Record Your Phone Calls – Increase Your Conversions
I’ve had plenty of sales associates (even a sales manager) tell me, “I do better selling face-to-face, it’s hard for me to connect with people over the phone or by email.” The problem is that customers aren’t shopping face-to-face, they’re shopping online, and the primary forms of communication during the “shopping phase” are email and phone. It is critical you become great at communicating by email and especially over the phone.
It is amazing what happens when you record and listen to your phone calls. Once you get over the initial shock of how weird your own voice sounds, you can start to dissect the conversation and pinpoint ways to improve your delivery.
The first step, of course, is to take the time to record yourself talking with a customer. Ask others whom you trust to analyze it with you to constantly improve your methods. Also, be sure to record every message you leave. You will hone your phone skills as you do this. Remember, most messages are relayed through non-verbal communication, such as facial expressions, posture, etc, when you speak on the phone, you are relying solely on your verbal communication. It is imperative that you are not focusing on what you should say next but how you will say it. The way you can overcome this is by memorizing proven scripts that will help you speak effectively on the phone.
In addition to memorizing and utilizing scripts, here are some excellent tips that lead to better phone communication:
• Maintain good posture.
• Smile when you talk – it comes through on the phone.
• Slow down your speech.
• Listen to the customer – do not interrupt.
• Ask multiple and engaging questions.
• Prepare in advance.
Sales managers – if you are worried about your staff not recording their calls – do it for them. Use a service like Callsource or Whoscalling to record, track answer rates and use the results for training.
Email Hacks for the New Home Sales Executive
I stumbled upon a neat little hack by accident and I’m pretty excited. Most cell phone companies have a free option of email to SMS. This is the ability to send an email which converts to a text message on a mobile phone.
Big deal right, I get email on my iPhone already. Well, like most people, I disabled the email notification/buzz/alarm on my phone, so I actually have to check for new emails. This helps me stay focused and not distracted by emails all day (3rd step from my Crackberry Anonymous meetings). If not, I would probably be locked in a room pasting up newspaper articles like Russell Crow in "A Beautiful Mind".
Anyway, so here’s the trick. Again, I don’t want a text message for every email I get… but I would like to receive a text message when someone submits a lead from our website, because these are usually the hottest and most qualified requiring the absolute highest priority. To accomplish this, you need to program in your standard email on the web contact form and copy your new mobile SMS email address and voila, you’ve got an instant text notification when you have a hot lead! If this is Greek to you, have your web design firm help you out. (note: you need to have text messaging set up on your phone or they charge you a pretty penny per text)
As you can see, it doesn’t take much to excite me. But, in a challenging market – response time matters right? Like Ricky Bobby says, "If you ain’t first, you’re last."
Also, a little side note. Check out Jott – it’s a FREE service that transcribes voicemails to emails automatically. I use it to take voice notes and leave reminders that funnel directly to my email – which helps me stay organized. A true lifesaver.
Below are the email addresses of the most popular carriers.
T-Mobile: phonenumber@tmomail.net
Virgin Mobile: phonenumber@vmobl.com
ATT: phonenumber@txt.att.net
Sprint: phonenumber@messaging.sprintpcs.com
Verizon: phonenumber@vtext.com
Nextel: phonenumber@messaging.nextel.com
phonenumber = your 10 digit phone number
