Making Business Calls Easier

Using our telephones for business has been a technique used for decades, and still remains one of the most basic ways we can communicate with our customers. If you use calls as a way to get in touch with customers regularly, there are some ways to make that process easier and more professional for the best possible engagement.

Prepare

Before you think of calling a customer make sure that you prepare what you want to say to them. Think about the purpose of your call and make sure that you bullet point any key pieces of information you want to share with them. This will make things much easier and more efficient when you do pick up the phone.

Start friendly

You don’t have to pick up the phone and immediately start with the sales pitch, you can make things a little less formal to break the ice first. Particularly if you know who you are calling it can be useful to start with some banter and ask them about their day before getting on with the business side of the call. When dealing with new customers make sure to learn when someone is getting bored and move onto business, some people aren’t in the mood for a chat so don’t keep the, hanging unnecessarily.

State why you are calling

Sometimes people will call their customers and simply start jabbering on without even outlining the reason for the call. This is a sure way to be hung up on by your customer because you just aren’t getting your point across in a concise manner. However, if you can manage to call your customer and start off with “the reason for my call is…” then at least you are outlining your intentions and the customer can tell you there and then whether they are interested or not. It will save you both precious time in the long term and lead to a more successful interaction.

Don’t jabber on

Make sure that when you are having a conversation with your customer you aren’t simply reading out a massive monologue without asking for opinions or feedback. If you talk for ages without stopping to engage the customer in your call, they will lose interest and may stop listening to you all together. This means that by the time you have finished taking, the customer will likely say goodbye because they haven’t been engaging with your conversation.

Stick to a time limit

Although it might be tempting sometimes to carry on with a successful call, you always have more work to do and you will need to move on eventually. Make sure to give yourself a deadline and stick to it. You and your customer both have things to do so it will make the time less wasted for you both. You may also want to consider a phone answering service in your office in case you are on a call while another comes through. This will ensure that even if you do go slightly over your time, your customers aren’t being ignored.

Header image: Pixnio.com

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