It is much easier to sell-face to-face as the customer can see you and can tell you are genuine. On the telephone the first few seconds are critical and it is important to avoid simple mistakes.
Let us imagine that you are a customer and I am a sales person. If I were to start the conversation with "Do you have time to speak to me at the moment" what are you thinking? My guess is that you are thinking negatively. You may be thinking, "Well I am busy, how much time will you be taking?" or you may simply be thinking, "This sounds like a sales person I had better be on my guard." However it goes, it will be negative.
It you ask the prospect if he has time to talk to you, you will be building a wall between you that will be hard to break down. Having greeted the prospect and introduced myself, I prefer to get straight into the reason for the call.
Sometimes, of course, the prospect will tell you that he is too busy, and this is your opportunity to practice your alternative close and make an appointment to ring him back:
"That's okay, John, we all get busy from time to time, when would be the best time to ring you back, would Thursday afternoon be good for you or would Friday morning be better?"
The grey area here, of course, is the cellphone. If you are ringing a customer on his cellphone then you will have to ask if it is okay to chat to him at the moment. If your customer sounds as if he is sitting in a small, echoing room, it is probably not the best time to be speaking to him.
As a matter of principle I don't ring customers on their cellphone unless there is no choice. The sound quality on the cellphone is not as good as a landline and sometimes you get an echo which does not help with the clarity of the conversation. Your customer may be in the car, with an important customer, with his family, or just having some quiet time on his own - you never know.
Using the telephone to sell can be very effective if it is done properly. You can make 30 calls in the same time it takes to visit one customer, and while your strike rate will probably be lower, even if it is one tenth of your strike rate when you are face-to-face, you will be making three times the sales.
Like many other things, this all comes with practice so get phoning and improve those skills, and don't forget, don't ask if they have the time.
