Telephone Skills

Phone Skills and Strategies:
In most professions, skills are extremely important and absolutely vital in various areas or business. It is important to note that skills and abilities are very different from each other.
Having an ability is being able to do something such as sing.
A skill on the other hand, is learnable or teachable.
This very topic of ‘power of telephones in business’ is based on a combination of a number of skills. Clear communication is an acquired skill. As long as you practice the different approaches outlined in all of this week’s posts, your overall telephone skills will improve and it will reflect positively in your accounts. You must then devise effective ways to combine different skills to use to develop powerful business building strategies.
Let’s zero in on one particular strategy: The use of a headset.
Headsets on cellphones free your hands and enable you to be able to reference material and look up information almost instantly. It would be very helpful to your client or prospect, and also helpful to you if you are able to have answers at the ready, that you can convey to the other party. This is a time-saving practice and in business, time is money. In everyday operations, you reduce the amount of people you have to call back with follow up information for example. If you can refer information to them instantly on the call, the next call will be to take your relationship to a new level, as opposed to continuing the content of the previous call’s topic. Headset usage is fundamental and it will help a great deal in your telephone efficiency and business management.
Another strategy: Conference calling.
The most common application of this feature on your phone, is in 3-way calling. 3-way calling is extremely powerful because it creates a virtual meeting room. It’s very powerful in validating business information to a prospect by means of introducing them to a business partner who may be able to give clearer insight into certain issues and this builds the prospect’s confidence in your business and they are very close to joining you in business at this point.
The fortune is in the follow-up.
This is so true that it can make or break the success of a particular business. Follow up is very important but overlooked by many business people today. Ever so often we may make initial contact with a prospect and at some point in the relations, you may begin discussions to offer your business to them. What comes next? FOLLOW UP. Many times, prospects fall by the wayside after that initial introduction to your business but the deal is left hanging forever. Few steps can be taken to avoid this happening and it will definitely reflect in the size of your business.
First of all, every telephone call is an appointment and all appointments should close with the setting up of a new appointment. At the end of every phone call, there should be an agreement for you to do something, for you prospect to do something and for you both to get something done. This creates anticipation it is very important to CHECK UP on the progress, at a point in time halfway between the current and next appointment. This demonstrates professionalism and confidence and these characteristics are attractive to business people and prospects. So follow up is very important to the success of your business and the telephone is the perfect follow-up companion.
So always remember these things:
Be polite and courteous at ALL TIMES.
Be professional enough that your listener cannot tell when you’re having a bad day.
Be sure to respect the person’s time and know when your limits in your relationships with them.
Write down the highlights and main points and goals of EACH AND EVERY Phone call before you pick up the phone.
Be sure to contact me for further assistance with respect to telephone skills and other telephone issues.
Once again thank you very much for your time and attention. I look forward to next week when I will be posting about voicemails and their importance and advantages and also how to generate a response or a call back from a client or prospect.

Telephone Manners

Manners on the telephone are of utmost importance in business. Generally, people like to be treated well. We all appreciate compliments and politeness. The telephone, since it's so widely used, should be one of the main communication channels where courtesy is employed to the maximum.
For instance, when you call someone, it is important to get their permission to proceed to the conversation BEFORE you begin. Remember, when you call them, the timing may be right for you but not necessarily for them. So what you must do is, be certain to ask,"Is this a good time for us to talk?" or "Do you have 10 minutes?" Mind you, whenever you ask for specific time (10minutes etc), be sure to STICK TO THE REQUESTED TIME and do not exceed. This is very important because it conveys the message to your listener, that you stand by your word and that you respect their time.
More often than not, when you give respect, to get it back just the same. So whenever you begin a telephone conversation, you want to share a nice bright greeting. Your greeting sets the tone for the conversation.
It is also important to LISTEN. Many people have not mastered the art of listening. Never interrupt someone on the phone because it can impose a confrontational type of situation. Listening is the most important thing to do on the telephone. You can do 5% of the talking and control 95% of the conversation when you're a good listener. When you listen to people carefully, you learn quite a lot from them...things they like, their opinions and their concerns. It may take a while to master this skill but it is essential in conversations not only on the phone but face to face as well. Be patient and take your time before you respond to anything. Silence is not a bad thing. It shows that you're thinking about what you're going to say before you say it as oposed to just pitching your deal to your listener using a standard rehearsed speech. Most people respond negatively to this attitude and you will fail BIG in business if you ever do that. After careful listening, you then proceed to tell them about your business in a way that suits them personally. Customisation is very important. If they can't see how your business can fit into their lives, they won't join you, it's that simple. So all of this information you would have gathered earlier from listening to their needs, you can now structure it in a way that includes their likes and needs and omits their dislikes and negatives. This way, you will always get a favourable response from your listener.
Another point to note when on the phone is that you need to learn to detect people emotional level. Let's imagine emotions were measured on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being positive or high-spirited. So you call someone up and they answer and they're at a 4 or 5, it would be very dumb and impolite if you were to answer at an 8 or 9. If they're at a 4 then you need to focus on trying to end the conversation on a 5...They should feel lifted after your conversation with them. What is also important, is if they have a huge distraction in their personal life such as an ill relative or some crisis, you simply say,"I realise this may not be the best time for us to talk, can I call you back in a week?" Immediately they appreciate your concern. The buying mood is a happy mood so it doesn't make any sense to try selling to them if they're not in a good mood. What you've also done here is to instantly set a new appointment for phone conversation. Since the current one is being broken, then you set a new one at the same time.
In my Friday post as usual, I'll personalise and share powerful tips on how I use the phone in my business
Thank you very much for your time and attention.
See you on Friday.

The Power of Telephones in Business

Alexander Graham Bell patented the telephone in 1876. Little did he know that his invention would become the most important business and social tool on the planet. In today’s fast paced world, an email or fax travels from point A to point B almost instantly but a telephone call personalizes the event and tends to be the second best form of communication after face to face communication which is the most effective form of communication. However, the majority of today’s businesses are spread far and wide beyond local boundaries and this is where the telephone fits in snugly. It brings people closer together regardless of the geographical distance between them.
The timing is right for this post as it follows on the heels of last week’s focus on ‘The power of relationships’. The telephone is a great place to build and maintain relationships. It eliminates the need for travel for small appointments or meetings whenever necessary. Just like chatting with someone face to face, chatting on the telephone allows all parties involved to pick up different emotions in the voice.
In any business, it is very important to master the art of telephone usage. Most people may say, “Hey I’ve been talking on the phone all my life, what’s so special about it?” Although you grew up using the telephone, that doesn’t necessarily mean that you have what it takes to use a phone to conduct your business properly.
Telephone usage goes far beyond the telephone itself. Before picking up the telephone, you need to condition yourself to communicate professionally. You need to WRITE DOWN who you’re calling, WHY you’re calling, WHAT would you like to achieve on the call and you must aim to end ‘on a high’. The person you call should not be able to tell whether or not you’re having a bad day when you call to them. Your GREETING sets the tone for the conversation so make it lively but not overwhelming...just confident. Also you need to recognize the energy level of the person on the other end because you will be very ineffective in communicating clearly to them. If they answer and their tone of voice is at a low, you want to try staying as close as possible to their level and end the conversation on an upbeat note. They should feel uplifted after your conversation.
There are many factors to be looked at with respect to this topic.
Telephone Tools, Telephone Manners and Telephone Skills/Strategies.
I’ll take a look at the telephone tools first:
Tools include a Rolodex, a calendar, a PDA and a cellular phone just to name a few. Phone usage must go hand in hand with these basic tools.
The Rolodex keeps your contacts’ information at your fingertips and in business, time is money so the quicker you can access and retrieve information, the better it will be for your business. It will actually lessen the time spent on the phone and you can keep the communication focused on the issue at hand and be able to complete other tasks quickly as well.
The calendar keeps your schedule at your fingertips and you can set and make appointments quite easily and quickly. Instantly you can see what you will be doing next Thursday at 3:30 or when is your next open slot for interviews. It is also very important to actually calendar your telephone calls. You should treat them exactly as you would treat other appointments because they are just as important.
The PDA, is somewhat of a combination of a Rolodex and a calendar. I have incorporated the use of a Palm Zire Handheld and it saves me lots of time and energy because I have telephone numbers, addresses and calendars in one location for quick and easy access. This makes perfect sense and it is the perfect companion for my laptop which completes my “office”.
The cellphone is next in line and it has become the single most useful and advantageous tool with respect to telephones. Cellphones are convenient indeed and they help you grab time from the future almost literally. For instance, in my business I need to communicate almost constantly so I use my cellphone all the time and everywhere. While at the bank for example, waiting in line, I try to make at least 2 or 3 phone calls in the 10 or 15 minutes waiting time. This is the incredible advantage of being able to build my business whether I have time or not. Whenever anyone tells me that they have no time to build a business such as this, I simply explain this phenomenon of turning wasted time into valuable and rewarding time and most of them get the picture right away and get started. The best cellphones though, are those that have the PDA functionality built into them because you then have the real power in your hands to move at light speed. Another point to note is that you will NEED to use a headset because it can free your hands to do other things such as search for files or navigate your PDA or write down information being conveyed to you.
On Wednesday, I’ll take a look at “Phone Manners”.
Thank you once again for your kind attention. See you on Wednesday.

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