Your sales structure for outbound calls can be summarized using the well-known acronym AIDA (Attention, Interest, Desire, Action), we will explore at a high level what should be happening during a telemarketing call.

Open the call and then set your calendar

The opening minutes of any sales call are vital. You have to remember that the relationship is built immediately, so your sound is important. Everyone makes decisions about who they are talking to in seconds. That is why it is so important to sound good, since we are qualified immediately and, however, we will be the starting point of the relationship. Now we are in the beginning of the process of establishing a good relationship and developing what we hope is a profitable long-term relationship, it sounds fantastic.

When we first meet someone, we typically shake hands, smile, and then exchange business cards. In a call we also have some definable stages that can be measured and optimized. The initial part of the call is where we ask low-risk questions that may or may not affect your business. We could have a common interest, or even meet the same group of people. Working on the phone is not really that different, but in many ways it is more difficult as we have no visual cues and can only “hear” how the potential customer is reacting. This is where you learn that different approaches for different people will get different results.

During the initial stage of your telemarketing campaign, you must maintain a realistic timeline with clear, definable goals. Understand early on that no relationship means no sales, regardless of how good your product or service is. The real purpose is to introduce yourself to your prospects to establish a report before moving on to the business part of the call. Another tip is to avoid being too familiar with your potential customer; It rarely works even if you know it! Asking low-risk questions is easier than hitting the bull’s-eye in less than 30 seconds! Be friendly, but not overly familiar. We can’t get along with everyone, but we can be professionals regardless of who they are.

The next stage is to set your agenda in your opening statement (prepared above, please). The purpose of the agenda is to give you control and establish how the telemarketing sales call will be structured. It also gives you the right to ask questions.

Ask big questions

Selling is about identifying and then solving problems. Therefore, the next stage is to ask questions to find and explore customer problems. It typically relates to one or more of the following areas to be explored, such as contact, organization, current vendor, challenges, needs, decision-making process, competition, and finances.

We ask questions at this stage for two main reasons. First, collect data, and second, identify attitudes, problems, and needs. Basically, we are controlling the temperature.

An important factor here is how we structure our questions and the quality of the questions we ask. Open questions (starting with how, what, where, when, why) encourage the client to speak and closed questions (those that can only be answered with a yes / no) give us specific information.

The sequence of our questions can be very important, especially when a client is only willing to reveal a little information. We need to listen to buy signals and ask follow-up questions at the appropriate time.

One of the key issues is being able to ask questions and then listen to the answer without interrupting. (Interrupting and talking about someone won’t win you friends!) This is common sales behavior and customers find it more irritating sometimes worse. Also, as we speak, we are cutting off the supply of free information from the prospectus.

Identify needs

The process of asking questions will clarify the customer’s questions and give you a clear idea of ​​whether a feature or characteristics of your product could solve those problems and meet customer needs.

We generally see the need for our products or services before our customers. They see problems more than needs and there could be a variety of possible solutions.

When people buy, they also have various purchase criteria. This generally means that there are a limited number of reasons to buy that are in their best interest. People don’t buy for many reasons. They have their own purchase criteria, which we will have to establish.

In addition, it has been shown that people buy only at two levels; Logic and Emotion.

Their logical buying behavior wants to know if the solution they choose is technically correct. Their emotional buying behavior is asking to be reassured that their decision is a good one and that they are not making a mistake.

Present the solution

Having clarified the customer’s problems and identified their needs, present the Features, Advantages and Benefits of your own product in such a way that the solution is tailored to the customer’s needs. An important issue here is time. We cannot present effectively if we have not identified your main purchase criteria. When we present we must also be aware that we are not only listing a series of characteristics. We must match the characteristic that solves the problem by converting characteristics into benefits.

The most common mistakes salespeople make is presenting too much information too early in the sales process. We need to look at the problem from the buyers’ perspective. Think about it and ask yourself this question: ‘If I were in your position, how much information would you need and when would you need it?’

Get Engagement with a Trial Closure

Having presented a solution that meets the customer’s needs, the next phase is to gain commitment, move forward, or for some future action that brings it closer to the sale that is being made. Typically, you will encounter objections at various stages in the sales process, and techniques for dealing with objections will be developed later in the program. One of the problems with asking for commitment is that sometimes we lack confidence and fear rejection. It is important that we maintain control of the sales process and the responsibility to move to the next stage of the process and bring the customer with us. A trial closure will remove any last minute objections. Once you are satisfied that there are no further objections, you can present your solution.

Your final step

Once you’ve presented your final solution, you can close the sale (or move on to the next stage). Remember that if you break complex sales down into manageable chunks, you can move forward much faster. Getting commitment to a meeting, a test or whatever your goal is means that you have created a logical structure and achieved the objectives of your call. With practice, everything becomes much easier. But then if telemarketing was that easy, everyone would be a smash hit – you know how difficult it is and the fact that you can make it look easy is a real skill!