PHONE MARKETING SECRETS 11 Fatal Mistakes You Make Answering Your Business Telephone That Can KILL Your Profits by Michael Senoff
Dear Student, I m Michael Senoff, founder and CEO of HardToFindSeminars.com. For the last five years, I ve interviewed the world s best business and marketing minds. And along the way, I ve created a successful home-based publishing business all from my two-car garage. When my first child was born, he was very sick, and it was then that I knew I had to have a business that I could operate from home. Now, my challenge is to build the world s largest free resource for online, downloadable audio business interviews. I knew that I needed a site that contained strategies, solutions, and inside information to help you operate more efficiently I ve learned a lot in the last five years, and today I m going to show you the skills that you need to survive. It is my mission, to assist those that are very busy with their careers And to really make my site different from every other audio content site on the web, I have decided to give you access to this information in a downloadable format. Now, let s get going. Michael Senoff Founder & CEO: www.hardtofindseminars.com
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11 Fatal Mistakes You Make Answering Your Business Telephone That Can KILL Your Profits by Michael Senoff Mistake # 1 Failing To Capture Contact Details From Every Caller... Your database of clients and qualified prospects is the most valuable asset you have in your business. If your business burnt to the ground tomorrow you could be making money in hours as long as you could get in touch with the people who will buy from you. You could make money referring your loyal clients and new prospects to other businesses. You could set up a temporary business location somewhere else and have clients streaming through the door simply by letting them know where you are. But WITHOUT that list of clients and prospects it's going to cost real money to get those clients through your door. You'll have to spend money on advertising or lead generating. Also consider this... If you've spent money in the past on advertising and you HAVEN'T captured the contact details of your clients and prospects most of that money is wasted. Every time you capture that key contact information you increase the value of your most valuable asset in business. It's vital you embrace what just one client is worth to you in dollar terms. 2
Many business people have a mind set that one client is worth whatever they pay in their first visit. Nothing could be further from the truth. Clients come back and buy from your business over and over. They send their friends to do business with you. They might buy a whole pile of related products and services that you could recommend. Handled well each of your clients is a potential goldmine. Later I'll explain to you how even a prospect who calls you who is unsuitable for your business is a potential gold mine too. But most important is to understand that if you let your prospects and clients call you and you never capture their contact details you're literally letting a fortune slip through your fingers. Later on in this program I'll show you a whole list of ways you can make the people who call you business happy even eager to give you their contact details. But for now it's enough if you begin to get an understanding of the vital importance of capturing the contact details of every person who calls your business. Mistake # 2 Failing To Understand How Improving Every Small Part Of The Way You Handle Phone Calls Can Multiply Your Results And Your Overall Profits... You might think it's just one missed call or just one prospect we didn't turn into a client. But every tiny mistake you and your staff make in the way you deal with people on the phone is costing you and it's costing the people who call you. They'll go elsewhere to someone who's supplying inferior products or service to yours. 3
We already talked about how every prospect and client is a potential gold mine. The way you prospect for that gold is by making tiny changes to every part of your phone call. Small improvements. And each improvement MULTIPLIES on the other. Every time you improve one part of your telephone selling process - successfully moving your prospect or client one step further towards buying is another improvement that multiplies the number of prospects you turn into clients and the sales you make. Think of it this way. Say you doing a very modest $20,000 in business every year from inbound phone calls. Let's also say there are 6 steps in successfully converting those callers into paying clients. If you improve your response from each of those six steps by just 10% that will create an overall increase in sales of 77%! Every improvement in the way you answer and speak on the phone multiplies on the next. If sales accounted for $20,000 of turnover you could increase this turnover to $35,431. A $15,431 Increase In Revenue Just By Improving Each Step Of Your Phone Sales Process By A Mere 10%! This is just the beginning. There's also the huge increase in your valuable client database the most valuable asset you have and the many ways you can cash in with that database. Imagine what would happen if each week you worked on improving one small, well defined process to improve the way you convert your telephone inquiries into paying clients. 4
Every time just trying to improve the efficiency of one small part of the process by a tiny 10%. You can create and tweak phone scripts, you can have someone calling back to confirm appointments, you can send out follow up letters and emails, the list just goes on and on... And imagine only half of those improvements were effective. Over just one, single year you'd have a total of 26 small increases of 10%. The Stunning Increase In Total Revenue Would Be 1,091%! A modest $20,000 would grow to over two hundred thousand dollars. $238,363 to be exact. An Increase Of... Two Hundred And Eighteen Thousand Three Hundred And Sixty Three Dollars! Obviously there are a whole variety of factors that would affect your actual business performance in the real world but the principle of continuously creating small incremental improvements is sound and has been proven in thousands of businesses. Having said that most businesses will never increase their revenue at such a stratospheric rate. Why? It's quite simple. They never spend time looking for small improvements in key areas of their business like the way they answer the phone and speak to their prospects and clients. Never underestimate the massive increase in profits you can make by making small, incremental improvements in the way you and your staff answer your business phone. 5
Mistake # 3 Never Testing Different Approaches and Phrases On The Phone... To work out conclusively which words, phrases and offers can give you the best results you need to test. Test using one kind of phrase or wording against another. Test what you or your staff say as soon as you answer the phone. Test one offer against another. Test different upsells and cross sells (something we'll cover later). Just changing one phrase can massively increase the number of prospects who book an appointment. Let me give you an example. Let's say you're booking a series of tanning sessions. Your clients may have to pay $60 a month to get unlimited access to your tanning beds. To make it really simple (and get them through the door) you could try testing a $2 tan offer. The first tan is $2 and when they actually come to your tanning salon you can explain to them that they can get tanning every day of the month for just $2 a day and sign them up for your monthly package. Trying to sell a monthly package over the phone might be difficult but selling a $2 tan might be very easy. The key is to test different offers and different ways of wording your offers. Every word when you're talking to a prospect or client on the phone can make a HUGE difference to your results. 6
Mistake # 4 Not Having A Phone Script For You And Your Staff To Follow... Why let every member of your staff reinvent the wheel whenever they answer the phone? As you test different phrases and offers you'll begin to develop a powerful, effective phone answering technique. You can multiply the power of that technique by getting it down in writing. Put together a simple script that covers what to say when you first answer the phone, how to answer the most commonly asked questions and what to say to book an appointment. If you have several people answering the phones you can brainstorm together analyzing which of your staff is the best at each part of the phone sales process. Work on creating the best phone script you can in each area. And brainstorm and take feedback regularly on how to improve on that script. This can become a fun,exciting game you and your staff play discovering a new line or phrase that works better. These reports and audio will also help you pinpoint vital areas you need to cover in a sales script. And in the Insider Secrets report I'll give you the link to a full 45 minute recording on how to create your own powerful sales script. For now it's vital that you understand the importance of creating a phone script you and your staff can follow when you answer the phone. Mistake # 5 Not Answering The Phone Quickly And Not Returning Calls Promptly... Your prospects and clients are at their hottest when they call you. The longer you let them wait the more likely it is they'll go off the boil. It may be painfully obvious but you'd be amazed at how many businesses break this simple rule... 7
Answer your phone quickly. And if you have to use a message bank or have staff take a message for you be sure to return those calls as soon as you possibly can. Every hour your prospect and client has to wait for you is another hour where she might choose to go elsewhere or just get frustrated and give up on the whole idea altogether. Mistake # 6 Using Music When You Put Your Callers On Hold... First of all I'd highly recommend you DON'T put your callers on hold but if you do you can turn this into a powerful opportunity for your business. Here are some proven methods that will make that hold time work for you... 1. Play a recording of a radio or television interview of you or one of your staff talking about your area of expertise or your business. This builds credibility fast. 2. Play a recording where you give tips for example 10 things you must know before you go to a tanning salon. You can use this recording to point out all the benefits of your business over your competitors. 3. Play a recording that sells the benefits of a service you have a special offer on. Give them the offer while they're on hold. This will make it FAR easier to upsell (something we'll talk about later). 4. Turn your hold time into a referral system by playing a recording that talks about a special gift offer you'll give to anyone they refer to your business. You could also give them some kind of gift or discount they'll receive when they refer someone. 8
You can use your imagination and test a whole range of recordings that can create new sales, referrals and more in your business. Most important of all is just to GET RID of that canned, painful hold music. Make putting your callers on hold work for you. Mistake # 7 Failing To Describe Your Unique Selling Proposition (USP) When People Call... A unique selling proposition (or USP) is a description of what your business does that's truly unique. What makes your business unique? It's vital that you find your USP and use it in all your marketing. Why? If your clients and prospects hear repeatedly what it is you do that no one else does it gets ingrained in them. They know EXACTLY why they're coming to you instead of some other business. They can articulate the reason easily because you've articulated it for them over and over in this case with a short phrase you use when you answer the telephone. That means when your prospects and clients are talking to their friends, family and associates they'll describe what your business offers perfectly every time. A tightly focused USP that really rings solidifies in your prospects and clients minds why they should do business with you and that USP is a VERY powerful word of mouth marketing tool In your insider secrets report I'll give you detailed instructions on how to create a powerful USP for your business fast. I'll also give you the download links to a full 57 minute audio worth $97 that explains step by step how to create a million dollar USP. 9
For now remember to have everyone in your business describe your USP to prospects and clients who call. Mistake # 8 Not Finding Out The Unique Problems Of Your Callers... Your callers are people. They call you because they have a problem that they think you can solve. Here's a little secret. Even though you might have a dozen people call you every day wanting a solution to the same problem each one of those callers thinks THEIR problem is unique. If you take a genuine interest in your caller get to know each one personally - and in particular if you find out what they perceive is their unique problem then you can become the trusted advisor offering a solution to that problem. Avoid treating your callers like numbers. Be genuinely interested. Treating your callers like the real, live breathing human beings they are and taking the time to find out what they're looking for an why helps you to really serve them. Embracing humanity in this way also pays HUGE dividends. Mistake # 9 Not Telling Your Prospects And Clients What To Expect... Often in business we forget that our prospects and clients are NOT familiar with the way we do business. We do the same thing every day, day in, day out but most of this is new to your prospects. Explaining in detail what your prospect can expect from you when they come into your business can help them feel more relaxed. In the case of a free appointment just explaining to your prospect that there won't 10
be anyone trying to hard-sell them and exactly what's going to happen when they come to your business can significantly reduce your no shows. You need to tell your prospect what they need to bring with them, how to get to your business, where the car park is, if they'll have to pay for parking, where your front entrance is, where to wait if they have to wait and what to expect when they get there. You should tell your prospect what they can expect from you... How you'll be professional, ready to see them at the time of the appointment, what will happen during the appointment and what you expect from them in return... That they turn up on time, that they pay when they reach your office and anything else that's important to your business. Some of this you can handle on the phone, some you may send in a confirmation letter, email or follow up call. Letting your prospects and clients know what they can expect from you and what you expect from them in return sets you apart as truly professional, builds trust and confidence. Mistake # 10 Not Having Any Definite Call To Action... Every time you talk to a prospect or client on the phone you need to give them a definite call to action. You want to build the relationship so you're seen as a trusted advisor rather than a salesperson but think about that... A trusted advisor gives advice. You need to advise your prospects and clients on what you believe they should do next. That may be booking an appointment or series of appointments. It may be buying a product. It could even be letting you set up an appointment for them with another business 11
that can help them better. But again, don't leave your callers hanging. Guide them in what to do next. Tell them exactly what you think they should do and help them to do it. Mistake # 11 Failing To Confirm The Next Appointment... Before you or your staff end a call with a prospect or client you should both know EXACTLY how and when you will speak to each other or see each other again. Avoid phone tag hell. If you can get a prospect to physically come into your business your chances of making a sale or future sales goes up exponentially. Also you don't want your existing clients having to call you over and over before they have a solid, set time to come and see you. Remember this fundamental sales law... Never leave a prospect or client without having your next appointment solidly booked. If it's a paid appointment it's even better if you can get them to give you the money or charge their credit card so they know they're losing money if they don't come. Just remember to book a solid appointment before you end any call. Don't leave your prospects and clients hanging. Mistake # 12 Failing To Upsell Your Callers... Once you've turned your caller into a paying client with a booking you have a fantastic opportunity to upsell that client. You simply offer a related product or service that might benefit your new client. 12
If they're coming in for a tan, they might want a manicure. If they just bought a chainsaw they might like a pair of safety goggles and gloves. There is one key though. NEVER try to upsell before you have a sale. Once someone's made the decision to buy their psychology has changed. They're in a buying mood and they'll be far more receptive to other offers you might make.you don't even have to sell the product or service yourself to offer it to your prospects and clients. Mistake # 13 Failing To Cross Sell Your Callers... Sometimes your callers may not be ideally suited to your product or service. But as a trusted advisor you still have a valuable lead and if you're smart you can capitalize on that trust you've built by recommending a business that has a more suitable product or service they can use. You can have a reciprocal arrangement with other businesses where you send them referrals in exchange for the referrals they send you. Or you can ask for a percentage of the turnover from the business they send you. You could even ask for a percentage of ALL the ongoing business they send you. And cross selling is not just limited to the prospects who don't buy from you. You can offer related products and services to all your paying clients when you have them on the phone. This can bring you highly lucrative additional sources of income with little or no risk and no investment on your part. Best of all you'll be doing your prospects and clients a great favor by inspecting these businesses before hand, doing your research and making sure you're only referring businesses that provide the best quality products and services. 13