the buzz wrote:
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QUOTE:
Good afternoon , my name is steve , im calling from the buzz magazine in leeds, please could i speak to the person who deals with your advertising?
If I were on the other end of the phone that would start my alarm bells ringing, I would instantly think 'annoying sales person, how can i get them off the phone'. Please don't be offended I am a salesman myself so I know the responses. Also it opens up the question or what I call the diversion killer question "May I ask what it's regarding?" You want to try and avoid this because you will try and have to explain briefly enough to her what it is about before she will put you through and not fall into the trap of giving your sales pitch to the receptionist and her cutting the call dead at that point.
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QUOTE:
hi we are currently producing a free full colour local directory for south leeds , it will cover such areas such as belle isle beeston , middleton and hunslet , our advertsing rates start from as little as £20 per month , would it be of interest yo you?
The downfall with this "script" is just that, it sounds too robotic to much like a script. Also right at the end you are offering the potential customer an easy option out without even considering. This closing line
"Would it be of interest to you?" that is a perfect opportunity for the prospect to just say no thank you and goodbye. You don't want that, you want to try and keep them interested. Also you say currently producing free etc, does that suggest that eventually it will be a cost based directory and would the interest from the consumer then be less from when it was free??
Ok, you don't have to always start the call with Good Morning/Good Afternoon, I know its polite but what about friendly also? Try using
"Hello there, my name is blah" on occasions or something similar to break down the monotony of the script you already have, that way you won't fall into the trap of sounding like a robot.
Also, it sounds like you want to just bombard them with information straight away, the key is to get them talking about themselves, their business etc. A good salesman is 80% listening 20% talking give or take a few percent. If you listen to the prospect you can better cater a personal script for them ad lib to a certain degree.
Also why do it all in one call, why don't you just create touches, it makes the cold call a little warmer. for instance why not on the first call just get the name of the person who you would need to speak to and even have a little chat with the receptionist/operator, importantly get their name for the next touch, you may just brighten their day up a little by having a chat with them (but don't spend all day chatting).
So an example would be:-
"Hello there, my name is Joe Bloggs calling from Buzz Magazine, I am researching how companies advertise and if they their methods are effective, could I speak to someone who would deal with that?"
This opening tells them who you are and where your from and a bit about what your call is about, and even though you are saying researching your not lying because you should research what how your customers currently advertise so you can compare. There are two positive responses that could come from that opening: The receptionist will say "the person you need to speak to is 'blah blah' I will put you through", good response or they will say "the person you need to speak to is 'blah blah' but they are not available right now." This is still a good response because you have the name of the person you need to speak to so the next time you call you can say "Good Morning can I speak to 'Blah Blah' please"
There are obviously the negative responses who will not give you a name and not put you through but telesales isn't all plain sailing it just depends on how you deal with it personally.
Now the reason I started with the research opening statement is because as I said you need to get the prospect talking about themselves, you can use any information they give you in the next call/s for instance, you get through to the person and you say
"Hello Mr/s Blah, Carol just put me through from reception, she advised me you were the person that could help me, I would really appreciate a few minutes of your time to find out about your advertising techniques and whether or not you get a good return on your investment?" That straight away is an open question and hopefully will get them talking about their business etc so you are gathering information and warming them up, people buy people and if they feel you are interested in them and their business they are more likely to spend with you.
Once you get them talking then you throw in call to action lines such as JonGoves1 pointed out above. Never give the prospect the easy option of saying NO, and the only way to do that is let them talk and ask them open question and nurcher them into a sale.
I'm not saying this is the fool proof way but it works for me in my line of business so I am sure if you manipulate your script a bit it could work for you also.
Good luck with any new techniques you try.
Best Regards
C.
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