Selling to Anyone Over the Phone

220 Pages·2010·5.17 MB·English

by  Renee P. Walkup

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Walkup, Renee P., 1957-
Selling to anyone over the phone / Renee P. Walkup with Sandra McKee.
— 2nd ed.
p. cm.
Includes index.
ISBN-13: 978-0-8144-1483-5 (pbk.)
ISBN-10: 0-8144-1483-4 (pbk.)
1. Telephone selling. I. McKee, Sandra L., 1952- II. Title.
HF5438.3.W34 2011
658.8'72—dc22
2010006636
© 2011 Renee P. Walkup
All rights reserved.
Printed in the United States of America.
This publication may not be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in
whole or in part, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of AMACOM, a division
of American Management Association, 1601 Broadway, New York, NY 10019.
About AMA
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Printing Number
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Contents
Acknowledgments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix
Introduction: Selling “Double Green”. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi
Chapter 1: Setting Up for Success . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Apply New Tactics for New Times
Move to Phone Selling Success
Begin Your Prep Work
Launch Your Call Day
Open Calls with Confidence
The Payoff
Chapter 2: Managing Time and Information for Profitability. . . . . . . 17
Improve Your Time-to-Sales Ratio
Locate Quality Customers
Gather and Manage Customer Information
The Payoff
Chapter 3: Identifying Personality Types Over the Phone . . . . . . . . . . 37
The Precise Customer
The Energized Customer
The Assured Customer
The Kind Customer
Personality Matches and the Phone Salesperson
The Phone Salesperson’s Quick-Reference Extra:
The Salesperson (cid:15511)Customer Match
The Payoff
Chapter 4: Getting Gatekeepers to Work for You. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
Engage the Person Answering the Phone
Use Voice Mail to Gain Useful Information for
Strategic Calling
The Payoff
Chapter 5: Asking High-Value Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
Establish or Deepen Your Relationship with the
Customer
Use Questions as Tactics
Avoid Asking the Wrong Questions
Guidelines for High-Value Questions
Ask Questions at the Right Time: The Trust Scale
The Payoff
Chapter 6: Listening and Presenting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Listen from “Hello”
Listen for the Customer’s Personality Style
Focus on the Phone: The Listening Challenge
Listen While Presenting: I-N-V-O-L-V-E Your
Customer
Vary the Tools You Use for Effective Presentations
The Payoff
Chapter 7: Selling Through Objections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
The Value of Objections
Techniques for Handling Objections
Personality-Type Objection Patterns
The Payoff
Chapter 8: Negotiating the Close. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
Set Up the Close
Eliminate Buyer Anxiety
Ask for the Business
Negotiate: Carve Out the Details
Seal the Close
The Payoff
Chapter 9: Using New Technology in Phone Sales. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
The Pros and Cons of New Technology
Guidelines for the Strategic Use of New Technology
The Payoff
Chapter 10:Selling to Customers from Other Cultures . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
The Importance of Time
The Role of the Relationship
Language and Communication Across Cultures
Culture and Personality
Dealing with Cultural Differences
The Payoff
Appendix A: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193
PEAK Personality Type Assessment
Appendix B: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195
Handling Customer Complaints Effectively
Appendix C: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200
How to Present Powerful Proposals That Sell
Index. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205

xii Selling to Anyone Over the Phone
Or, looking at this another way, the ROI of using the telephone
to sell is far more profitable for companies. More salespeople can be
employed, less waste takes place, and business gets back on track for
profitability.
One of our clients began an inside sales organization employing
six telephone salespeople in 1994. Her group’s sales grew to around
$500,000 the first year they were in operation. Today, she employs
over eighty inside salespeople and their sales have grown to over $100
million! Her departmental costs are a fraction of the outside sales or-
ganization’s. Every salesperson has a desk and a telephone. Her sales-
people can make dozens of sales calls per day, as compared to outside
reps, who can make a maximum of only ten sales calls daily.
Senior management at this company is thrilled with their results.
Our client’s employees consistently win the sales awards at national
meetings, outselling and outproducing the salespeople who are also
using more of our earth’s resources to accomplish sales. In short, the
company achieves a dramatically better ROI for their inside sales
team than for their outside sales force.
Hence the “double” in “double green”—greener to the planet, and
more green in your pocket.
While you’re taking a more responsible stance toward the future
of the planet by utilizing the telephone more effectively and minimiz-
ing travel costs, you may be wondering why customers prefer to con-
duct business over the telephone as well. The answer is simple. Time.
All customers have a limited amount of time to work with salespeople.
If you’ve ever heard “I’m just too busy” from a customer, and you be-
lieve there is sincerity behind those words, then you understand.
Meeting with a sales rep in person means that the customer has
to carve out valuable time away from daily job demands. A phone
call is less time-consuming for him or her, and just as effective for
you (if not more so), than that one-hour face-to-face appointment.
With a focused call, most trained salespeople can accomplish their
call goal in a quarter of the time it would normally take to meet with
the customer in person.
Introduction xiii
In this Second Edition of Selling to Anyone Over the Phone we
explore how you can maximize your sales, save operating expenses,
and operate “in the green” by using the telephone. Instead of just
telling you to “call, call, and call,” we explain how you can effectively
use the phone to generate business.
In this book you will learn the tips and finer points of phone sell-
ing as you become more skillful at using the phone to:
9 Focus the customer’s attention on your call.
9 Engage customers in conversation and keep them there.
9 Generate interest in your products/services.
9 Not only get past gatekeepers but also gain their help to reach
your customer.
9 Ensure callbacks from customers.
9 Set appointments and prevent customers from canceling them.
9 Conduct webinars and conference calls with multiple decision
makers.
9 Utilize communication technology to go “global.”
Plus, new to this edition you’ll find:
9 A new chapter on presenting to groups over the phone via web -
inars and teleconferences.
9 New information on outside salespeople transitioning to inside
phone sales.
9 New material on establishing trust relationships over the
phone.
9 Guidelines for the use of text messaging.
9 Expanded coverage on global and cross-cultural communica-
tion.
9 New phone selling challenges to open each chapter.
9 New models of effective and ineffective telephone exchanges
between salesperson and customer.
9 A new “Greener Way to Do Business” sidebar in each chapter
discussing ways in which doing business over the phone is en-
vironmentally friendly.