Ashley Solutions

After years of coaching sales and business people in a wide variety of
industries, there is one thing that stands out as an important
differentiating factor between those that have average success and
those that consistently soar. It is not enough to go on appointments,
send out fancy packets and pass your card around. You have to be
willing to become masterful at using the phone. Phone mastery is an
important business skill like any other. No matter how good you already
are you can always improve. Review these “quick tips” for making every
call count and next time you make some calls you will be more
successful.

Psyche Yourself Up
Do not simply locate the masterful the number and begin to dial.
Visualize the result you want before each call. See the person picking
up the phone, saying how glad they are to hear from you.

Preplan Your Points to Make
You do not n need to script every word you want to say. If you do you will
sound like those telemarketers that call you during dinner. Instead, jot
down key words that remind you of the points you want to make. Keep
your desired outcome from the call in mind.

Smile
Smile. Some phone experts suggest putting a mirror in front of you so
you can see yourself smiling. If you are listening to someone on the
phone, you can always tell if they are smiling, they sound different,
better, more inviting.

Ask for Agreement to Talk
Most people hate to be called by someone who starts a spiel as soon as
the phone is picked up. Once you reach your party, state your name,
why you are calling, and ask if they have a minute to talk. If they say no,
ask when would be a good time to call back. Make sure you call back at
that time. If you do, they will gladly give you their attention.

Read The Level of Rapport
You want to build rapport with the person you are speaking to. Some
people play “Relationship Geography” asking people questions to try
and find a person they know in common. This is fine if the person is
friendly, interested and has time to spare. Other people find this intrusive
and frustrating. You have to be able to gauge the level of warmth,
interest and enthusiasm of the person and match that level, plus just a
bit more. If they seem stoic, be a bit warmer than stoic. If they are
enthusiastic be a bit more enthusiastic.

Be Brief
In order to hold the attention of the listener and keep them engaged,
speak in short sentences. Do not use a marketing monologue.

Be Benefit Focused
What ever you say it has to matter to your potential customer and it has
to be of benefit to him/her. Think client-centered rather than self -
centered.

Open Ended Questions
Ask questions to help you identify how to better serve each potential
customer. Avoid yes/no questions ask open-ended questions that
require an explanation for an answer. For example instead of asking
how long have you been using product X, ask what has been the most
valuable benefit of using product X.

Ask Questions that Identify Challenges
Your job is to solve the client’s challenges, make the client’s life easier,
or make their business more profitable. Ask what are the biggest
problems they are facing in their business, and figure out how to
address those challenges. If you can do that, you will have many loyal
customers.

Ask for What You Want
Do not hang up the phone before you asking for what you want. Even if
you think you will not get it, ask anyway. You may be pleasantly
surprised with the answer. If you do this consistently and you are making
enough calls, eventually you will be successful.

Use An Accent to Your Advantage
If you have an accent and have mastered the other tips discussed here,
use your accent to your advantage. People with accents sound
appealing, and people like to listen to them. If they ask you about your
accent, use it as an opportunity to ask them about themselves and build
rapport.

Call When You Said You Would
Make sure you call exactly when you said you would. Even though your
potential client may not remember when you said you would call back,
by doing so, you create urgency and trust.

Follow-up Immediately
If you have agreed to send out information or fax over a registration form
do it immediately. This also creates urgency, if you are urgent the
potential client may also respond urgently allowing you to get your goal
sooner.

Track Your Calls
Set a goal for yourself every week and decide how many calls you are
going to make. Estimate how long it will take you to make that many
calls and block the time on your schedule. Act as if it was an
appointment with a client, the call time you set aside to develop new
clients must be viewed as very important.

Pick Up The Receiver
The more you do call the easier it gets. The more you do call the better
you get. The better you get the better the results. The only way to get
masterful at using the phone is to use the phone and apply these tips to
make every call count.

Caterina Rando, MA, MCC coaches entrepreneurs and direct sellers to
be innovative in their thinking and action in order to succeed with ease.
She is a sought after speaker, master certified coach and author of the
national best-seller Learn to Power Think. Caterina is also the Success
Center Director for the Direct Selling Women’s Alliance and contributing
author to the soon to be released book Build it Big-101 Secrets of Top
Direct Selling Experts. Caterina can be reached by email at cpr@caterinar.com. Visit her website at
www.caterinar.com for more articles and a beautiful, colorful
downloadable daily inspiration card.

Is your business experiencing a summer time slump? Traditionally only industries related to travel enjoy a boost in business during the warmer months. The rest of us tend to take vacations, clean up our desk and while away the time playing computer games while we wait for business to pick up.

Summer time can and should be a time when business owners prepare for the marketing they will do for the rest of the year and handle tasks they have been putting off when business is brisk.

Some of the marketing tasks that can be handled during the summer are:

1. Turn previously dead leads into sales. Contact everyone who expressed an interest in your product or services but did not follow through. They may have more time to consider your offers during the summer and you might be able to reach them more easily if their secretary is on vacation.

2. Create and begin to market that newsletter you always planned on starting.

3. Write a press release related to summer time activities and send it to appropriate newspapers both on-line and off-line.

4. Ask a few business associates to review and offer suggestions about your marketing materials. Update your materials to get them ready for the busier times ahead.

Next start getting ready for the future with the following tasks:

1. Write at least twelve articles related to your business and have them proofread and edited until they are polished. You will submit one article each month for the next year to appropriate publications.

2. Create a web site marketing plan. Research web site promotion on the internet and create a list of items that you can work on for the next several months.

3. Develop several contests for your web site visitors and newsletter subscribers that you can run regularly during the year. Prepare advertising text, rules and decide on prizes.

4. Contact your local Chamber of Commerce and offer to speak at a fall or winter event. Write your speech and practice it until you feel comfortable working without notes.

5. Research and budget for e-zine and newsletter advertising for the next twelve months. Set up a tickler file to remind you when to submit and pay for your ads.

Grab a glass of lemonade and get started on using the summer months to your advantage. Implement just a few of the ideas in this article every summer and watch your sales soar all year round!

About The Author

Bonnie Jo Davis is a Virtual Assistant specializing in frugal marketing. Bonnie is also the author of the e-book “Articles That Sell.” For more information about Bonnie visit http://www.ArticlesThatSell.com.