People respond much better to a phone call than they do to a lot of other sales devices. Not only is a phone call much more personalised than, say, an email or a Facebook wall post, but it gives you an opportunity to tailor your speech to what the customer wants to hear, and gives you an opportunity to overcome their objections.

However, as powerful a technique as the phone call is, it also provides you with considerably more opportunity to alienate your clients that you get with most other sales techniques. Follow these three techniques to optimise your results when calling clients over the phone.

Bypass the Guards

As they say in sales, timing is everything. This is true in the most literal sense when you’re dealing with telephone marketing. The time of the day that you call can make or break you chances of success.

If you are calling a new client while they’re at work, you run the risk of getting stopped by gatekeepers, particularly if they’re a busy professional or manager. Gatekeepers are the secretaries and administrative personnel who surround your potential client or partner, and insist on taking a message. Bypass them by calling after before 9 am or after 5 pm. They’ll have gone home, leaving your client to take calls for themself.

Avoid Calling Your Clients at Home

Lastly, you run a risky gambit by calling people at home after work. People’s schedules vary widely, and you can never be sure that you’re calling at an appropriate time when you reach someone at home during the week. Calling a client during dinner or while they’re unwinding later is one sure fire to ruin the relationship. Unless it’s an emergency, save it for the daytime or the weekend.

Always Smile

Its sounds silly, but make sure that you’re happy while you’re talking to your clients. You can project confidence and enthusiasm through the telephone, and a lot of this is controlled by whether you’re smiling and thinking enthusiastically about building the relationship or selling your product.

On this same note, make sure to sound professional. Even more so than in face-to-face conversation, you can’t rely on pauses like “um” and “uh” to break up your sentences in a telephone call, and you must remember to be polite, and fill your speech with “thank you” and other words of consideration.

By following these few simple tips, you can improve your existing client relationships, and build new ones, over the telephone.

Happy marketing!

Sean

Sean McPheat

Marketing Consultant – Sales Expert - Motivational Speaker

While the elevator pitch isn’t actually used in elevators (although it could be), the name alludes to the fact that it should ideally take about the same amount of time as a typical elevator ride.

The basic idea of the elevator pitch is to give potential customers an idea of what your business does, why it does it better than your competitors, and how you can translate your past successes into future benefits for them.

Keep it Updated

It’s essential to keep your elevator pitch updated as your business changes, and as your role within your business changes. You wouldn’t air the same commercials year in and year out, would you? Neither should you use the same sales pitch to clients from year to year.

Related to this is the importance of tailoring your speech to different groups of customers. While one subset of customers may care more about the potential cost savings afforded by your product or service, another group may be much more concerned with effectiveness, quick delivery, or any other aspect of your business. Stress the parts of your business that are most likely to appeal to the customer you are currently pitching to.

Nail the Delivery

Like with any kind of face-to-face sales, the key to your elevator pitch is in the delivery. You only really have one chance to delivery your pitch perfectly, which means that you have to understand your customer and understand what they are looking for.

Even more importantly, you have to make your pitch relevant and exciting. Open with an appeal to emotion, with a surprising statistic, or with anything that will catch your potential client’s attention and get him engaged. Once you’ve done this, you  can move into statistics, or the nuts and bolts of what benefits they stand to gain by using your product or service.

Above all, be confident. If you aren’t 110% sure of your product, then nobody else will be either.

Keep your elevator pitch relevant and updated, and when you get a chance to use, make sure that your delivery is perfect. In this way, you can make sure that when you get a chance to speak with a potential customer, you can bring them in every time.

Happy marketing!

Sean

Sean McPheat

Marketing Consultant – Sales Expert - Motivational Speaker

Are you the same way about your job? Considering the economy I can’t say that I’d blame you if you felt this way every once in a blue moon but even if you do you can’t let the way you really feel shine through. You need to dig deep and find the enthusiasm you once felt towards your job and the products you sell.

Why?

Because you’re not a very good liar. None of us are. Our disdain – our lack of belief, our lack of commitment – shows on our faces and can be heard in our voices. You might try to appear enthusiastic on a bad day but your facial expressions and overall body language will give it away. You just don’t care about what you’re doing so why should your prospects?

Take a step back and consider what you look like when you speak to others. Practice speaking to yourself in the mirror (especially when you don’t feel like it) so that you can learn how to alter your outward appearance. Practice makes perfect and if you keep practicing it won’t matter if you’re upset, tired, or even sick on the day of your next presentation – you’ll still appear as if you really, truly care.

Sean

Sales Expert - Marketing Consultant – Motivational Speaker

Reading body language based soley on the activity of the legs is difficult – often impossible. In most cases you have to consider the activity in the legs along with other signals such as the arms and torso or the face.

Start by looking at the legs alone, though. If the person you are speaking to is bouncing or fidgeting with his legs he is conveying some sort of negative emotion. Leg fidgeting usually signals that an individual is feeling some type of anxiety or sense of uncertainty.

A person who fidgets his legs and crosses his arms is sending a very distinct message. He has closed himself off from you. He’s uncomfortable, uninterested, or angry.

If you notice a person fidgeting or closing himself of you’ll need to take a moment to figure out what went wrong. Does your prospect or client have an unanswered question? Did something about your presentation make him uncomfortable?

Take the time to STOP and ask them what they think. Most people are more likely to tell you how they feel after being asked than they are to stop and tell you on their own.

Being able to effectively observe a person’s body language isn’t something you’re going to be able to do overnight. It’ll take practice but, in the end, the results will be well worth the studying effort. Keep working at it and you’ll be suprised at how much you can read into people as you make your future presentations.

Sean

Sales Expert - Marketing Consultant – Motivational Speaker

So what are some of the closed postures you might see?

• Crossed arms are very common but don’t misinterpret them. A person with crossed arms may be protecting himself but in some cases may just be cold.
• Hunched shoulders usually indicate that a person feels inferior but in some cases may convey a sense of disinterest.
• You may see people who exhibit very rigid body postures. In most cases these people are either very anxious or uptight. But why?
• Finger tapping or fidgeting hands usually indicate that a person is anxious, agitated, or bored. In some cases it means that the person has something to say. Have you been running at the mouth too long?

While negative postures may be discouraging, don’t lose heart. Take them as signs that there may be an issue that needs to be addressed. Hopefully, after doing so, you’ll begin to see some of the more positive open postures:

• People who remain very still are usually interested in what you have to say.
• Individuals who lace their fingers and place their hands behind their head are very open to your ideas.
• Those who lean forward are usually interested in hearing your words.
• Individuals who mirror your own actions are conveying that they like you and what to hear what you have to share.

The arms and torso reveal a lot about what a person is thinking. Combine this information with what you’ve learned about the eyes and face and you’ll be well on your way to successfully reading body language and using those readings to enhance your presentations.

Sean

Sales Expert - Marketing Consultant – Motivational Speaker

The eyes may be the window to the soul, but there is certainly more to the face than the eyes. The second most important part of the face is the mouth. Watch the mouth of the person you are speaking with and look for the following:

• Smiles or upward curves in the corner of the mouth usually indicate a positive reception.
• Frowns or downward curves usually have a negative connotation.
• Relaxed lips are usually a positive sign and reflect happiness.
• Tightly pursed lips tend to reflect a sense of confusion, negativity, or discomfort.

Combine what you know about the lips with what you already know about the eyes and it’ll be even easier to confirm the emotions your prospect is conveying. The trick now is figuring out what to do once you’ve identified a negative emotion. How will you handle the perceived objection?

Sean

Sales Expert - Marketing Consultant – Motivational Speaker

The four main areas of body language are eye contact (including eye brow gestures), facial expressions, torso and arm behavior, and leg activity. Today we’ll explore the eyes.

The eyes and eyebrows tell amazing stories. You can usually determine right away if someone understands what you’re saying by studing this area of the face. You can read both positive and negative emotions in the eyebrows, as follows:

• Direct eye contact usually means your audience is interested in you or likes you.
• Eyes that appear to be smiling are comfortable in your presence.
• Eyebrows that appear relaxed are also comfortable in your presence.
• Someone who makes very little eye contact (or none at all) is either lying, uncomfortable, distracted, or simply uninterested in what you have to say. They may also feel nervous and confined.
• Tension in the eyebrow region usually means your prospect is confused, tense, or fearful.

Knowing what these signs means will make it easier for you to communicate with your prospects.

What would you do if, for example, you asked a prospect if he had any questions but he responded “no” while scrunching his eyebrows. This indicates that, despite his verbal answer, he still has some sort of reservation or concern. Your job is to figure out what that concern is and address it.

Try not to “misread” people, though. If a car outside the window honks his horn your prospect may divert his eyes to see what is going on. That shouldn’t be taken as a sign of disinterest, especially if he brings his attention back to you again.

We’re going to spend some time exploring body language and hopefully this has given you a good foundation to start from. Start watching people’s eyes as you speak to them. You’ll be surprised at the signals they’re really sending.

Sean

Sales Expert - Marketing Consultant – Motivational Speaker