Can Phone Calls Help Sell Products Better?

Many people knew that the birth of the telephone wasn’t only for contacting family and friends from afar. Business owners found it to be an excellent tool to acquire additional sales. Thus, marketing techniques like cold calling and telemarketing arrived on the scene. But, will making phone calls help products sell better than usual?

The Answer

It depends. Marketing calls can be effective if done correctly. Deliver your message improperly, and you might lose more potential leads than one. 

Like other marketing techniques, direct marketing through phone calls needs careful consideration of insights, metrics, and strategies for the campaign’s success. Also, it’s crucial to remember the following adage: “Haste makes waste.”

Attempting to get positive results from your telephone marketing campaign might only increase the chances of its failure. Take the time and go through each step with careful consideration. 

Nonetheless, taking into account some useful tips may help improve the success of your marketing efforts. In return, you might see a significant increase in sales conversions, which means more products sold. 

Increasing Sales Conversions Through Calls

Below are five tips and techniques to help make your phone marketing processes smarter than before. Your products may even fly off the shelves once you apply the following guidelines:

Implement Modern Tools

Gone are the days when telephone marketing is all about the time-consuming act of manually dialing phone numbers. Now, you can take advantage of numerous technologies that can help your brand sell more products than before. 

One example is ringless voicemail. Conventional voicemail marketing requires marketers to let the recipient’s phone ring a few times before going to the voicemail server. But, as its name implies, ringless voicemail won’t make the phone ring for you to drop voice messages into the receiver’s inbox.

How to go straight to voicemail?  This question might be on your mind right now, especially if it’s your first time hearing about this marketing technology. Well, you have two options as to dropping ringless voicemails.

First, you need to use two telephones and dial the same phone number on both devices at the same time. If done correctly, the connections from the two phones should cancel out, and one connection should go straight to the receiver’s voicemail inbox. But, you need impeccable timing to do this technique. Otherwise, one phone connection will make your lead’s telephone ring, ruining the non-intrusive marketing approach. 

The other method is to use a ringless voicemail service. This cost-efficient method eliminates the use of multiple phones for your brand to drop ringless voice messages to a server. Moreover, reliable service providers have proprietary apps that help you record and send these audio messages seamlessly. 

If you’re confident about your timing, perhaps, you may try the first option. But, if you don’t want to bother about complicated techniques to drop voicemails, consider using a trustworthy service instead. 

Create A Script

Perhaps, the greatest weapon for any telephone marketer is the sales pitch. Saying the right words can catch the attention and pique the interest of your brand’s targeted audience. 

Asking (or begging) a potential lead to buy your products won’t cut it. This direct marketing approach can be similar to old door-to-door advertising tactics, which often results in several door slams. But, instead of doors slamming in your face, you’re going to get several dropped calls. 

So, how can you make the perfect calling script?

First, you need to study your target audience. Remember, each person’s time is valuable, including that of your target market. If you don’t want to waste valuable time talking to a cold caller, your potential leads and customers should feel the same. 

So, review your target audience and look for common attributes. For instance, your niche is in retail, particularly in the fashion industry. Hence, your leads should be fashion-forward individuals. 

After identifying the nature of your target market, take the time in researching each lead. This step might require you to take more time than intended. But, it may increase your chances of converting those cold leads into loyal customers. 

For example, imagine that you’re running a business-to-business (B2B) telephone marketing campaign (if you aren’t already). Research about your prospects’ companies, their niches, and one ‘fun fact’ about each one of them. Possessing these valuable data at the ready will tell your leads that you took the time to learn about their business. In return, this step helps build trust for both parties, allowing you to gain a higher-than-average chance of closing sales. 

Also, don’t forget to use appropriate business writing tools. You don’t want to get caught by your potential customer speaking without an impeccable English grammar. 

Confident Delivery

The creation of the perfect sales pitch might be for naught if you or your business representatives can’t deliver the script correctly. Keep in mind that the proper way of delivering a product’s sales pitch is with confidence. 

Keep in mind that confidence isn’t a talent but a skill. Hence, if you think you don’t have enough confidence to talk to potential customers, you can build that skill over time. One way to achieve this particular skill is to ‘fake it until you make it.’

In other words, believe that you have the right amount of confidence to pitch your products. That ‘fake’ confidence will lead to the true nature of the skill over time. Remember, the person listening to you on the other line will know if you’re confident about selling products or not. If prospects feel that you’re sure that your products can solve their problems, the act might warrant closed sales.  

Another way to help you exude confidence during a sales call is to introduce yourself. Saying your name with clarity at the beginning of the conversation is a tell-tale sign of self-assurance and energy. 

For example, you may receive a sales call that goes like, “This is mxcbvxcz from mbxzfkjds.”  So, you might reply with an inquiry like, “Who’s calling again?”  The call is already poor from the start if this scenario happens to you or your marketers. 

Note that you don’t need to shout during your greeting. But, you need to sound clear and concise. Don’t make the mistake of jumping to the sales pitch the moment the lead picks up the phone. If you do, the entire pitch will sound anxious, hurried, and rude. 

Keep in mind that the person on the other line can’t hurt you. So, if you still feel shy and afraid to pick up the phone to call a potential customer, remember that the worst reply that you can get is ‘No.’ If you happen to get that response, take a deep breath and move on to the next call. 

Stop Sounding Robotic

One surefire way to lose potential customers is to sound robotic over the phone. Now that you have the perfect script and you’ve already built up the confidence to speak to people, ensure that you don’t make the mistake of reciting the lines. 

You should know that rehearsed lines tend to sound stiff and unnatural. Leads who get to hear this peculiar speaking pattern makes them assume that you’re thinking about them as nothing but money-makers. 

Instead, read through the script as if you’re talking to a friend. Be enthusiastic about the sales pitch, but don’t come off as pushy or creepy. Keep in mind that you’re a human being and you’re talking to one as well. So, act like a human being and not as a robot. 

Stop And Listen

Another mistake many beginner and veteran telephone marketers make is reciting their sales pitches like there’s no tomorrow. Practice active listening to give respect and gain respect in return. This notion doesn’t only apply to telephone marketing, but also to real-life situations.

So, stop and listen as soon as you hear your lead try to talk. Say words like ‘excuse me’ or ‘please, continue.’ These phrases might seem minuscule and insignificant, but your sales leads will appreciate that you’re more than willing to stop talking for their sake. 

Also, don’t forget to confirm that you’re listening. Try not to remain silent as the person on the other line is speaking. Instead, say words like ‘yes,’ ‘okay,’ or even ‘mm-hmm.’ Don’t wait until the individual asks if you’re still listening or not. 

Once it’s your time to talk again, repeat some words that the lead spoke during their time. For example, a particular sales lead talked about their company’s dilemma about running out of copier ink. The reason for that problem was because that business couldn’t get a reliable partner to supply the enterprise with the said ink. Thankfully, they have you on the line, and you’re selling that one product their company needs: copier ink.

What you can do is reiterate their concern by saying something like, “It’s tough to find a good copier ink supplier these days, but may have the product that your business needs.”

Repeating snippets of the lead’s concern assures them that you’re actively listening to their plight. Also, this act tells your sales leads that you have the right solution for their specific concerns.  

Conclusion

Phone calls can help sell products better than usual. But, you won’t get excellent results from your telephone marketing campaigns if you don’t do the tactic correctly. Let this guide help you make the most out of each marketing call. If done properly, you might see a significant spike in sales conversions over time.