Partner Article

Top telesales tips

It’s retail focus week on Bdaily. Here, June Forsyth, leader of The Bayford Foundation, which is investing up to £5,000 to support long term unemployed on an ’earn as you learn’ training programme in Hunslet, Leeds, shares some of their top sales tips.

At a pioneering job creation foundation spearheaded by BE Fuel Cards, recruits are learning a wealth of telesales tips and techniques - from picking up the phone to building valued relationships with customers.

To ensure success, all outbound calling should be well planned and carried out in a logical sequence - A.I.D.A. fits this format nicely - and the salesperson can follow it with confidence with the aim of achieving a successful sale:

A - Attention

There should be a crisp and cheery start to your call in order to catch the customer’s attention and to show that you are paying attention to them; it should also identify a potential benefit for your customer.

I - Interest

At this point you should build interest by asking the customer questions to find out their needs. Using this information you will then be able to match the benefits the customer requires. Questioning can be very short or a lengthy process in order to enable you to gather a commitment from the customer and ensuring the customer is left with the right product for them cuts down the risk of losing the sale or having the product returned at a later date.

D – Desire

The desire for the customer to own the product builds as the customer comes to see the benefits of your product match their individual business needs.

A – Action

The action stage is the closing stage - the point at which you have to ask the customer to purchase the product and the pinnacle of all the work, time, effort and money. There are three main methods used to bring a sale to a successful conclusion:

• Dual positive suggestion - Asking a dual positive question - where you ask two questions that both have a positive outcome - such as “will you be paying cash or credit card?” - Both implied answers still have the result that the payment would be made.
• The concession method - Suggest a larger quantity, knowing the customer will settle for a little less, will often close the sale.
• The silent method - Having reached the end of the sales presentation, the skilful salesperson can go silent and remain that way so the customer will feel obliged to speak and make an order.

Once the sale is made, you will be able to explain how the purchase will be taken forward - in some cases this will be the delivery of an item, for you, confirmation of a plan for the future.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by The Bayford Foundation .