When It Comes to Sales, the Phone Is Your Most Powerful Tool

This article is not only pro business to business telemarketing it offers statistics to back up the reasoning.  I may be a bit bias but I like what this article points out. 

The Internet connects everyone on this planet instantaneously. Social-media sites like Twitter, Facebook, Google+, YouTube and LinkedIn are being used multiple times a day to catch up on the latest news, find out what your friends are doing, get attention and to market yourself. Yet there exists one device more powerful than all of that when it comes to making and closing sales — the phone.

The phone is more powerful than all of these other technological developments. This is because at some point in everyone’s career they will use the phone to reach the right person, close a sale, follow-up with a customer or to handle a customer inquiry. The phone is money, and everyone has one. There are almost as many cell-phone subscriptions (6.8 billion) as there are people on the planet. In the U.S. alone, there are just under one trillion phone calls per year!

The phone is a powerful business weapon, whether it’s for making contacts with customers or making cold calls to get new customers. The phone is necessary and integral to your success. Yet, for a number of reasons, most people are terrible at using it. Salesforce suggests that 92 percent of all customers use the phone before making a purchase and 85 percent claim to be dissatisfied with the interaction.

You may have been made to believe that you couldn’t sell your products over the phone. Of course that isn’t true. Being in front of someone is the most effective way, but it’s very expensive and can cost as much as 8x more than a call and almost impossible to scale out because of the time it takes. Calls are immediate and powerful if you can get the right person on the phone and know how to use that time effectively.

More than 46 percent of adults have only cell phones and no longer use a home or office phone, according to Pew Research. Combine that with how more than 50 percent of ecommerce traffic comes from mobile devices and it’s clear that the future of connecting with people directly is over the phone, especially in the business world.

Here are three simple, yet important tips on how to handle phone calls properly and help you increase your business immediately.

1. Words Matter.

One wrong word on the phone can blow your chance at making a sale. You can no longer say things like, “I hope I’m not bothering you taking time talking about…”.

2. Time is a Killer.

You cannot spend time with small talk and chat with prospects. That’s the old-school mentality — you must get in and get out. You may only have two minutes to get an appointment, find out who the decision-maker is and find out their needs. Use your time effectively.

3. Remember Voice Inflection and Tone.

It’s not just what you say, it’s how you say it. There are ways to say things so that a customer never forgets you and your pitch — they are called hooks and tone control.

No matter what you do for a living, at some point in your career you will rely on a phone to either introduce yourself or get an appointment. Other than your commitment and attitude about success, the telephone itself will be one of the single most important tools you use in building your brand, your company, and your revenues.

http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/245434