Upsell, cross sell and switch sell. This new audio CD has become one of our top selling products since it’s release in the Autumn. It seems it strikes a chord with businesses keen to get the most value out of every phone call. 

More skills for internal sales teams

 This is a product aimed at those of you who have a team of people or individuals who deal with incoming calls, but who are nevertheless expected to sell. If you want to raise your skills, or build up your selling skills this product could help http://www.associatedlearningsystems.co.uk/product_detail.asp?ProdID=31

Every phone call coming in represents an opportunity. OK, it may not always look like it – “Oh, I’m just phoning round looking for prices” or “I want to know where my goods are !” But within whatever the customer is saying there is always the seed of an opportunity.

Increasing the average order value by upselling, or switchselling the customer on to a different product if the one they want is out of stock are all important ways of ensuring you lock their business in, and don’t lose it to your competition.

Developing in-house training material for customer service and telesales is important for you and your company if you still have restricted training budgets at the moment. The temptation is to cut costs and look for increasing ways of being self-sufficient.

You recognise that training is important – perhaps MORE important than it’s ever been, but you’ve not got money to throw at it. Perhaps you’re reading this looking for some new ideas and new material.

The Associated Learning Systems site is about promoting ways of learning that can be done remotely, privately and with limited funds. I think books fall into this category perfectly. For just a few pounds you can tap into some fantastic bits of wisdom written by some very entertaining people.

One of the best books I’ve read over the last couple of years that has an impact on selling is a book called Influence : Science and Practice written by an American psychologist Robert Cialdini. He supports all the theories he puts down on the page with some well documented experiments.

If you’re involved in selling I strongly recommend it. You can go straight to it on Amazon by following this link http://www.amazon.co.uk/Influence-Practice-Robert-B-Cialdini/dp/0321011473/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1227621443&sr=1-5. It gives an insight into how people behave and how you can persuade them of things. How much use could that be ?! For instance he shows that if you ask for a commitment from someone, when you’ve already given them something previously – no strings attached, they will more readily agree. They are naturally seeking to redress the balance, they feel they owe you one. This is known as the law of reciprocity.

Similarly if you advise a customer not to go for the most expensive option (thereby proving your credentials as an honest broker) they are much more likely to take your advice in the future – no questions asked.

Think how these 2 devices could help you in your selling !   

Right now, many organisations are facing varying levels of decline in business. And because of the speed of the downturn and the severity of it, these are times when your business model has to be critically reassessed. Things that you may never have had to do before, will have to be considered.

Good will come of this, as it will make all of us take stock and appreciate the business we do get.

But if there was ever a time to make your business more proactive, this is it !

You will need to make a much larger volume of calls and approaches, and the sales team that you have involved in field selling, or a phone team dealing with incoming enquiries will need to lead this process.

So make sure you have a quality list or database for them to work from. They will also need training (possibly) to help them adapt to a different role, and they need a robust process to operate. So for instance they need to be able to store notes (on a computer) about each person they call, some notes of the conversation, and equally importantly a field to mark the next contact due. This makes intelligent use of the sales database. Remember that knowledge is power !

We have an audio CD on setting up and managing a telephone based team which covers the issues mentioned above on process etc http://www.associatedlearningsystems.co.uk/product_detail.asp?ProdID=2 is the link for this product.

�

For all of us who communicate with customers on the phone, we all know that we have got to make our pitch interesting. And a motto that many sales people adhere to is that the customer will always be thinking “what’s in it for me ?” Unless we can communicate in a way that addresses this key question, chances are that you’ll never really have their interest.

They’re not really interested in how many colours your product is available in, or the turbo boost function is, or that you have 100 depots around the country - unless they understand HOW THAT HELPS THEM. Furthermore benefits are generally based around just 4 things (so it’s not much to remember) and these are covered on the audio CD “Sell the sizzle, not the bacon” http://www.associatedlearningsystems.co.uk/product_detail.asp?ProdID=10

Think about your pitch, or sales spiel from the customer’s point of view, and you will find it makes a big difference.    

Many people are aware that the single biggest factor in determining whether you get business out of a customer is the strength of relationship you have with the individual.

It is not the quality of your products, nor the pricing, but instead the relationship you have. If they like you they will be more likely to do business with you, and if they don’t like you, they will go out of their way to buy elsewhere.

So it is always disappointing when someone you have a good customer – supplier relationship with leaves. It can often be like starting again. But the tip is to find out where they are going to – especially if they are staying in a similar role. So now you have the existing organisation, and of course you’ll be looking to start again here, plus the new one.

Once they’re settled in, you then phone them with something like the following script ;

You : “You may not remember me, but my name is …….. and I used to talk to you about …… when you were at ABC Ltd.” To which they often reply ;

Them : “Of course I remember you, how are you ?” And now you’re away !

And my advice is even if you find out they’ve already left, you can still track them. Either you ask one of your other contacts within the customer company if they know where they went to. You have got other contacts haven’t you ?!

Or as a last resort try finding them on Google. This is of course much easier if they have an unusual name, but many of them will eventually pop up elsewhere.

Always work your contacts hard, and don’t easily give up on all those relationships that you’ve worked hard to build.

How many times do people try and sell to you either on the phone or face to face by dominating the conversation and trying to do all the talking ? It seems to me that sales people are often trained to simply benefit sell. And yes of course benefit statements ARE very useful.

But actually if you’re selling to a human (and of course you always are) it works much better to engage them in a 2 way conversation. If you get them involved, they will open up more readily and you will find out more.

So as a rule of thumb I think good selling is about 50% talking, 50% listening. Stray too far from this ratio at your peril ! Listening is an underrated part of the communication process. It is part of all the 2 day customer service training and telesales and telemarketing training that To Market carries out. There will be an audio CD available soon on the important topic of LISTENING SKILLS, follow this link to see the present range on communication skills topics http://www.associatedlearningsystems.co.uk/product_list.asp?Section=TELEPHONE%20COMMUNICATION%20SKILLS�

This story was given to me by Alan Agar who attended a recent telephone skills course with me in Manchester. The way he describes the key lesson is “knowing when to keep your mouth shut whilst in the process of making a sale.”   It is tempting to think that good telesales and effective sales techniques are all about talking – benefit selling. However good selling is as much about passive skills such as listening and keeping quiet. It was Mark Twain who famously said “better to be thought a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt.”   Alan’s story is as follows ; “I enquired about the purchase of a new peugeot 206 glx. I was  advised of the colour and the extras I wanted such as spoiler, alloy wheels etc, etc. Then the sales guy quoted a price which sounded reasonable, however just as I was about to commit to the sale he said “We won’t be beaten on price, you can try another peugeot dealer if you like.” I took his kind advice and went to a different dealer who swiftly undercut him by £300, this in turn started a “price war” between the two dealers ! The end result was that the initial salesman talked himself out of a 12k sale, and saved me some £450 in the process !” Thanks to Alan Agar for that salutary tale.   All the key parts of effective selling and professional telephone sales behaviour are covered in our 3 pack CD set http://www.associatedlearningsystems.co.uk/product_detail.asp?ProdID=16 These 3 CDs cover identifying needs, how to open a sales call and dealing with different customer attitudes.