what is Tele sales

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 Best Practices in Training for Telesales | Training Course.

1. Training for Telesales.

You may be familiar with Levi's "When the world zigs you zag" advertising campaign, which encouraged individuals to be different and capitalize on their rebellious spirit. In this day and age where there seems to be an app for everything, you might want to use the telephone to make some sales calls.

2. Successful Telesales Strategies.

Although cold calling may be obsolete, the telephone is not.

Before picking up the phone, many successful inside sales professionals utilize social media, email, and the telephone to first "connect" with customers and then establish relevance to prime the call.

After assisting with the compilation of a straightforward introduction email, one of our clients was thrilled to receive a call from a buyer recently.

A meeting and, three months later, a £60,000 contract followed this phone call.

It is still possible to generate demand by calling customers, but we need to be much smarter and more focused than just working through a spreadsheet.

In today's business world, it is not enough to simply smile and call.

3.  Does Cold Calling Work?

In the previous year, 69% of buyers answered calls from salespeople.

When looking for ways to improve business results, 71% say they are happy to talk to salespeople.

A cold call from a salesperson is preferred by 60% of IT buyers.

Despite the fact that it is not trendy or your favorite, it is the most widely used sales tool in the world.

The words "telephone" and "sales" are not always well-liked bedmates because the telephone has been the weapon of choice for some of the worst sales strategies and techniques.

Inside Sales teams rarely receive formal telesales training, and the majority of the time, they rely solely on one individual's experience.

However:

We don't get a lot of junk mail because of direct mail.

The practice of sending spam is not caused by email.

People don't choose to be rude, offensive, or keyboard warriors because of Social Media.

As a result, the majority of us have also received some poor sales calls, which are not the fault of the phone.

4. Definitions Training for Telesales

Before we go on it’s important to first establish some common ground on the basics of telesales training.

4.1 WHAT IS A COLD CALL?

A Cold Call is when you telephone a complete stranger who is not expecting your call.

4.2 WHAT IS A WARM CALL?

A warm call is when you call a complete stranger who is expecting your call because you may have emailed, or sent something in advance telling them you would call.

The success rate of Warm Calling jumps to 40% with a personal introduction to a buyer and will be anything between 3 and 40% when you send information in advance, but this is largely dependent on what you send and your value proposition.

In some industries, cold calling has an amazing conversion rate but less so in others, so like many other things the context is important.

5. Inside Sales Training

Aaron Ross’s great book Predictable Revenue will help you understand how to set up an Inside Sales team and is a great starting point, however, most of our clients quickly find there are some missing links in the translation from selling American style, to the culture and nuance of the UK.

It doesn’t help that Inside Sales is such a tough job to do and an even tougher one to manage.

Many of us have had more than one negative experience with a cold call where the caller was less than professional and this unfortunately continues, as so few people have the necessary skills to make an effective telephone call or the appetite to learn.

When we Cold Call we run the risk of damaging our brand, and this is where training and coaching have their place.

Modern technology has killed the art of voice communication. Auto-dialers, Text, Instant Messaging and Email are now the preferred form of business communication and for many picking up the phone is the last option. In our personal lives, we are also happy to text or message our family and friends rather than phone.

This is further echoed by younger generations who have moved completely away from voice communication which ironically is often the least used App on the modern telephone.

The way companies buy has changed and evolved over the last 40 years, which has forced us to change the way we communicate and sell. This has cast a question mark over the effectiveness, or lack of it from Cold Calling.

Like everything the best way to get real results from cold calling are by providing effective training for telesales which is then supported by on ongoing coaching and practice.

By practice and repetition we mean making at least 1000 calls to practice and hone your telephone selling skills. Most people, however, don’t want to make 1000 calls, especially when they are learning when each call can quickly turn into a car crash.

Now more than ever, we all seek instant gratification and when we are making cold calls, that very rarely happens. 

6. Marketing vs Telesales

Many marketers will claim that Cold Calling is not the most effective use of your Salespeople’s time and they have the statistics to prove this. Where this falls down, however, is that marketing is reactive which means we have to wait on a prospect finding a blog, a white paper or a video and then hope they respond or contact us.

Sales is a pro-active sport and if there is a C – Level buyer that fits our prospect profile why wouldn’t we call them?

Why would we wait on them finding the content that marketing created?

Marketing should be providing the 80-90% of new leads to the business, however, Cold Calling also has a place; as a high impact, tactical sales tool reserved for targeting high-value prospects.