Telephone Sales Skills...
If You Are Not Appearing,
You Are Disappearing!

For the auto and RV sales professional, effective telephone sales skills is not about selling over the phone. Nor is it about closing deals or even providing a quote. The telephone is currently the second best medium for demonstrating to your sold customers that you are truly interested in them. Once video calls are more streamlined and common place, it will be the better choice.

I am not suggesting emails, news letters, greeting cards, and related communication methods are ineffective. I am definitely hinting that to demonstrate to your client you really care it has to be more than a note, card, or email. It must be regular and personal. Hence the need for telephone sales skills.

By the way, note the reference to sold customer and not prospect. Prospects require much more interaction to move them to customer status. The tab SALES OPPORTUNITIES reviews the differences between prospect, customer, and client.

The title, "If you are not appearing, you are disappearing", is not original. I heard it on a personal development CD and it stuck. Regardless of the manufacturer or Dealer you represent, to ensure the sold customer comes back, stays with you, doesn't switch to a competitor, you must maintain personal contact. If you are not appearing, that is maintaining personal contact, you are disappearing.

Effective telephone sales skills means you are listening far more than you are talking. You are listening for what your customer doesn't say as much as you are listening to what she does say. Telemarketing training emphasizes a script. This works well here too.

You are making phone contact with your client as a courtesy to ensure all is well with the vehicle or RV. You are not simply dialing to fill in time or to waste their`s. You have a purpose, at minimum, to let her know you care. You can create a script for opening and closing the call that will keep you on track. Scripts work.

If you were to listen in, witness the telephone sales skills of professionals, you would observe they are prepared, sincere, and time sensitive. A well positioned call is no more than a couple of minutes long. Sincerity comes through in the auto sales pro's voice, intonation, wording. And, as in all sales relevant interactions, the sales pro is a sponge soaking in any hint of opportunity or threat.

In the automotive and RV sales arena, how do the majority of sales people handle their follow up? Maybe an after sale call. Maybe a one year anniversary card. Maybe a news letter.

How much more repeat and referral business do you think you would get if you scheduled a personal call to your customers once a quarter? Make no mistake, telephone sales skills are essential to strengthening your position with your customers. Consistent quality contact is the basis on which they will in turn pass your name on.

So how do the sales pros schedule their follow up calls? One easy to implement method is to divide your sold customers by the number of business days in the quarter. Lets say your average is 21. At the end of each day, print out or download to your PDA/Cell the sold customer follow up calls for the next day. Making those 21 calls in one sitting would require between 40 to 50 minutes. You could pencil that time as an appointment in your planner. However, what the pros understand is throughout the day there is always downtime. That's when they make these calls. At the end of the day, if all calls have not been made, they are completed then.

By-the-way, I am often asked, "What if you cannot reach the customer?" Remember, the purpose of the call is to keep your name front-and -center. So, if the customer is unavailable and you reach her administrative assistant, simply say, "Could you please let (your customer) know that I especially called to follow-up on (product/service)." Be sure to thank the assistant for passing the message on. If you reach voice mail, leave a similar message. Although rare, if there is no answer, assistant, or voice mail, try again the next day.

If you are not appearing, staying in touch, you are disappearing. Your sold customers need reassurance that you care. Your success tool is effective telephone sales skills.

Remember: Nothing happens until someone sells something.

Sales Champions Make It Happen!