The 10 Biggest Mistakes People Make When Selling Over the Phone
In the current market, it’s inevitable that at one point or another a sales professional will find themselves making calls. Lots of them. Although there are inevitably similarities between consultations face to face and over the phone, in practice they can sometimes feel like two completely different worlds.
Because we don’t have some of the comforting feedback like body language to feed from, many sales professionals feel less comfortable with the phone than they do face to face.
There are also many common habits that we develop and take into phone selling that can do our sales calls a major disservice. Here are some of the top common mistakes that I find sales professionals make on a daily basis:
1. Not preparing
Whether it’s a cold call or a follow-up, picking up the phone without first utilizing the resources available to you and making a plan is simply poor process. When we have the ability to find out information about prospects and their business, we should. Importantly, we need to have a plan and aim for the call prior to making it.
2. Apologising for the call
I don’t think I will ever stop hearing people say things like ‘sorry to bother you’ or ‘sorry if I’m interrupting’, and I certainly won’t stop asserting my view that this is not the way to sell effectively.
If you’re apologizing for making a call, then you may as well be apologizing for what you do and what you sell. The effect is the same; if you’re providing value, you should not apologise for doing your job! Back yourself!
3. Trying to build rapport before stating who they are
I’ve seen a lot of salespeople take their face to face rapport-building techniques into their processes over the phone. Usually, this is a good thing, but sometimes we need to be cognisant that certain adjustments should be made to accommodate a phone call.
The reality is, unless you have an existing relationship, most people don’t want to talk about how well their football team did last week before finding out who you are. For me, there’s nothing more frustrating than someone calling and asking me what I did over the weekend when they haven’t first articulated where they’re calling from and why.
Often, this can result in a tense exchange along the lines of ‘look, what is this about?’ or ‘who did you say you were?’
A courteous ‘how are you’ is always nice, but save the interests-talk for after introductions and throughout the call. Look for opportunities during the call to build a personal relationship – don’t make an obvious ‘tick the box’ attempt at the very beginning.
4. Not giving a clear reason for the call
Always, always, always have a reason for calling someone. We know that providing a reason in any context is more credible (remember back in high school? ‘Back up your argument!’ ‘You told me what but not why!’).
The most important thing to consider here is that people are busy. We all have limited time, and we like to know that whatever we’re doing has a purpose.
Providing a reason will build credibility, set an agenda or theme for the call, and make the client feel more at ease. It doesn’t have to be a big reason, but it has to exist.
5. Not providing value in the call
I don’t know about you, but there are very few people in my life that I like to call ‘just because’. Unless you’re my mum or my best bud from law school, I probably don’t have much interest in a chat for the sake of it.
This is linked to number 4, but there is a subtle difference. Where your reason for calling might be ‘I’m calling because I received your web inquiry’ or ‘because we haven’t had the opportunity to speak for a few weeks’, your value might be in providing some new industry insight or trend that might be relevant to me. The value might be in something new that’s happening in your business that I may be interested in.
In other words – what’s changed since we last spoke? What value are you providing?
If you’re having the same conversations over and over, you’re going to get the same results. There is a difference between being present for the sake of it and being valuable. Choose the latter and plan how you will provide value to every phone call you make.
6. Talking too much and too fast
Whether it’s nerves, discomfort because we can’t see the other end of the line, or some other reason; many tend to speak more quickly, and more than usual, when over the phone.
Remember: We are after dialogue, not a speech. Monitoring your pace and often consciously slowing down is a good idea if you tend to speed up over the phone.
To avoid a monologue-style call, ask more questions throughout to keep the other party involved.
7. Interrupting
This one is a common issue, especially because it’s often difficult to see if the person on the other end has finished speaking or is about to say more.
Needless to say, interrupting someone can come off rude, desperate, arrogant, or as though you aren’t listening in the first place.
To minimise your chances of cutting someone off, wait an extra second or two whenever you go to say something: This leaves the space for the other person to continue a thought if they feel the need to do so, and avoid any accidental impolite interruptions.
8. Having too much going on in the background
It is imperative that all calls are treated with the same focus as a face to face consultation.
This means: No side conversations, no eating while talking, no checking emails, facebook, instagram or other social media. Regardless of how sneaky you think you’re being, the other end of the line is either going to outright recognise the sound of chewing (not ideal), or otherwise sense that your focus is elsewhere. These things are much more transparent than we would hope them to be, and they take us away from performing our best.
Imagine the person is with you, close your office door, close your tabs, and give your client the attention they deserve.
9. Skipping parts of the process
Sometimes we feel the need to rush through things over the phone. As a result, it’s easy to end up skipping parts of the process – be it qualifying, giving a full presentation, or properly working through an objection with a customer.
Ensure that you maximize your chances of success by following your process correctly!
10. Not ending with a clear next step
By far the biggest possible mistake we can make is ending the call without any sort of outcome or conclusion.
If you have called for a reason, provided value and worked well with the client, you should be able to clearly outline what the next steps will look like.
I always go with the following formula:
Suggest: So, Carrie, I can send through that information to you and set up a demonstration for next Tuesday at 10am. Does that work for you?
Confirm: Great.
Repeat: Fantastic, I’ll send that through now and speak to you Tuesday at 10am.
Make sure the step is complete, detailed, and agreed upon by both parties. To solidify this agreement, sometimes I will also send a follow-up email or text message soon after the call.
If you don’t end with a clear plan, as soon as you get off the phone your next stage gets a whole lot harder.
Have any other common mistakes you’d add to the list? Share in the comments!
Make Today the Day,
Sonia
This blog post was originally posted on my training website, Statusone.com.au, on Nov 1, 2017. I have since been moving some of my favourite blog posts from there over to here, as this is now my ‘content hub’ and I want you to have access to some of the cool stuff I’ve written about before. You can still check out the Status One site if you’re interested in corporate training if you want. Also, don’t forget to sign up for the newsletter below for updates and weekly exclusive content.