| An off kilter look at sales tips & tricks for telesales professionals |
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| Issue 2: A Sales Mayday Edition Blatant Self Promotion Before "The" article... UpYourTeleSales.com EVENT ANNOUNCEMENT Our belief that everyone in business is in sales means we are really excited about this event! Lynn Hidy is collaborating with Kerri Vaughn at: Sales for Business Women June 4th 2009 from 1:00pm - 5:00pm at Rochester NY's own Tango Café Dance Studio registration starts at 12:30 This afternoon seminar with Lynn Hidy, founder of UpYourTeleSales.com, will give you real world tips on how to be more successful talking about money and handling objections when it comes to selling your business. ~Money Talk~
Mayday, Mayday... This call is about to CRASH! When is the last time you wished there was someone around to come help you? At UpYourTeleSales.com we have found three of the most common reasons inside salespeople yell mayday are: Ok so there are really four - sometimes it is the dreaded COMBINATION MAYDAY where mixes of two or all three happen at the same time. Hey Lynn - what is your least favorite example of the dreaded combination mayday? When my emotions are running wild AND I can’t find an expert to grab on the call with me to pull it around! Absent Experts  Most inside sales organizations have human resources for salespeople to use with them on the phone. Many of them are product mangers or engineer/technical types. The WORST is when you can’t find the right person to talk with a brand new prospect who is in a conversational mood, is interested in what you sell, AND you don’t have enough technical acumen (nice word huh) to keep it going yourself. Part 1, of the best loved response to the missing expert we have found is: “That is a great question, I’m not sure - let me write that down so I can get an answer to you. What are you hoping the answer will be?” The key is to then go on to part 2: “I don’t know if that is the case, but let’s assume that is the answer for now....” and move on to the next part of your sales call. Missing Skills In the middle of a call this is a big pill you are swallowing dry. Missing skills are the “Don’t Know How” parts of our professional life. UpYourTeleSales.com breaks them down into three parts (there it is again... three bullets... three parts, nope don’t know why but those threes keep popping up):
 You’re Right. It does depend on what is happening in the call. Not planning doesn’t work either. Understand and practice how you want to handle the situation - that way when you’re really stuck you have a plan (check out this month’s TeleSales Twist for a great idea to help you through). Systems = “While we are waiting for the eternal hour glass, once we have the details - what will the next step be?” Technical = if you don’t remember it from the Absent Expert response, here it is again. “That is a great question, I’m not sure - let me write that down so I can get an answer to you. What are you hoping the answer will be?” “I don’t know if that is the case, but let’s assume that is the answer for now....” and move on to the next part of your sales call. Notice the planned responses end with a question or pause? That is to put the conversation responsibility back onto the customer (or suspect, or prospect - who ever you’re talking with). The goal is to allow you time to collect yourself enough to keep going on the call AND move forward in the sales process. Missing Sales Skills... Here is the tough thing; you don’t know what you don’t know until things go terribly wrong. Check out the second part of the TeleSales Twist for the UpYourTeleSales.com tip on how to plan for the worst. What Now? Once you’re off the phone DO SOMETHING ABOUT the missing pieces.
Post your Sales Mayday experiences (or maypole experiences for that matter) our Coaching over Coffee blog. We would love to hear your favorite questions OR sentence strings you use to continue sales conversation gone wild. Next month we will talk about the Emotional Hijack  | May Day could be the pagan cross-quarter celebration of Beltane (cross-quarter being about ½ way between the spring equinox and summer solstice) where young couples dance around the maypole. Or Mayday a distress call; which comes from the French m’aider, which is actually a shortened version of venez m’aider “come help me?" An UpYourTeleSales.com Reminder There are some great books out there to help with the missing skills. Here are three: The Field Guide to Sales by Debbie Mrazek (great workbook that takes you through steps to become more successful: includes “new traveler” and “seasoned climber” tips in each chapter) How to Sell More in Less Time with No Rejection Using Common Sense Telephone Techniques by Art Sobczak (there are two volumes of this book - the title says it all) Selling to Big Companies by Jill Konrath (written to be used for business building, and I’m not going to argue with Forbes, How to sell: 8 must-reads list) Plus if you’re wondering where the Can’t, Won’t, Don’t Know How model was developed. We have to thank Dr. Hannah Rudstam of Cornell University, School of Industrial & Labor Relations who developed it in 2005. TeleSales Twist One of the best parts of being an inside salesperson is cheat sheets. Instead of trying to remember what you want to change in a Mayday situation to create sales success - give yourself cue cards. This eliminates the freeze response “oh no it’s happening again” because - right in front of us - is how we want to respond! Eventually you will be able to remove the cue card because the response you want - is now automatic. A second type of cue card is one that gives you what UpYourTeleSales.com calls “sentence strings”. These are strings that allow you to get the prospect to continue talking. How about some examples (we figured three was the right number to get you started):
Want to use any of our content in your publication, blog, or website? If so, please include the bio below and let us know when and where it will appear. Lynn Hidy, founder of UpYourTeleSales.com, is the specialist at creating profitable telesales sales people and organizations. She knows you can make six figures over the phone - she does it! Working with Lynn you will learn to create a phone experience where they will forget you aren't actually having a cup of coffee together. To find out more about Lynn, read her latest articles, or subscribe to A Chip Off The Block her free newsletter - call 315-751-0146 or visit www.upyourtelesales.com. |
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