Ad Efx Tele Marketing Blog

THE ART OF THE “CLOSE” 

There are many different methods of judging the effectiveness of an advertising campaign but the two elemental goals should always be getting new customers into your establishment and getting them to purchase your products and/or services. The methods of attracting new clientele differ in format and effectiveness but at the end of the process you always want to see your customer traffic, and your revenues, increase. The only thing that would better the experience of meeting a new client and highlighting your products and services is to take it to the next step, that of seeing revenues generated by their visit and money hitting the bank.

Where a lot of businesses fail to capitalize on the new client is in knowing how to treat your new client, learning what it was that made them come into your establishment and closing a sale. Closing a sale is the goal that we will work towards in this column.

 THE NEW CLIENT 

When a new client comes into your establishment via an advertising promotion or campaign they have several different questions on their mind. They are wondering if you can do the services you claim to do, if you can do them very well, if they’ll be treated properly and if you have what it takes to be their supplier of choice. One of the most common mistakes that businesses can make is to run a promotional campaign and then fail to capitalize on the opportunity they have been presented with. The main criteria that will determine if you will be able to maintain a relationship with the new customer is how they are treated. It won’t help if you provide the best service in your neighbourhood if you treat someone poorly. Imagine how someone feels when they come into a business for the first time and excitedly present a coupon they’ve received only to hear “Oh, you have a coupon. I’m sorry but we don’t honor these anymore” or call to book an appointment for a special offer and are told “Sorry, we only have space for three discount customers a day”. The impression that the customer will leave with is that they are second class and have been treated as such. If you run any form of campaign for your business that involves a special or coupon you must treat these potential customers from the first contact as if they are your oldest and dearest clients, and soon they will be. The first impression that many customers have of a business is the impression they receive on their first phone call. Make sure whoever answers the phones is properly trained on your services and products, the length of time needed to complete an appointment and is fully informed of any specials or promotions that your business is conducting. The first opportunity to generate revenue for the business begins at the same time as the first phone call. When someone is booking in for an appointment the receptionist should also take a moment and advise them of any specials that are in effect and inquire if the time can be reserved for that now as it is in high demand. For example, if a new client calls in to an automotive service garage for an oil change, the receptionist could take the opportunity to inform them of the special currently being offered on wheel alignments. They could say “Mr. Smith, we have the time reserved for your service at 4:00 p.m. While I have you on the phone I wanted to take a moment and tell you we are running a special offer on wheel alignments. We are doing this service at 50% of our normal price. It takes an additional half hour and I could book the time now. Will your car be due for this service in the next couple of months”? By using this type of questioning and suggestive selling you will be able to generate added revenue from any type of service appointment. Also, by inquiring whether the car will be due for the service rather than asking if they would like to book the time, we take away the opportunity for the caller to say no to the offer and now have them thinking about a needed service for their vehicle.

 DETERMINING YOUR CLIENTS NEEDS AND CLOSING THE SALE 

An often overlooked skill that many businesses fail to develop is that of properly training your sale representatives to listen. We often train salespeople on when to talk and what to say but we don’t train them on when NOT to talk. You must determine why someone chose your business over another because that will open the door to filling that need. When a new client calls your business they are doing so for a reason, whether they saw an advertisement or by word of mouth. One very effective way to determine why they called is to ask. You could say “How did you hear of our business” or even simply “How will we be able to assist you today”? and then closely listen. If they are calling in from an advertisement then you should reference the advertisement in your conversation. For example “Oh, you saw our ad for the free massage. That’s fantastic. Allow me to set an appointment for you to take advantage of the introductory offer we have running”. If the customer was referred by another customer then you can say “Oh, you’re a friend of Mr. Smith. He was just in last week and took advantage of the 2 for 1 entrée special that the restaurant is running. I know he loved it and I’m sure you will as well. What night did you want to reserve and for how many”? There is another sales technique at play here, that of the third party referral. When you mention someone that the customer personally knows who has used your business in the past you will make the decision to purchase a much more comfortable and safe decision. No one wants to be the first at anything and no one wants to buy something only to find out later that it’s not suitable or of inferior quality. When you mention a colleague or acquaintance that has purchased from you in the past you will greatly increase the likelihood of selling to the new customer. By using leading questions you will be able to quickly source out the need or motivator that made that person call into your business and begin to work towards fulfilling that need. By assuming the sale (assuming during your conversations that the customer is definitely there to purchase) you will be able to lead a customer towards the close. One thing that you want to do is to structure your queries properly so that you can take away the option of having someone say “NO”. You can achieve this by asking questions that are not able to be answered with a yes or no. Instead of asking “would you like to book in for a manicure”? you could ask “do you have any weddings or special occasions coming up that you need to look your best for”? or instead of asking “would you like to buy this car”? you could ask “which of your friends will get the first ride in your new car”? These questions will move a customer away from deciding whether they want to purchase a product or service and get them thinking about how they will best use the product or service after they have purchased. In this way you are taking away the decision making ability that every customer has and replacing it with a mental image of them enjoying the purchase. However, to realize this image they will need to purchase your product and they are now much closer to making that decision.

The last sales technique we will touch on is the timing of the close. A common mistake that many sales representatives make is that they will ask the customer for the sale and then get scared or nervous while the customer is deciding. They feel pressured and begin to chatter away with all kinds of (usually) repetitive or inconsequential talk to fill the silence and defuse the pressure. What we need to teach is that while the pressure is there and does build the longer that the customer takes to decide, the pressure isn’t on the sales representative alone. The customer is feeling the pressure as well and the longer it takes them to decide the more the pressure will build. There is an old sales theory that is quite true that states “The first person to speak after the close loses”. This statement basically is telling us, as sales people, to close the sale using whatever method works best for us and then ….. STOP TALKING! Let the pressure build and don’t be afraid of it, the pressure is working for us. Many customers will decide to purchase at this point because they feel that they owe it to the sales person for the time and care they have taken to help them. They would almost feel guilty to say no at this point.

 Teach yourself and the sales staff in your business these techniques and your sales will soar!

Author: Kevin Sinclair

Many companies are using telemarketing to increase revenue and reduce cost. Effective and efficient telemarketing saves time, money and effort for both the companies and their customers.

There are a few ways to contact and sell to customers:

1. Get them to visit your office or retail store
2. Sell your products over the Internet
3. Send catalogs or brochures using email, fax or mail
4. Visit the prospect
5. Call the prospect on the telephone

The telephone is one of the easiest and least expensive ways to reach prospects and potential customers. You can call hundreds of prospects a day at a minimal cost in the comfort of your office or even your home.

While the time and cost of sending unsolicited catalogs can be tremendous, the cost of meeting the customer in person is yet higher.

Not only do you save your time using the telephone, but your cost of sale also drops dramatically. Telemarketing also saves time for the customer. It is a lot easier for a busy person to allocate a few minutes for a telephone call as compared to meeting in person.

Thus, if you are selling any type of product that can be sold over the telephone as your primary tool, telemarketing makes a lot of sense.

Then, what about those that need face-to-face meetings for products that need to be demonstrated or experienced firsthand? In such cases, the telephone plays a valuable role in pre-qualifying prospects and scheduling the sales meetings with the prospect.

Telemarketing allows you to enhance sales and should become one component of your overall marketing and sales efforts.

Cold calling is one strategy for telemarketing. This means you take a list of names about whom you currently know very little, and you start calling them, one at a time, and give them your sales pitch over the telephone.

Experienced marketers will do “warm calling”. Before they call the prospects, they make every effort to pre-qualify the people or companies that they plan to call. Thus, when the telemarketer calls the prospect and gets the decision-maker on the line, the prospect is already “warm”.

Now, it is the telemarketer’s job to communicate the relevant information to the prospect and be able to persuade that the product or service fulfills some requirement of the prospect.

Used skillfully, the telephone is a quick way to sound out a prospective customer. There are three criteria to qualify a prospect. They are money, authority to order from you and a need for your company’s product or service.

Once qualified, the extent to which the salespeople can act depends on the nature of the product. There are products that can be closed over the phone with money being collected typically via credit card. Only the fulfillment is handled by the company’s back office. An example would be motor insurance or home content insurance policies.

Not all products can be closed during the single phone call. If you are applying for a credit card for the first time with a company, the prospect information may be recorded and approval given in principal, but the sale is not finalized yet. There typically are back office checks done before providing the card.

Then again, there are those products for which you can only qualify interest over the phone, and then make appointments for your field salespeople to have face-to-face meetings.

No matter which of the above groups that your company’s products may belong to, use of the telephone does save time, money and effort, as at worst it still pre-qualifies customers before the more costly field salespeople go out and meet them.

Telemarketing can be a daunting task if you expect people to respond positively most of the time. Most people, in fact, are wary of receiving calls from telemarketers. To make life less stressful, the telemarketer should first accept this as well as the fact that everyone you call will not buy.

The next important thing to do is to plan and prepare. Like any other sales approach, there must be an objective. The telemarketer must plan the call and be in control. A prerequisite is a thorough understanding of the product you are selling.

The telemarketer must remember that he or she has a product or service that could potentially benefit the person being called.

If you find that you are saying the right things and yet you cannot get the benefits across, you will need to review your sales pitch or take a different approach. Put yourself in the prospect’s shoes and try and analyze where you need to improve or change.

It is also important to track the number of sales that are made versus the number of people called. Knowing which time of the day you get the best results, which day of the week, which part of the month could also make a difference. By doing this kind of analysis, you can fine-tune your approach.

Using telemarketing will allow you to reach more prospects faster, increase your sales and hence generate higher revenue.

Author: Snook2

Working from house can appear like a desirable position. We all are conversant with the reasons we’d like to have it make. Being house for the kids and saving on day maintenance costs are just two of the best things that go to mind. It can be challenging to have it make however.

1. Especially in the start months, wear’t have overly hung upward on the numbers. That is, if you wear’t have more money decent at best, and you likely won’t, think about what you are saving. You are saving on kid maintenance, eating away, clothing costs, gasoline, and many much expenses you have when you make outside the house. Think of these savings as region of your income and be encouraged.

2. Marketing advise that make an attempt to hold routine “agency” hours. Of class, it may go a few months of working from house to find when your hours lean to be. For example, maybe Saturday afternoons and from 4:00 to 8:00 a. m. on weekdays will be when you can have the most job done.

3. Consider dressing up a little, especially if your business requires making phone calls. You won’t feel very professional sitting there in your fuzzy robe and uncombed hair, and it might show through in your voice. Get dressed in something you wouldn’t mind being caught dead in, and put on shoes. You’d be surprised what a difference shoes can make in your attitude and efficiency.

4. Advertise! Even freelancers need to let people know they are out there. A good rule of thumb is to spend about one fourth of the time you work on getting the word out. It doesn’t have to be expensive. A small ad in the want ads of the local paper, or announcements on Internet bulletin boards can make a big difference.

5. Get organized. Organization will make you more efficient and ultimately reduce the number of hours you’ll need to work. There are many great online resources and books that can help you if organization is hard for you.

6. Don’t get discouraged but learn from your mistakes. You will make some flubs, but they can be your richest source of education when learning the ropes of your new work at home business. The only people who don’t make mistakes are those that don’t do anything.

7. Separate work from home. Do this mentally even if the kitchen table has to double as office and family meal location. Be there for your family. Don’t let work preoccupy you every waking minute or you’ll miss out on the real reason you’re staying home. Similarly, don’t let the family’s little urgencies keep you from getting your work done.