3 Questions to ask before you select a Tele Training Partner

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Effective training is a key component to successfully teleselling and teleservicing and there are many companies who offer sales and service training.

Here are 3 questions to ask before you select a Tele Training partner:

1) Is this training company the right match for my business?
Is this company expert in delivering Telephone skills training?
and
Does this company have customers that:
a) sell to the same sized companies
b) and target the same level of decision makers

2) Is this company’s training offering repeatable?
The best telephone skills training programs are those that deliver training in modules.  Once you complete the training, you can follow up with training in key focus areas. Be sure to select a program that is easy to deliver frequently, either by engaging an outside trainer or by purchasing access to modules that you can use as needed.

3) What do I need to do now to prepare for reinforcing the skills and techniques my team learns?
Plan ahead for what follows the training.  Commit to reinforcing the telesales skills and techniques. Review this requirement with the trainer you select and establish reinforcement and retraining plan before the training starts.  Build this into your plan and your training budget.

Are your Telesales Representatives using out-of-date questions?

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An updated approach to sales questions provides updated sales results

Check in with your Telesales team, make sure they have eliminated ‘old style’ sales questions from their sales conversations with prospects as well as customers.

In his article Sales Training: The Power of Questions, Kelley Robertson points out that the old style line of questioning many sales representatives are trained to use do not advance the sales conversation and often work against the sales representative.  Can’t you see the prospect rolling his/her eyes when asked the question ‘If I could save you money, would you be interested...?’

His advice?

1. Determine your key objective.
2. Consider the person you will be speaking with.
3. Use “what” questions.

Managing the sales calls with well tuned questioning techniques and open ended questions, will result in a deeper knowledge of your company’s customers and prospects.  And a deeper knowledge will enable your Telesales people to present solutions that appeal to the customer’s needs.

Using Management Checklists Points Out Important Focus Areas

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There are so many moving parts to Customer Service and Telesales organizations that it is good to work with some standard checklists.  www.justsell.com has a number of good ones that can be used as is or customized to an organization.  Check out the Sales Evaluation.  It is designed as a self-evaluation tool for sales reps but could easily be used by managers.  The Customer Service Checklist is a good, basic start for a new Customer Care department. 

Who are your Telesales and Customer Care All Stars?

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Last night’s All Star game was an exciting game, right up to the last inning.  For baseball fans and non baseball fans alike, it provides an excellent backdrop for recognizing the performance of your top telephone representatives.  Be sure to take advantage of the All Star break to shout out the contributions of your All Stars, whether top individual performers, top team contributors, subject matter experts…....the list is endless.  Seasonal, themed recognition is easy to create and the media coverage provides a supporting backdrop.

Put a Little Fun in the Game of Teleselling

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In his book “Management by Baseball”, Jeff Angus highlights FUN as the key ingredient for Rule 14.99 (page 231).  ‘Fun drives effective change.  An organization that wants to drive change has a better chance if it promotes playful attitudes and ideas....’ ( Jeff Angus’ blog). 

A teleselling environment is an ideal environment for introducing stress-reducing fun into the game of selling. 

If you are looking for suggestions on how to add FUN to your telesales meetings and training offerings, grab a copy of The Big Book of Sales Games by Peggy Carlaw and Vasudha K. Deming.

Telesales Training: Questions to ask when selecting a training company

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There are many excellent Sales Training options available, however not all have the talent or expertise to train Telesales Representatives.  When selecting a training company for your Telesales team, look for a Telesales track record.

Be sure to ask the following:

1.   What percentage of your training engagements involve training Telesales representatives?
2.   How many of those engagements are exclusively Telesales Training (as opposed to training in combination with Field Sales training)?
3.   How is your Teleselling training different than your other Sales training offerings?
4.   What specific Telesales techniques do you include in your training?

Asking a few Telesales-specific questions at the beginning of the search will result in a shorter list of applicable Telesales Training resources.