How Would You Like to Make 800 Prospect Calls a Day?

From selling health care, extended auto warranties, lower credit card rates and more, we’ve all received “those” calls. It seems lately that telemarketing calls have reached a new level of annoyance.

Because I’m a perpetual student of the sales process, it took me several weeks, but I finally had a real conversation with a telemarketer. Most hung up on me when I started asking real questions. So, what’s the secret to their success?

In a word: Volume.

The young lady I spoke with – let’s call her Sandy, shared that their daily call goal is a minimum of 800 calls. That’s 100 calls per hour in a typical eight-hour day. Sounds exhausting. Of the 800 calls she makes per day, Sandy considers it a good day when she can get eight people to buy. 800 calls, a closing ratio of 1%, eight sales. Wow.

The formula sounds like something we would never want to do. It’s classic Product Peddling behavior. Sandy says the calls are scripted. As if we can’t tell. She starts with a question, “Would you like a lower interest rate on your credit card?” A question she admits always ends with either the person hanging up or answering yes. Then she asks more calculated and scripted questions, which allow her to pre-qualify the person on the other end of the phone, then she either passes them on to a licensed agent or continues asking questions.

It’s calls and scripts like that that give the profession of sales a bad name. As we begin the new year, it’s important to recognize the characteristics of salespeople that clients and prospects find most appealing – there are three:

Empathy – the ability to understand the issue from the prospect/customer point of view

Expertise – the ability to identify potential solutions to prospect/customer problems

Problem-Solving Skills – the ability to take what you know and what you have learned from the client and develop solutions to solve problems.

Today at noon CT, the RAB team will be sharing some revenue-building resources for you in 2021. Members can register here for free.

Unless the thought of making 800 calls a day is appealing to you, we would love to show you the better way. Join us today for the free-to-members live presentation or join us for our next Radio Sales Essentials class on January 19. You can register here.

Jeff Schmidt is the SVP of Professional Development. You can reach him at Jeff.Schmidt@RAB.com. You can all so connect with him on Twitter and LinkedIn.