Telephone solicitation

Telephone solicitation has always played a key role in business development, and telemarketing has long been the best means of market penetration in recent years. However, telephone solicitation is now being called into question by certain specialists who believe that the Internet has transformed the market, and that customers no longer want to be harassed, […]

Telephone solicitation

Many have effectively proclaimed the death of telephone solicitation for sales or appointment setting, particularly in Canada in the context of new laws governing calls and do-not-call lists.
In fact, the opposite is true: telephone solicitation is not only a necessary complement, but also an extension of the company’s website.
Although cold calling is governed by law, it is possible to call business customers as well as private individuals who have made requests for information on your site. A company that refrains from doing so is giving a gift to its competitors who do.
But you can also follow up on customers who have placed orders in the preceding months. This is where telephone solicitation becomes an extension not only of your site, but of all your company’s sales activities.
While some predicted its demise, the customer contact center is an extension of all your marketing activities, and in particular your website, whose contacts must be managed proactively. New marketing is a combination of pull strategies, with customers who fall into the “net” being exploited and optimized by a push strategy. We could say that the fisherman will be complemented by the underwater hunter, and the best results will come from the right combination of the two.
Cold calling of prospect lists is considered the hardest, but it’s also what brings new customers to the company to replace those who leave. The arrival of the Internet also brings a new pool of customers, those who have contacted the company for information. They can be divided into several categories: those who just filled in the form, those who left a message, and those who called but didn’t buy. We can also include customers who have only made one or two purchases, but have not placed an order for some time.
A sales-focused company needs a good-looking website, SEO to ensure the best possible ranking on , and a sales team divided between customer service and customer call-backs. Contacts can be made by phone, chat or e-mail, but the principles remain the same.
Here, we’d like to give you the key points of what is considered to be a difficult sale, often reserved for sales champions.

Course outline for telephone solicitation

Of course, this solicitation course is tailored to the company for the best results.
– Choosing lists: first you need to populate and then categorize your customer list according to their interest, but also the reasons for the calls and what you want to offer them. We can help you categorize customer interest, which is usually based on sales and potential, or potential and ease of acquisition.
– Rigorous call planning is essential, to determine who to call, when to call and where to call. For example, there’s no point in calling people who work from home during the day. Here’s what you need to know to get started.
– Preparing for the call ensures that the telemarketer has the right tools before he calls. It’s important to draw up a list of the key information he needs to have before calling: paper, pencil, diary, price list, documents, computer screens required. Psychological preparation is necessary to avoid discouragement after several consecutive no-shows.
– Making contact is the most difficult part of the call, because the customer makes up his mind whether he wants to continue talking in around 4 seconds, so you need to master the key elements of the voice and the introductory message – every word counts. We’ll help you find the phrase that links the customer’s connection with your company to the reason for the call.
– The discovery of needs enables us to make a real consultative sale, because the aim is to retain the customer over the long term. This is another difficult part of the sales process, because not only do you have to detect the need, but you also have to make the customer understand that they can have something better than what they currently have.
– Rephrasing ensures that you’ve understood the customer, shows that you’ve paid attention to what they’ve said and gets them to say YES, which will help with the next steps.
– Arguing the solution. There are many different ways of presenting a solution, and you need to find the one that best suits your service or product. Our experience enables us to recommend the one that is most likely to work best, and which should be tested.
– Responding to objections involves a number of steps, the first of which is listening and empathizing with the customer. Then there are several , but the ideal is to have the right answer on which we train you.
– The conclusion is the one that allows you to see if you can benefit from everything you’ve done before. There are four key techniques you can use, depending on your personality and the type of sale.
– Follow-up is the last key element, but it may be someone else in the organization who carries it out.
Other people’s tips for soliciting and selling over the phone
Some of the financial institutions we work with also offer advice on solicitation calls.
Even the largest and most prestigious universities use telephone canvassing to offer their advice.

Making an appointment over the phone

There are other rules to making an appointment over the phone: you need to be as brief and to the point as possible, respecting the following steps:
– Call planning and preparation.
– Contact us
– Objective and appointment request
– Answers to objections used to make appointments.
– Summary of key points: meeting place, time, people present and documents to be provided.
Solicitation is too difficult to improvise, and the best preparation leads to the best improvisation!