How Phone Etiquette Can Make or Break a Sale

So you’ve recently ramped up your marketing strategy; you’re starting to see results when it comes to AdWord conversions and your number of social media followers is increasing. Before you know the phone is ringing hot. The hard part is over right? Now all you have to do is sit back, relax and watch the sales roll in.

Well not necessarily. It has been proven that phone manner when liaising with customers can have a huge impact on the conversion rate of sales from online marketing. Here are some tips to ensure that a sale doesn’t slip!

Voice – A pleasant, clear voice is crucial to sounding professional on the phone. perfect your enunciation and tone by practising a sales pitch before you start handling the phone.

Greeting – A polite and concise greeting or introduction that includes both your full name and company name is also a good practise to adopt. Rapport can make or break a deal and just like a face to face meeting you only get one chance at a first impression.

Pitch – A clear, captivating pitch for your products and/or services. Focus on the results that your product will provide the customer. Remember to use tact – you don’t want to accidentally say something bad about the customer or their company; for example insinuating that they are wasteful when talking about your environmentally friendly product. Think before you speak and use one or two statistics to drive the point home.

Agreement of terms and closing – When it comes to the agreement of terms always para-phase the customers queries back to them to make sure that nothing is lost in translation. Miscommunication is the key reason customers will be unhappy with the end result. Para-phase again when you reach an agreement. Let them know if you would like to enter into a formal contract (if that’s your thing) and always close with a sincere thank you, assuring the customers that it’s a pleasure to do business with them.

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