An online site for call centres published an article about conversational selling. One point made in the article relates to the use of conversational selling rather than the use of scripts. I have discussed this in a previous blog entitled “Call Centre Scripting”. People tend to know when the person on the other end of the phone is reading from a script. The conversation is stilted and does not flow naturally. One of the worst ways to start off a conversation is from an obvious script. Conversations by nature flow naturally so “Can I speak to the owner of the business?” Or “I am calling today to speak to you about X product” sound scripted and will be spotted by the gatekeeper straightaway. Open with the contacts name wherever possible. “Could I speak to Dave Johnson please?” 90% of the time you will be asked “who’s calling please?” then just give your name but don’t volunteer any other information unless asked. This is always a good footing to start a call and once you have settled into the call, the conversation should flow naturally.

Does your call centre or telemarketing agency suffer from repeated sickness or absence and are you doing enough to combat this. Most businesses across the country will find from time to time sickness related absences will be a problem. Now for the majority of cases this is probably due to genuine circumstances but there are invariably some cases where people have the day off just because they feel like it.

The question is what can be done about it. Some companies offer a bonus schemes that reward not only employees performance at work but also their attendance. This makes employees think twice about having time off just because it happens to be sunny outside or for other unknown reasons.

One of the best ways to improve absences is to implement a sickness and absence policy where people have to have a back to work interview after short periods of absence. This again encourages people not to take the day if they are going to be questioned about it when they return. Whichever policy you decide to implement you need to make sure all employees understand it and most importantly your call centre or telemarketing agency needs to adhere to it.

More and more telemarketing agencies are replacing their old whiteboards with new plasma or LCD displays, reports a popular online call centre magazine. On the face of it, for very little money you can get a relatively inexpensive 42 inch LCD screen, (£600 or less) hook it up to a computer on the office network and with very little effort have a smart new display showing your agents performance.
There is a downside to this however. Careful consideration needs to be put into what you are showing on these screens. If you have too much information you risk losing time as agents keep looking to the screens, waiting for them to update and to generally keep abreast of their performance. Too little information and you might as well have kept the whiteboard. The general consensus seems to be, keep it short and simple displaying only essential data. Anything that takes longer than a couple of seconds to read and you could be frittering away valuable calling time.

Any Comments

So a very Merry Christmas and prosperous New Year for 2010.

Make sure you have sound background knowledge and use terminology that makes you sound knowledgeable. The point of this is that if you yourself believe in what you are promoting it comes through in the conversation.

The last point to remember is that you are not trying to get something for nothing. Convince the decision maker of this and you are home dry.

Now we may not think so but our emotions do come through when we are having telephone conversations. The person on the other end can generally get an idea if you are fed up or distracted in anyway. Smiling whilst you dial not only instills trust with the person you are talking to it also brightens up the conversation.

So the next time you reach for the phone remember smile before you dial – it works!

The problem then for telemarketers is getting sidetracked and mismanagement of these leads. Data should always be time-scaled in order of priority with the most likely prospects first and then filter down to the less attractive ones. The quick sell is not always the best as some of these can just as easy turn into dead ends. Some of the best leads are ones you have cultivated you could find yourself talking to the prospect 2 or 3 times before closing the deal.

Keep you eyes on the ball and don’t try juggling to many at once, this way you won’t let your leads slip through you fingers.

Telemarketing is a serious job that can be very good for company’s running campaigns in this way.