyright: Shaun Gisbourne 2009

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Perhaps you’ve been trained to use the telephone in business by someone who exudes enthusiasm, brims with bonhomie or has the gift of the gab. You may leave feeling inferior (“that could never be me”) or you could leave the room walking on air, feeling indestructible… until of course the real world serves you yet more resistant prospects. It’s at this point that you realise, having scaled new heights of motivation, you’ve further to fall than before.

Help is at hand. Cold calling is a solo activity but you don’t have to face it alone. It can be a game and there should be a fun side to it. This doesn’t mean we let our professional standards slip, on the contrary, but we should be entitled to preserve our emotional well-being, secure in our identity being separate from our role in life: I’m OK, you’re OK.

For it’s at the point when a person’s identity and role are no longer distinct from one another that sales managers and mentors often go around “blowing up balloons”, pumping their salespeople’s self image and ego with pep talk and positivity, only to realise they’ll have to do it again before too long. The motivation for the salesperson to carry out their role is all coming from the sales manager (external), and not from the salesperson (internal). You can be sure their identity is suffering with beliefs like “I’m a poor salesperson” taking hold. 

Who taught us that getting a “yes” was the only outcome worth having in the noble profession of sales? Whatever happened to “we learn more from our failures than our successes?” Thomas Edison and even babies learning to walk, either don’t know any better or just keep on going until outcomes improve enough.  

Today, more than ever, time seems not to be on our side. Life is somehow more impatient, less forgiving. We need to increase our speed to results, to “hit the ground running” and we worry about the pressure of performing to big targets. Just think, if we all had several million in the bank, would we worry about calling anyone? No.

So, learn to dial like you don’t need the money and motivate yourself to the next million. If you won’t, someone will… and remember, prospects can smell desperate salespeople. That’s not you today, is it?

Copyright: Shaun Gisbourne 2009

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