At Phone for Success®, we understand the needs of small businesses because we are, ourselves, a small business. One of the things we know is that small businesses have limited resources to grow and to increase their sales - especially in these difficult economic times.
Every small business has, besides employees and computers, the single greatest tool for increasing sales, the telephone.  Besides email, the telephone is the primary tool for communicating with your customers and prospects.
All calls coming in or out of your organization are potential opportunities to generate new leads, sell more products or services, retain customers for the future or generate referrals that will lead to additional business. Yet many companies (small and large) miss opportunities every day by not having their staff trained and ready to recognize the potential in every customer or prospect contact.
Phone For Success can provide you with the tools, techniques and strategies to use the telephone to increase your business.
Some of the services we can provide that guarantee your success are:
•    State of the Art Telephone Skills Training programs for sales and service
•    Customized Telephone Scripts and Dialogue Guides
•    Onsite Cold Calling Rep Rallies and Seminars for field sales reps
•    Remote Coaching of staff who need to be proactive with customers and prospects
•    Hiring Guidelines and systems for making quality hiring decisions
•    Incentive Programs that increase performance and build morale
•    Locating and acquiring the best Prospect Calling Lists
•    CRM Client Relationship Management (CRM) implementation programs
•    Consulting Strategies and programs that leverage your companies strengths
• “4 Ideas to Immediately Build your Small Business!”
1. Train everyone who has customer contact to sell on the phone
Every time the phone rings it’s an opportunity to build your business.  You can either take advantage of that opportunity or let it slip though your grasp as a lost chance to do something special.  When customers and prospects call your company, your staff needs to seize the moment: they need to build a relationship, retain a customer by handling a difficult situation, sell a product or service or even get a referral. We believe that all employees need to be attuned to recognize these situations and have the skills and proactive attitude to create and take advantage of every customer contact.
2. Launch a Telephone Referral Campaign
Referrals are the best and easiest way to increase your business right now. Get a list of all current and past customers and launch a telephone Referral Campaign by personally contacting each customer and asking for two or more names that they recommend you call.   You can triple the number of prospects in your customer base.
To make this a home run you will need at least four things:
•    A good plan that includes a list of past and present customers with emails and telephone numbers, plus an easy way to log results
•    A well-written script or dialog guide that includes a good reason for your call.
•    Telephone Skills Training for your staff
•    A reliable system that tracks your results and helps you gauge your effectiveness
3. Give Your Sales Team the Skills and Discipline to Generate Tons of Appointments
Whether you have one sales person (you) or a team of several sales pro’s, the one thing you can be sure of is that most of them have an extreme dislike for using the telephone to cold call or to qualify prospects and to set appointments.
Yet, if done correctly, the telephone is still the single greatest tool to reach decision makers.  The problem with most organizations is that sales people often get on the phone without a good plan or the right tools that can give them quick and immediate success.  Feedback from some of our prominent clients has confirmed our belief that great in-person selling skills do not always translate into great Telephone Skills.  Here are a few things that you can do to ensure overwhelming success:
•    Set clear objectives and create a calling schedule that all sales reps can follow
•    Start with a good list of prospects and referrals that are most likely to need your product
•    Train the staff in the latest techniques on “how to get through to decision makers”
•    Develop an introduction that will capture the attention of decision makers and keep them listening
•    Get the prospect to ask you questions and get involved in the conversation
4. Develop a Calling Strategy and Save “Cold Calling” for Last
Phone for Success® has set up many successful Cold Calling Campaigns that have had enormous success in increasing sales for our clients.  However, we believe that Cold Calling involves several steps that need to be mastered before you can achieve success. Since most selling is based on developing trust and relationships, the non-visual aspect of the phone presents unique challenges and opportunities.
Our recommendation is to first call those customers or prospects that you have an existing relationship with. Then call past customers and anyone who has responded to a mailing or expressed interest.  The rule is “call your best relationships first”.
Contact us and we will show you how to launch any of the above programs immediately so that you can maximize all opportunities to increase your business right now.