Telesales Tips | Telesales Coaching

How To Get Interest On The Phone
Jenny Cartwright

When you do telemarketing or prospecting (whichever you personally classify yourself as doing, it is the same thing)  I am constantly reminded of the importance of a good "interest-grabbing statement" right at the start to make people want to hear more.  This is so important to leave on a voicemail message too. If you don't take the time to develop your interest grabber, you'll probably sound like every other salesperson...

An interest-grabbing statement contains one unique or distinguishing benefit that leaves a lasting impression on your prospect. It differentiates you from your competition. I was training 26 telemarketers last week on the Gold Coast who worked for a debt collection company. 

We came up with a great introduction for them.  They used to say " Hi this is ____ from Marshall Freeman. We are a debt collection company. "  Well, so what, that was all about them.  The person you are talking to wants to know what the benefit is for them so we changed their opener to " Hi, this is ______ from Marshall Freeman Collections.  We help you turn your debts into cash." (then it's time to stop talking, start listening and launch into open-ended questions to find a need).

It was this same company that said they did not ever leave a voicemail message when prospecting for new business.  Hmm - interesting, because it was simply by cold calling them and leaving a voicemail message with a major benefit to them, that they called me back to discuss the fact they were interested in doing some training. The date and details were arranged immediately.

When you leave a voicemail message, it might be just the right timing for them. It also advertises your company one more time so why wouldn't you want to use the call to its maximum potential?  Bottom line is you are leaving dollars on the table if you don't.

Steps to Create an Interest Grabbing Statement (a hook)

1.  Interview your clients to find out why they buy from you.

2.  Write down 5 benefits of your product or service including the answers from 1.

3.  Pick one that would apply to the majority of people. (a global one)

4.  Add "We help you, we show you or we have an idea , product or service that will ........" (then the major benefit to the customer)

Make your interest-grabbing statement interesting and creative to be different

So if you have a product, service or idea that helps people save money or time, many people say that. I recommend you make it more creative like:-

1.  We can drive your cost per sale down by as much as 40%.

2.  We will show you how to increase your staff productivity by 300%.

3.  Our time management programme can eliminate up to 3 hours of your workload every day.

4.  Use a third party testimonial  "XYZ co. increased their sales by 30% after the training with us." Then add "Depending on your situation we might be able to increase your sales by more than that."  ("Depending" and "might" being the operative words)

Remember to go straight into questions after your interest grabber, to build rapport - we don't want a flood of information about your product, thank you.