1) Purpose Of The Call
Before you even make the call, identify the purpose and end goal of your call. What action do you want your prospects to take after the call? If you don’t have a goal, you won’t get the result that you want in the end.
2) Giving Away The Goods
This task is simple. You have to be a little insight in this step. You do not want to just spew all of your information out on a potential prospect. You need to gauge their level of interest and then go from there. Someone might tell you that they want you to send them information, when in reality, they are just trying to get rid of you.
3) Bad Telephone Etiquette
Good phone etiquette seems simple enough to achieve. However, when you are in a stressful situation, you might not even realize what you are doing. Do not chew gum, snack, or attempt to multi-task while you are making a call. Your prospect will be distracted by your poor manners and they may get the wrong impression of you.
4) Listen To Your Prospect
If you want to know what your prospect is thinking, just listen to them. Make sure that you do not monopolize the conversation. Poor listening skills will lead to failure.
5) Don’t Make Your Fears Theirs
Just because your client is busy at the moment does not mean that they do not ever want to talk to you. Do not read negativity into somewhere that it is not. Just because you are afraid that they don’t want to talk to you, doesn’t mean that they don’t.
6) Not Asking Enough Questions
There are certain things that you want to find out about a person to know whether or not you would even want to do business with them. So ask some questions. People love to discuss themselves, their families, and other areas of interest to them. People will respond more favorably to you if you show an interest in them.
7) Not Being Prepared
You would not go into an important presentation and wing it, and the phone is no different. Spend some time role playing with a friend or your spouse. You want to grab your prospect’s attention, not turn them off with you stumbling over your words.
Ask For It
You want to push your client to action. Ask them to do their due diligence and research what you’re telling them. By asking them to do something for you, you will be creating an opportunity for a callback to make sure that they have followed through with their end of the deal.