Telephone Sales – outbound

A one-day workshop

Telephone selling can be a challenge. It can be a pressured environment and sales professionals need to be able to maintain peak performance in order to meet – and preferably exceed – their targets. This programme will help make it easier for them.

The expert trainer covers the whole process, to help participants see it from their customer’s perspective. The focus is on how to use a practical understanding of sales psychology, and of the nature of the telephone sales conversation, to help make it easier for customers to buy.

This programme will give your team the skills to:

  • Make the most of each individual sales conversation
  • Manage their time – and their campaigns – better
  • Develop their resilience and ‘raise their game’
  • Close more sales

Learning objectives

This course will help participants:

  • Understand why people buy – and how that makes it easier to sell
  • Manage the sales process better
  • Steer their sales calls to a more positive outcome
  • Recognise – and respond to – customer buying signals
  • Meet and overcome objections
  • Choose the most appropriate techniques for closing with confidence
  • Enhance their resilience
  • Improve their communication skills on the telephone

Who should attend?

This programme is specifically designed for those making outbound calls and needing to make the most of every call in order to meet their targets.

Format

This thoroughly engaging and highly practical one-day programme uses a mixture of formal tutor inputs, practical exercises and tutor-facilitated discussion. It is designed for a maximum group size of 12.

Special features

The workshop can be tailored to clients’ specific requirements, eg, where live call recordings exist for training purposes these can either be incorporated into the day, if appropriate, or the trainer can listen to sample recordings in advance and tailor the session accordingly.

Every participant leaves this programme with an individual action plan.

The expert trainer is also a very experienced telephone sales coach. She is therefore ideally placed to deliver follow-up coaching on live calls on a one-to-one basis for those workshop participants who might particularly benefit from it.

Expert trainer

Candy began her sales career in the highly focused area of selling newspaper advertising space over the telephone at Times Newspapers Ltd, where she benefited from top level training in telephone sales. She thrived, very successfully managing, training and motivating a team of ten sales staff before moving on to put her sales skills to use in her own businesses, including an independent record label.

Training and developing people has been a golden thread through her career and in 2003 she capitalised on this by founding her own training and development consultancy, specialising in communication skills and their practical application in sales, customer service and team leadership. Candy has worked on sales training programmes with large companies such as The Post Office, HSBC and EDF Energy as well as businesses in leisure and tourism, IT, media, entertainment and health care. She also has substantial experience of training a wide range of SMEs to improve their sales and improve customer retention.

1 Introduction

  • Aims and objectives
  • Overview
  • Self-appraisal of current skills and development areas

2 The sales approach

  • What selling means
  • Why selling is like nature

3 The telephone as an instrument of communication

  • Qualities of the telephone
  • How telephone communication differs from face-to-face
  • Advantages and drawbacks of the telephone
  • How to optimise selling over the telephone
  • Communication techniques to help you stand out from the crowd

4 Creating a relationship

  • Professional telephone etiquette
  • Building a rapport
  • Connecting with the customer so that they feel you are on the same wavelength

5 The structure of a sales call

  • Opening the call – creating a positive first impression
  • Effective questioning to gather information and establish need
  • Identifying and presenting the features and benefits of the product or service
  • Matching the benefits to customers’ needs
  • Recognising and responding to buying signals
  • Anticipating, meeting and overcoming objections
  • Closing the sale and asking for the order – different closing techniques
  • The importance of testimonials – how to obtain them and when to use them

6 Listening skills

  • The challenges of accurate listening
  • How to enhance listening skills
  • Ensuring the customer feels heard and understood through empathetic listening

7 Shaping and using a script

  • Developing a script to increase levels of confidence
  • Leaving the door open

8 Managing the campaign

  • Organisation and call planning
  • Identifying your target market group
  • Planning who and when to call
  • Logging constructive information

9 Personal management

  • The importance of persistence
  • Is there a time to back off?
  • Stamina – optimising energy levels
  • Bouncing back

10 Practising the new information

  • Pulling the details together
  • Practising in a supportive environment

11 Action planning

  • Personal learning summary and action plan

Any questions? Please just give us a call on 01582 463463 – we’re here to help!