Here are 8 great mistakes that telemarketing consultants often make.

1) Not building rapport

Without doubt this is the most important part of any sales call and it is also the most difficult to perfect. There is always the odd exception, but generally people will not buy from you if they don’t like you. Let’s use going into a shop as an example where you have a pushy sales assistant who follows you around the shop making you feel pressurized into buying something. Compare this to a sales assistant that says hi to you when you walk in, asks if they can help and tells you that if you need any help just to ask, saying all this with a smile on their face. Customers come in all shapes and sizes, all different ages and religions. By building rapport you’re showing an interest in them and their reasons to buy. You do this by asking intelligent questions, letting them talk, and listening to their answers. If you find yourself doing all the talking, stop, and ask a question. You always learn more if you ask questions and listen rather than be the one always speaking.

2) Giving up at the first objection

An objection is an obstacle that the prospect puts up in front of you. And most telemarketing consultants give up at the first obstacle and agree to whatever the prospect asks for ie send information, call back later etc. Experienced telemarketing consultants love the challenge of objections; this is where they really get to work. The only person that can really overcome the objection is the prospect themselves. The first objection is normally a natural instinctive reaction and most of the time they don’t mean it. Do you know who the best sales people in the world are? Children. That’s right. How many times have you heard children ask for money or sweets and be told by their parents no. The parents say no immediately without thinking. And do the children give up and never ask again. No. They try again, maybe in a different way or ask for a different sweet and in the end the parent normally gives in and the child gets what they want. Never, ever give up after the first no. Listen to what the prospect is saying and ask a question. If they ask you to send some information, you ask them why they want the information. Listen to their reason. Most of the time they will talk themselves out of the objection and more importantly you have got them talking again and you can carry on with your conversation.

3) Not closing

This is probably the easiest part of the sales cycle. This is just asking for the sale or the appointment. It is just a case of saying, do you want it; do you want to proceed? New telemarketing consultants perfect the presentation, but then struggle when asking for the business. When listening to new consultants I can hear that the prospect is giving all the right signals, and then instead of going in for the close, the consultant gives another benefit and carries on talking. Sometimes the prospect is ready to do business straight away, and the new sales consultant cannot believe it, so they carry on and then confuse the prospect who then takes the easy way out and says no, or they want to think about it. ABC – Always Be Closing throughout the presentation, not just at the end. You can save yourself a lot of time and effort.

4) Not listening

When listening to new telemarketing consultants, I cringe when they are too concerned with telling the prospect all about their product, and when the prospect asks them a question that’s not in their script or in the order they’re expecting, they ignore the question and carry on with their presentation. By listening the prospect is giving you lots of hints on how to mould your products or services to their needs and requirements. Also, they will be giving you lots of building signals, and if you’re not listening, you will miss these and possibly miss the sale.

5) Reading the script word for word

There is nothing worse than receiving a cold call and the telemarketing consultant is reading word for word from a script. Even if you have a great product and the prospect is in the market for your product, this can lose you the sale immediately. In previous 8 Great Ideas, I’ve shared how much of a big advocate I am of scripts, but only if they are used in the right way. If you have a consultant that sounds like they are reading from a script get them to stop immediately. They are probably doing more harm than good. We have lots of training methods and games we play to encourage staff to memorize their scripts.

6) Being rude to receptionists

Receptionists make your job harder when all we want is to speak to the decision maker. But try looking at the receptionist’s situation. If they put you through to the decision maker, without knowing your name and the reason for the call, then they are likely to get in trouble. I train all my staff to try and make friends with the receptionist. You are probably one of a hundred cold calls they have received that day. So why should they put you through? I know of situations where the sales consultant has been rude to the receptionist and she has told the decision maker, and the decision maker has refused to speak to the sales consultant purely because of this. So make them laugh, ask them the best time to get in touch with the decision maker, when are they likely to be less busy. And if you just cannot get past the receptionist there are little tricks of the trade, but one of the easiest is try calling when the receptionist is not there such as lunchtime, or after work.

7) Poor preparation

This is both mental and physical preparation. Mental. I am amazed at how many sales consultants do not prepare themselves mentally for the day’s work: plan who they are going to call, role play their presentations, learn more about their products, relive highlights from the previous day to make them feel good, learn from the mistakes they made with the less successful calls. They should set themselves personal goals such as the number of dials, the number of full presentations to decision makers, the number of appointments / sales. Physical – The way you sit, the tone and pitch of your voice, how you dress, a tidy desk, information close to hand, scripts, glass of water / drink, scrap paper, pens. All the above need to be in place and organized. Telemarketing consultants will get out of their seats at any opportunity which will mean less calls are made.

8) Sending out literature

What a waste of time and money. I’m sure it has happened to all of us when during a presentation the prospect gives us lots of buying signals like, yes, that sounds just what I need, that sounds really good, can you just put something in the post for me to read. And off we go, thinking we’ve got a definite sale here. Have a company policy – you do not have any literature to send out. Worst case scenario is that you have a pdf version you can email, but only if you really must. My staff are all trained to say we don’t have any literature to send out. It is an automatic response by the prospect to get you off the phone without committing to an appointment/quotation. We have lots of ways of overcoming this objection. If they are insistent about receiving information tell them you will have to ask your manager to specially find something. I speak to lots of people who really are not interested in the products, but are too nice to say no, so they ask for information and then when I send it and call back they refuse to take my call, or they have not had time to read it. So I ask them outright, do you really want information, or are you just being nice and are really not interested. I would much refer to get a no now, instead of later.

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