Although telemarketing is known to be one of the most powerful marketing tools, talking to potential customers over the phone also brings challenges. As Skills You Need says:
“Talking with a customer on the phone can often be a difficult task. Without seeing an individual’s face, messages can become muddled and meanings misinterpreted.”
As you can’t use all your senses and don’t have body language cues to fall back on when speaking on the phone, you need to come up with other techniques to help you get your message across. Finding different ways to communicate and connect with your potential customer is important if you’re going to create a two-way conversation and get as much as possible from your telemarketing call.
Visualisation
One of the best ways to overcome the challenges of telephone communication is visualisation. When you pick up the phone to call a prospect, try to picture them in your mind’s eye. During the conversation imagine their facial responses. This technique will help you better empathise with your prospect. Getting a better understanding of who someone is and what they want, need, and prefer, will help you build greater rapport with them and present your message in a way that appeals to them. This goes a long way in helping you to succeed in your calls.
Fooling your senses
When you speak to a person face to face, all five of your senses are called into action. Although you may not realise it, all of your senses play an important part in both giving and receiving signals from the person you’re speaking to. If any one of your senses is impeded, it can be harder to get your message across or to pick up on the subtle cues your potential customer is giving off.
By actually ‘seeing’ a person in your mind’s eye, you can fool your senses. This makes it possible to artificially overcome some of the barriers of telephone communication. You will sound warmer and more confident, which will help breakdown any resistance that the person receiving your call may have.
Focusing on your head
When making telemarketing calls, it’s all too easy get bogged down listening to your internal monologue. If you’re not focused on the person you’re speaking to, you may begin to think things like, “Why did I say that?”, “What do I need to say next?”, or “Oh, I forgot to ask…”. As well as being distracting, these types of thoughts can stop you from listening to your potential client and can make it a lot harder to have a truly two-way conversation. Holding an image of the person you’re speaking to in your head is a good way to overcome this problem and help you to stay engaged with your potential customer.
Although visualisation takes a long time to master, it can have a big impact on your telemarketing success, so is well worth the effort. Find out more about effective telemarketing techniques by taking a look around our site today, or contact a member of our friendly telemarketing team to discuss your telemarketing strategy.