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Many sales people working for themselves, or in small to medium size businesses, often presume the big corporate organisations have highly trained sales staff that they can’t compete with.

These big businesses throw lots of money into expensive sales training courses but do they get a good return for their money.

Here’s an example of a recent call from Google that shows their telesales staff really do not understand the basics of making a sales call.

Telesales call from Google

I answered the phone and the telesales caller introduced himself. I like Google and their approach to business, so I was willing to listen.

I expected to hear a highly trained salesman using a pitch developed to perfection. As a sales manager and trainer I am always looking for new ideas and sales techniques so a call from Google got my attention.

I listened as the tele-seller told me who they were and why they were calling.

For me these are the most important lines in a sales call, whether it’s face to face selling or over the phone, the sales introduction is where you start to sell.

The introduction was average and used Google’s name and market power as a motivator to get my attention.

The caller told me how I could get to the top of the first page for sales trainers on a Google search. He explained it was free for a set time to allow me to make money from this offer before I had to start paying.

He went on about how I couldn’t lose as I had time to try the service before committing to pay any monies. Then he went back to using the power of Google and what it could do for my business.

And the more he talked the more he lost my attention and interest.

The basics of selling

You wouldn’t expect a salesman working for a big operation like Google to make such basic mistakes.

Here’s a list of the mistakes that show a real lack of sales training and knowledge:

How long should you talk

I started timing the call from when he introduced himself. I do this whenever I receive sales call, and when I am coaching sales people. The idea was to time from the start of the call to the time of the first question where the salesman tries to get me involved.

In this case I couldn’t because he never actually asked a question.

If your introduction goes over a minute on a cold call you really have to ask yourself if you still have the listener’s attention. The sales introduction should be short, sharp, and direct with well chosen information that will keep the buyer’s attention.

Where’s my benefits

From the start of the telesales introduction, to the point where I managed to stop the call, there were no benefits that were relevant to me.

The Google caller listed feature after feature of the offer he was trying to sell. The features told me what the service was. The benefits would have told me what the service would do for me.

Giving me benefits that were specific to my needs would have kept my attention and made me interested in learning more about the service. But the telesales caller couldn’t give me specific benefits to meet my needs because...

He didn’t ask a single question

From the start of the call to the point where I couldn’t listen anymore, not a single question was asked.

Without questions the tele-seller had no way of knowing what my needs were. He carried on pitching but most of it had no connection to what might have interested me.

Telesales is a hard job

Telesales, and all sales roles, are a hard job. If you haven’t had the best sales training you end up with one sales pitch full of features. Without knowing how and when to begin questioning you will not be able to discover the buyer’s needs, and then closing the sale will be extremely difficult.

In my experience poorly trained sales people end up with one sales pitch that is pure presentation. The only time they make a sale is when they come across a prospect that has needs that match the features in their pitch.

The latest news round up from around the world.

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