This is one area that causes more sleepless nights than any other area, why, because with the telephone we get so much rejection. People do anything to avoid phoning and I’ve seen it all throughout the years working with consultants in financial services. The most successful people make daily phoning a habit, they will phone for one or two hours every day. They just focus on results. Their only aim during that phoning period is to set up two or three appointments and nothing will distract them until they have achieved their result. So let’s analyse what it takes to get results with the telephone. What are the words you have to use - how do you go about using the phone properly? There are some common mistakes when using the phone. A lot of people use a slapdash approach. They’re not at all prepared. Their desks are piled up with papers and they’ll start phoning very enthusiastically. If their first call rejects them, the enthusiasm starts to wane and this will reflect in their voice tone. If they don’t get the next appointment they become more dejected and by the third call they would have no enthusiasm at all and by the fourth call all those papers on the desk become extremely important. To avoid further rejection, they busy themselves with paperwork, emails and they leave that day saying ‘I’ve had such a hard day, paperwork has kept me busy’. But guess what, they’ve used that to avoid using the phone. In my new book ‘Walking with Tigers’, I share the research done with 500 superstars in the financial services industry and how belief and focus is their driving force. The true champions and big producers realise the importance of the telephone, and will phone for one or two hours focussing only on results, not failure. It doesn’t matter how many prospects say no, they focus only on getting three prospects to see them. Their desks have no papers or anything else that can distract them; all they have on their desk is their prospect list, diary and telephone. Some consultants can actually be too pushy. Always remember, people are busy and they could be in the middle of an important meeting, so always use your better judgement. Sometimes we have to think about our voice tone as well. Are we speaking too loud or too softly and are we confident? What you have is somebody sitting at the other end of the telephone line, they don’t know who you are, you can’t see them, they can’t see you, but you still have to introduce yourself, introduce your company, you have to establish rapport and sell the appointment. And that’s all you sell, the appointment, nothing else. You don’t get involved in any product or technical talk; all you sell is the appointment. One of the big secrets is that proper prior planning prevents pathetically poor performance. So the better you prepare, the better you plan, the more successful you’re going to be on the phone. Think about planning your calls, set goals and targets, knowing your ratios, plan breaks and set yourself mini targets. Plan breaks as well, if you feel your energy lagging, take a small break, have a cup of coffee or water but then get straight back to the phone. You’ve got to prepare yourself emotionally as well. Have all the information available. Don’t make two calls and then have to get up and scratch around for your prospects. Have your prospect list in front of you, time yourself, mentally rehearse the call, go through it in your mind, and use relaxation techniques. Don’t sit and cross your legs, sit openly and confidently and sometimes even stand up. Create interest and sound enthusiastic. Adopt a naturally enthusiastic voice, don’t be over the top, don’t be too exuberant, speak clearly, emphasizing your name and that of your company and don’t ask any insincere or silly questions. You also need to appreciate the client’s concerns. Put yourself in their shoes and try and see things from their point of view. What I want you to do is get a pen and paper and just write down the first thing that comes to your mind when I ask you this question. The first thing I want you to write down is a number between 1 and 10. The next thing I want you to write down is a colour, a piece of furniture, a flower and lastly, a vegetable. Most people would say that they’re not conditioned to certain words and wouldn’t have one correct answer. Well I bet that the average person would have two or three of the answers that I am going to give you now. The first was a number between one and ten and the majority of people would write down number seven. Most people would once again give red as the colour and a chair for the piece of furniture. As for the flower, most people would choose the rose and a carrot for the vegetable. Now I’m sure you’re going to have at least two or three on that list. What does that prove? It proves that people are conditioned to certain words and certain responses. When I joined the financial services industry in 1980, I was given one of these telephone prompters and we were taught to learn it all verbatim. It was cumbersome and probably developed by someone who had never actually been in the field themselves. There were about fifteen objections with answers to every objection and these I wrote down on flipcharts and pasted them all over my office. I had a swivel chair and if the prospect gave me an objection, I would swivel around and read out the answer. The problem was that after two hours of swivelling, I would be punch drunk. What I needed was one answer that could overcome any objection. So let’s go through the script and see if it can work for you. The first thing to use is the prospects name ‘Joe Bloggs please’, because who is the most important person to him, ‘Joe Bloggs’. At this stage I would normally ask if this is a convenient time to speak, as I don’t want to go through my complete script while they are in the middle of an important meeting. Next, I would simply introduce my Company and myself. ‘Joe this is Frank Furness from XYZ Financial Services, how are you today’ and you smile. Now I’ve tried using a variation just recently and it has been, ‘Joe Bloggs please. Joe this is Frank Furness from XYZ, you don’t know me but can I have five minutes of your time just to explain who I am and the reason for the call’. And I’ve been very successful, just about everyone has said to me, sure no problem at all. I would then say if I was referred, ‘Joe has Peter Michaels mentioned my name lately’ and it doesn’t matter what they say, I just answer,’ ‘that’s fine’. If it were a cold call, I would say ‘Has my name been mentioned to you lately’, which sometimes leads them to think that they are a referral. Or if it were a follow up to a pre approach letter, I would say ‘did you receive the letter that I sent to you?’ It does not matter what their response is, I will always reply ‘that’s fine’ Now you go into the actual script. Now the script is one line long, that’s all it is. Here’s the script. ‘Joe as you may be aware; XYZ Financial Services have recently developed some ideas on savings and security/ retirement planning/ children’s education (choose one) for people like yourself.’ A variation that you can use is this. ‘Joe, I am from XYZ Financial Services and we specialise in helping engineers like yourself to plan their financial futures.’ Once again, short and sweet, we’re the specialists, we specialise in helping expats to plan for their financial futures Now you go into the close. ‘We’d be happy to drop by and give you the opportunity of seeing it and we’re going to be in your area on Friday at three or Wednesday at two. Which would be better?’ The old method would be, I’d like to set up an appointment to come and see you. He’s not going to be thinking yes or no. He’s going to be thinking, which is more convenient, Wednesday or Friday, and whatever answer he gives you, that’s your appointment. So this is your script, learn your script verbatim. Have it written down in front of you, learn it and put your expression and enthusiasm into it. If you already have a script that works very well for you, don’t change it, but if you could get better results, try some of these ideas. For more scripts take a look at my audio series on telephoning and setting up appointments calles ‘Telephone Sales Skills for Winners’ Now, if they haven’t granted us the appointment, we have to answer their objections. What are some of the common objections you’re going to get? ‘I’m too busy, I’m not interested, I’m already looked after’ and a few others. Once again, the script that I learned many years ago comes up with an answer to almost any objection and is short and sweet. Whatever their objection is, your answer would be: ‘that’s ok Joe; we find this is the case with most people even before we ring, all I’m asking for is the courtesy of forty minutes of your time so that should you have some areas of interest either now or in the future, you will know what’s available. I’m going to be in your area on Wednesday at three or Friday at four, which would suit you better? So think about it have fun, meet with other consultants, phone together, set yourself small targets and avoid some of the common mistakes. One last thing with phoning, remember the people who show the most resistance are the ones that will buy. They know that they have to do something. Please take a look at ‘Sales Strategies for Financial Advisors’ Frank Furness CSP CFP is a professional speaker and trainer specialising in sales and sales management. He has educated, entertained and inspired audiences in 42 countries. His publications and sales CDs have been sold globally. For more information or to sign up for the free ‘Sales Tips & Ideas’ newsletter, email frank@frankfurness.com or telephone+ 44 (0) 1923 248200. http://www.frankfurness.com Free Ebooks and software – http://www.frankfurnessresources.com/freebies NOTE: You're welcome to "reprint" this article online as long as it remains complete and unaltered (including the "about the author" info at the end), and you send a copy of your reprint to frank@frankfurness.com Take a look at other articles, free software and e-Books at http://www.frankfurness.com/ Download 39 Power Sales Closing Scripts at http://www.frankfurness.com/closingscripts.cfm
Frank Furness CSP CFP is an international speaker and trainer specialising in sales, technology and management. For free software and ebooks go to http://www.frankfurnessresources.com
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