I’ve been making phone calls for decades trying to drum up business, and I’m now a master on the phone. Whether it be an incoming call or making an outbound cold call, I close deals. I wasn’t born this way, I trained. I’ve been hung up on more times than most salespeople have ever even dialed. It takes repetition to get great at anything. Do something over and over again, correct your mistakes, and you’ll perfect your craft. I promise you will never blow a phone call because of a client. Here’s why you blow phone calls:
#1 Your attitude sucks.
#2 You’re preoccupied with other things.
#3 You’re distracted during the call.
#4 You’re unprepared mentally.
#5 You don’t take the call seriously.
#6 You take a call without a format or a track to run on.
#7 You’re not trained.
#8 You don’t treat it as though it will be a sale.
#9 You wait for the customer to come to you without offering to go to them.
#10 You don’t give people choices before asking for the appointment.
If you’ve handled all 10 items on the list above, then it’s time to tackle why your customers are stalling. The fact is, even well-trained salespeople are often woefully unprepared to handle stalls when talking to customers over the phone. Here are some common stalls you might here along with some solutions you can start responding with:
- “I can’t make it in tonight.”
- “Oh, so you’re not going to be able to take advantage of our big sale?”
Mention a big sale and create mystery.
- “What sale?”
- “Oh, I thought that was why you called. So can you make it in today?”
Another strategy is to talk about a commitment to move inventory.
- “We have a certain commitment to sell ___ before the weekend.”
Create urgency and deadlines. If a customer says they can’t make it, offer an extension.
- “Tell me when you would be available and I’ll see what I can do to extend this offer to you—is there a chance you can come by before noon tomorrow?”
If the customer says “you always have a sale,” tell him it’s part of your store’s commitment to low prices and high sales volume.
- “Yes we always have sales going, and it just happens to be that we have one going at the same time you’ve showed an interest. We offer a lot of deals because we are committed to having the lowest prices. Would you like to come in this evening?”
Agree with them and embrace it. You want to kill the stall and push through. Offer to bring the sale to the customer if you have to.
If you don’t take the initiative with leads and learn to handle objections before they are even said, you will lose sales. I created a Phone Sales Mastery Certification to help you learn how to answer every objection imaginable in sales and business over the phone. Are you ready to profit from it?
Be great,
GC
