TELEMARKETING – NEGATIVE & POSITIVE QUESTIONS

A very common mistake in telemarketing is negative questioning prospective customers. When you are contacting cold lines of customers, it’s important to be as positive as possible, not to help you convert to a sale, but for your own sanity as a telemarketer. It is no secret at all that rejection and negative reactions are common in the telemarketing industry, but that doesn’t mean you can’t make sales. In this post we will be exploring negative questioning, it’s impact and how you can change your approach for better quality calls and convert more sales in the long run!

NEGATIVE QUESTIONING

When talking to potential customers, an example of negative questioning could be ‘so, you wouldn’t be interested in signing up for our free trial?’ – this kind of questioning makes it easier for a prospect to say no because it allows them control over the rejection, without reasoning, and allows them control to end the call. As touched on above, if you have made this mistake in the past, you are not alone, this is one of the most common mistakes in the sales and telemarketing industry, but can be easily resolved. Essentially, negative questioning invites negative answers, and with that in mind, it’s easier to change your perception of the call than focus heavily on avoiding those negative questions.

TURNING NEGATIVE INTO POSITIVE

Negative questioning often stems from inexperience or a lack of confidence in the potential for a sale from the telemarketer. Changing your outlook on cold calling in general can really help to subconsciously avoid negative questioning. Seeing every call as an opportunity to engage and benefit your potential customer, will adjust your mindset and put more positivity into your tone and the way you control the call with your language. Instead of mirroring their negativity, seek the opportunity in their rejection, and find the solution.

Finding the solution isn’t necessarily going to be easy but positively questioning your prospect and getting an understanding of the reason they don’t want to buy or use your product or services will help you to build a successful call. Understand, study and implement ways to overturn common objections that you will experience from customers, and ensure you have an answer to their queries or worries by jotting down and recognising common questions asked of you. Use positive questioning to control the call and get as much out of it as you can.

Once you have learned how to maintain positivity throughout your calls, and have confidence in not only yourself, but your product/service, it’s time to start recognising positive phrases and questions that make the customer think and respond positively. This, again, will take some experience and trialling to nail, but every call is an opportunity to either learn something or make a sale.