If you’re in sales, it’s likely you spend a lot of time talking to people on the phone. If that’s the case, you may have suffered through a miserable phone conversation every once in a while. You know the type — those calls where you find yourself at a loss for words, or the person on the other end of the line seems to have earned a Master’s degree in remaining unresponsive and giving short, non-descript answers.
Calls like those are tough on the egos of even the most seasoned salespeople, and they’re generally not experiences anyone looks forward to repeating anytime soon. What can you do to help avoid them?
How to Talk to Anyone on the Phone
Luckily, there are a few things you can do to evade phone calls that can only be described as “uncomfortable.” If you’re wondering how to talk to a client over the phone in a way that will keep the conversation flowing freely, here are some tips that can help:
Be Prepared
While you may already have your sales pitch memorized, you need to do more to prepare for a phone call with a client. You’re not going to launch right into your pitch, after all. Take some time and come up with some conversation starters that sound natural.
One highly effective way to start a conversation is to ask a question about something your client is experiencing, such as the weather. Doing this can help your client become invested in the conversation by building rapport.
Ask Open-Ended Questions and Relate
Instead of asking questions that normally solicit a one-word response, ask open-ended questions as you talk to your clients. Open-ended questions will get your clients talking about themselves, which will help them establish a connection with you and give you the chance to know them better.
This type of inquiry will also give you the opportunity to relate to what your client has shared with you. It’s important to do this because a successful conversation is never a one-way street where one person does all of the sharing.
Be Explicit
When you’re talking to your clients on the phone, they can’t see your movements or facial expressions. They can only rely on your words to understand what you’re saying because there aren’t any nonverbal clues they can use to interpret your words.
For this reason, it’s critical to choose your words carefully and be explicit with what you have to say. This is particularly important if you’re going to attempt to infuse humor, which could be misinterpreted, into a conversation.
Keep Things Short
In general, it’s likely that you’ll talk to a client several times before you close a sale. With this in mind, it’s critical to respect your clients’ time. If you’re long-winded during your first conversation with a client, it’s possible the person will be hesitant to take your follow-up call or that the individual will simply refuse to answer calls from you in the future. When in doubt, operate under the premise that less is more, and keep things short.
Keeping things short does more than demonstrate your respect for a person’s time. It also reduces the chances that you’ll experience an awkward gap in the conversation.
While we can’t help you talk to your clients, we can provide a phone dialer that can help your agents increase their call volume by as much as 300 percent. Contact EVS7 to learn more today!
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