Quick Tips for More Effective Telephone Sales

Selling by telephone isn't easy. But very often it's one of the primary ways a home-based business can prospect for potential customers and sell your product or service to an out of town client. That's why it's so important to learn how to use the telephone effectively, before, during and after the actual call.

Start Before The Call
Your prospecting or sales call isn't a friendly chat with a friend. It's like any other sales presentation. The only difference is you're not doing it face-to-face, you're doing it over the phone. That's what makes it a bit more challenging that making a sales pich in person.

In face-to-face sales presentations, whether they're scheduled appointments or cold calls, you can see who you're presenting to and judge their reaction by facial expressions and body language. This lets you adjust your presentation accordingly. You also have the advantage of being able to use sales literature and aids to help communicate your key points.

Over the phone, it's voice against voice. Unless of course your both at at a computer and you can use your web site as a presentation aid,

Generally with personal sales presentations, the prospect will show you the courtesy of letting you complete your presentation. On the phone, it's easy to just hang up or make or end the conversation abruptly by saying there's another important call on the other line.

That's why preparation is so critical to successful selling on the phone. You need to be organized and have everything you need at your finger tips, so you can control the conversation and close the sale or get an appointment for a personal sales presentation.
Here are 10 tips that will help you sell more on the phone:

Prepare For Each Call
Determine what is the single response or outcome you're realistically looking to achieve. Depending on your product and industry, the usual outcomes are: Prospecting to find out who the decision-maker is; Setting up an appointment for an in-person sales presentation;
Making a sales presentation on the phone; Getting buy-in to send additional information;
Bidding on a job or project or filing an RFP; Closing the sale over the phone.