Cold calling tips for telemarketers

Cold calling tips for telemarketers

Before anyone can effectively make a cold call YOU have to know a few key basics:

• You have to be in the right head space (No fears or doubts – No limiting beliefs)
• You have to be absolutely clear about what is it you want to achieve per call.
• You have to understand the WHY? Why is it important to YOU that you close the call ?
• You have to realise what closing the call means to you financially?

The Psychology of the customer

One of the key cold calling tips for telemarketers is understanding that the customer is going to be the person that is going to be saying NO to you the majority of the time that you spend on every single telemarketing call.

Its important to understand a few reasons why that keeps happening. Ask yourself:

• What does the customer need to hear to be closed?
• How does the customer need to feel to be closed?
• Why do you get so many objections per call? In most cases, only 1 to 2 are real out of say the 10 objections an agent gets per call, why?

If you examine the above points and come up with at least 5 answers per question then you will see a big difference in how your telemarketing calls are now negotiated with increased ease, confidence and you will be holding on to more calls and achieving a higher closing ratio.

Language is King

Another of our cold calling tips for telemarketers is the importance of stay in rapport by using the right language when handling objections.

With telemarketing and telephone sales we need to listen carefully to exactly what is being said to us.

If the objection is “No thanks, not right now” that’s actually three objections.

Is it no thanks to the call? Or is it the wrong time for the call? Or the wrong time to buy the product?

Only when we lift the lid on any of the three objections and (unpack the box) and really understand which objection is real for the customer, plus why they believe it is real for them, only then can you really and truly communicate from a place of authority.

Some telemarketers today would have handled that objection as only one objection and just carried on talking believing they have answered it only to get frustrated when they don’t close the call.

An example of talking in the customer’s language

You will close more calls when you talk in the customer’s language thereby making them feel more comfortable and in control of the call.

So be aware of what your hearing within the objection that you are receiving.

If the customer says “I don’t feel its right for us at this time” you wouldn’t want to respond with “I hear what you’re saying” or “let’s see if ……”.

If you responded in this way then as far as the customers brain is concerned you may as well be speaking a different language!

The customer is using the word ‘feel’ that’s telling you that they prefer communicating and making decisions based on how they feel about xyz, NOT on how it sounds to them (the word hear) or how it looks to them (the word see) which are the two words used in the response we chose earlier.

What we could have said to stay in rapport and talk in the same language as the customer is something like this, “if it was the right time would you feel happier looking at our products”?

If you got a YES at this stage then you could cement even further with “great the other reason for the call was to very quickly walk you through the benefits of xyz”. So (walk = to place the foot down, in other words, to touch and feel)

When you’re communicating at this level you are being twice as effective by communicating to the conscious mind as well as the unconscious mind.

This drives all human behaviour, especially making a purchase.

Closing is not difficult but speaking the same language helps.

Recommended further reading: 7 Expert Tips for Improving Sales in your Contact Centre

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