With the ever increasing reliance on email, there is a feeling that sales people are forgetting the basics of actually getting on the phone and selling.  Not too many years ago, sales departments were alive with the general hubbub of chatter and “sales noise”.  Nowadays I find myself walking through sales departments and being struck by a wall of silence, only broken by the click of the keyboard.  The big problem is that email although hugely convenient, does not sell!  The telephone conversation should always make more progress.

What is stopping sales people from using the phone? Firstly, as I mentioned, convenience; it is easier to send an email to a client than phone them and still feel like you are working hard.  First tip:  if you are about to write an email to a client, ask yourself the question “could I phone instead?”  Inevitably the answer will be yes.

Sales people get themselves into to what could be referred to as “avoidance focus” behaviour.  This is where they have got themselves into what is effectively a rut.  Their expectation is low and so their phone calls lack impact and that leads to failure so they start to talk themselves out of making calls because they don’t like the result.  To get out of this rut, the sales person has to start developing “approach focus behaviours”.

To do this, try these ideas:

1)    Start making calls early in the day and in doing so get some momentum going.  You will feel much more positive about your day generally if you have made twenty five calls by ten o’clock.

2)    Set yourself targets.  Can you call ten potential clients by the end of the day?  Can you find out a new need from your existing client base?  Sales people tend to respond better under pressure.  When the deadline is not upon you, you need to create your own pressure.

3)    If you have a successful call, don’t rest on your laurels and have a celebratory cup of tea, make five more off the back of that success and momentum.

4)    Equally if you make a call that does not get the desired result, do not sit and mull it over and become depressed by you lack of progress.  Analyse the call, try to identify areas or techniques that you could improve and call someone else.

5)    Don’t be put off by an abrupt or rude response.  People react in all sorts of ways for all sorts of reasons.  It is almost always not personal and should not be taken as such.

6)    Turn your email off for a day and concentrate solely on telephone sales.  Email by its nature is not an “urgent” tool.  If people need to get in contact they can call you.  Likewise if people don’t want to respond to you they don’t have to if you send an email.  Admittedly they don’t have to take your call but it is harder to turn down.

7)    Make sure you have an objective for your call.  Think about how you can gain attention quickly.  Do not sound like you have made fifty calls that day (even though you might have)

8)    Variety can help to maintain momentum.  Call different types of clients, present different products (if relevant), mix up your calling pattern to maintain impact.

9)    Back yourself!  Have belief in your ability to make the call and get the result.  Use techniques and objectives to create interest and engagement.

10)   Positive, imaginative and creative telephone sales can be extremely effective, certainly more effective than a stream of emails.  Think about what sort of impression you are making on your client if you phone them and ask them not if they got your proposal but whether they could see how it would benefit them and if they had any questions.  Sales is all about impact, the telephone call does that far more effectively than the email.

Bill Osmond – MD of Phoenix Training