Ten Tips to Ensure the Successful Execution of Your Telesales Plan
Call on the Right Initiatives for Telesales
More than ever before, telephone sales are an important strategy in your overall sales plan. Now is the time to take advantage of the opportunity to incorporate telephone selling in your portfolio of sales and marketing initiatives or, if you are already deep into telesales, to increase the contribution of the team that you have in place.
Here are 10 ways to ensure your company’s success when executing a telesales plan.
1. Develop a specific Telesales Plan. Telephone selling can play a part, large or small, in every sale. This can range from data base cleaning & lead generation to direct selling and account management. Begin by developing a plan that specifically identifies how your company will leverage teleselling.
Teletip: What new markets is your company opening? What new products are you selling? Do you have add on products or warranties to sell? Are there Field Accounts that are better managed by phone? Be sure to answer these questions as you are developing your Telesales plan.
2. Test Before You Invest. Will Teleselling work for your company? Can I expand the revenue impact of the team that I have in place? A well executed test campaign will provide the answer.
Teletip: You can conduct this test in-house by allocating current resources or engage the services of an outsourcer. Managed well, either choice will provide you with insights and information that will allow you to determine whether your company should focus its Telesales resources.
3. Compensate Contributions. Telesales positions are similar to other sales positions in that a telesales representative expects to be rewarded based on level of risk. Telesales representatives who are responsible for direct revenue and territory management are accustomed to being paid on a leveraged plan which rewards them for exceeding their plan. Those who share their accounts or their territory with other sales people are accustomed to a compensation plan with less risk, less reward.
Teletip: Compensation packages for Telesales representatives are becoming more competitive. Be sure to evaluate what your competitors are paying their Telesales representatives to ensure that you are able to attract the best talent.
4. Recruit and Hire the Right People. Teleselling requires a unique set of skills, both business and personal. Start by clearly identifying these skills. Be sure to review your recruiting process and tools to ensure that they support your ability to source and hire the right talent.
Teletip: Conduct a telephone interview with each candidate. This is a great way to determine the person’s telephone competence and style.
5. Provide the Right Training. Telesales people require Telesales specific training. This includes a focus on rapport building, telephone skills & presence, and a telephone based process for providing the sales people with feedback during the training session.
Teletip: If your company subscribes to a recognized selling method, training the Telesales representatives on this methodology will work as long as you supplement it with Telesales specific skills training.
6. Provide the Tools to Get the Job Done. Telesales representatives require sales and marketing tools, some common to all sales people and some specific to teleselling. Because the Telesales representative does not have the advantage of face-to-face interactions, the representative relies on marketing tools to enhance and continue the sales conversation. Be sure to equip the Telesales representatives with the right tools for the job, among them: sales scripts or guides, sales tracking/CRM software (or call sheets), webinars, ebrochures.
Teletip: Spend some time sitting side-by-side with your Telesales people. Observe them conducting their business. What additional marketing tools could they use to be more effective?
7. Set the Right Measurement Standards. There are two parts to sales performance: effort and results. In this regard, teleselling is no different than Field Sales. If your team or representative is new, focus first on measuring effort: number of calls, number of contacts, number of presentations, etc. Once in place, turn your attention to sales results and orders booked.
Teletip: In an established teleselling environment or with seasoned Telesales representatives, focus on measuring results. If revenue has slipped or a representative is not making his/her number, reinstate the measurement of effort to determine what needs attention.
8. Go on Sales Calls, Frequently. As with any other sales position, accompanying a Telesales person on sales calls provides valuable insights into the representative’s performance as well as information about your prospects and customers. In Telesales, this is done by teleconferencing. Institute a practice of teleconferencing each Telesales representative for a minimum of one hour per week.
Teletip: If you cannot accompany the Telesales representative on live calls, have the sales people tape their calls and review the calls together.
9. Motivate and Recognize Performance. Teleselling is a fast-paced environment and your recognition and reward programs should reflect and support this. Take a Telesales view of your offerings and make the changes necessary to ensure they are motivating Telesales performance.
Teletip: You may be able to use many of the same contests and recognition programs that you use to motivate your Field Sales force. Be sure to modify the components to accommodate teleselling’s pace and volume.
10. Track and Analyze Results, Tweak or Adjust as Needed. One of the features of Teleselling is that you can capture and analyze a lot of information. It also provides an environment where you can test your sales message, target accounts, develop geographies, etc. This allows you to identify opportunities and pitfalls and adjust quickly.
Teletip: Always ask the question ‘what more could we be doing by phone?’ Build testing into your Telesales plan every year.
Implement one or all 10 of these Telesales Strategies and you should see improvements in your company’s ability to sell by phone.
This article was originally published in April 2007 print edition of Women’s Business Boston | Copyright © 2007 Teledirect Partners All rights reserved
Call on the Right Initiatives for Telesales
More than ever before, telephone sales are an important strategy in your overall sales plan. Now is the time to take advantage of the opportunity to incorporate telephone selling in your portfolio of sales and marketing initiatives or, if you are already deep into telesales, to increase the contribution of the team that you have in place.
Here are 10 ways to ensure your company’s success when executing a telesales plan.
1. Develop a specific Telesales Plan. Telephone selling can play a part, large or small, in every sale. This can range from data base cleaning & lead generation to direct selling and account management. Begin by developing a plan that specifically identifies how your company will leverage teleselling.
Teletip: What new markets is your company opening? What new products are you selling? Do you have add on products or warranties to sell? Are there Field Accounts that are better managed by phone? Be sure to answer these questions as you are developing your Telesales plan.
2. Test Before You Invest. Will Teleselling work for your company? Can I expand the revenue impact of the team that I have in place? A well executed test campaign will provide the answer.
Teletip: You can conduct this test in-house by allocating current resources or engage the services of an outsourcer. Managed well, either choice will provide you with insights and information that will allow you to determine whether your company should focus its Telesales resources.
3. Compensate Contributions. Telesales positions are similar to other sales positions in that a telesales representative expects to be rewarded based on level of risk. Telesales representatives who are responsible for direct revenue and territory management are accustomed to being paid on a leveraged plan which rewards them for exceeding their plan. Those who share their accounts or their territory with other sales people are accustomed to a compensation plan with less risk, less reward.
Teletip: Compensation packages for Telesales representatives are becoming more competitive. Be sure to evaluate what your competitors are paying their Telesales representatives to ensure that you are able to attract the best talent.
4. Recruit and Hire the Right People. Teleselling requires a unique set of skills, both business and personal. Start by clearly identifying these skills. Be sure to review your recruiting process and tools to ensure that they support your ability to source and hire the right talent.
Teletip: Conduct a telephone interview with each candidate. This is a great way to determine the person’s telephone competence and style.
5. Provide the Right Training. Telesales people require Telesales specific training. This includes a focus on rapport building, telephone skills & presence, and a telephone based process for providing the sales people with feedback during the training session.
Teletip: If your company subscribes to a recognized selling method, training the Telesales representatives on this methodology will work as long as you supplement it with Telesales specific skills training.
6. Provide the Tools to Get the Job Done. Telesales representatives require sales and marketing tools, some common to all sales people and some specific to teleselling. Because the Telesales representative does not have the advantage of face-to-face interactions, the representative relies on marketing tools to enhance and continue the sales conversation. Be sure to equip the Telesales representatives with the right tools for the job, among them: sales scripts or guides, sales tracking/CRM software (or call sheets), webinars, ebrochures.
Teletip: Spend some time sitting side-by-side with your Telesales people. Observe them conducting their business. What additional marketing tools could they use to be more effective?
7. Set the Right Measurement Standards. There are two parts to sales performance: effort and results. In this regard, teleselling is no different than Field Sales. If your team or representative is new, focus first on measuring effort: number of calls, number of contacts, number of presentations, etc. Once in place, turn your attention to sales results and orders booked.
Teletip: In an established teleselling environment or with seasoned Telesales representatives, focus on measuring results. If revenue has slipped or a representative is not making his/her number, reinstate the measurement of effort to determine what needs attention.
8. Go on Sales Calls, Frequently. As with any other sales position, accompanying a Telesales person on sales calls provides valuable insights into the representative’s performance as well as information about your prospects and customers. In Telesales, this is done by teleconferencing. Institute a practice of teleconferencing each Telesales representative for a minimum of one hour per week.
Teletip: If you cannot accompany the Telesales representative on live calls, have the sales people tape their calls and review the calls together.
9. Motivate and Recognize Performance. Teleselling is a fast-paced environment and your recognition and reward programs should reflect and support this. Take a Telesales view of your offerings and make the changes necessary to ensure they are motivating Telesales performance.
Teletip: You may be able to use many of the same contests and recognition programs that you use to motivate your Field Sales force. Be sure to modify the components to accommodate teleselling’s pace and volume.
10. Track and Analyze Results, Tweak or Adjust as Needed. One of the features of Teleselling is that you can capture and analyze a lot of information. It also provides an environment where you can test your sales message, target accounts, develop geographies, etc. This allows you to identify opportunities and pitfalls and adjust quickly.
Teletip: Always ask the question ‘what more could we be doing by phone?’ Build testing into your Telesales plan every year.
Implement one or all 10 of these Telesales Strategies and you should see improvements in your company’s ability to sell by phone.
This article was originally published in April 2007 print edition of Women’s Business Boston | Copyright © 2007 Teledirect Partners All rights reserved
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