Telesales - the bare essentials add up to emotional engagement

I have been a bit naughty...

While administering my book for sale on Amazon, I noticed that "if you are interested in this book you may be interested in" several telemarketing companies were advertising their services.

This is common practice these days, I know but my book is all about enjoyable telesales that are pofitable and rewarding for customers, so I thought that I would investigate the telesales experience that is so closely related to my theory of emotional engagement.

My first call involved me in a conversation with the managing director who was challenging from the start. Now, I don't mind being asked pertinent questions like "what is it you do?" and even "how is it any good?", I understand that if they don't know, they have no hope of selling my services but when I strted calculating that he was expecting to have 50 'conversations' with my target managing directors to make one appointment, he actually became quite aggressive and patronising. Now I realise that times are hard and he probably has salaries to pay but I would question his MOTIVATION.

The second call was with the CEO of what I have to presume is a tiny company. Our conversation only lasted three minutes while he extracted the bare essentials from me to simply quote me a day fee. His tone was even paced, regular pitched and essentially quite boring, like a robot and I can tell you that I was ot ENGAGED in the conversation.

Next up was a business development manager who had clearly been trained to within an inch of his life. Like a professional, he told me what they do and how they do it and he even went on to say why they did it so well. What he forgot to do was ask me anything about my services so we had no RAPPORT whatsoever.

Finally, I had a lovely conversation with an everso complimentary lady who thought my idea sounded "amazing", even going so far as to say "I love it". Now I cannot argue with passion like that but, yes, you have guessed it, she didn't even give me a clue about how they would COLLABORATE with me to sell my service, adding that the managing director may give me a call before I receive a quote.

Taking all four conversations into account, I am satisfied with the service I received but on a individual basis they are not practising what I preach so I can see that my book will be improving how much telephone sales advisers enjoy their work and how much more rewarding calls customers can look forward to.

All this amounts to a great deal of profitability that is being wasted.

The weakest link may be you

We are all subject to the constraints of our up-bringing which means that we act in a certain way, have a default sound, sell to a limited audience and therefore rely on a system to support our sales.

But what if we recognised a weak link in the system and that weak link was you?

What will happen if we remove your constraints and reduce your dependence on the system?

You will immediately save 33% (3 to 6 less 1 and 2) of the cost of sales, that's what will happen.

No longer will we need (1) marketing to preceed our calls and no longer will we need (2) customer services to tidy up sales that went wrong.

The most efficient company will rely on you to (3) sell their products and/or services, buy in the (4) materials and (5) labour, pay for the (6) fixed costs and let the satisfied customers come back to you when they awnt to re-order.

Of course on top of this saving, you will make another 33% when you are able to identify the customers emotional connection with what you are selling.

It hardly matters what you say, it's how you say it that matters.

Customer Engagement effects your organization's ROI, profit margin, and share price

At last, someone has said it, recognised it and by all accounts, is doing something about it http://bit.ly/f0bxql

Kate Feather, Executive VP at PeopleMetrics has recognised that customer Engagement effects your organization's ROI, profit margin, and share price.

She goes on to say that few customer satisfaction programs train service representatives and front-line managers in reading and responding to customers' emotions. Providing these tools to customer service employees can be the deciding factor between mediocre and exceptional performance.

But how do we actually 'engage' with the customer and how do we actually train our staff to engage?

I have said it before and will say it again... "It hardly matters what you say, its how you say it that matters" http://bit.ly/geMACJ

Read Lucy works in Telesales http://amzn.to/e7Q5Gm because it explains the fundamental relationship between the sound we make with our voice and customer emgagement.

customer emotional engagement = employee emotional engagement = increased profitability

As a seller, if I permit my potential customer to make sense of what I am selling 'in their own words' then they begin to buy which replaces my need to sell.

The obvious benefit of this is that they buy more, more regularly, recommend our products and/or services and rarely complain.

But the added and most significant benefit is that I, as a seller am involved in the process too. I know why the customer is buying from us and of course why they are not buying from us.

My employer can adapt the products, process of sale and/or services which means that I am involved in 'double loop feedback' making the whole procedure as satisfactory for everyone involved as possible.

Customers enjoy buying, employers make more profit and sellers are emotionally engaged in a sustainable process.

'winning' can be counterproductive

If I beat you, you will probably feel bad about it.

If I beat you, I will feel sorry for you.

If I beat you, you may not want to play with me again or worse...

If I beat you, you may make it your 'mission in life' to beat me back and that would be a horrible game for both of us. Why waste our lives battling for a few meaningless points, maybe damaging ourselves in the meantime.

Boreham Wood FC seem to understand this http://yhoo.it/hmXSkU and I am sure they feel really good about losing in the circumstances, or did they?

So why do sales have to be considered such a battle?

The answer is that THEY DON'T. Sales and specifically telephone sales are all about identifying the potential customer's emotional connection with what you are selling. They win an emotional reward, the seller wins longer employment and the employer earns a little more profit for their investment in the process.

'winning' can be experienced by everyone who plays the game.

Losers are those who don't play.

Myers Briggs for customer servces but not sales

I read in an excellent article by Tom Lamont of the Guardian http://bit.ly/i3hcN1 that call centres are now successfully using Myers Briggs psychology to serve their incoming callers and was surprised to think that this almost anciant theory works in modern selling (telephone sales) but it doesn't.

We are all a constantly changing psychographic profile - we are never just one the the '16 types' and can change that profile in seconds, even several times during a conversation.

This profile or 'state' is represented by sound - the sound of our voice which indicates the emotion (one of 18) we are currently feeling or 'driven by'.

Serve that emotion http://bit.ly/geMACJ and you will have made a sale.

What do you hope for at a New Years Eve Party?

CONVERSATION - to express yourself knowing that thare is no wrong except not having that conversation.

MUSIC - making sense of the lyrics and beat in a way that satisfies you.

DANCE - connecting with others by responding to them as they respond to you.

ART - interpreting what you see from your own perspective so you can decide if you like it or not.

LOVE - finding that special person who likes what you are offering and is excited to collaborate.

JUST like 'good' telephone sales - Happy New Year with love from Simon Bell.