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If you are drafting your telephone scripts, you will need to know that the tele-approach is made up of 4 parts:
- Greeting & Salutation;
- Introduction & Purpose of Call;
- Responding to Queries & Objections;
- Securing Agreement & Appointment.
Each part will require your specific attention or preparation ahead of the call, in order for its smooth transition to the next selling stage (ie. the follow-up and/or the fact-finding stage).
Let’s identify the critical success factor that makes each part work.
1) Greetings & Salutation
In the split seconds when the prospect first answers the call, he would have made a quick assessment of your tone, pitch and voice quality, and decide if he is ‘comfortable’ with you to proceed. Such is the impact of your voice projections and to some extent, the prospect’s preference for certain type of voice quality also matter. However, we will not be addressing the latter as there are too many variables involved. Hence, we will only focus on things that are within your sphere of influence.
It is important for the prospect to take in as much good “impression” of you as possible, so that he will allow you to continue with the conversation.
What follows next should be your display of the manners, courteousness and politeness as you asked if ‘it’s a convenient time for you to speak with him’. This good practice will further add to the goodwill and impression that the prospect will have of you. It is also at this stage that your personality/phone persona and confidence will shine through (with the smooth delivery), and encourage the prospect to extend the conversation. Though only mere seconds have passed, much information about you would have been transmitted to the prospect.
| 1) Greetings & Salutation (Examples)
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- Voice quality (ie. Tone & Pitch)
- Manners, Courteousness, Politeness
- Personality, Phone Persona (ie. Lively, Enthusiastic etc)
- Confidence (attributed to the well-developed & well-delivered scripts)
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2) Introduction & Purpose of Call
Even as the prospect has assessed that he is “comfortable” for you to proceed, he will be continually deciding if the call is in his interest or benefit to proceed. And at this stage, he is definitely curious as to “who you are and what the purpose of your call is”.
It is therefore important for you to clearly identify your name and the organisation you represent and state your purpose of your call; usually represented as the ‘unique selling point’ (USP) that you wish to bring or provide to your prospect.
| 2) Introduction & Purpose of Call (Examples)
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- Identify your name and organisation you represent clearly
- State the purpose of your call (ie. asking for opportunity to meet/present your business case)
- USP are often use to trigger the prospect's interest to explore with you:
- "Mr Prospect, allow me to share with you, on how my company's unique products/services can help increase your company's sales efficiency/revenue."
- "Mr Prospect,my company specialise in developing proven producss/services that can help cut down your business expenditure by up to 20%..."
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3) Responding to Queries & Objections
At this stage, the prospects rarely have no questions or objections and are willing to oblige with a meeting. In almost all situations, they would have responded with some “smoke-screen” objections to decline your invitation to present your business case.
In fact, they are often so predictable and appear almost like clockwork that you can anticipate these responses and prepare ahead. And there are probably only a handful of common objections that most prospects would use. So, some creativity in crafting the answers will put you in good stead. Your answers to the objections should also be directed at the prospect’s benefits, they are also recognised as “benefit statements” or “what’s in it for me” (WIIFM).
Expect and embrace the presence of objections, they are often opportunities to the sale.
| 3) Responding to Queries & Objections (Examples)
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- Identify the common objections that you can expect from your prospects:
- "We currently do not have any budget..."
- We already have someone/vendor taking care of this area..."
- "Just send me your materials to study and I will get back to you if I see the need."
- "This is not a good time for me..."
- "We have just bought/implemented similar solutions..."
- Develop answers for these common objections that will represent the prospect's interest (ie. by offering benefits to him or his organisation through WIIFM/Benefits Statement):
- "Mr Prospect, we appreciate that you already have someone/vendor serving you. All we wish to do is to show you our proven way to improve your current situation and perhaps offer a huge savings. If we can do that, wouldn't it be in your interest to explore with us?" "And when your current contract is up for renewal, we only hope to be the first in line to make the pitch and save you or your organisation decent among of money that otherwise can go into other critcial areas."
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4) Securing Agreement & Appointment
After responding to the prospect’s queries or objections, simply seek the prospect’s agreement that his interest would have been furthered by exploring with you. And proceed immediately to offer alternative dates for appointment.
| 4) Securing Agreement & Appointment (Examples)
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- Seek prospect's agreement that his interest would have been further by exploring with you:
- "Mr Prospect, wouldn't you agree that it makes good business sense to explore with us and help you and your organisation save a decent amount of money?"
- Offer alternatives dates for appointment:
- "So, if you don't have any objections, would you be free next Tuesday morning or thursday afternoon for me to present my company's business case to you?"
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