What is telesales training?
Sometimes called telemarketing training, sales call training or phone sales training, telesales training is, simply, a programme of learning to help people generate sales over the phone. Telesales itself is one of the most important functions in many business sectors and those people and businesses that learn to do it well have a competitive advantage in any market.
Selling well over the phone is a skill you can learn, just like playing the piano, skiing, reading or creating spreadsheets though some people have an early advantage because they’ve already developed relevant skills when doing other activities.
Why should you do telesales training?
Successful sales training will help grow your business. It will help improve you and your teams. It will give your clients and prospective clients a better service. Done well with an effective sales trainer, telesales training is one of the quickest and most effective ways to increase company revenue and grow company profits.
Who should do telesales training?
Anyone that makes their living from selling over the phone will benefit from telesales training. From newcomers to experienced professionals and all points in between, an introduction to the basics or a refining of advanced skills will always bring results. In addition, anyone managing sales teams – particularly leaders in small businesses who are not from a sales background themselves – will benefit from a tailored telesales training programme.
What does telesales training involve?
Every telesales training programme we deliver is tailored to the needs of each client and their market sector. Whether delivered in person or online (or, even, over the phone), all good telesales training programmes should include most, if not all, of the following ten areas:
- Our ‘Why’: the core purpose of a telesales job (it’s not what most people think!)
- How people make buying decisions unconsciously and how to sell into that consciously
- The core ingredients of success in telesales and how to measure them
- Telesales structure: a step-by-step process for consistent, measurable success
- Starting calls well with clarity, warmth and authority
- Exploring client needs through intelligent, interactive questioning
- Developing a range of selling skills to match client needs
- Summarising needs and agreeing simple next steps
- Following up proactively with interested clients and leaving uninterested parties in peace
- Taking a client live and developing a proactive account management process
When should you do telesales training?
Like almost every training programme in the world, little and often is the best. Too often, people sign up to an intensive 2 or 3 day programme with no follow-up and, whilst there is nothing wrong with the intensive programme, the lack of sustained support and ongoing training means the new ideas will disappear. One-off programmes are as effective as the annual gym membership that is only used for January – it feels good at the time but carries no long-term benefits.
How should you do telesales training?
Most communication skills training is best in person but, if this is not possible, online training is increasingly a strong replacement. The key is interaction which is easier when you’re all together in a room but can be replicated provided people are fully engaged online rather than secretly reading their emails. The interaction keeps people engaged and fosters an environment of sharing ideas – sales is not an exact science and there are different ways to do it. Through sharing different experiences, everyone in the room can play their part in making the training successful.
Making time to try things out is critical; change is far more likely to be implemented in real sales calls if people have the chance to try them out in the safe setting of a training room.
