Telephone Sales Training for Direct Selling Appointment Setting

On this page we show you examples from different markets on the techniques and ideas behind creating a Reason for Calling when you are appointment setting with prospects in their own home.

The reason for calling is the most important line of any cold call. It tells the prospect why they should listen to you and not hang up or give you a smoke screen objection.

The objectives of this page are for you to:

• Create a great reason for calling
• Keep your prospect’s attention
• Prevent those early objections and call stoppers
• Motivates the listener to move to the next call stage

Throughout this page we look at different markets and products or services, and give examples of reasons for calling that could be used. You are welcome to use these examples for your telesales and appointment calls, but they are presented primarily to give you ideas to help you to create your own unique call introductions that will give you more appointments and more success.

Here are the examples, ideas, and techniques for creating a great reason for calling...

Direct Sales Insurance Appointment Setting

Successful insurance salespeople know that money is not always the motivator for all prospects buying the different types of insurance. So in their telephone sales training to make appointments they look at what will hook the prospect’s attention. If we look at two types of insurance product...

1. Car Insurance Appointment Setting

Most people buying car insurance are looking for the cheapest deal that gives them the cover they want. And that is what successful appointment setters use as the reason for their telephone call.

Example: I’m calling so that you can check if you are paying too much for the car insurance cover that you want.

Notice the focus is on checking that the prospect is not paying too much. No mention of selling them a cheaper cover plan. The check is a benefit to the prospect with no threat of trying to sell to them, and it is a reason why they should listen to the caller.

There are many variations on this theme and you can play about with the words to suit you, your sales angle, and your company image.

2. Direct Sales Insurance Appointment Setting

When it comes to telephone sales training for calls related to life assurance, insuring earnings, and protecting the prospect’s family, saving money isn’t always the main motivator or attention grabber.

Making appointment calls to direct sales prospects for this type of insurance sale you want to use a reason for calling that mentions protection, family, cover, etc.

Example: The reason for my call is that many people buy insurance that will protect their family should anything happen, but they don’t always review it as their lifestyle and circumstances change. Can I ask you, when did you last review the safeguards you have in place for your family?

Not only does this reason for calling grab the prospect’s attention, it moves smoothly into the Direct Sales First Question stage of the call.

Appointment Calls for Direct Sales of New Kitchens

When I was working on telephone sales training for kitchen sellers we looked at the benefits of adding value to a house by investing in a new kitchen, and using this as the rerason for the call.

Ideas we played around with included: Image and status when entertaining friends and family. Traditional family benefits such as the heart of a home. And of course the financial value it adds to a house.

Telephone sales training for kitchen sales should not be about features such as granite worktops and shiny fittings. It's about the benefits that a buyer will feel.

Kitchen sales cold calls can also make use of a technique that disguises the fact that you are making an appointment to try and sell to the prospect. You can see more on this direct sales technique at Telephone sales skills...

Appointment Calls for Sales of Cable or Satellite TV

How do you ask a prospect if you can come round to their home and sell them cable or satellite TV?

If you have good telephone sales training the answer is: You don’t ask that question. Instead you create a really good reason for calling that grabs the prospect’s attention and prevents any early sales objections.

To create our reason for calling let’s start with a few benefits that the prospect could receive from buying a TV service:

Family entertainment such as children's channels and films.

Educational programs.

Large choice of programs and channels.

Pay for view events.

Coverage of the prospect’s favourite sports.

Benefits from additional technical features such as storing and playing back shows.

There are plenty of benefits to use for this product, but when it comes to a reason for calling on an appointment cold call there’s a problem.

Most of these really good benefits are good only if the prospect has a specific need for them. The needs come from the different people in a household that will watch the television, and for creating your reason for calling you would have to know who lived in the house and what programs they liked watching.

So the specific benefits listed above, and others like them, come later in the call, or maybe they are saved for when the sales person meets the householder.

From the above the big benefit that stands out is the wide range of benefits that a television service provider can give to a customer. Think about it, we all watch TV for different reasons, we have our own favourite channels, and only some of us make use of features such as pay on demand viewing and record and playback.

So there we have identified that the wide range of features and benefits is a possible reason for calling.

Examples:

I’m calling you today because our range of channels is now so big that you might be missing something really good with your current provider.

The reason I’m calling is because we now have such a wide range of channels that we can tailor the service we offer to our new customers and that means you only pay for the channels that you want to watch.

Add to those two examples any free offers, trials, reduced prices for new customers, and you can see how we are starting to create a great introduction stage of the appointment call.

The best telephone sales training for creating a reason for calling is to start with the benefits.

While these ideas are fresh in your mind start a list of the benefits to a customer related to the products or services that you sell. Now pick out the benefits that you can use in the Introduction stage of your appointment call.

Play about with the words, make the call unique to you, and think about how it will sound from the prospect’s perspective.

Ask yourself, if you received a sales appointment call using your reason for calling, would it grab your attention, would you be willing to turn off the TV, stop what you were doing, and give your time to the caller.

If the answer’s no, take a look at the telephone sales training that I use with my sales teams...

You’ve read the above ideas and techniques so now use a professional training course and create an effective appointment call today.

Today for a small fee of £24.50, That’s around $36.00, you can create a sales appointment call that will give you as many meetings as you want with Direct Sales prospects.

A complete training program you can download today for just £24.50

That's around $38

Making Sales Appointments by Telephone gives you step by step guidance to create all the stages of a sales appointment call.

It uses telephone sales training that incorporates the ideas and techniques that are on the pages of this website, plus a lot more.

Follow the step-by-step exercises and for just £24.50 you will be able to make an appointment call with complete confidence using your own words and phrases.

No fancy gimmicks, no complicated techniques that don’t work in real sales situations, and no acronyms just to make the course look good.

What you get is the same telephone sales training course that I’ve used in my career to train appointment setters in many industries and markets.

If you liked what you read on this page you can start using the techniques in this course today to create a cold call that will give you as many appointments as you want.

A professional sales appointment course for just £24.50

Money back guarantee

To show the confidence I have in a sales appointment course that has worked for my sales teams, and so many other people like you, I offer you this guarantee.

If you use the course, and complete all the exercises, and you don’t get an increase to your sales appointment results, you can return the completed course within 90 days of purchase and you will receive a courteous and polite refund.

To see more information before deciding to buy the course, open Making Sales Appointments - The Professional’s course

Search this site

Custom Search