Phoenix Training

Posts Tagged ‘Business’

Closing Skills

Posted by BillOsmond
Wednesday, August 25th, 2010

After running a couple of short workshops under the title of closing skills, I was reminded of the complexities that surround the subject and indeed the myths that appear whenever the subject is mentioned.  I often hear sales managers refer to their teams as “good but can’t close”.  I guess that means they ultimately aren’t “good”.  What is significant is that the closing skills of the sales team

are often targeted as the reason why they are not achieving great results.  This creates a knock on effect – the managers continue to put pressure on the sales team to “close, close, close”.  The result of this pressure means that the sales person focuses on what they believe to be a closing technique.  The famous sales mantra from the days of power selling springs to mind “always be closing”.  I wonder if there is any logic telling sales people to do this or is it simply an attempt effect their mentality and develop an aggressive manner when selling, only concerned with getting a result.

I suppose every sales person should be concerned with getting the result they set out to achieve.  However the problem with only worrying about closing is that the rest of your sales technique and structure will probably suffer.  Where I do agree with the “always be closing” mantra is in as much that you should always be doing something to help you close the sale.  One analogy that we discussed during the workshops was that closing should be like the closing of the barn door once you have the cow in the barn.  The point being that closing the door should be a simple task once the cow has wondered happily into the barn, because they have wanted to.  The sales person must get the client to want the product/service that they are selling and then close behind them.  If you try to close when the cow is halfway through the door it can be a tricky process!!

Cow Arzúa, Galicia)
Image via Wikipedia

So what will help you close the sale comfortably?  Firstly, have an objective.  Never go into a call or meeting with a see how it goes attitude, it makes it incredibly difficult to gain an advance or a close.  Secondly, use questions to develop a need to sell against.  Questions, when used effectively will help change the clients view of the issues and problems they are facing, heightening needs means that the client is more likely to look for a solution.  (the cow starts to move).  Thirdly, gain agreement from the client that they do have needs and recognise them.  Fourthly, when demonstrating how the product or service will help the client, make sure you gain agreement from the client that they do recognise this and are not simply nodding politely.  Finally make a clear suggestion as to what they should buy and ask for the business.  Do not ask “is that the sort of thing you’d be interested in?” or “how does that sound?” or any variation of the above.  You should have demonstrated exactly how it would help them and therefore it is question how much they should buy not whether they will buy or whether they like it!

So, always be doing something to help you close, listen for buying signals and respond quickly, using those opportunities to gain agreement and close.  Always seek to gain an advance from each call or meeting.  All of your closing should revolve around progress.  Good closing skills require all the key elements of sales structure to be used: good introduction, good questioning and need development, good use of the products features and therefore benefits and then an awareness of when to close and a confidence to do so.

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Making the most out of a Development Programme?

Posted by MarinaWirkner
Monday, August 23rd, 2010

At Phoenix, we are increasingly involved in designing and delivering Management & Leadership Development programmes, so if this is an approach you are considering, then I thought that it would be useful to provide a brief overview of how to make the most out of them.

There is little doubt that to develop & design a comprehensive programme is more time consuming than when working on a one off event. However, by spending genuine quality time in accurately understanding and identifying your training requirements you will almost always guarantee higher returns for the business.

To get a clear understanding of your company’s behavioural and cultural background and the challenges you are currently facing, we recommend that the Learning consultant actually spends most of their development time on site – “embedded” if you like – so that they are almost viewed as part of your organisation. This not only helps them to see at first hand where the challenges are, but also goes a long way to achieving participant buy in.  In our experience, participants are much more likely to respond positively to the training if they feel their input is valued and they are familiar with the trainer and his or her way of working.  If you’re going to pay for development work – make sure you can see or hear what you’re getting!

Once delivery begins, any effective ongoing programme should ensure a much more sustainable learning experience. We recommend that each module is delivered every 4-6 weeks, which allows enough time to put into practice what has been learnt back at work whilst still being close enough to keep the momentum and motivation going. We also encourage participants to keep a learning diary in between modules which helps them remain focused, as well as providing great points for review (successes and failures) at the next session.

Before committing to such a major investment, it’s always worth considering how will you actually support the programme internally? One way of doing this really effectively is by conducting a Senior Management Master Class before the programme actually begins.  This will not only provide this key group with an overview of the tools & techniques used on the programme but will also provide them with some clear guidelines on what they can do before, during and after each event to help their colleagues get the most out of it.  In our experience, doing it in this way makes a massive difference.

Finally, it’s worth remembering that we’ll also support you at every stage, ensuring that you get exactly the results you were aiming for.  It takes a bit more planning, but for the right type of organisation, a management or leadership development programme can deliver the most effective learning experience.

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Reality Check

Posted by OliverO
Monday, June 28th, 2010
Info from the English WP http://en.wikipedia.o...

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At Phoenix we always place a great emphasis on understanding exactly what it is our clients are trying to achieve.  This part of the training process is so valuable and yet it is so rarely done as effectively as it might.  At best, it involves a meeting with a selection of key stakeholders, whereupon broad objectives are agreed and content is designed around these.  In many cases it is simply based upon managerial observations and anecdotal feedback which does not always get to the root of the real development issues.  What’s more, the participants themselves are rarely involved in this process which is also not ideal.  By consulting with at least some of those who will actually be attending the training, you not only get a better chance of designing something relevant but also of establishing participant “buy-in”.

This is a particular concern when designing content for telephone sales workshops.  We are often told that the participants need help on a particular skill – for example, closing, negotiating or questioning.  No problem – we’ll design something around these and in many cases, what we design will work pretty effectively and provide the participants with some key tools and techniques that will improve their results.  But how much better could it have been, had we been able to do some real analysis and actually listen to the quality of calls that the participants have been making to their potential or existing clients.

Call recording equipment has been around for many years, however, it is expensive to install and has usually only been utilised at larger call centre operations.  Improved technology has however now made it very easy for any type of organisation to benefit from call recording and here at Phoenix, we have really begun to see just how useful it can be.  Phonecoach provide a very straightforward system which enables call recording simply by adding a prefix to the number dialled – there’s no hardware involved and all the recorded calls are automatically saved as MP3 files.

By being able to listen to exactly what is being said, by both sales person and customer, we are in a much better position to identify what’s working and what skills need further developing.  From a design point of view this “reality check” enables us to focus only on those areas that really need it, ensuring that the training is lean and extremely relevant.  Where appropriate, we can even use the recorded calls to illustrate key learning points during the training itself – which can also be very powerful for the participants.

For just £24 + vat, we can record up to 500 minutes of calls, which is usually enough to get a good selection of a team’s telephone sales activity over a week or so.  After some thorough analysis, we report our findings back to the client and only then, will we design a course based on what’s actually happening.  This ensures that any sloppy techniques can be instantly identified & addressed, leading to a direct impact on an individual’s sales performance. Which is, after all, exactly what any high quality sales training should do.

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Foreign Exchange

Posted by OliverO
Thursday, June 3rd, 2010

A few months ago, whilst sifting through the usual plethora of overnight emails, there was one that particularly caught my eye.

It read like this -

“I am working for the French Business Schools since 2004, and I am in charge of helping some French students to find a company based in London for their UNPAID Internships.

There is NO fees, NO expenses for your company as it is a TOTALLY UNPAID Internship (We are covering ALL the expenses, There is NO Costs, NO Expenses, NO Fees for your company).”

Having read it a couple more times and briefly mulled over the potential of employing a French student, my rather cautious nature kicked in and I quickly dismissed the whole idea.

A few days later, a colleague and I were reviewing a recent meeting with our online marketing consultants.  We had been told in no uncertain terms that we needed to undertake a major piece of analysis before we could begin to implement a truly effective campaign. Of course, this analysis called for the one thing we’re in really short supply of right now – our time.  However, as the prospect of late nights and a weekend spent in the office loomed, my thoughts returned to that email.

There were a few raised eyebrows when I put forward the idea at our weekly meeting and I must admit that I was as sceptical as anyone at first. However, having done a bit of research I begun to warm to the idea and a few days after having declared our interest, we arranged a telephone interview with our prospective intern – Ms Chéryl Bourjac.  Chéryl, who is originally from Guadeloupe, was in her second year at the ISC Business School in Paris and needed to spend six weeks working for a UK based company as part of her degree.

Although the conversation was brief, I felt thoroughly reassured by her enthusiasm and agreed there and then to offer a six week internship at Phoenix.

Chéryl has now been with us for two weeks and her assistance to all parts of the business has been invaluable.  She has already completed the first stage of the marketing analysis and has impressed us all with her strong work ethic and attention to detail.  At the same time, her English is improving quickly and I’m sure that she is learning a lot from working in a company like Phoenix.

Overall, I’m delighted that we agreed to the internship and I would certainly have no hesitation in doing so again.  I think that the scepticism we have for such placements probably stems from the concept of work experience which here in the UK has always been associated with surly school children showing little or no interest in the job.  In Europe, “Internships” are viewed as a key part of many College courses and provide a valuable experience for both parties – which is exactly how we both feel now.   If your company gets a similar opportunity, do please try it – if it’s anything like our experience, you’ll be pleasantly surprised by how it works out.

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Tailored vs Open Courses

Posted by MarinaWirkner
Thursday, June 3rd, 2010
Scales for ambox use

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I’m often asked by potential customers, what exactly are the key differences between open and tailored training. This got me thinking that it might be useful to develop a quick reference guide that will help you make a more informed decision.

Open Courses

  1. Open courses provide the participants with a brilliant overview of their chosen subject – whether it’s Introduction to Sales, Essential Management or Inspirational Leadership.
  2. Open courses enable you to work alongside individuals from different industries but often with very similar concerns. They also provide you with great networking opportunities!
  3. Open courses provide an off site learning environment to discuss openly challenges & concerns which in some cases individuals feel more open to talk about when not in the company of colleagues.
  4. Open courses represent a highly cost effective solution where only one or two individuals require development in a particular area.
  5. Open courses give individuals a new set of skills and the opportunity to practice them in a ‘safe’ environment and build their confidence to apply the newly learnt skills back in their own workplace.

Tailored Training

  1. Tailored training provides you with a comprehensive training needs analysis conducted in advance of any events we deliver on your behalf.
  2. Tailored training enables us to include a wide range of disciplines within a single given event.
  3. Tailored training will meet a specific requirement through the unique design to match the objectives of the individual or group.
  4. Tailored training offers the possibility to design a specific programme for the whole organisation where everyone will be involved, this enables lasting change which is encouraged and supported internally & externally.
  5. Tailored training can be designed specifically to a given company and industry with a choice of ‘best fit’ Learning Consultant
  6. Tailored Training allows more flexibility with training dates and location.

I hope this was useful and if you would like to discuss either option in more detail please get in touch and I will be delighted to help.

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Coaching vs Mentoring

Posted by MarinaWirkner
Wednesday, May 12th, 2010
Coach 01
Image by jonas_evertsson via Flickr

Over the last few years, coaching and mentoring have become much more widely used within the business world. As their popularity has grown however, so have the range of different definitions and understandings. In an attempt to clarify things, I have spoken to our Head of Learning – Martin le Comte and would like to share with you our definition of coaching and mentoring and how you it can benefit you, your team and organisation.

“Martin, please identify your definition of coaching and mentoring?”

Firstly, can I say that you are right – there is lots of current debate about coaching and mentoring and the distinctions have become blurred somewhat. My view is that mentoring encompasses a variety of development approaches dependant on the needs of the learner in question. An effective Mentor may use one or a number of the following skills to help the development of the individual being mentored including feedback, coaching, training, advice and guidance.

The mentor is frequently seen as a role model by the business or organisation for the individual being mentored and will often have specific and relevant task specific skills and knowledge in the same or similar area.

Coaching on the other hand is a specific skill. An individual coach will effectively use a series of questions to help and challenge the coachee. The questions will help the individual to explore ideas and options to help them to overcome a current challenge or obstacle that is affecting their performance.  Expert knowledge of the specific area is not required and is in fact often not desirable.

In summary, many people managers rightly use coaching skills to develop their people in their role. It is however important to remember that coaching   should be just one of the tools at their disposal rather than the only answer. The skill of the people manager is on identifying which of the tools they need to use dependant on the needs of the individual.

“How can you tell whether you should be using coaching or one of the other mentoring tools – feedback, coaching, training, advice and/or guidance?”

In my experience, the best and I might be bullish enough to suggest, the only sure fire way to identify which approach is the most appropriate is to be skilled in asking a couple of great questions initially and then almost more importantly, listen to the resulting response. The skilled people developer does not make assumptions about what is required instead they ask great questions to seek to understand what the individual needs.

Many people say that this is very similar to the start of a coaching dialogue and I would not disagree, however at this point coaching may or may not be the answer. Let me give you a practical example –

I’m a driver and have been driving for years but know nothing about what is going on under the bonnet. If I break down by the side of the road I don’t want or need someone to ask me what I think is wrong with it, I want them to ask me a couple of questions to ascertain what happened and then tell me exactly what to do. If they keep asking me to think about what could be wrong, I will get extremely frustrated and it will take me a hell of a long time to get home. When I do eventually get home I will think twice about taking my car out on long journeys in the future and I will certainly be changing my roadside assistance provider.  If the original roadside assistance provider had just asked me a couple of simple questions about my current knowledge and expertise and what had happened before I broke down, they would have quickly identified that my battery was flat and changed it there and then. They then would have advised me what to look out for in the future to avoid it happening again and what to do if it did happen again. I leave the roadside quickly happy with knowledge and expertise and more importantly I get home quickly.

I had a quote from a client recently about an inappropriate use of coaching, which I think highlights this point really well.

“I had coaching from somebody but they never gave me any answers, which is what I actually needed, all they did was ask me lots of questions. It was a complete waste of time and I felt abandoned.”

“What are the biggest challenges you face when coaching and mentoring individuals?”

From my perspective most organisations will ask me and my colleagues at Phoenix for coaching when that might not be what they need at all. In the past I was sometimes reluctant to initially deviate from the process and try unsuccessfully to use coaching when that was clearly not what the individual wanted or needed. What’s the point in asking some open ended coaching questions when they really have no idea what the answer is…I’m sure you can imagine just how frustrating and unproductive that is for all involved!!

What I have learnt is that often when a client is asking you for some coaching, unless you asked to undertake contracted coaching, what they are actually asking you to do is help develop their people.  They are actually interested in the end result rather than the approach that you use.

Marina, as a final thought if you want some additional tips on how to successfully recognise the correct development approach, keep in mind 3 of Phoenix’s Golden Rules of Leadership

1. Know your people, know your people, know your people.

2. Treat people as they need to be treated.

3. Stop it, it’s not about you.

Written by Marina Wirkner, Sales Executive

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Demonstrate or Certificate

Posted by OliverO
Tuesday, May 4th, 2010

Now I must admit that I have never been a fan of accredited training and all that is associated with it.  For many years, even the merest mention of “NVQs” & “Level 3’s”, “CPD” and “Certification” made my heart sink.

This was no doubt partly due to the fact that we couldn’t really offer our clients anything along these lines, but more so due to my belief that this type of training was the very antithesis of everything that makes Phoenix special.

Our focus has always been on delivering practical, results based training where the emphasis is on what gets done differently once participants return to work, not on how many credits they have been awarded or what type of certificate they will receive.  In my experience, too much training is simply commissioned on the basis of what form of recognition the participants get.  Traditionally, this is meant to provide some form of motivation but if the training is not up to scratch, then no matter what they receive at the end, participant levels of engagement will still sink very quickly.

Having said all that, we have often wished for some kind of independent recognition for the quality of our delivery and content and who better to provide this than the Institute of Leadership & Management – the world’s best known accrediting body.

Through their endorsed award scheme, the ILM have provided us with the ideal solution.  Phoenix have been able to retain all the best aspects of our programmes’ content and delivery, whilst adding an assessment section that ensures the participants put into practice everything that they have learnt on the course.  In many ways, the additional assessment has really strengthened our offering and it fits perfectly with our results focussed training.  Now participants and their colleagues will see exactly how the learning has been used, as it has to be documented on a regular basis over a six week period.  A 500 word case study is also required which again will indicate the participants’ understanding of the content and how best to use it.

On successful completion of both the course and the assessment, participants are indeed awarded an ILM certificate however, for most participants this is only a subsidiary benefit.  The real prize is becoming a better manager and leader and being able to demonstrate this to their colleagues.

Phoenix currently deliver ILM Endorsed open courses in Essential Management Skills & Inspirational Leadership and are about to offer endorsed modular programmes in both Management & Leadership Skills.  Our unique approach, style of delivery and focus on results will remain as strong as ever, but with the ILM’s Endorsement our products are now even more attractive to a wide range of clients & participants across the world.

I will always believe that good training should be about improving performance and delivering results, but if you can achieve this and also provide participants with some kind of appropriate recognition then perhaps we have an ideal solution.

Written by Oliver Osmond – Sales Director

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Networking Events

Posted by BillOsmond
Wednesday, March 17th, 2010
People Mingling
Image by VancityAllie via Flickr

As I write this blog I feel slightly embarrassed that after nearly fifteen years of running my own business, today was the first time that I attended a networking event.  I have been to conferences and seminars but not an out and out networking event.  I have to say that I have always been a bit dismissive of the idea of going to such an event.  My impression of a networking event was of lots of people all selling their products and services at each other.  I now realise that networking events could be like that but also could offer a lot more to those who attend.

The event I attended was hosted by the Southwark Chamber of Commerce.  When we arrived we were greeted positively and encouraged to grab a cup of tea or coffee and “mingle”.  At this point I thought “here we go” small talk time and was quite pleased to discover that there didn’t appear to be anymore tea available so I quickly made myself busy seeking out some more.  However, once the tea had arrived and my fellow tea drinkers and I started to introduce ourselves and chat, I realised that it is the small talk that gets it all going.  Lots of people find small talk a little awkward, talking to those that you don’t know can often be difficult.  The networking event environment actually helps you here.  The fact that you don’t know anybody means that you have to dive in.  There appeared to be a collective sense of “well we’re here so we might as well talk”.  I suppose that is obvious and seasoned networkers would understand this.  After a short period we were invited into a dining room where breakfast was to be served.  A sit down breakfast, again not what I was expecting, I thought a bit of mingling, few cups of tea, breakfast with those who you came with and go!

As my colleague, James and I entered the dining room, I decided that there was no point sitting next to him, so I headed to the other end of the table and found myself sitting at the head of the table, a chair others had avoided I think.  First good decision:  don’t sit next to your colleague, it is comfortable but limits your networking options.  I found myself next to a guy called Tony and a lady called Chica without going into detail, they worked for very different organisations.  I soon got into the swing of introducing myself to others around my end of the table but the Chair of the Chamber of Commerce also asked everyone to formally introduce themselves in turn to everyone round the table.  People took their chance to make a good impression and it gave everyone a chance to identify who they might want to have a chat with at some point.  The Chair of the Chamber welcomed us all and reminded us of what the Chamber was all about and it made me start to think about other benefits of this type of event.

The dining room created a very open environment that encouraged conversation and the attendees were taking their chance.  Chica and I did have a chat about training and our roles in the organisations we worked in but actually the bulk of our conversation was about the changing face of South London.  Tony gave me some ideas about how we might go about printing up some training documents and manuals, which was food for thought at the very least.  OK, I didn’t make the deal of the century, James seems to have made more progress in that department.

I did leave with the feeling that I would certainly attend such an event again and felt that somewhere along the line these conversations and contacts will lead to something.  That something may be some training being sold but it also might mean when I do need some printing, some financial advice, a new business property or a self portrait for my office, I might know just the person to contact.  So I now view these events as not just about promoting what we do, they are also about finding out what others do and how they do it.  Overall, I think the message is “don’t underestimate the networking event”.  Make the most of them not only as way of promoting your business but as a way of creating a support network to draw upon.

Foot note:  one day after this event somebody booked onto one of our Introduction to Sales courses as a direct result of a conversation had at the event.  So I am now even keener on networking events!

Written by Bill Osmond – MD

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How To Measure Training

Posted by TimHolmes
Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010
Yellow Tape Measure
Image by Darrren Hester via Flickr

As a relationship manager at Phoenix, I am often consulted (or even challenged!) by clients about how to measure the effects of the training they commission – a perfectly natural wish, because they have generally identified an area to improve in their organisation or business, and they want to be sure that improvement has taken place.

With that in mind, I thought I would put down my own personal thoughts on how training can be evaluated effectively, in order to check that the time & budget being spent on training are producing the desired returns at every level: organisational, departmental, team and individual.

Inevitably there is a balance to be struck when evaluating the benefits of soft-skills training.  On the one hand, the more time and resources invested, particularly up front in benchmarking of criteria, the more reliable the evaluation becomes.  However, on the other hand, there is a point at which the returns on this extra investment are outweighed by other priorities – as there is too great a ‘cost’ in carrying it out.  Remember also that even the most rigorous and ‘scientific’ evaluation will produce results which in the opinion of many commentators are indicative and evidential rather than solidly proven in the soft-skills context – there are simply too many variable factors at work in most organizations for the effects of training to be measurable in terms of a quantifiable number or percentage.  For this reason, I advocate measurement of training through the observation and benchmarking of behaviours above all else, as I believe this is the truest test of whether learning is effective over the mid- to long-term.

With positive cooperation from participants, evaluation processes can even contribute to the fixing and application of new learning, rather than simply measuring it; another reason to evaluate wherever possible.

It may be that the depth and scope of evaluation varies from course to course, depending on the topic or the group; but a workable ‘full’ evaluation would consist of the following:

  1. Benchmarking of participants’ behaviour in relation to the course topic, at some point pre-training.  “Where are they now?”  This can be established through assessment centres, 360-degree feedback, through the Personal Review process, or simply by self-scoring.  Phoenix are able to help with the preparation or implementation of these as required.
  2. What are the objectives for the training, in the light of step 1?  What will success look like (i.e. expressed as behavioural change)?
  3. TRAINING TAKES PLACE
  4. Post-course feedback forms check that participants appreciated the training, and that their initial response to it was positive.  It is important for a culture of learning that training be enjoyable, and that participants return from courses inspired and energised by it, and advocating it to others.
  5. The next step is for line management to de-brief participants, make an initial check that objectives as expressed before the course have been addressed, and to review any new objectives that have been set as a result of the course.
  6. Next, at a period of between 3 to 6 months, behaviours in relation to the course topic should be re-assessed, preferably by the same method as before the training, in order to ascertain that positive change has occurred.  This is the most important stage of all, since it provides the evidence that participants are using what they learned.  In some cases it may be appropriate simply to ask participants to self-report what they are doing differently as time goes by – but in others, something more objective, such as 360s, will be preferable.
  7. Finally, it is important to recognise that even the most high impact training needs to be supported internally, and the right behaviours and practices reinforced positively by line managers and the overall culture of the organisation.  If the prevalent culture is at odds with the training messages, the status quo will erode the changes.  In line with this, it is useful to recognise that the best messages bear repeating, and thus we would recommend that all training be followed up by refresher workshops of a similar nature within a 12-month period.

Tim Holmes – Account Director, Phoenix Training

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Telephone Sales

Posted by BillOsmond
Sunday, February 21st, 2010
Touch DDB - Our operators are standing by!
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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

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