Maximising Sales From Inbound Calls

Sales call staff are usually roles attributed to those on the front line of cold calling, making telephone calls to potential customers with a view of selling a service or product. In sales terms however, there is another important area of telephone customer sales that is often overlooked but requires as much training and harnessing of skills, that of the inbound calls salespeople. Training staff members to maximise sales from inbound calls is a sure-fire way to increase the effectiveness of your customer service staff, boost the reputation of your company and increase levels of customer satisfaction. All of these things combined will lead to greater profits and a growth in your company.

Building relationships with customers making calls to your company can be a lot more fruitful in the long-run than outbound cold calling, as the customer already has a vested enough interest to be making that phone call. How can you improve the individual skills of employees in taking inbound calls and turning them into profit for the company?

The first thing to consider, as with outbound sales calls, is to be prepared to fail on the majority of occasions. In all sales roles you will be rejected time and time again, and the best sales people are those who ride the rejections and stick to their principles. Practice the framework script that you are working from, understand the processes that the company has set out for you, inside out, and know your products and services to enough of an extent that you can answer as many questions as possible without having to refer to a manager during a call with a customer. Practice and regimentation make perfect. You can never make a sale on every single inbound call, but you can put yourself in the perfect position to be ready to make that sale when it comes about, through thorough preparation.

Always keep calls as simple and straightforward as possible, as a confused person on the other end of the line is less likely to become a happy customer. Thank people for calling you in a simple and effective greeting, but remember that all people want from you is to be able to answer their questions succinctly and accurately. By keeping things simple you can build an honest relationship with a customer. With this in mind never try to bullshit a customer, or deflect a question and hope they haven’t noticed. Look for extra personal information throughout a call, as it might benefit you in the long-term, but always do it in a natural way, and never force the issue, as it is likely to scare off any potential sale.

As with any sales role, the trick is to be confident. Be confident in your ability to make conversation with strangers, to remain constructive in a simple manner and to have confidence in the knowledge that you have about your products and services. With all of that in place an improvement can be made to the skills and results of individual inbound call operatives, maximising sales for the company as a whole.

Content written by Jonathan Brady