Selling Techniques and Skills Call Agent Training PDF

‘EPICENTRE’ S.A., Greece Page 1 CALL AGENTS TRAINING COURSE C 4: SELLING TECHNIQUES AND SKILLS by EPICENTRE S.A. C4_SELLING TECHNIQUES AND SKILLS by Eugenia Papaioannou, Vocational Training Organisation EPICENT‘E S.A., Greece ‘EPICENTRE’ S.A., Greece Page 2 The module C 4 - Selling Techniques and Sk...

‘EPICENTRE’ S.A., Greece Page 1 CALL AGENTS TRAINING COURSE C 4: SELLING TECHNIQUES AND SKILLS by EPICENTRE S.A. C4_SELLING TECHNIQUES AND SKILLS by Eugenia Papaioannou, Vocational Training Organisation EPICENT‘E S.A., Greece ‘EPICENTRE’ S.A., Greece Page 2 The module C 4 - Selling Techniques and Skills addresses the candidates of the training course of CALL AGENTS designed and implemented by B.L.I.N.D. CA project and consists of 6 parts: PART 1: PART 2: THEORY (available on line to be studied by the trainees at their own pace) EXERCISES ON LINE (a self-assessment section to test the acquisition of knowledge after studying the theory) PART 3: CLASSROOM SESSION PART 4: SALES GLOSSARY PART 5: EU DIRECTIVE ABOUT WORKING WITH HEADSETS PART 6: MOTIVATIONAL & INSPIRATIONAL QUOTES ON SALES C4_SELLING TECHNIQUES AND SKILLS by Eugenia Papaioannou, Vocational Training Organisation EPICENT‘E S.A., Greece ‘EPICENTRE’ S.A., Greece Page 3 PART 1: THEORY CONTENTS HEADINGS Page number EARLY SELLING AND SALES TRAINING IDEAS 4 THE SALES CONCEPT - AIDA 6 THE SALES CONCEPT - AIDCA 10 THE SEVEN STEPS OF THE SALE 12 BASIC SALES TIPS AND TECHNIQUES 26 SELLING FROM A CALL CENTRE 31 BLENDED SALES AND SERVICE IN CALL CENTRES 34 CALL RELUCTANCE AND HOW TO OVERCOME IT 37 VIRTUAL CALL CENTRES 41 HOME-BASED CALL AGENTS 44 ACTIVE LISTENING AND HOW TO IMPROVE IT 46 WHAT TYPE OF SALES PERSON ARE YOU? 48 MAIN TYPES OF PROSPECTS 52 PHRASES YOU MUST NOT SAY IN SALES 54 BUILDING A RELATIONSHIP WITH YOUR PROSPECTS 57 MAINTAINING CUSTOMER LOYALTY 59 CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT (CRM) SYSTEM 61 C4_SELLING TECHNIQUES AND SKILLS by Eugenia Papaioannou, Vocational Training Organisation EPICENT‘E S.A., Greece ‘EPICENTRE’ S.A., Greece Page 4 EARLY SELLING AND SALES TRAINING IDEAS A lot of ideas and development of selling skills and conventional sales theories are attributed to the American writer, speaker and businessman Dale Carnegie (18881955). Carnegie, from humble beginnings and several early career failures, started his training business in the early 1900s, initially focusing on personal development. Later, Carnegie's 1937 self-help book 'How to Win Friends and Influence People' became an international best-seller, and the major source of the ideas and theory which underpinned traditional selling through the 20th century. Carnegie's book remains a highly regarded and widely read work on human motivation, relationships and 'influencing' others. Carnegie's ideas contain a huge amount of useful learning relating to understanding other people and their motives. In this respect, Carnegie's concepts, and other similar methods based on them, contribute to realising that people are all different and therefore all have different perspectives (and different to those of the seller, or influencer). This is a vital concept within selling - to appreciate that people have their own views, feelings, values, and aims. The more we can understand the other person's situation, aims and feelings, the more likely we will be able to develop rapport and trust with them, and then hopefully to arrive at suitable solutions and agreements with them. As far as this goes all is well. However, as with all early and 'traditional' sales persuasion techniques and methodologies, the purpose of 'influence' is in the hands of the 'influencer' (or seller), and this purpose (product or service) may or may not be in the best interests of the customer. In other words, early thinking (and much current thinking still) primarily focuses on influencing the prospect to adopt an opinion or to take action in C4_SELLING TECHNIQUES AND SKILLS by Eugenia Papaioannou, Vocational Training Organisation EPICENT‘E S.A., Greece ‘EPICENTRE’ S.A., Greece Page 5 the direction which favours the influencer, irrespective of whether this is in the genuine best interest of the other person. Traditional methods - most of which continue to draw on the ideas and concepts contained in Dale Carnegie's 1937 book, tend to encourage sales people, or others seeking to persuade and influence, to use knowledge about the perspective customer as a means of gaining their trust and flexibility, so that the latter can be led to a certain direction. This knowledge, however, should be obtained in an honest manner so that it is not unethical. One of the main issues today is the matter of ethics, honesty, integrity, and sustainability in sales. The purpose of using the sales techniques, and what to do with the understanding of their function was, and remains, open to use or mis-use by the seller. The question is - as sales-people is our purpose - to exploit people or to help people? These days selling should more than ever focus on helping people, which of course has additional implications for your choice of organizing your work as a sales person, and the products and services that you choose to represent. C4_SELLING TECHNIQUES AND SKILLS by Eugenia Papaioannou, Vocational Training Organisation EPICENT‘E S.A., Greece ‘EPICENTRE’ S.A., Greece Page 6 THE SALES CONCEPT - AIDA AIDA is the original sales training acronym, and it was introduced in late 1950s, when selling was treated as a professional discipline, and sales training began. Often called the 'Hierarchy of Effects', AIDA describes the basic process by which people become motivated to act on external stimulus, including the way that successful selling happens and sales are successfully made. The acronym stands for: A Attention I Interest D Desire A Action When we buy something we buy according to the AIDA process. Therefore when we sell something we must sell through the AIDA stages. What occurs first is our attention; if the product is relevant to us we get interested to learn more about it. If the product or service then seems to meet our needs and matches our budget, we begin to desire it. If we are prompted or stimulated to overcome our natural caution we may then become motivated to take action and finally to buy it. AIDA pointers: Attention Getting the other person's attention sets the tone: first impressions count, so smile even on the phone because people can feel it in your voice - be happy, natural, honest and professional. If you're not in the mood to smile, do some paperwork instead. If you rarely smile then get out of selling. Getting attention has become harder than it was in the past, because people nowadays are less accessible, have limited free time, and lots of competing distractions, so think about when it's the best time to call. C4_SELLING TECHNIQUES AND SKILLS by Eugenia Papaioannou, Vocational Training Organisation EPICENT‘E S.A., Greece ‘EPICENTRE’ S.A., Greece Page 7 Tricks and crafty techniques don't bring about good results, because your prospective customers - like all of us - are irritated by hundreds of them every day. If you are calling on the phone or meeting face-to-face you have about five seconds to attract attention, by which time the other person has formed their first impression of you. Despite the time pressure, relax and enjoy it - expect to hear mostly 'no thanks' - but remember that every 'no' takes you closer to the next 'okay'. Interest You now have perhaps 5-15 seconds in which to create some interest. Something begins to look interesting if it is relevant and potentially advantageous. This implies a lot that the person you are approaching should have a potential need for your product or service or proposition (which implies that you or somebody else has established a target customer profile). You must approach the other person at a suitable time so that they don’t get irritated (i.e. it's convenient, and that factors affecting timing have been taken into account). You must empathise with and understand the other person's situation and issues, and be able to express yourself in their terms (ie talk their language). Desire The sales person needs to be able to identify with the prospect's situation, needs, priorities and constraints on personal and organisational levels, through empathic questioning and interpretation. You must build rapport and trust in the prospect's mind to do business with you personally (thus dispelling the prospect's feelings of doubt or risk about your own integrity and ability) and you must understand your prospect's other options. Very important: You must know about your product (specification, options, features, advantages, and benefits), and particularly all relevance and implications for your prospect. You must be able to present, explain and suggest solutions with credibility and enthusiasm. The key is being able to demonstrate how you, the organisation you C4_SELLING TECHNIQUES AND SKILLS by Eugenia Papaioannou, Vocational Training Organisation EPICENT‘E S.A., Greece ‘EPICENTRE’ S.A., Greece Page 8 work in and your product will suitably, reliably and sustainably 'match' the prospect's needs identified and agreed, within all constraints. Creating desire is partially skill and technique, and partially behaviour and style. In modern selling and business, trust and relationship (the 'you' factor) are increasingly essential, as natural competitive development eliminates the opportunities for clear product advantage and uniqueness. Action The aim is to convert potential into actuality. Natural caution often dictates that clear opportunities are not acted upon, particularly by buyers, so the sales person must make suggestions, or inspire agreement to ensure the completion of the sale or move to the next stage. The more successfully the preceding three stages have been conducted, the less emphasis is required for the action stage. Another model lies in five stages of action. These also began in the 1950s and include: 1. Attention: You have to get the attention of your prospect through some advertising or prospecting method. 2. Interest: Build their interest by using an emotional appeal such as how good they will look to their boss when they make this deal that will save the company lots of money! 3. Desire: Build their desire for your product by showing them or explaining to them on the phone its features and letting them sample it. 4. Conviction: Increase their desire for your product by statistically proving the value of your product. Compare it to its competitors. Use examples from happy customers. 5. Action: Encourage the prospect to act. This is your closing phase. Ask for the order. If they object, address their objections. There are then C4_SELLING TECHNIQUES AND SKILLS by Eugenia Papaioannou, Vocational Training Organisation EPICENT‘E S.A., Greece ‘EPICENTRE’ S.A., Greece Page 9 many variations of closing techniques that can help you get the business. There is a great variety of closing techniques that range from hard sell to soft sell and everything in-between. Some of these include: A Direct Close - Simply ask for the order when you are sure your prospect is ready. A Deal/Concession Close - Using this closing technique gives the prospect the feeling that they are making a smart choice and saving money (or getting more value for money). Use it with phrases like "Order today and I can add this other item for only 10 percent more." A Time-Driven Close - This one works well with statements like, "...prices are going up next week, so you should go ahead and let me place your order today." Trial Offer - You can let the prospect use the product at no risk for a trial period. This works well if you’re selling products that make people's lives easier. They aren't likely to want to give it back if it has saved them a lot of time and effort during the trial period. C4_SELLING TECHNIQUES AND SKILLS by Eugenia Papaioannou, Vocational Training Organisation EPICENT‘E S.A., Greece ‘EPICENTRE’ S.A., Greece Page 10 THE SALES CONCEPT - AIDCA More recently (1980s-1990s) the AIDA acronym has been used in extended form as AIDCA, meaning the same as AIDA with the addition of Commitment prior to the action stage. Commitment is actually implicit within the Action stage. Commitment here means that a prospective customer is more likely to progress to the Action stage if their commitment to the proposition can first be established. The acronym stands for: Attention Interest Desire Commitment / Comfort Action The new C for others stands for Comfort. Actually, a lot of sales people would agree with this. A sales person should be building comfort from beginning to end. With everything you prepare yourself to sell you should ask yourself: “Will this make the prospect more or less comfortable about buying from me?” Here are some ways you can Build Comfort: 1. Give them what they want for free. Not everything but enough to show them you know what you’re talking about and you can help them. 2. Provide as many testimonials as possible. The more the better. 3. Add audio or video to your testimonials. 4. Link to reference supporting work you’ve done (such as other products in the same market). C4_SELLING TECHNIQUES AND SKILLS by Eugenia Papaioannou, Vocational Training Organisation EPICENT‘E S.A., Greece ‘EPICENTRE’ S.A., Greece Page 11 5. Say how many people have bought your product if it’s a large number. People will feel more comfortable buying after many others already have tried the same product/service. 6. Let them know you will be there to help them if they need it. 7. Make it easy for them to contact you if they need help. 8. Assure them their order will be secure. 9. Show to the prospects that you care for them and care about what happens to them. 10. Expose vulnerabilities. Show them you have weaknesses. Example: “I couldn’t count my fingers without a calculator.” or “As a child I was horribly over weight, even my parents made fun of me” (for a weight loss product). C4_SELLING TECHNIQUES AND SKILLS by Eugenia Papaioannou, Vocational Training Organisation EPICENT‘E S.A., Greece ‘EPICENTRE’ S.A., Greece Page 12 THE SEVEN STEPS OF THE SALE The Seven Steps of the Sale is the most common traditional structure used for explaining the selling process for the sales call or meeting, including what immediately precedes and follows it. This structure is usually represented as the Seven Steps of the Sale. This structure implies that an appointment has been made, or in the instance of a cold-call, that the prospect has agreed to discuss things at a particular time and/or place. This structure also applies to a sales visit which has been arranged for the purpose of presenting products/services or a specific proposal following an invitation, earlier discussions or meetings. The Seven Steps of the Sale still remains a helpful structure for sales and sales training, but one must not forget that the idea is over forty years old, and these days the modern collaboration and facilitation methods are a lot more effective, typically when treated as a front-end to the Seven Steps or incorporated within the first stage as an approach. The original commonly used Seven Steps terminology is in bold. In recent years more sophisticated interpretation and application of the Seven-Step selling process requires the model to be expanded and interpreted with more flexibility, as shown below: 1. preparation/planning/research/approach (using facilitative methods) 2. introduction/opening/approach/establish initial credibility 3. questioning/identify needs/ask how and what, etc/establish rapport and trust 4. presentation/explanation/demonstration 5. overcoming objections/negotiating/fine-tuning C4_SELLING TECHNIQUES AND SKILLS by Eugenia Papaioannou, Vocational Training Organisation EPICENT‘E S.A., Greece ‘EPICENTRE’ S.A., Greece Page 13 6. close/closing/agreement/commitment/confirmation 7. follow-up/after-sales/fulfil/deliver/admin More specifically, the Seven Steps are analysed as follows: 1. PLANNING AND PREPARATION Generally, the larger the prospect organisation, the more research you should do before any sales call at which you will be expected, or are likely, to present your company's products or services. Make sure you know the product/service you are going to present extremely well features, advantages and benefits that will be relevant to the prospect you will be meeting / calling. Define as far as you can the main or unique perceived organisational benefit that your product or service would give to your prospect. Discover what current supply arrangements exist or are likely to exist for the product/service in question, and assess what the present supplier's reaction is likely to be if their business is at threat. Know what other competitors are able and likely to offer, and which ones are being considered if any. Identify as many of the prospect organisation's decision-makers and influencers as you can, and assess as far as you can what their needs, motives and relationships are. Try to get information about what the prospect's organisational decision-making process and financial parameters are such as budget. C4_SELLING TECHNIQUES AND SKILLS by Eugenia Papaioannou, Vocational Training Organisation EPICENT‘E S.A., Greece ‘EPICENTRE’ S.A., Greece Page 14 Get information about what your prospect's strategic issues, aims, priorities and problems are or if you can't find out these prior to the meeting / call, find out what the market sector is in which the prospect operates. Prepare your opening statements and practise your sales presentation. Prepare your presentation in the format in which you are to give it (e.g., MS Powerpoint slides for laptop or projected presentation) plus all materials, samples, hand-outs, brochures, etc., and always have spares - allow for more than the planned numbers as extra people often appear at the last minute. Prepare a checklist of questions or headings that will assist you to gather all the information you need. Think carefully about what you want to get from the meeting and make a plan to achieve it. Understand and make the most of cold calling: despite the tendency for some organisations to position cold calling as an enquiry-generation activity, cold calling increasingly enables sales people to become more strategic and significant in the sales function. 2. INTRODUCTION /OPENING During this phase, smile - be professional, and take confidence from the fact that you are well-prepared. Introduce yourself; say your first and last name, what your job is and the company you represent, and what your company does (ensure this is orientated to appeal to the prospect's strategic issues). Set the scene - explain the purpose of your visit / call, again orientate around your prospect not yourself, e.g. "I'd like to learn about your situation and priorities in this area, and then if C4_SELLING TECHNIQUES AND SKILLS by Eugenia Papaioannou, Vocational Training Organisation EPICENT‘E S.A., Greece ‘EPICENTRE’ S.A., Greece Page 15 appropriate, to explain how we (your own company) can approach these issues. Then if there looks as though there might be some common ground, to agree how we could move to the next stage." Ask how much time your prospect has and agree what time to finish. Also ask if you can take notes (it's polite to ask as all business information is potentially sensitive, and asking shows your professionalism). Ask if you can make a few questions or whether your prospect would prefer a quick overview of your own company first (this will depend on how strongly known and credible your own company is - if only a little you should plan to give a quick credibility-building overview in your introduction) 3. QUESTIONING The main purpose of questioning is to confirm or find out the strongest perceived organisational benefit that would accrue to the prospect from the product/service you are promoting - it may be one (usually) or two (occasionally) or three (rarely) key things, which may be obvious to seller and buyer, or not obvious to either, in which case questioning skill is critical. Questioning will also help you discover the best way to develop the sale with the organisation – what their decision-making policy is, when, people and procedures involved, competition in the market, etc. Empathic questioning also builds relationships, trust and rapport - nobody wants to buy anything from a sales person who's only interested in their own product or company - we all want to buy from somebody who gives the time and skill to interpreting and properly meeting our own personal needs. In the previous step you have prepared a list of questions or headings - now use it. Use open questions to gather information - for example, questions beginning with Who, What, Why, Where, When, How. Making suitable questions to discover how a C4_SELLING TECHNIQUES AND SKILLS by Eugenia Papaioannou, Vocational Training Organisation EPICENT‘E S.A., Greece ‘EPICENTRE’ S.A., Greece Page 16 product or service can benefit the potential customer is a key tool in finding out how you can proceed with the sale. It also helps you build rapport because selling is establishing a good relationship with potential customers. People tend to buy from those who take the trouble to find out what the customers really need and to understand the concerns and constraints they may have. Use "Can you tell me about how..." if you are questioning a senior-level contact generally the more senior the contact, the bigger the open questions you can ask, and the more comfortable the other person will be and able to give you the information you need. 'What...? and 'How...?' are the best words to use in open questions because they provoke thinking and generate responses about facts and feelings in a nonthreatening way. Use 'Why?' to read between the lines and find out reasons and motives beneath the initial answers given, but be very careful and sparing in using 'why' because the word 'why?' is threatening to most people - it causes the other person to feel they have to defend or justify themselves, and it might not reveal the true situation and feelings, especially in early discussions with people when trust and rapport is at a low level. Listen carefully and empathically, maintain good eye-contact, understand, and show that you understand - especially understand what is meant and felt, not just what is said, particularly when it is about motives and personal aspects. Interpret and reflect back and confirm you have understood what is being explained, and if applicable express the feelings behind it. Use closed questions to qualify and confirm your interpretation. Closed questions are questions that limit the answer to a particular set of responses and can be answered with a yes or no, e.g., "Do you mean that when this type of equipment goes down then all production ceases?", or "Are you saying that if a new contract is C4_SELLING TECHNIQUES AND SKILLS by Eugenia Papaioannou, Vocational Training Organisation EPICENT‘E S.A., Greece ‘EPICENTRE’ S.A., Greece Page 17 not drawn by end-March then the existing one is automatically renewed for another year?" ‘In market research closed questions can be used for quantitative research while open questions are used for qualitative research. Closed questions are often used in questionnaires requiring filling them out by ticking boxes. Closed questions can be very helpful in sales. Ex.: “Do you mean that you would rather buy x?”, “Is it true to say that your old contract is up for renewal?” When you've asked a question, then listen - do not interrupt the prospect. Your prospect should actually be doing 80-99% of the talking during this stage of the sales call; if you are talking for a third or half of the time, then you are not asking the right sort of questions. Do not jump onto an opportunity and start explaining how you can solve the problem until you have asked all your questions and gathered all the information you need (in any event you should never be seen to 'jump' onto any issue). If during the questioning you think of a new important question to ask, note it down or you'll forget it. When you have gathered all necessary information, thank the prospect, then take a few moments to think about, discuss and summarise the key issues / requirements / priorities from your prospect's organisational (and personal if applicable) perspective. Questioning is traditionally treated as a process to gather information to assist the sales person's process. Modern sales methodology, however, treats questioning in a radically different way - as an essential part of a facilitative process whose purpose is to help the buyer decide. C4_SELLING TECHNIQUES AND SKILLS by Eugenia Papaioannou, Vocational Training Organisation EPICENT‘E S.A., Greece ‘EPICENTRE’ S.A., Greece Page 18 4. PRESENTATION The presentation should focus on a central proposition, which should be the unique perceived benefit that the prospect gains from the product/service you are selling. During the questioning phase the sales person will have refined the understanding as to what this is - the presentation must now focus on 'matching' the benefits of the product with the needs of the prospect so that the prospect is entirely satisfied with the proposition. The sales person needs to have very good knowledge about the many different organisational benefits that accrue to the prospect, and the reason why these perceived benefits will vary according to the type of customer organisation (sector, size, structure, strategy, economic status, culture, etc). The presentation must demonstrate that the product/service meets the prospect's needs, priorities, constraints and motives, or the prospect will not consider buying or moving to the next stage; this is why establishing the prospect's situation and priorities during the questioning phase is so vital. All sales presentations, whether impromptu or formal preparations, must be well structured, clear and concise, professionally delivered, and have lots of integrity - the quality and integrity of the presentation is always associated with the quality and integrity of the product/service. The sales person must not talk about technical features from the seller's point of view without linking the features clearly to organisational context and benefit for the prospect and above all must avoid using any jargon which the prospect may not understand. C4_SELLING TECHNIQUES AND SKILLS by Eugenia Papaioannou, Vocational Training Organisation EPICENT‘E S.A., Greece ‘EPICENTRE’ S.A., Greece Page 19 The sales presentations must always meet the needs of the prospect in terms of the level of information and relevance to the prospect's own situation, which is another reason for proper preparation. When making a sales presentation to influencers, it is important to know that the sales person is actually asking the influencers to personally endorse the proposition and the credibility of the selling organisation, so the influencers' needs in these areas are part of the organisational needs of the prospect company. During the presentation, the sales person must mention relevant evidence of success, references from similar sectors and applications, facts and figures - all backing up the central proposition. Business decision-makers buy when they feel confident that their decision will either bring them money, or save them money or time; they also need to be certain that the new product/service will be sustainable and reliable; therefore the presentation must be convincing in these areas. Individual buyers buy for similar reasons, but for more personal ones, e.g., status, security, image, etc., which may need to feature in this type of presentations if they form part of the main perceived benefit for the individual prospect. Try to focus on the main perceived benefit. However, mention all the other incidental requirements and constraints, but do not exaggerate and 'pile high' loads of incidental benefits as this may detract you from the central proposition. Use the language and style of the prospect – e.g., technical people need technical evidence; sales and marketing people like to see competitive advantage accruing for their own organization; finance directors need a clear comparison between benefits and costs, profit and operating efficiency. On the other hand, the lay prospect is not C4_SELLING TECHNIQUES AND SKILLS by Eugenia Papaioannou, Vocational Training Organisation EPICENT‘E S.A., Greece ‘EPICENTRE’ S.A., Greece Page 20 so much interested in technical language so focus on their main interest and use simple and comprehensible language. Make the presentation in a relaxed way. If you don't know the answer to a question simply say you don't know and promise to get back with an answer later, and make sure you do. Don’t show disrespect for competitors in the market - it reduces your credibility and integrity and above all don't even imply anything derogatory about competitors. During the presentation ask for feedback, confirmation and agreement as to the relevance of what you are saying, but don't be disappointed if people remain silent (some people are more cautious or shy than others). Leave some time for questions at the end or even better at any time during the presentation – it’s up to your level of confidence. At all times be relaxed and friendly - people buy from people who love and trust their products and companies. 5. OVERCOMING OBJECTIONS /NEGOTIATING Negotiation is something that we do all the time and is not only used in sales or business purposes. For instance, we use it in our social lives perhaps when making an appointment or deciding a time to meet with our friends, or where to go for entertainment. Many people perceive negotiation as convincing others to agree with what they are presenting. It isn't. Instead, negotiation is educating your potential customers until they understand why it is they must – must! – have your product / service. Negotiation skill is really a special communication skill and it is not entirely based on C4_SELLING TECHNIQUES AND SKILLS by Eugenia Papaioannou, Vocational Training Organisation EPICENT‘E S.A., Greece ‘EPICENTRE’ S.A., Greece Page 21 the words you are using, whether they are used in writing or verbally. Instead, as much as half of what you're communicating to others is contained in what they see or understand. Communication is always the link that will be used to negotiate the issue/argument whether it is face-to-face, on the telephone or in writing. Remember, negotiation is not always between two people: it can involve several people from two parties. It is natural during a sales transaction to expect lots of objections and this used to happen in the past as the selling process was rather one-way, and less empathic. Successful modern selling, however, now demands more initial understanding from the sales person, and the sales procedure becomes smoother. The key element is to handle any objections constructively. Here are some tips to use at this step: if objections arise, firstly the sales person should deal with each one by reflecting back to the person who raised it, to define the precise nature of the objection - "Why do you say that?" is usually a good start. It may be necessary to go deeper to get to the real issue, by asking why to a series of answers as some objections may result from misunderstanding, between the sales person and the prospect. One should consider that lots of objections are simply a request for more information, so definitely avoid responding by trying to re-sell the benefit - simply ask and probe instead; the best standard response is something like "I understand why that could be an issue, can I ask you to tell me more about why it is and what's important for you here?.." A good technique to confront an objection is to rephrase a question. For example in the case that the prospect thinks a product is too expensive the sales person reflects back: "I think what you're really saying is that you have no problem with giving us C4_SELLING TECHNIQUES AND SKILLS by Eugenia Papaioannou, Vocational Training Organisation EPICENT‘E S.A., Greece ‘EPICENTRE’ S.A., Greece Page 22 the contract, but you'd prefer the payments spread over three years rather than two? – well, I think we could probably do something about that..." When selling, you must create an impression that there is no alternative comparable supplier. You have to create the impression that your product or service is unique, and that the other person has nowhere else to go. The way you present yourself and your product must convince the prospect that they have nowhere else to go, and that they cannot afford to walk away. This positioning of uniqueness is the most important tactic to ensure a successful sale even before you start to negotiate. If, however, your product offer is not unique remember that you are part of it. You can still create a unique position for yourself by the way that you conduct yourself, build trust, rapport, and empathy with the prospect. Establishing a position or impression of uniqueness is the most effective technique when you are selling, whereas denying uniqueness is the most powerful tactic of the buyer. It is essential to overcome all the objections, and in so doing, the sales person is effectively isolating them as the only reasons why the prospect should not proceed, but then the more modern approach is to work with the prospect in first understanding what lies beneath each objection, and then working with the prospect to form the proposition so that it fits more acceptably with what is required. Avoid head-to-head arguments - even if you win them you'll destroy the relationship and you'll go no further with the prospect. You must enable a constructive discussion so that you and the prospect are both working at the problem together; if the basic proposition is sound, most objections are usually overcome by both the seller and the buyer adjusting their positions slightly. By this stage you may have seen or felt some signs that the prospect is clearly visualising or imagining the sale proceeding, or even talking in terms of your working together as supplier and customer; this is called buying warmth. Certain questions C4_SELLING TECHNIQUES AND SKILLS by Eugenia Papaioannou, Vocational Training Organisation EPICENT‘E S.A., Greece ‘EPICENTRE’ S.A., Greece Page 23 and comments from prospects are described as buying signals because they indicate that the prospect may be visualising buying or having the product/service. 6. CLOSE/CLOSING/AGREEMENT The best close these days is something like "Are you happy that we've covered everything and would you like to go ahead?", or simply "Would you like to go ahead?" If the sales person conducts the sale properly, the prospect will close the deal himself, and this should be another objective for the sales person - it's civilised, respectful, and actually implies a high level of sales professionalism. As for the decision makers, the manner in which a sale is concluded depends on their style. Watch out for the signs: they are not likely to decide very quickly and may be a little annoyed if you leave matters unanswered; cautious technical people will want every detail covered and may need time to think, so don't push them, but do stay in touch and make sure they have all the information they need; very friendly types of people may actually say yes before they're ready, in which case you need to ensure that everything is suitably covered so nothing can come up later. Here are some well used types of closing a sale which you can use according to how you feel about each case: The pen close: "Do you want to use your pen or mine?" (while producing the contract and pen). The alternative close: "Would you like it delivered next Tuesday or next Friday?", or "We can do the X... in grey, and we have a stock in white - which one would you prefer?" The challenge close: "I know most men wouldn't be able to buy something of this value without consulting their wives - do you need to get your wife's permission on C4_SELLING TECHNIQUES AND SKILLS by Eugenia Papaioannou, Vocational Training Organisation EPICENT‘E S.A., Greece ‘EPICENTRE’ S.A., Greece Page 24 this?" or "Most business people in your position need to refer this kind of decision to their boss, do you need to refer it?" The ego close: "We generally find that only the people who appreciate and are prepared to pay for the best quality go for this service - I don't know how you feel about it?..." The negative close: "I'm sorry but due to staff holidays we can't deliver in three weeks after the 20th, so we can only do it next week, is that alright?" The guilt close: "Over three years it might seem a lot of money, but we find that most responsible people decide they simply have no choice but to go for it when it's less than a euro a day to protect your house..." The sympathy close: "I know you have some reservations that we can't overcome right now, but I've got to admit that I'm pretty desperate for this sale - my manager says he'll fire me if I don't get an order this week, and you're my last chance - I'd be ever so grateful if you'd go ahead - and I promise you we'd be able to sort out the extra features once I speak to our production people..." The puppy dog close/puppy dog sale: "Let me leave it with you and you see how you get on with it..." The last ditch close: "Just one last thing - would you tell me where I went wrong - you see I just know this is right for you, and I feel almost guilty that I've not sold it to you properly, as if I've let you down....." The pros and cons list: "I can appreciate this is a tough decision - what normally works is to write down a list of all the pros and cons - two separate columns - and then we can both see clearly if overall it's the right thing to do..." C4_SELLING TECHNIQUES AND SKILLS by Eugenia Papaioannou, Vocational Training Organisation EPICENT‘E S.A., Greece ‘EPICENTRE’ S.A., Greece Page 25 The elimination close: "I can see I've not explained this properly - can we take a moment to go through all the benefits and see which one is holding us back from proceeding?" (the sales person lists all the benefits and runs through each one to confirm it's not that one which is causing the problem, crossing a line through each as he continues. When he deletes the last one he can claim that there really seems to be no reason for not going ahead...) 7. FOLLOW-UP/FULFILMENT/DELIVERY/ADMIN After-sales follow-up depends on the type of product and service, but generally for every sale the sales person must carry out a number of important processes: All relevant paperwork must be completed and copies provided to the customer: the confirmation of the order and its details to the customer, possibly the completion of installation and delivery specification and instructions. A sales report by the sales person is also necessary, generally on a pro-forma or computer screen, typically detailing the order value, product type and quantity, and details about the customer such as business sector, address, telephone, website, etc. The sales person should also make follow-up contact with the customer - as often as necessary - to confirm that the customer is satisfied with the way the order is being progressed; this helps reduce possible confusion and misunderstanding, which are a big cause of customer dissatisfaction or order cancellation if left unresolved. The sales person should act like the 'guardian' of the customer, even if a wellorganised customer service exists for general after-sales care. Follow-up is an important indicator of integrity; when a sales person makes a sale he is personally endorsing the product and the company, so ensuring that value and satisfaction are fulfilled is an integral part of modern sales function. Good follow-up will be rewarded with referrals to other customers. C4_SELLING TECHNIQUES AND SKILLS by Eugenia Papaioannou, Vocational Training Organisation EPICENT‘E S.A., Greece ‘EPICENTRE’ S.A., Greece Page 26 BASIC SALES TIPS and TECHNIQUES Several of these sales tips have been mentioned before, but look closely at the following that summarize and explain further the various approaches and sales techniques. Among the many types of sales styles and techniques how will you know what works and what does not? To make things easier, think about your target market and their perceptions about your product type. Do your potential customers know they need it and simply have to choose from the various brands available on the market? Or, do they have no idea how much the product would help them be more productive? Do they even know about your product? Consider these things before choosing what methods might work for your product or service. It is obvious that a sales method that works for school equipment won't work for office management consulting services. Although they are both targeting a similar market, the knowledge and understanding of your prospects will be much different. In the first case they have to be informed about how much they can benefit from modern school equipment, while in the second case they have to be informed about how to manage their business more efficiently. In both cases they know the basics for their businesses. So, even though there are many sales methods, the choices are narrowed as you think about your market and what their needs are, as well as what their expectations may be. Below there are tips that are beneficial in almost any market. These tips are basic guidelines that any sales person can benefit from. C4_SELLING TECHNIQUES AND SKILLS by Eugenia Papaioannou, Vocational Training Organisation EPICENT‘E S.A., Greece ‘EPICENTRE’ S.A., Greece Page 27 Focus on your prospect or client's needs: You may decide to sell your prospect your top-of-the-line model gadget when they really only need the mid-line model. By selling them more than they need, you may jeopardize future relations with them. Once they realise (and they will eventually) that they don't need what you have sold them, they'll feel bitter and resentful towards you for wasting their money and not looking out for their best interest. They'll see you as a "salesperson" and not as a resource. Listen to the emotional side of your prospect or client: Emotions are present at almost everything we do even if we don't realise it. Your client may mention that they are facing tough competition or they cannot meet deadlines for a major project. Make a note of this and see if there is anything you can do to assist them. You may have another client who faced a similar challenge and found a good solution. Make those connections and help wherever you can. You'll be rewarded with loyalty from all of your clients. Use language that focuses on your prospect or client: Adjusting the way you speak will certainly make a difference in how you are received by your prospect. Using "you" and "yours," or "you'll find..." rather than "I think" or "Let me tell you about...", gets your message across more effectively, you get a little closer to them and will gain their attention more quickly. Help your prospect see the bottom line: Your product may help clients save money, or increase productivity or profitability. If so, make sure they understand that. Also your product may include features that save time. In the business world “time is money” as the saying goes, and if they can save time you can sell your product. Know your prospect: Before your call or appointment find out as much as possible about your prospect. This will assist you in two ways: first you will know their needs in advance, and C4_SELLING TECHNIQUES AND SKILLS by Eugenia Papaioannou, Vocational Training Organisation EPICENT‘E S.A., Greece ‘EPICENTRE’ S.A., Greece Page 28 second they will know that you are prepared and you are interested in their business and not just interested in making the sale. Use your time wisely Don’t do most of the talking – let them talk. Psychology analysis shows that people usually love talking about their businesses and their successes. If applicable, you might mention the fact that you saw they won an award then let them proceed to fill you in on the details. You might also compliment them on their efficient production system or the quality of their products. This will also work as a ‘door opener’ to more conversation and the opportunity to learn more about their needs and how your product will match those needs. Discover your prospect's priorities: To save time and energy, you must know how important your product is and what its benefits are to your prospect. If you have actively listened to them and tracked their need, but still aren't getting anywhere, find out if there are other elements of their business that are taking priority and pushing your sale aside. If you get the information that at the moment they have other priorities, for example they are designing/submitting/implementing a project before they can spend time and energy considering your product or money purchasing your product, you can schedule a call back at a later date when you may stand a better chance of getting some attention. Focus on why they should buy - not their objections: While you are building up the benefits deriving for their business by using the product you are trying to sell, you are gradually reducing their objections. Focus on what you know the prospect likes in order to build up the importance of the positive elements and reduce the importance of the negative elements if any. C4_SELLING TECHNIQUES AND SKILLS by Eugenia Papaioannou, Vocational Training Organisation EPICENT‘E S.A., Greece ‘EPICENTRE’ S.A., Greece Page 29 Sell the benefits - not the product: In modern sales, what you sell is the benefits, not the product. You are selling the benefits the product will produce for their business. For example, you are not selling them digital phones, you're selling the ability to communicate from anywhere, a more flexible work schedule, security, freedom to leave their office and still be accessible, peace of mind for long trips. Focus on the emotional or financial benefits and you're bound to sell successfully. Know your products - know the market Become a valuable resource for your clients. Know everything about the product you are selling, the positive and negative aspects of the product or service to enable you to develop positive perceptions of what you are selling. Know the competitive products on the market. Show to the prospects that not only you know your product and the market, but you can assist them in making good decisions and provide them with products/services to improve their business. Never press the customer: If you rush customers to conclude on a sale you run the risk to lose them because they have not been given sufficient time to consider all the aspects they should before agreeing to proceed to the final stage. It is very important to build up a good relationship with them before the close. You should bear in mind that it is very important to create a loyal customer who will come back to you again and again than having to start over with a new prospect. Aim at your client's success: You can have loyal customers if they know you can help them succeed (in your area of expertise). Make sure your customers understand that you want to see them succeed, not just sell your products. C4_SELLING TECHNIQUES AND SKILLS by Eugenia Papaioannou, Vocational Training Organisation EPICENT‘E S.A., Greece ‘EPICENTRE’ S.A., Greece Page 30 Use clear explanations about problems: Sometimes problems crop up such as missing a deadline for sending an order, delayed service, etc. In these cases when you have to explain to a client, do it properly, don’t use excuses. Explain clearly what the problem is and they will appreciate it. Suppose you provide air-conditioning equipment and you’re having difficulty meeting the delivery deadline. Say to your customer: "With this being a particularly hot season we have had more emergency orders due to heat wave and consequently our schedule could not be followed without this small delay. We know we are behind schedule, but we are addressing the problem now by bringing in temporary staff for these critical need times. So we should be able to schedule your equipment on 'x' date." Keep your promises: Always keep your promises. If you say you are going to send a memo on Tuesday, make sure you do it. If you say you are going to discuss their order with a person in charge in your company, do it. Use the technology available to you (even if it's a post-it note) and make sure you keep your promises. By forgetting what you have promised to do you can lose the faith of a prospect or existing client. In case something comes up that causes an unforeseeable delay, call them and explain. They may have scheduled a meeting to present the information you have promised to supply them with, and they should know well in advance. Now you have several sales tips to keep in mind and use either when you're out there pounding the pavement or in front of a switchboard calling your prospective clients. C4_SELLING TECHNIQUES AND SKILLS by Eugenia Papaioannou, Vocational Training Organisation EPICENT‘E S.A., Greece ‘EPICENTRE’ S.A., Greece Page 31 SELLING FROM A CALL CENTRE Telemarketing is a state-of-the-art selling nowadays. More and more companies are using Call Centres as a way to reach their customers. In today’s fast pace this makes sense. More people can be contacted more often, more efficiently and more effectively over the telephone than in the past with traditional face to face selling and a lot of time and energy can be saved. The different ways of selling namely: selling door-to-door selling in a retail environment selling in big business selling over the telephone have all one objective: the sale. In all types of sales there are certain selling fundamental aspects that are to be found in every sales interaction. There are, however, elements in tele-sales that make selling over the phone entirely unique, and it is in these areas that one must concentrate to ensure that the sales approach remains effective and efficient. The two essential elements to ensure effectiveness in telephone sales are scripting and tone, in other words what you say and how you say it. Efficiency in Call Centre selling is best maintained through good call control techniques and the use of a standard call structure. The Importance of Tone "It's not only what you say, it's how you say it." This phrase is extremely valid in the case of selling over the telephone (tele-marketing), or any communication over the telephone. C4_SELLING TECHNIQUES AND SKILLS by Eugenia Papaioannou, Vocational Training Organisation EPICENT‘E S.A., Greece ‘EPICENTRE’ S.A., Greece Page 32 It is suggested that the likelihood of success in a tele-sales call is 87% based on tone of voice. When you sell face-to-face you have the advantage of body language and you can use visual stimuli to enhance your sales presentation. On the other hand, when selling over the telephone, the agent's body language must be made evident through the tone of the voice, and the only visual stimuli are the pictures the call agent depicts in the mind of the customer by describing the product. Here one must understand that an enthusiastic tone of voice will certainly succeed in capturing the customer's imagination even if one does not know everything about a product. To understand the perspective of your target group, suppose you are a customer. Imagine you're in a retail store and there are two sales assistants working. They each have identical skills, knowledge and abilities, and are selling exactly the same products. The only thing that differentiates them is that one is just a little bit more enthusiastic about their job, themselves, their product and you, the customer. Which one are you more likely to buy from? Certainly the one with some enthusiasm. It is exactly the same thing over the phone. Customers need to get their questions answered and their problems resolved, and they expect to be dealt with honestly and respectfully by someone who cares about them. This caring is best demonstrated with an enthusiastic tone of voice. Enthusiasm in the tone of voice has to be adjusted, though. The motto is: “Nothing in excess” and according to ancient Greeks “Everything in moderation”. Doing something "in moderation" means not doing it excessively. The best call agents will quickly judge the rate of speed and enthusiasm of their customer and mirror that to some extent. It would be wise to be just "an inch" more enthusiastic than the customer, constantly bringing them up to your level of enthusiasm. The Call Objective To ensure the effectiveness of a tele-sales call you must have well defined call objectives which depend on the goals of the campaign, so it is vital to first have a clear understanding of the purpose of the call campaign. What is the purpose of your C4_SELLING TECHNIQUES AND SKILLS by Eugenia Papaioannou, Vocational Training Organisation EPICENT‘E S.A., Greece ‘EPICENTRE’ S.A., Greece Page 33 current calls? Have you written this objective down? What is your number one call objective? What's number two? Here are some examples of call objectives for a typical sales campaign: Make a sale Make the customer happy Create new opportunities for future business Create a loyal customer Call objectives are equally as important for inbound campaigns as they are for outbound campaigns. Inbound call agents very often believe that their sole responsibility is to answer customer questions. This is wrong! Sometimes the customer starts with questions but his/her own objective is to purchase a company's product or service. Therefore, try to understand the purpose of inbound calls and take the chance to have an effective communication leading also to the achievement of your objectives. C4_SELLING TECHNIQUES AND SKILLS by Eugenia Papaioannou, Vocational Training Organisation EPICENT‘E S.A., Greece ‘EPICENTRE’ S.A., Greece Page 34 BLENDED SALES AND SERVICE IN CALL CENTRES The inbound and outbound calls for sales and service are the two types of calls which have historically maintained their distinct roles. By offering appropriate products to customers who are contacting the call centre for service, agents can better service a caller. For example, a bank client may call to inquire what his/her balance is or to see if a transaction has been finalised. While the agent can answer his/her questions, he might also inquire if the caller would be interested in purchasing software that would enable internet banking to facilitate verification of transactions. Call centre agents need to recognize that selling the right products to meet a customer's needs is indeed a good service. One of the most important skills needed when merging the two types of calls is the ability to know when to sell on a service call and when to focus solely on the service issue. The first priority has to be to solve the problem or answer the question. An aggressive client whose credit card has been overcharged probably does not care about a new banking product. However, someone calling to inquire information about how often their credit card will be charged may be interested to know that they can have their bill paid directly from their bank account without having to visit the bank. Agents sometimes need to be appropriately sympathetic - and even apologetic, when appropriate, when customers have service issues. They also need to know about the company, and the problems customers may encounter. There is nothing more frustrating than to be put on hold for computer software support, for example, only to get an agent who not only does not know the software you are using, but is entirely indifferent whether you've been on hold for 15 minutes to talk to him. However, if your call is answered by an agent who not only knows how to quickly C4_SELLING TECHNIQUES AND SKILLS by Eugenia Papaioannou, Vocational Training Organisation EPICENT‘E S.A., Greece ‘EPICENTRE’ S.A., Greece Page 35 resolve your problem, but thanks you for calling, you might be interested in hearing about the company's software upgrades that are now available. There is a fine line between when to sell and when to serve that needs good skills and may require additional training or coaching for reps. Many Call Centres integrate inbound and outbound calling to optimize the use of the agents' time and this becomes feasible by using the new technology to support call blending. By using predictive diallers, for example, call centres can fill in slower periods by automatically generating outbound calls. This is possible when the inbound and outbound systems are integrated to optimize performance. By linking databases, agents can respond quickly to customers' questions and can have customers' data and appropriate scripting in front of them when making outbound calls. Scheduling is another issue in successfully blending inbound and outbound calls. Call centre managers need to observe call flow to determine whether it makes sense to integrate calls on a scheduled basis, i.e., three hours on inbound and four hours on outbound, or whether to integrate on a call-by-call basis. Flexibility is a key element during this process. While a call-by-call plan may seem to be the best choice to optimize agent utilization, one may find that call agents respond best to a scheduled effort. Which way works best for a call centre relies on the service or product you offer, the skills of the agents and the technology that supports the call centre. Take a banking agency, for example, that is flooded with calls on Monday and Friday morning, but relatively slows down after 3 p.m. and on the other days. Agents could spend slow inbound call periods following up on accounts that have expired to find out why, prospect new business or offer current customers new banking products. Similarly, a call centre for an airline or travel agent may have its agents who are not busy answering inbound calls, contact frequent travellers to offer travel discounts. C4_SELLING TECHNIQUES AND SKILLS by Eugenia Papaioannou, Vocational Training Organisation EPICENT‘E S.A., Greece Page 36 ‘EPICENTRE’ S.A., Greece Another big factor to consider in successfully integrating inbound and outbound functions is the human factor. It takes a unique and talented agent to shift from making collection calls to taking orders or handling service issues without having been properly trained to do so. For blended work, a call centre must invest in technology, of course, but more in training the agents. The best technology looks poor if the people who are using it are not trained to handle the task at hand. The solution is to recruit qualified people and train them appropriately. Call blending and integrating sales and service calls can be the key element to optimizing the use of the staff and enhancing the productivity of the call centre. A successful call centre has defined its applications and its call volume fluctuation, has determined its technology needs, has assessed the skills of its staff, has provided them with appropriate training and has monitored its success. Then call blending can be a successful solution for the call centre, its agents and, most important, its clients. C4_SELLING TECHNIQUES AND SKILLS by Eugenia Papaioannou, Vocational Training Organisation EPICENT‘E S.A., Greece ‘EPICENTRE’ S.A., Greece Page 37 CALL RELUCTANCE AND HOW TO OVERCOME IT One of the factors that can undermine the function of a Call Centre is call reluctance, or the unwillingness to make or take the number of calls necessary to meet performance objectives. This is a common plague for telephone agents. The main causes of call reluctance are: lack of desire lack of knowledge lack of skill, past experience fear of failure Call reluctance, however, can be overcome within one week by following the advice below: "What's In It For Me?" A basic principle is: "The first sale you must make is to yourself" that is, believe in the value of what you are selling. You must know that the prospect doesn't care about who you are, or what your company is or your product only. The prospect thinks: "What's in it for me?" and that is the value of your product. The features of the product are defined and the benefits are described, but the value of the product or service is what it does for me. When you know the value you provide, and you believe in it, you get across this message to the prospective customer with confidence and the prospect senses it. If you lack confidence, the prospect senses it, too. If you feel you're an intrusion or you're wasting the prospect's time you are. If you believe they don't want to talk to you - you're right! The results you achieve in telemarketing (as with most results in life) are a self-fulfilling prophesy. C4_SELLING TECHNIQUES AND SKILLS by Eugenia Papaioannou, Vocational Training Organisation EPICENT‘E S.A., Greece ‘EPICENTRE’ S.A., Greece Page 38 You must know that some people are already looking for your product - if you make enough calls, you'll finally find someone to say "yes." Always think how successful you can be if you can communicate value (what's in it for them?) confidently! Agent’s Confidence Selling is a process during which you transfer emotion and this goes from you to the prospect. Your enthusiasm that you have a solution to someone's problem will trigger excitement and prospects will want to speak with you. When you assume the sale, you transfer that confidence and enthusiasm to the prospect. Identifying Best Practices Discover best practices when you monitor performance and organise team meetings to discuss them. There are two types of monitoring: 1) quality control (QC) – objective: to learn if anything is being done incorrectly 2) performance improvement (PI) – objective: to identify and reward "best practices" - those specific behaviours or attitudes that result in positive outcomes. Identify the best practices in your team by getting past the call screener handling a specific objection. Then document them word for word. Have the team members talk about these practices. The other members will eventually understand how those things work. Remember: Success breeds success. The Importance of Role-Playing Role-playing creates semi-realistic selling situations where you can make mistakes but you can learn by practising. A few hours of role-playing can save you weeks of experience. Here are examples of ways to double performance through the use of role-playing. C4_SELLING TECHNIQUES AND SKILLS by Eugenia Papaioannou, Vocational Training Organisation EPICENT‘E S.A., Greece ‘EPICENTRE’ S.A., Greece Page 39 1) Sit back to back and one plays the sales person and the other plays the role of a prospective customer who has some objections. Be careful: the objective is not to "beat" each other at the game; it is to improve your skills. Don't throw several objections at someone while role-playing. When you finish exchange roles. 2) Don't look at each other - you won't be able to nod at the person on the phone and get them to nod back, so don't allow yourself the ability to do this while roleplaying. 3) Allow the "player" to go through the script three times without objections - it will be hard enough for them to get the "feel" of the script the first few times without having to worry about effectively answering your objections. Effective Scripts Use scripts as the path to guide you to your goal. They are not meant to be read. Many people feel that scripts are "limiting" when, in fact, if used properly, nothing is farther from the truth. Scripts will breed creativity, not stifle it. Prepare scripts to handle objections - if you know your top objections and are confident you can handle them even before they arise, and so your confidence level goes up. You are not forced to come up with a new answer every time you hear the same objection. Keeping the Calls Fun Make your calls fun by offering yourself little rewards. Reward yourself for the calls you have made and the decision makers you have reached. Take the mystery out of it - it's just a phone call! Use your normal voice, not a "phone" voice that sounds like it comes from a TV commercial. Act naturally as if you're calling a friend or a family member with information that will help them. Smile when you're on the phone and this will be felt by the prospect. Say "Have a wonderful weekend!" before you hang up and it is a Friday. Always record the secretary's name in your notes and use that person's name when you call again. C4_SELLING TECHNIQUES AND SKILLS by Eugenia Papaioannou, Vocational Training Organisation EPICENT‘E S.A., Greece ‘EPICENTRE’ S.A., Greece Page 40 Importance of Morale The good function of the call centre plays a significant role in any company's success. Always bear it in the forefront of your mind and be proud of your contribution to your company's success. C4_SELLING TECHNIQUES AND SKILLS by Eugenia Papaioannou, Vocational Training Organisation EPICENT‘E S.A., Greece ‘EPICENTRE’ S.A., Greece Page 41 VIRTUAL CALL CENTRES The set up of modern call centres relies heavily on technology. In big companies and for bigger efficiency, agents before 2000 needed to work in agent groups and therefore in large buildings. Due to the limitations on the cost of bandwidth and also on the technology used in the ACD systems (Automated Call Distribution)1, calls would be shared between agent groups for load balancing across expensive private line circuits. An example is shown in Figure 1. 1 AUTOMATED CALL DISTRIBUTION PHONE SYSTEMS Database Systems Corp. supports both analog and digital phone systems with ACD features. A simple ACD system processes incoming telephone calls on a first come first serve basis or based upon one’s own business rules. When an agent becomes available, this representative serves the first caller in this queue. However, the phone system can do far more than simply process calls in sequence. The PACER (digital) or WIZARD (analog) ACD phone system manages multiple call queues, keeps a log of call group activity, and monitors call activity such as call queues, agents, and on hold times. Depending upon user defined business rules automatic call distribution systems create different processing paths for different callers. C4_SELLING TECHNIQUES AND SKILLS by Eugenia Papaioannou, Vocational Training Organisation EPICENT‘E S.A., Greece ‘EPICENTRE’ S.A., Greece Page 42 figure 1 Agents would work in agent groups in each different location. To distribute the calls between the different locations, and to keep costs down – calls were answered locally and the excess calls were sent to the other locations to help balance out the peaks and troughs. Since then various technologies were used to help reduce the problems of doing this – in a private environment through post call routing, or in the public environment through pre-call routing. But there were always trade-offs. “Seamless call flow was always the vision. But the difficulty was that the onus was nearly always on the vendor and it was very difficult to achieve.” said Dudley LaRus, Vice President of global marketing for Amcat. “Now at the end of 2005 it seems it is becoming a reality.” C4_SELLING TECHNIQUES AND SKILLS by Eugenia Papaioannou, Vocational Training Organisation EPICENT‘E S.A., Greece ‘EPICENTRE’ S.A., Greece Page 43 figure 2 With the adoption of IP on premise routing technology, along with plentiful amounts of available bandwidth in the internet and private networks, virtual call centres are now a state-of-the-art. “The whole geographical basis of call centres is now changing – it doesn’t really matter where you are located now. As long as you have an IP connection you could be located almost anywhere in the world and be able to take calls” comments Lode Vande Sande, a call centre consultant based in Belgium. Instead of setting up your call centre at the head office, which can be very expensive, you can now more easily employ clusters of agents as remote locations either in your own location or offshore. This makes outsourcing a lot easier (figure 2). Virtual Call Centres are easy to manage. All your call centres can be put into a single agent group, or into different skill groups – irrespective of their location. It is also much easier to be able to track management information. C4_SELLING TECHNIQUES AND SKILLS by Eugenia Papaioannou, Vocational Training Organisation EPICENT‘E S.A., Greece ‘EPICENTRE’ S.A., Greece Page 44 HOME-BASED CALL AGENTS Today a lot of high profile companies hire home based agents connected via IP connections to handle incoming calls and, on the other hand, tele-work is becoming more and more popular so you can work at home as a home-based Call Agent providing information, processing orders, and up-selling products and services. This can be a flexible, satisfactory and profitable job, providing you manage your time, as well as your personality and expectations. What you need to know are the following: You must maintain a professional work environment, which includes keeping your background noise to a minimum. If you have young children you may find it best to work late evenings or early mornings. Older children can be taught to keep quiet when you are working to allow you more flexibility when choosing your schedule. A quiet work environment is easier to maintain if your work area or office is not in the middle of the "traffic flow" of your home. Keep a sign on your office door to remind the family that when the door is shut you are working and they are to respect it. Working from home it may be lonely compared to working with other call agents at a call centre but it is more comfortable. Now about your personality and this type of work from home: as a call agent you will be spending most of your time on the phone dealing with people who may or may not be pleased with the company you are representing. You should expect various kinds of calls, not always pleasant and not the expected standard. Training to deal with these types of calls will show how to manage them. In general, if you love people, talking on the phone, and enjoy C4_SELLING TECHNIQUES AND SKILLS by Eugenia Papaioannou, Vocational Training Organisation EPICENT‘E S.A., Greece ‘EPICENTRE’ S.A., Greece Page 45 helping others, then you will enjoy this type of work. What you need is to sustain a positive attitude and try to find a little humour to cope with it efficiently. You need to spend some time training and learning about the company's products/service you will be taking calls for. Most companies require and offer web based or conference call training, but it is often unpaid. Weigh the advantages and drawbacks of each training opportunity, as to how much training is required and the pay you will receive when you begin taking calls. The flexibility to choose your own hours is the best part of working from home, but with that comes the responsibility of managing your time. It would be advisable to set realistic limits in your life. Know how much time you can work before you schedule yourself for those hours. Working as a call agent from home can be fun and exciting since you will be doing your work from your own home environment without having to commute to work and cope with traffic jams and what’s more you will be with your kids. C4_SELLING TECHNIQUES AND SKILLS by Eugenia Papaioannou, Vocational Training Organisation EPICENT‘E S.A., Greece ‘EPICENTRE’ S.A., Greece Page 46 ACTIVE LISTENING & HOW TO IMPROVE IT Within the call centre you need to improve your listening skills to make effective calls. The following advice will help you develop your listening skills. Stay focused: Don’t be distracted by colleagues or external noises and concentrate on what your caller is saying. Detect emotions: Listen to the emotion in your caller’s voice. Does it match or reinforce the words they are using? Ask questions: Ask questions to gain more information on points you need to clarify. Don’t interrupt your caller: You can listen more effectively when you’re not talking, so don’t interrupt your caller. Don’t pre-empt: Avoid pre-empting what your caller is going to say; chances are you will be wrong and miss some of the content of their conversation. Recap key facts: Summarise to check you have heard the key facts and content of the caller’s conversation correctly. It also lets the caller know you have understood them. Statements such as “What you say is…” and “Sounds like you are saying…” are great ways to reflect back and summarise. Pen and paper at the ready: Have a pen and paper at hand and make short quick references to any questions you want to ask or points you wish to raise or comment on. When your caller has finished speaking, refer back to your notes and take action. If you are thinking of answers while the caller is speaking, you are not listening properly. C4_SELLING TECHNIQUES AND SKILLS by Eugenia Papaioannou, Vocational Training Organisation EPICENT‘E S.A., Greece ‘EPICENTRE’ S.A., Greece Page 47 Ask them to say it again: If you miss a point you may say: “I’m sorry I missed that last point. Please repeat that for me.” Watch the stereotypes: Avoid assuming individuals about how you expect them to act and what they will say next. Stereotyping people will bias your listening and judgement. C4_SELLING TECHNIQUES AND SKILLS by Eugenia Papaioannou, Vocational Training Organisation EPICENT‘E S.A., Greece ‘EPICENTRE’ S.A., Greece Page 48 WHAT TYPE OF SALES PERSON ARE YOU? Have you ever wondered how your prospective customers perceive you? Based on Colleen Francis’s research, sales people are generally perceived by buyers as one of four types: 1. Purely transactional. Purely transactional sales people love "the deal," and once they close a sale, they immediately move on to the next one. Most transactional sales people work in high volume but low price environments, where they can close lots of transactions each day or week. They fail, though, to build long-term relationships with their customers. 2. "How do you like me so far?" These sales people try to charm their prospects into buying by using humour. They tell jokes, dish great gossip and are always everyone's favourite. 3. The Ginsu knifers. This type represents the majority of sales people - those who use greed to convince their prospects to buy, tease prospects with the line "…but wait… don't order yet!" and then proceed to talk about all the great discounts, special offers and additional products the prospect expects to receive. We see greed being used through offering free samples, special discounts, money-back guarantee or simply the lowest price. 4. Honesty sells. Exceptionally successful sales people simply focus on being nice to and honest with their customers. They genuinely care for their customers, feel empathy for their problems and sincerely want to help them. Honest sales people don't "pitch" prospects or sell features and benefits. They don't pressure with limitedtime offers and discounts. Most importantly, they do little talking (25%) and a lot of listening (75%). C4_SELLING TECHNIQUES AND SKILLS by Eugenia Papaioannou, Vocational Training Organisation EPICENT‘E S.A., Greece ‘EPICENTRE’ S.A., Greece Page 49 Between these four main types of sales people, who really finishes last - and who finishes first? Transactional sales people may close lots of deals up front, but since they don't create a memorable customer experience, their clients may feel used, as if their value to the company is solely determined by the size of their last order. Customer service issues will go ignored, because solving them has no immediate impact on the bottom line. As a result, the customer addresses other companies. You can be the soul of the party but can your prospect take you seriously when you don't take yourself seriously? You'll probably close some smaller deals because people like you, but will they trust you for after sales service or for a big order? Moreover, being the jokester is a difficult role to maintain, and you could offend someone important. Playing to people's greed is not a good way to differentiate yourself or your company in the long term because lots of companies are already trying to occupy this space, and eventually, all those discounts will lead to eroding profits, unprofitable sales and bankrupt organizations. You run the risk to lose trust from your customers, and when that happens, they start holding out for lower and lower prices, or asking for more features, freebies and faster delivery. Nice guys finish first, because nice guys understand that closing business is not about them but about the customer. They concentrate on creating a positive customer experience that is based on trust and honesty. As a result, 98% of their customers don't look elsewhere when they need to reorder. This means that "nice" sales people do 70%-80% of their business each year with their existing customer base, proving that being honest is the secret to working less and selling more. C4_SELLING TECHNIQUES AND SKILLS by Eugenia Papaioannou, Vocational Training Organisation EPICENT‘E S.A., Greece ‘EPICENTRE’ S.A., Greece Page 50 The following steps are useful to help you create a more positive customer experience for your clients. 1. Be empathetic and compassionate. Truly care about your customer (no matter how good an actor you are, pretending won't work). Ask questions, take notes and lean in to show that you're actively listening to their answers. When you genuinely show an interest in people, they remember you and when people remember you, it's good for business. 2. Observe their body language and tone of voice. Try to capture the physical impression your prospect makes, and then do your best to match it to build rapport. 3. Make eye contact. This is very important when you have a meeting face-toface. This demonstrates sincerity and genuine interest in your prospect. This step cannot be followed by call agents who have to rely exclusively on the tone of voice but it’s useful to know this approach. 4. Add value and give first. Share your network of contacts with your customers, and don't expect them to give you their business without you giving them something first. This does not mean you must give away free products in the hope they will buy more. Instead, give away things that increase your value. They may need a referral to a partner of yours, or help finding a new lawyer. Or maybe they have a business problem that can be fixed with a new idea you read about or heard from someone else you've met. 5. Express your true intention. Say for example: "I don't know if there's a fit between what you need and what I have right now, but I'm hoping we can explore that in more detail during this meeting." or: "I only have your best interests at heart, and I promise to be honest with you throughout our conversation. In the end, I hope that we can mutually decide if there is a reason to move forward. If not, that's fine C4_SELLING TECHNIQUES AND SKILLS by Eugenia Papaioannou, Vocational Training Organisation EPICENT‘E S.A., Greece ‘EPICENTRE’ S.A., Greece Page 51 too, and I hope you'll feel comfortable telling me so." Try this approach yourself a few times, and you'll be amazed at the response you get. 6. Don't rush to the big decision all at once. We never make decisions without considering certain factors, pros and cons, even for ordinary things in our lives. The same is true in our business relationships, so get approval from the customer to move ahead slowly. The first approval might be just to agree to speak openly with each other. The second could be an agreement on a follow-up call or meeting date. The third might be gaining agreement on the decision making criteria, then a commitment to have the "big boss" present at the demo, followed by an agreement to a "go/not go" decision date. Don’t try to close a sale while the prospect is still evaluating options or determining risk, because trust is broken, the prospect feels pushed and the sale fails. 7. Use friendly vocabulary instead of formal business talk. People respond better and trust you more when you use simple language and don't try to impress prospects with your extensive vocabulary, or you may end up just sounding fake. 8. Use people's names. When it comes to using names, there are just two rules to follow: first, be aware of whether they're more comfortable with first name only or title plus last name; and second, never overuse their name - this sounds false. Dale Carnegie once said, "nothing is so beautiful to a person as the sound of their own name." Remember: your success is directly defined by the way you are perceived, and the amount of effort you put into your career. Changing either of these variables will have a huge impact on whether you succeed or fail. Finally, the type of sales person you choose to be depends entirely on you. Choose to be "nice" – that is honest, open and empathetic to your customers' needs - and you will experience consistent sales growth, building an excellent reputation and becoming a leader in your field, regardless of the market you sell in or the state of the economy. C4_SELLING TECHNIQUES AND SKILLS by Eugenia Papaioannou, Vocational Training Organisation EPICENT‘E S.A., Greece ‘EPICENTRE’ S.A., Greece Page 52 MAIN TYPES OF PROSPECTS There are different types of customers and this is obvious since every person has a different personality and different expectations. We can distinguish four main types of customers: straightforward irect chatterbox conservative analytical The straightforward type: These prospects are very direct in their approach. They tend to be forceful and always want to control the sales call. They often act aggressively, they may point at you when they talk, they often challenge you and they seldom listen to what you say. They focus on results and hate wasting time. To achieve the best sales results with these prospects you must be direct and assertive. Get right to the point and focus your conversation on the results they will achieve by using your product or service. The chatterbox type: They are outgoing but very ego-centric people. They are often unpunctual for meetings; they constantly interrupt you and cause your sales calls to go beyond the scheduled time. They tend to be more concerned with listening to themselves talk which causes frustration. To gain their trust, invest some time in social conversation since relationships are very important to this type of prospects. They make decisions on intuition and how they feel about the sales person. If you challenge them they will feel rejected and will stop responding. Tell them how good your solution will make them look to others in the company or how their status or image will improve. They will respond positively to this approach. C4_SELLING TECHNIQUES AND SKILLS by Eugenia Papaioannou, Vocational Training Organisation EPICENT‘E S.A., Greece ‘EPICENTRE’ S.A., Greece Page 53 The conservative type: These people are soft-spoken "nice" fellows who seem to be more interested in their team and colleagues than in their personal results. They tend to be quiet ‘thinking about the product…’ but reluctant to make a buying decision. For these people security and structure are important and they don’t want to make changes. They may consider how their decision will affect other people within their company. The best procedure is to slow down the sales process, demonstrate how your solution will benefit the team, and eliminate as much risk from the decision-making process as possible. Use logical manner and words like "fair" "logical" and "your team" to ensure better results. The analytical type: This type of customer reads every point and specification about your product or service and always wants more information, including written guarantee and back up documentation. This type is very difficult to get engaged in an open conversation and express personal feelings or emotions when making a decision. To this type of prospect give a written, bullet-point agenda of your meetingbeforehand. Ideally, email it to them a few days in advance so they can prepare themselves. Make sure it is absolutely immaculate. When you meet, follow the agenda in perfect order and if you make any type of claim, have supporting documentation available for them to read. In general, you must have a lot of different approaches to cater for all types of prospective customers in order to generate better sales. C4_SELLING TECHNIQUES AND SKILLS by Eugenia Papaioannou, Vocational Training Organisation EPICENT‘E S.A., Greece ‘EPICENTRE’ S.A., Greece Page 54 PHRASES YOU MUST NOT SAY IN SALES There are some phrases that you must not say in sales as they may reduce your credibility and fail your sale. These phrases have proved to have fetched mediocre results. Despite this, they are still being used by veteran sales people and the cycle continues by new sales people mentored by them. They may, though, undermine the credibility of sales people and encourage defensive barriers in the minds of the prospects. To understand what concept they could create, think of yourself as a prospective customer and that the situation you are in is that a sales person has recently met you. Test your reaction. Do any of these seven phrases below make you want to buy or do they make you want to run? 1. Trust me / believe me This pairing of trust and me signals prospective buyers to put up their defence shields and create a negative reaction. Trust cannot be requested, it can only be earned. Eventually, the buyer will decide whom to trust, when, and how much. Asking for trust will actually prevent the sales person from getting it. “Believe me…” is related to “trust me…” 2. I’m your friend. You can’t think a buyer - who may support the same football team and may have the same travelling experiences as you - is your friend after discussing the pros and cons of a product for ten minutes. Too many sales people mistake rapport for friendship. Friendship requires an emotional investment and real commitment and takes time, energy, and some sacrifice. Friendliness is a great way to ease any tensions in the sales process but over-friendliness can raise resentment in the buyer’s mind. C4_SELLING TECHNIQUES AND SKILLS by Eugenia Papaioannou, Vocational Training Organisation EPICENT‘E S.A., Greece ‘EPICENTRE’ S.A., Greece Page 55 3. Nobody can sell this cheaper than me. “Nobody? Well, I’m not sure…”, the prospect thinks immediately. You can’t say that unless you are absolutely sure that in the entire world you really have the lowest price on this product. It sounds a lousy way to make a profit and it triggers the client’s skepticism. A more satisfactory approach is to show the value of the product, service, or idea. Value takes into account integrity, experience, service, reliability, trustworthiness, uniqueness, desirability, and how the buyer will benefit from it. 4. We are the best! This is rarely credible even if your company is the best. Buyers have learned that ninety-nine percent of the sales people who say it are lying so avoid using this phrase. 5. Always and never. This has the same negative effect as the phrase “We are the best.” They sound fake and are frequently perceived as distorting the truth. You can’t say for example that someone “…is never late…” or that your “…orders are always dispatched on time…” since things happen every day and even the best company can have its bad days. So use rational expressions that can represent your organisation. 6. What you need is... You know very little about your prospect or the needs of his organisation and you can’t make a decision for him even if you have reached a great level of rapport and trust. You had better ask questions that will lead you to the best solution for your prospect, and then make a suggestion for him to consider. Eventually it’s he who will make a decision about what he needs, not you. C4_SELLING TECHNIQUES AND SKILLS by Eugenia Papaioannou, Vocational Training Organisation EPICENT‘E S.A., Greece ‘EPICENTRE’ S.A., Greece Page 56 7. This is perfect for everyone. This statement sounds untrue. Do you know any product or service that is “perfect for everyone”? Maybe mineral water, but even this can be doubted. The existing competition of brands of bottled water reflects that some people don’t prefer a certain brand while others do. All in all, avoid phrases that may not build up a relationship with your prospect. Avoid any phrases that may create the impression to the prospect that something is in doubt. They may react defensively and finally shop somewhere else. C4_SELLING TECHNIQUES AND SKILLS by Eugenia Papaioannou, Vocational Training Organisation EPICENT‘E S.A., Greece ‘EPICENTRE’ S.A., Greece Page 57 BUILDING a RELATIONSHIP with your PROSPECTS It is very important and more economical to be able to keep existing customers than getting new ones. In fact, it costs more than five times to get new customers than it is to sustain existing ones. This shows how valuable it is to build a relationship with your customers and turning them into both repeat buyers and spokespeople for your company. Word of mouth referrals are still one of the best ways to make new sales. If a customer is satisfied with a product they have bought from X company and tells a friend that they bought it from X company, then their friend is more likely to address X company and buy. Relationship selling is all about building a friendship or relationship with your prospects and listening to their needs. Once you've built that relationship, shown you care, and earned their trust, you are on the road to making them a customer. Knowing their needs and finding out their secret fears (for example, your client may confide in you, "If I can't make this project work within budget, my boss will probably fire me!") can help you find solutions for them that match their needs and build an even stronger relationship. Then you can easily work out details. If this relationship is not established, these details can become serious obstacles and result in failure. Building a relationship with prospects involves listening frankly to their needs, and showing an interest in more than just the business; having an open, friendly, low pressure approach; reacting quickly in case of problems or emergency needs. Most people react negatively to high pressure sales. In relationship selling, high pressure is not typically part of the equation, simply because it's hard to have a friendly relationship with a prospect who feels pressed for closing a sale. In this type of relationship, you should become a form of support for your clients. Your services C4_SELLING TECHNIQUES AND SKILLS by Eugenia Papaioannou, Vocational Training Organisation EPICENT‘E S.A., Greece Page 58 ‘EPICENTRE’ S.A., Greece or products become something they can rely on, and the more you can suit their needs and make their jobs easier, the better they will respond to further sales offers. You'll also find that relationship selling benefits companies that offer products in very competitive markets - particularly if there isn't much difference between products and you can’t claim uniqueness of your products / services. C4_SELLING TECHNIQUES AND SKILLS by Eugenia Papaioannou, Vocational Training Organisation EPICENT‘E S.A., Greece ‘EPICENTRE’ S.A., Greece Page 59 MAINTAINING CUSTOMER LOYALTY A very important part of relationship selling involves maintaining customers’ loyalty. Clients need to feel you constantly care for them and this feeling reinforces their trust in your credibility and integrity and can bring you more sales. If you neglect them, they may feel you were only interested in the sale of your product and may turn to your competitors who might have been calling regularly to promote their business. Make sure you not only build the relationship, but maintain regular contact and keep all channels of communication open. Try to be always accessible to your clients as you don’t know when emergency needs arise for them. The basis of maintaining loyalty is continued, consistent communication. Focus the majority of your marketing efforts on your current clients, because they are more likely to use your services than new ones. Here are some tips how to maintain your customers’ loyalty: 1. Use all forms of communication to contact customers. You need their names as well as personal data about important things and events in their lives: hobbies, birth dates, birth dates of family members, marriages, funerals. 2. Thank you notes – This should be a given step but so many forget to thank their clients for bringing their business to them. Don’t be that kind of person. 3. Phone - Call them now and then either to wish them on their birthdays, or to wish them happy holidays, and don’t forget to inquire whether they need your services. 4. Newsletter – Send them newsletters full of interesting and useful articles. C4_SELLING TECHNIQUES AND SKILLS by Eugenia Papaioannou, Vocational Training Organisation EPICENT‘E S.A., Greece ‘EPICENTRE’ S.A., Greece Page 60 5. Direct mail – Make sure to include all of your old clients on your mailing list for promotional material and offers. 6. Holiday greetings – People love to be called upon on holidays. Send them beautiful postcards at Christmas and Easter, or any other date you feel it’s appropriate. 7. Incentives - Reward your old clients for being loyal to you. Send them freebies, small gifts and services, either on special occasion or as a part of a campaign especially focused on maintaining their loyalty. 8. Keep your service standard up – Or even raise it if possible. Don’t slack off just because you know them. 9. Ask for feedback – Old clients are a very valuable source of feed-back. Asking for feed-back gets across the message that you are sensitive to their needs. 10. Throw a party for your old customers – This is a great way to maintain relationships. Who doesn’t love parties? 11. Get together every now and then - Meet for lunch or coffee, it will be a good opportunity to find out if they still need you. By using this advice, you’ll be sure to maintain a steady, loyal clientele that will keep you in business as well as bring you new clients. Call Agents will not be able to use all the above techniques, but certainly they will be able to use some of them. C4_SELLING TECHNIQUES AND SKILLS by Eugenia Papaioannou, Vocational Training Organisation EPICENT‘E S.A., Greece ‘EPICENTRE’ S.A., Greece Page 61 CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT (CRM) SYSTEM A useful tool to manage and maintain your clients is a form of contact management software or a good Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system. Customer relationship management (CRM) is one of the most important tools a company can use to remain viable. It is a system that manages customers, and a tool used to track everything you do that relates to your clients. Look at the following steps that can help you choose the best CRM system for your company’s needs. CRM is a tool that everyone in your company will use to track customer information and it is not exclusively a tool for sales. The best approach is to assemble a crosssection of all company staff that will use this system and conclude what features they need. Based on the input and needs you have gathered, start looking at systems, and eliminate the ones that don't meet your highest priorities. It would be a good idea to talk to the companies that have practical experience using the two or three CRM systems you are still considering before making your final decision. Also, make sure to ask these users what they do not like about their particular CRM system. With your needs assessment and referrals gathered, decide on the CRM system that fits your priorities. Your CRM team should include a technical member who will do the installation and setup of your system. You will also need a person who understands your company’s processes and procedures and will be a main user. This person will customize the system to meet the specific business needs of your company but it is wise to make it as simple and straightforward as possible. C4_SELLING TECHNIQUES AND SKILLS by Eugenia Papaioannou, Vocational Training Organisation EPICENT‘E S.A., Greece ‘EPICENTRE’ S.A., Greece Page 62 If possible, a degree of individual training is highly recommended. This will allow team members to ask questions relevant to their job functions and will help facilitate their learning process. Customers in today's world want to work with companies that go the extra mile in the services they offer. A strong and functional CRM system used by the entire company is a great step in the right direction. Remember, customer relationship management is a total company function and not just a sales tool. You can contact FreeCRM.com if you want to use a free CRM software solution for customer relationship management and sales force automation. _____________ BIBLIOGRAPHY: CARNEGIE “HOW TO WIN FRIENDS AND INFLUENCE PEOPLE” (1937); “NEGOTIATING SKILLS ” BY TIM HINDLE ; “NEGOTIATION SKILLS” BY B OB THERRIEN ; “INFLUENCING PEOPLE ” BY ROY JOHNSON & JOHN EATON ; “SEVEN STEPS TO SELECTING THE BEST CRM SYSTEM FOR YOUR COMPANY ” PUBLISHED: J UNE 2, 2005 BY ERIC HUNT, BOOMER CONSULTING , INC.; “WHAT KIND OF S ALES PERSON ARE YOU?” BY COLLEEN FRANCIS; “7 PHRASES YOU CAN'T SAY IN SALES” BY DOUG SMART; “HOW TO SELL TO ANYONE ” BY KELLEY ROBERTSON ; “CALL CENTER SELLING ” BY DANIEL WILLIS; WASSERMAN , BOB "SKILLS NECESSARY FOR BLENDED SALES AND SERVICE , THE TELEMARKETING & CALL CENTER SOLUTIONS” N OV 1997; FINDARTICLES.COM ; “WORKING AT HOME AS A CALL AGENT” BY APRIL TAYLOR -CHILDERS C4_SELLING TECHNIQUES AND SKILLS by Eugenia Papaioannou, Vocational Training Organisation EPICENT‘E S.A., Greece