Telephone sales. Stages of sales. Making contact Identification of needs

Yes, the photo is not glossy, but here the sales department is exactly what it is in reality.

Extensive telephone sales guide for b2b, part 1 of 4. In this part: background, acquaintance with an expert, general information on telephone sales.

Before I started a Videolom project, I worked in the telephone sales department as a sales manager. The department itself was called UTP (Telephone Sales Department), and the subdivision was called CBP (English Credit by phone), and formally it had to handle incoming calls, but in fact most of the calls were outgoing, like TLM (Telemarketing) units, but the speech not about that.
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There, while working, I met many people from different positions (like the same managers, both I and managers). Among them, I met a lot of masters of their craft. These were people who can raise sales of anyone, even the most inept group, and people who can sell anything and anyone.

I gathered the experience of all these people, my experience, information from other sources, expert opinion. All this gave me the opportunity to write an extensive telephone sales guide. The article is divided into four parts:

1. Background, acquaintance with an expert, basic concepts, stages of sales, making contact, identifying needs;
2. Presentation of the product, work with objections, completion of the transaction;
3. How to make a sales script. How to get around the secretary;
4. Bonus: a common list of errors sales managers + solutions to each item.

Okay, enough of the introduction. Keep the utility!


To begin with, I will introduce an expert so that later there will be no questions like: “Who is he at all and why is he an expert?”



Shikoyants Vilen

Senior supervisor in the telephone sales department of the outsourcing company Homer Software House. I went to the fifth year, as he works in sales, traditionally demonstrating with his group the best performance among other groups in the same department, and demonstrating with his department the best result than in other departments located in other cities. In his direct subordination is a group of 15 people, as well as 4 leaders of other groups, where each has another 25 people. In total, about 120 people are subordinate to him. Over the past years, a lot of people passed through Vilena and everyone had to be “out of nothing” turned into a sales manager. Judging by the indicators, he is good at it.

What are phone sales?

Usually, the division into “hot” and “cold” sales is used, but I understand perfectly well that there is a type of sales that can be called “ice” - they are primary when the business is developing.

Ice sales

The bottom line: you call the office of a company in which no one knows who you are or what you want. No one is waiting for your call. You found the number somewhere on the Internet.

An option for those who do not have many thousands of customer base with contacts of decision makers (approx. “Decision makers” - the person who makes the decision). Actually, my option too. It goes without saying that you have fewer chances with an “icy” ringing than with the usual “cold”, but such a school of life will allow you in the future not to “merge” your customer base by making inept calls. It is somewhat ironic that the smallest and inexperienced companies have to use the most difficult method of telephone sales.

The most difficult thing is to bypass the secretary. And, believe me, you are very lucky if the secretary was a girl with a thin voice, and not the 50-year-old Valentina Grigorievna, who split your head like a nut, even before you have time to find out the name of the director and how to contact him. Let me remind you that I will tell you about the bypass of the secretary in the third part of the article.

Often the “ice” method is not very effective, as a small company can hardly afford professional sales managers, but some of the tips from this article will help you sell a little better, if not at the professional level. In addition, the “ice” ring calls give you the opportunity to conduct “hot” sales in the future, which, in turn, will allow you to make “cold” sales in the future. In general, then everything will go in a circle.

Cold sales

The bottom line: you directly call the decision makers from your customer base. Bypassing the secretary is no longer scary, but nobody is waiting for your call: you are simply trying to re-sell something to someone who has already been your customer.

The option is not for everyone, because the contacts of decision makers from their own customer base are quite a rare and valuable resource. Not everyone can afford to call on their own customer base, and certainly not everyone can be trusted with such a responsible business.

Hot sales

Essence (if the call is outgoing): you call the decision maker, who is already waiting for your call and is interested in discussing the details of the transaction.

Essence (if the call is incoming): you accept a call from a person who (most often) is not fully oriented yet, but he is basically interested in what you offer.

Perhaps the perfect option. All that remains for you is to “press” the interlocutor. In the first case, it is enough just not to do something stupid, and in the second you need to properly present your product. More on that later.

We summarize

• "Ice sales" - no one is waiting for you, no one knows. Call not on your customer base.
• “Cold sales” - no one is waiting for you, but they know you. Call your customer base.
• “Hot sales” - you receive incoming calls from interested people, and also call only those people who are waiting for your call.

Sales stages

In the standard model, the telephone sales process is divided into 5 important steps:

1. Making contact
2. Identification of needs
3. Presentation
4. Work with objections
5. Closing the deal

Observance of all these stages is mandatory, regardless of the "temperature" of sales. Sometimes, however, new stages are added, but it is more correct to say that the existing ones become more complicated. We can say that these are the 5 commandments of sales, in violation of which punishment awaits you: a lost client. What each stage is, what processes are present at each stage - I will write about it below. In this part of the article we will examine

Making contact

This stage is at least the fastest, but decisive: will you even have a chance to sell something. The establishment of a contact consists of 3 main parts:

• Greeting
• Acquaintance
• Challenge interest

The essence of the greeting: you must introduce yourself, give your first name and surname (only the name can be, but then the interlocutor must be addressed only by name), place of work and position, and then call the purpose of the call. So your interlocutor will understand who you are, where you come from, how to contact you, and why you are calling.

The essence of the acquaintance: right after the greeting, you should clarify with the person who he is, in order to understand whether you called there at all, whether he is a decision maker, how to address him. Often, the interviewee simply copies the format of your greeting, but if this does not happen, do not pause after the greeting: start the acquaintance immediately.

The essence of the call of interest: when everyone understands with whom he communicates and how to contact the interlocutor, you must ask the client a question that would have caused his interest. If this is not done, the client will become embarrassed, because, unlike you, he still does not understand what is happening, and therefore does not know what to say next. I recommend using the following question: “Tell X, how much time can you spend on our conversation?” This will allow you not only to continue the dialogue, making it clear to the client that communication awaits you ahead - you also understand how much time you have. If the client, for example, has about 5 minutes, there is no sense in talking with him. It is better to negotiate a chime. The wording is very important, because if you ask: “Is it convenient for you to talk now?”, You will give the client a reason to answer “No”, after which the dialogue will be over. Dialogue example:

- Good afternoon, my name is Kim, marketing specialist at Videolom. I call you to discuss the idea of ​​our mutually beneficial cooperation. I got through to * company name *?

- Good day. Yes that's right.

- Tell me, with whom can I discuss the details of cooperation?

- With me you can

- Great, what's your name?

- Vasily Ivanovich

- Very nice, Vasily! Tell me, how much time can you give to our conversation?

Errors in contact making

Often beginners make mistakes when making contact. Because of these mistakes, the conversation "does not go" from the very beginning, because of what sales are leaving. I asked Vilen Shikoyantsu a few questions about what mistakes are usually made. Below are my questions and Vilen's answers to them.

Tell me, what mistakes often make in the process of establishing contact with the client?

There are several basic easily solvable errors:

1. The manager introduced himself too quickly and indistinctly.

- Hello, who is this?

- # @ ^% &! # @! $

- A, clear.

Solving the issue is very simple: you need to approach your more experienced colleague or leader, ask to listen to your conversation and ask how much percent you need to speak more slowly. Just just do it.

2. The manager communicates not as equals

- Vyacheslav Sergeevich, good afternoon!

- Good, Sasha, good ...

- Vyacheslav Sergeevich, have you considered my proposal?

- No, Sasha, not interested.

You need to contact the client in the same way as he addresses you. I mean the format. If a client just calls you by name, then you call him by name, and vice versa. If the client allows himself too familiar reference, it is necessary to correct it correctly.

3. The most common mistake is the question: “Is it convenient for you to talk now?”, Or “Can you give me n minutes?”, Or “Give me n minutes of time?”.

- Good afternoon, give me 5 minutes of time?

- Not.

or

- Good afternoon, is it convenient for you to talk now?

- Not.

It happens, we make a call to the client and hear not the most pleasant phrases: “Speak faster”, “I don’t have time”, “I’m very busy”, etc. In this case, you need to correctly set the time for the chime:

- Vyacheslav Sergeevich, in that case I will call you back later. Tell me, what time will it be convenient for you tomorrow?

It makes no sense to spend time and energy on the conversation, in which the interlocutor will hurry and still will not comprehend the proposal.

“Never” can also be answered, but this answer can be given mainly by the person who is initially annoyed with something. It is better not to get involved with it in principle.

Errors are much larger, but they are the most common when it comes to establishing contact.

What if the error is already made? Is it possible to reanimate the dialogue?

It is almost impossible, as the first impression is indelible. It may happen that you can somehow joke during a conversation. That is, if a bad start succeeds in translating into a joke, thus raising the mood of the interlocutor - all is not lost. But it is necessary to work on pre-emption, and not on the fight against the consequences.

* Vilen will return to us in the next part and tell you what mistakes are made when working with objections *

Identification of needs

The definitions of most sources on the Internet say that the essence of the process is as follows: to understand what exactly the customer wants, what product causes him the greatest interest, to determine what are his expectations regarding the purchase.

The problem is that you will not go far on such advice: the majority of clients have no idea what exactly they want, what product they are interested in and what their expectations are. And even if they knew - this information will give you nothing. The problem is aggravated by the fact that customers themselves, not understanding (and sometimes understanding), often lie to you, saying that they want or do not want something.

I would state the essence of the process differently: find out what the client lacks in his business. Understand what is for him a "pain point". I will give an example, since the line is not so obvious. Imagine a person who has stretched ligaments on his legs.

What happens if you identify the need for the general principle: you find out what kind of ointment the client is looking for, by his answer you try to understand what hurts him, then frantically offer your analogue. Where is the mistake? The client is not a pharmacist, and he hardly understands what kind of ointment he needs. And you have already drawn conclusions on his answer. Why did he even answer? I don't know, seriously. Maybe because I didn’t want to look stupid, maybe deliberately misleading you, maybe something else. The bottom line is that for some reason he gives the answer, even though he does not know him, and this should be taken into account.

What happens if you identify a need according to my principle: you ask the client to describe the pain, what he feels, try to determine the location of the source of the pain, and then you begin to understand the reasons why he generally feels this pain. Further, you already independently offer the client ointment, which should help him. You do not ask what kind of ointment he wants - you ask if he wants to get rid of the pain, and then just give him a solution, ointment. If you move away from analogies, it becomes clear that without understanding the client’s business you cannot determine what his problem is and how to help him, but this is a solvable problem, unlike the first one, when the principle of operation leaves much to be desired.

How to identify customer needs

Questions - the main weapon in the arsenal of a sales manager, because it is questions that allow you to get all the information you need to negotiate.

Questions are divided into 3 types:

1. Open - suggest a detailed response. Example: "How was your weekend?"
2. Closed - implies a response in the format of "Yes" or "No". Example: “Were you at the movies on the weekend?”
3. Alternative - you yourself offer response options. Example: “Did you work or rest at the weekend?”

The most useful are open questions, since the client cannot simply answer with a short answer in response to them. The more the client speaks, the more information you receive, and the easier it will be for you to successfully complete the transaction. In addition, it is important for the client to speak out. I think that everyone paid attention to the fact that sometimes I want to speak to someone who will listen carefully and will not interrupt or laugh. The sales manager plays the role of a psychologist who will listen carefully and will ask questions stimulating the continuation of the story. Trust in you will be much higher, and the client will be more willing to listen to your proposal. Proceeding from this, it follows that the beginning of the identification of needs is precisely with open questions.

Further, when you have received all the general information, proceed to the clarifications. For them, you can use alternative and closed questions - this will provide an opportunity to direct the conversation in the right direction. That is: you received general information, after which you delved into the topic, asking clarifying questions. Everything is simple and clear, if we talk about the principle of work, but the skill to ask the right questions is quite a rare phenomenon. As a rule, the manager has 5-7 open questions and 3-5 closed and alternative questions to identify the client’s need.

Mistakes in identifying needs

• Too many closed questions. Clients do not like being interrogated in a “Yes / No” format;
• Excessive diligence in identifying needs. As you understand, the client has a lot of needs, but you should not try to identify each of them: one or two is enough for you;
• Interruption of the identification of needs for a partial presentation, and then the continuation of the identification of needs. A very common mistake among newbies;
• Bad listener error: you can not interrupt the client. He says - you are listening;
• Talk about life. Sometimes it is possible to establish contact so well that the client begins to conduct a friendly conversation with you on abstract topics. It needs to be corrected correctly, returning the conversation in the right direction.

In the next part (2 of 4):

1. Product presentation
2. Work with objections
3. Closing the deal