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Telephone Appointments For Direct Sales

Telephone appointments for direct sales can be made so much more effective if you work on one very important part of the call strategy.

For an explanation of sales appointments call strategy, and the process of an appointment setting call click here to open the appointment setting page

To learn which part of your sales appointments call you should focus on, and how to take the actions that will reward you with results, read on...

Why this sales training is different

On these pages you will not find individual sales techniques to be used in isolation.

Because on real sales appointment setting calls, and in real sales situations, isolated sales techniques do not work.

You will find sales strategies.

Sales processes that lead from a starting point to an objective. On appointment setting telephone calls the start of the process is your introduction to the prospect.

Your objective is to achieve the appointment.

This page is part of the telephone appointments process section of the site. It focuses on what many working sales professionals say is the most important part of the appointment setting call strategy. For full details of the appointment setting strategy click here to open the appointment setting main page.

If you get this one key element of your telephone appointments calls working for you the rest will fall into place.

The most important part of the telephone appointments call

Have you received calls at home or in the office, from salespeople trying to make telephone appointments?

Do you want the sales person to ask how you are or try and build rapport with you?

You were either busy or relaxing when they called and both activities could be important to you.

Either way, the caller has to make what they are saying more interesting or more important than what you were doing. You want them to get to the point. The reason they are calling you.

The most important part of the telephone appointments call is, The Reason For The Call. Why are you calling the prospect? What can you offer that grabs their interest?

Your first minute of the call has to promise more potential importance than what the prospect was doing when you called. You have to give the prospect a reason to continue to listen to you.

Many appointment setting calls just don�t do that. They don�t look at the call from the prospect�s viewpoint. While you�re choosing your content for this part of the call use the prospect�s perspective.

Developing your telephone appointments calls

Sales professionals work to develop their reason for calling. They don�t just view appointment setting calls as, get them talking, ask some questions, use a clever sales appointment closing technique.

The most important part of the telephone appointments calls is the reason for the call. So what reasons can you give your prospects for your call?

When you make your sales appointments calls, your reason for calling should be related to the benefits of your product or service. Where possible focused on a unique selling point. And as specific as possible for the prospect you�re calling.

....Making the sales appointments call specific is the part of the call most sales people don�t do....Possibly because it requires some research and some thinking.

Invest the time and the effort and you will be well rewarded....Many times throughout my career I have seen salespeople receive great personal gain when they invest in this action.

Direct selling sales
appointments calls

Direct sales to the public could be selling double glazing, central heating, driveway paving, or any other home development or repair product or service.

Think about the reasons you could use for sales appointments calls for the above products if that�s what you were selling.

You could target a housing estate and use the age of the houses for any related products.

The size of the house.

Something specific about the road, or the locality.

Personalise the sales appointments call.

If you sell security products use local crime figures�Only use truthful figures and present them professionally.

......There is no long term sales career in frightening people with false crime figures and scary headlines.....And in the UK this is now prohibited.

For more information on honest sales techniques click here and read the section on long term success.

Tell them something that proves you have been to the area.
I passed your house and noticed that you need....
Your neighbour Mr??? is looking at gaining ???? by having our services, and as you live in a similar house you could benefit from....

Do not use, I will be in your area, or, we are in your area, as the reasons for your sales appointments calls. That says to the prospect, they are not worth travelling to see. There is no other reason for me calling you other than my travel plans. This is a weak reason and the results you get will reflect this.

Think of what your product will do for the buyer. The benefit the buyer gets from having it, or using it. Make it as unique as possible.

If you sell paving for driveways, what are you selling?
When I present sales training courses the inexperienced salespeople answer that question with, paving, choices of driveways, or something related to the features of a driveway.

Experienced salespeople give answers such as: Great additional value to the house, so it�s an investment not a purchanse.
A feeling of success as the buyer drives into their home.
Pride as the neighbours see what they have.
Security in knowing they have a drive that will last for years.
The relief of an old eyesore being replaced by a decorative garden feature.
And many more all related to feelings, savings, security, adding value, and image.

They understand that buyers buy benefits not features. How the new driveway will look is a feature. What that new look does for the buyer is a benefit.

Examples to get you thinking in benefits

Now look at what you sell and consider the reasons you can use on your sales appointments calls. Remember to use the buyer�s perspective. Think of benefits not features. what will be the end result for the buyer.

Financial sales appointments calls
Successful financial salespeople know that money is not the motivator for prospects to buy their products and services. It�s what the money will do for the buyer that motivates prospects to agree to an appointment.

Insurance offers safety and security. The motivator is what happens in the worst situations if the customer doesn�t have proper cover. A great reason for your call is to check their cover compared to what you can offer.

Furniture sales appointmants calls
Direct sales furniture doesn�t just give people something to sit on. If that�s all they wanted they could use wooden boxes. On sales appointments calls you could use the image the furniture gives. The long term benefits of quality furniture. The feeling of comfort and the benefits of relaxation, and what they may miss out on if they don�t trial your product.

Kitchen sales appointments calls
Kitchen sales people use benefits in their telephone appointments calls. The benefits of looking at images of what a new kitchen will look like with their free planning services.

Adding value to the house by investing in a new kitchen. Image and status when friends see it. The traditional family benefits of a place to eat together....What could be more important than time spent together as a family at meal times.

Your reason for calling

While these ideas are fresh in your recent memory, start a list of the benefits of your product and the services you offer. Pick out the benefits you can use on your sales appointments calls.

Play about with the words. Practice your telephone appointments calls. This is an investment. It�s how you make your living. It�s worth perfecting.

Then ask yourself, if you received a sales appointments call that gave that reason for calling would it grab your attention? Would you be willing to turn off the TV, stop what you were doing at work, put down that book you were reading, and give your time to the caller?

If the answers no, keep working on your reason for the call until you�ve got a telephone appointments call that will get prospects to say, yes.

Have you felt the electrifying
Sales Buzz

Remember the Buzz you feel when you close a deal or smash through another sales target. That electrifying emotional high when you win an important sale, and get the commission.

The free sales training newsletter is called The Sales Buzz

When you take the free sales training newsletter you get a free copy of Need to Close Chains. A quick-fire sales training technique that builds new neural pathways to give you practical selling skills, and control over your sales motivation.

A great package, and it�s completely free

Follow the link and see what you can have by clicking the free newsletter sales training and get your free copy of Need to Close Chains.

Direct sales small business

Direct sales people that work in, or own, small businesses can find more sales training related to small business and self employed sales by clicking here to leave Telephone Appointments.

Direct salespeople, self employed and small buainess owners. See what's being offered to you on the direct sales tips page.

NLP techniques are a useful addition to any salepersons sales skills. To see how NLP can be used in a direct sales situation, follow the link.

Click here to opn Direct Sales Tips.

Sales Appointments and prospecting

Sales appointments setting is closely linked to prospecting. The more you increase your telephone appointment making skills, the less prospects you will need to gather.

To learn how to calculate the number of prospects you need each month click here to move to Sales Prospecting.

Never miss out on new sales training

Never miss out on new sales training updates to the site. Get the site Blog and see the updates as they happen.

Click the orange button on the navigation bar or click here to move to the Blog page and see what you can gain.

How to make sales appointments

The section on making sales appointments has lots more to offer. See what else you can find that will motivate you to create new ways of improving your sales appointments calls.

To go to the main page on appointment setting click here.