Telesales Tips From The Trenches, Part One

You look out your window and see your neighbors pull out of driveway and begin the long trek through to get to their job. With coffee in hand you feel a sense of elation that you don’t have to deal with the headaches of driving to work and watching woman put on their makeup while they drive and men trying to scarf down that delicious Burger King egg and sausage croissant while listening to the radio and yelling at the other drivers. You start to slowly sit down and sift through your e-mail slightly glancing at the clock to see that it’s almost 8:00 a.m. You think to yourself, “I have one hour to muster up the strength and pick up that phone!” It is now 3 hours later; the e-mail has been checked and double checked; the dog has been walked…twice. Now two cups of coffee are flowing through your body and you feel alive fully knowing that lunch is right around the corner. Then that little voice in your head tells you to stop screwing off and pick up the phone and start calling! “Nah, I’ll get to that after lunch.”

Joe Catal has done a great job at debunking some of the myths about telemarketing. In his book, aptly named, “Telesales Tips From The Trenches: Secrets Of a Street-Smart Salesman.” he provides a no holds barred approach to picking up that infamous phone!

Here’s a little secret you may not know. Telemarketing doesn’t suck; it’s the pending feeling of rejection that sucks! As a new insurance agent you should expect to be rejected a minimum of 100 times a week, and that’s if you’re doing real well.

I’m a naturally motivated type of guy. You tell me something negative and I’m immediately thinking how I can turn it into a positive. Joe takes a similar approach to how he handles himself on the phone by:

Averaging 100+ calls per day since 1985 and hearing over 350,000 No’s.

Throughout the book Joe provides real life stories (my favorite) and examples about how to write an effective opening; answer objections without sounding superfluous or ignorant; techniques to find hot leads and steal accounts (another one of my favorites), while laying a strong foundation by asking the right question and ASKING for the order when the time is right.

His thoughts about time management and techniques to increase the effectiveness of listening were entertaining and insightful.

The customer should be talking 75% of the time…NEVER interrupt a person while they’re talking.

Raise your hand if you’ve ever interrupted another person when they were in the middle of talking. Did you feel that awkward moment where you both wait about 2 seconds and speak at the same time? Next time, keep the mouth shut and if you do happen to interrupt, count to 5 in your head.

The material in his book does come off very strong, but I’ve noticed an increased level of confidence and control after implementing some of this strategies.

In conclusion, some of the material is not worth reading if you cannot control the pricing of your products, nor negotiate said product. However, I do give this book 5 stars and highly recommend you pick up a copy, grab a highlighter and implement some of the material IMMEDIATELY! You can pick up a copy by clicking on the link above or to the right in the section entitled, “My Favorites.”

In Part Two, I’ll share my input about how I was able to overcome my apprehension about telemarketing, as well as recommend a few tricks I’ve learned that reduce my stress and help me to feel more comfortable on the phone.