How to make a phone call

Calls scare a lot of people, including intelligent people who are comfortable face-to-face, but they also scare young people who communicate mainly by text.

You need to master the telephone to develop your business, find a job, keep track of your suppliers and go about your daily life.

I created my business by making a hundred cold calls a day, and I’m going to give you the basic tips for making them, losing your fear, and ideally enjoying it.

Special features of the telephone call

Face-to-face communication is affected by three factors:

• Words account for only 7% of communication
• Voice: 38
• Gestures: 55

On the phone, this translates into :

• 20%: through words
• 80%: by voice

This means that words need to be well chosen, ideally with the help of a call script, and the voice needs to be better controlled on the phone.

The voice

The voice is made up of several elements.

The timbre of the voice

• The timbre of our voice is unique to each of us, like our fingerprints, and it’s difficult to change it.

The height

Pitch is determined by frequency: the faster the frequency, the higher the voice.

• Loud voices irritate the listener
• Low voices calm, but can also put you to sleep

You know whether your voice tends to be high or low, and whether it should be raised or lowered.

Speed

• You need to speak more slowly on the phone than face-to-face
• Be careful: a voice that’s too slow will put you to sleep, so it’s up to you to control the rhythm.

The joint

• Articulation must be better on the phone, so that you can be better understood, but also speak more slowly.

The strength

• The weak voice either lulls or betrays fear
• A voice that’s too loud offends and assaults

The rhythm

• The same rhythm puts you to sleep – that’s what you hear when prospecting calls are made from the wrong call centers.
• Ideally, you need to know how to change pace depending on the phase of the conversation, in order to maintain rhythm and interest.

Emotion and tone

This is undoubtedly the most important part of the voice.

• Neutral tone puts you to sleep
• The shaky, insecure voice shows fear, and must be avoided.
• The humorous tone is only well handled by some and can be misinterpreted, so it’s best to avoid it.
• A confident, serious tone is usually the best way to make your point.

The ideal voice

• Smiling and warm at the start of communication
• Empathetic during discovery
• Serious when you argue
• Calm and serious during the action plan
• Smiling at the end

There’s no ideal voice, but it’s good to be natural, confident and smiling.

The stages

The steps involved in telephone communication are the same as those for face-to-face communication, but adapted to the telephone.

Knowing the steps involved is key to mastering the maintenance process and knowing where you stand.

• Preparing for the call
• Contacting the contact person
• Discovering and listening to the person you’re talking to
• Demonstration or request
• Negotiation
• Agreement and action plan
• Follow-up and entry of notes in CRM

Preparing for the call

A telephone call needs to be better prepared than a normal face-to-face meeting, because it’s generally shorter, there are fewer means of communication, and the caller has the option of hanging up.

A good phone

There’s nothing worse than calling with the wrong cell phone in a noisy room.

Headphones with microphone give superior audio quality and limit noise outside the speaker. The best and cheapest are always wired headphones, which are superior to wireless ones.

Avoid rooms where you may be disturbed by noisy dishes, screaming children or barking dogs. Close windows if you’re likely to be disturbed by passing trucks or work going on nearby.

You need to be able to clear your mind of everything around you so that you can concentrate 100% on your conversation. Imagine yourself sitting next to him in his office or living room.

Material preparation

Material preparation consists of all the equipment you may need during the call:

• Call script
• Pencil paper
• Calculator
• CRM on the right screen
• Electronic mail
• Legal documents

Mental preparation

Mental preparation is more complex, as it depends on the type of call and your experience.

• Relativisez l’appel en vous disant :
  • « Que va-t-il en rester dans 100 ans ? »
  • « J’ai déjà fait pire en sautant en parachute avant, ou autre… »
  • Imagine that the person you call is positive about you
  • Tell yourself that eventually you’ll never meet her
  • Tell yourself that you have nothing to lose and everything to gain.
• Relax with physical means
  • Practice slow breathing by inhaling through the nose and exhaling deeply and slowly.
  • Stand up straight and sit with both feet firmly planted on the ground, to feel stronger or, on the contrary, calm and sunken in a comfortable armchair. It all depends on the type of message you want to convey. Remember that 80% of your message is conveyed through your voice, and that your voice is influenced by your posture.
• Motivation pour des appels de prospection en développement des affaires :
  • Sales are statistics, and every NO brings you closer to a YES. So you can thank every customer who says no, because it brings you closer to the one who will say yes.
  • “Maybe the next call will land me the big contract”. It was my favorite technique to call, even on Fridays after 6pm.

In any case, you need to plan a day or half-day for your calls, if you’re going to make several of them, in order to create your own bubble. Once you’re psychologically prepared, it’s easy, but it doesn’t happen in two minutes, so once you’re prepared, keep up the momentum.

Call visualization.

Write your script following the steps of communication, learn it and put it in front of you, not to read it, because that can be heard, but for safety’s sake, to refer to it if necessary.

You need to visualize your call as when you make a movement in a sport, a high jump, a ski descent, a scuba dive.

And remember, the best preparation leads to the best improvisation!

Contact us

The first four seconds are key, setting the tone for the interview and breaking the ice. Knowing that the most important part of the message comes through the voice, it’s good to have a smile on your face.

The steps are as follows:

• Identify yourself: your name and organization
• Identify your contact
• State the purpose of the call

When your organization is known, it’s best to identify yourself first. When this isn’t the case, it’s often best to identify the contact first, to get a YES and create a link, then identify yourself.

Discovery

Before arguing a point or negotiating, it’s always a good idea to listen to your interlocutor. This gives you the double advantage of opening up your interlocutor, and learning more about his or her motivations and expectations so that you can adapt your arguments.

The best way is to practice active listening:

• Ask an open-ended question
• Remain silent while waiting for the other person to speak
• Encourage him to continue by nodding with words and expressions like: “ah, yes, okay, I understand”.
• Steer the conversation by rephrasing the part that interests you: “You were telling me earlier that…”, “If I understand correctly, you’re telling me that”.

Argumentation

Argumentation is the part where you get your message or request across. For it to be effective, you need to anchor it to the motivation of your interlocutor, either that you already know or that you discovered during the previous discovery phase.

The three main psychological motivations are :

• Comfort and convenience
• Safety
• Ego, realization

Example: “It’s good that we can do this step now, you have the time, it will be easier and more practical than doing it later. It also reduces the risk of delays and inconvenience for you and me.”

Never forget that you’re not selling a technical solution, but the answer to a simple motivation in your customer.

Beware, many people take calls and read their computers at the same time, so if you feel your caller is picking up, get them talking to get involved.

Don’t talk too long on the phone, keep it short and to the point, and try to get them to validate what you’re saying.

Negotiation

It’s not always necessary to negotiate, but you need to be prepared. The aim of the previous part of the argumentation is to get the other party to carry out your request, while the aim of the negotiation is to determine the conditions for responding to this request.

The basic principles are :

• Always ask for more than you want in the first place
• Respond to any request from the other party with a request for a concession in return.

It all depends, of course, on whether we are in a strong or weak position, bearing in mind that the negative factors for us are :

• Vital need for a solution
• Lack of time
• Lack of alternative solutions

This is why, when making a request to a subcontractor, for example, you should always think about finding an alternative solution beforehand, and not wait until the last moment to make the request. Otherwise, it’s easy for them to impose their conditions on us.

Conclusion

Ending a meeting without an action plan would be a waste of time or a failure.

You should try to conclude your call by agreeing on who does what, where, when and how.

Of course, you’ll need to enter everything into your CRM and set a follow-up date a little before the agreed deadline.

Follow-up

The follow-up stage is just as important as the rest. There’s no guarantee that the person you’re talking to will follow through on what they’ve promised, and you need to be prepared for this in advance.

Everyone has the right to forget or make a mistake once, but not twice. If your contact fails, you should have an alternative solution, i.e. another supplier with whom you have already spoken.

The first mistake is our contact’s fault, but if you have two consecutive problems, it’s yours.

As a manager said to me a few years ago, there are two types of people in organizations, those who have the good results and those who have the good excuses, we only keep the first ones!

In a nutshell

The most important points for a phone call are: plan a time slot for your calls, get into your bubble, control your voice, and have fun – we only do well what we enjoy!

Jean-Pierre Mercier

Our telephone sales training course