No surprise, then, that the closing rate is low, necessitating a lot of telesales reps to improve the number of successful sales. As with any situation in which we need a lot of people to accomplish our business objectives, we tend to pay attention to productivity and cost, tracking these through standard call center metrics like calls made, appointments set, dollars sold, wrap time, and a host of other indicators.

We also need to pay attention to the message being delivered. What is said and how it’s delivered are the two most important things to consider; all the benchmarking and monitoring in the world won’t improve our sales figures if our cold calls aren’t engaging prospective customers.

What are the most important things to focus on when cold calling?

The Greeting: Say who you are, and say it early. One of the big mistakes telesales reps make is spending too long identifying the person they’ve reached.
Hello, is this Mr. Pettrati? Petralli? I’m sorry, PETRALLI! Thank you…

Sound familiar? Here’s what this all-too-common start to so many cold calls proves: We know how to mispronounce people’s names and we’re grateful when they correct us.

If you were the person answering the phone, what would you like to hear? How about:

Hello, this is Karen from Network Management Services.
Look, if I’m the prospect, I already know who I am. My idea of an engaging call does not begin by explaining how to pronounce my name to someone with whom I may have no interest in speaking.

The Small Talk: If you want to show an immediate lack of respect for my time, ask me how I’m doing today. This often-used cold calling technique is meant to establish rapport with the caller; in fact, it does just the opposite. Here’s why:
I know you don’t care how I’m doing today. You may be a very nice person, but whether I’m having a great day or a horrible day, a boring day or an exciting day will have absolutely no bearing whatsoever on your agenda for this call. If you don’t care, don’t waste my time by asking me.
I want to know why you’re calling me. Cold callers need to remember that they have just interrupted the life of the person they’ve reached. To me there is little difference between a cold call from a telemarketer and some uninvited stranger walking into my office: you better tell me why you’re there, and you better make it quick. By asking me how my day is going you are postponing telling me the real reason for your call. You are not building rapport with me; you’ve begun our relationship by aggravating me.
What should you say instead of asking someone how their day is going? Nothing; get to the point of why you’re calling. Karen (above) could say something as simple as:

I’m calling because we’ve just launched a managed network program that provides greater safety and significant savings to small and medium-sized businesses like yours.

Now I know who Karen is and what she wants, and because she has thus far been respectful of my time, I’m not inclined to hang up on her just yet.

The Compelling Reason: If you’re following me so far you understand the value of seeing things from the prospective customer’s point-of-view. What’s the next thing that you would need to hear to stay on the phone with a cold caller? How about a compelling reason to continue the call?
Bad example: I’d like to tell you about RemoteCare2, our most popular program since we launched it this year.
This statement isn’t compelling because it’s not about me; it’s about your company. Why do I, as a prospective customer, care about what’s been a big seller for you?

More compelling to me might be:

What technologies have you employed to reduce the cost of maintaining your network?

How do you currently apply daily security updates?
Notice that these are questions rather than statements. My goal here is twofold: 1) to compel you to let me continue and 2) to learn more about your needs by getting you to talk to me.

The Connection: Once you’ve given me a compelling reason to listen to you, continue to make the sales process easy for me. Make the connection for me between my needs and your products or services. For example:
I’m sure you take great care in the protecting the integrity of your data and proprietary information. Do you see how managed network services does essentially the same thing for your entire network?

Right, the consultation is free, and wouldn’t it be worth 30 minutes if you could save over $900 a year in software upgrades and service calls?
The Call to Action: Give me a reason for acting today and not tomorrow or next week. Make it more convenient, less expensive or in some other way in my best interest to give you my business now, rather than after I’ve hung up and gone back to my life.
Since we’ll be downtown on Wednesday, would 10 a.m. work for you? Or would it be more convenient for you after lunch?

It would be nice to get something in place now to help automate next month’s desktop rollout you mentioned. Should we set up a time to discuss this tomorrow afternoon?
The Commitment: You can follow all of these good ideas, and yet if I don’t hear enthusiasm and commitment in your voice, I won’t be convinced of the value in your product or service.
If you really think you can save me money, save me time, make me safer, make my life more enjoyable, etc. then you ought to love your job, because it’s wonderful to be of service like this! I ought to hear that in your voice. I don’t want hear someone who sounds like she’s reading from a script; I want to hear the conviction of a person who loves what she’s selling and is committed to her company because they are the best at what they do.

I want to feel like you’re sharing this opportunity with me because it’s the best thing you’ve done for your network, or if you managed a network this is one of the first things you’d invest in. As representatives of a company, telesales people are in a unique position to convey value, and they can only do this if they’re convinced of that value themselves.

What are the best ways to get telesales reps to convey enthusiasm though their voices?

Hire Well. There are some people who cannot modulate their voices to express enthusiasm over the phone. That’s natural, and it doesn’t mean they’re bad employees; it just means they shouldn’t be in a position where they’re required to do that to be successful in their job. As part of the interview process, make sure every candidate for a telesales job has a chance to impress you over the phone.
Train Sufficiently. There is a strong, direct correlation between training and employee satisfaction, and between employee satisfaction and employee performance. People work better when they’re happier, and they’re happier when they know what they’re doing. Provide enough training to your telesales reps so that they understand how the products and services they’re selling bring value to people’s lives.

Think it’s obvious? Think again. To convince me that I should buy from you, you’ll need to convince me:

How my life will be better with your product or service
Why you’re better than your competitors
What kind of support I’ll receive after the sale
What I have to gain by buying from you now as opposed to later
Why talking to you right now is the best use of my time and money.
Product training and telesales training are absolutely essential for cold callers because they are representatives of your company, making them the experts; if they can’t convince me why you’re the best, no one else can (nor is anyone else going to try)!

The best cold calls come from a well-trained, enthusiastic representative. Focusing on the message and how it’s delivered will help your telesales team to close more sales and ultimately become more successful in their jobs.