One of the key components of being an effective sales representative – one who creates business and generates revenue for your company – is mastering the incoming sales call. After all, the sales call sets the tone for your company’s entire relationship with a customer.
So, do your people have this skill, or are they in serious need of sales performance training?
In evaluating your current sales team, you may find that some team members are comfortable on the phone and connect with customers easily, while others are stumbling through sales calls and having difficulty closing deals. Regardless, even the most experienced sales representatives make mistakes that could cost your company a new account.
Review the following list of sales call “don’ts” to help your team avoid these major blunders and master the incoming sales call.
Don’t Jump Into The Pitch
Sales reps constantly face the challenge of striking an ideal balance between personal connection and professional interaction. When it comes to the sales call, doing this well is one of the keys to making prospects feel comfortable.
As a sales representative responds to an incoming sales call, it may be their instinct to immediately push your company’s products or services. But, this is a quick way to frustrate the prospect and lose business.
A more effective approach to engaging people with customer-oriented sales is easing into the conversation. Your reps should understand how to ascertain a prospect’s needs and make them feel at ease before pitching any offerings to them.
Don’t Do All The Talking
Yes, it’s immensely important to know how to communicate a sales agenda effectively, but your representatives should NOT do all the talking on the call. Listening is fundamental to identifying customer needs and determining which of your company’s solutions to recommend.
An easy way to get prospective customers talking about their pains and needs is by asking a series of diagnostic questions. As each prospect answers these questions and provides more information about their requirements, your sales representatives should listen for clues as to which of your products might be best suited to address those specific needs.
Don’t Provide Cookie-Cutter Solutions
Every customer is unique, as are their individual needs. So, one of the biggest mistakes a sales representatives could make is to present the same products or solutions to every prospect, regardless of the specific challenges they face.
Train your sales representatives to use the information they gather from the listening portion of their call to tailor solutions to each prospect’s needs. When a rep communicates how your offerings are applied to real-world situations, the caller is much more apt to see the value in those solutions.
It is essential to ensure that your sales team members know how to make product recommendations that resonate with individual prospects.
Don’t Go In Unprepared
It’s true that no customer wants to pick up the phone and hear a scripted sales pitch, but that doesn’t mean your reps don’t have to prepare themselves.
There are key aspects that every pitch should address, such as acknowledging the customer’s needs and offering your company’s solutions. You don’t want your representatives to seem uncomfortable or unprepared to deliver on these components during a sales call.
While some of your representatives may be naturals, others require nurturing to master this essential sales skill. With effective sales performance training, your sales representatives have an opportunity to practice the pitch and learn how to address some of the challenges that may arise, like customer pushback on price or the need to create a sense of urgency in order to elicit action.
After a positive sales conversation, the prospect should leave with both a solution and a new relationship. When your reps are focused on customer-oriented selling, they win new customers, repeat business and referrals.
Is there more you’d like to uncover about essential selling skills for your team? Preview a Vital Learning sales performance training course now.
