Guest post by Lynn Hidy, founder, principal coach and certified sales trainer at UpYourTeleSales, LLC.
Whether you are an inside salesperson or merely use the phone as one of your channels for print sales, you can improve your success by controlling the pace of the call.
It is very common for salespeople — newcomers and veterans alike — to blurt out an introduction, followed by a quick “how-are-you-today” (without waiting for an answer), and then launch into a sales pitch.
It becomes a sales monologue instead of conversation.
The salesperson’s instinct, of course, is to get as much information out before the person on the other end hangs up.
It may seem counter-intuitive, but we simply must slow down.
Rushing causes anxiety, confusion, miscommunication and mistrust. We cannot hope to have an effective sales conversation under those conditions.
One of the first things I work on with my sales training clients is to break a phone call into components. When we practice each distinct part of the call, we start to unlearn the habit of spewing out everything at once.
I remind clients that they can control the call more effectively with pauses, softening statements, and genuine questions — after which they truly listen.
When we first start working on the tempo and pacing of the phone call, clients often think they are speaking too slowly. They worry they are wasting time — their own time and that of their prospect.
Their perception is that they sound ridiculous and unprofessional.
They don’t.
In fact, when we record the training sessions, no matter what else we are working on, salespeople get better feedback from their teammates and from their calling subjects when they simply slow down their delivery and control the pace of the call.
It’s basic, and it works.
The next time you make a sales call, consciously practice slowing down your speech and pausing before answering. I think you’ll be happily surprised by your results.
Lynn Hidy is founder, principal coach and certified sales trainer at UpYourTeleSales, LLC in Paul Smiths, New York. She works with inside sales professionals and their managers, helping great teams become fantastic. Her refreshing “off kilter” approach to sales training has a proven track record among high tech, production print, and executive sales management clients, who use her strategies to sell more creatively and effectively. Connect with Lynn on LinkedIn http://www.linkedin.com/in/lynnhidy and feel free to request her e-book “It’s All About the Pauses,” part of her UpYourTeleSales ™ Transformational Communication Series.
