7 Phone Skills Sales Reps Need

In the world of sales, sometimes it isn’t enough to be a cheery, helpful person. You’ve got to be able to draw from a core set of sales skills that promote efficiently converting leads into customers. In this article we’ll go over the top 7 skills used in every sales conversation that an agent will have, and how they impact the outcome of the call.

Product Expertise

Every salesperson needs a certain amount of product expertise to provide the customer with a good sales experience. Once a salesperson has a deep understanding of their products, then they can provide a fully-inclusive sales call that conveys the value of the product or service being offered.

Especially in B2B sales, considering potential concerns, like the integration of third party services, can go a long way in helping the customer feel like all grounds are being covered. This is important because, like you, your customers only want to buy a product when they’re talking to an expert.

Keep in mind the customer will have doubts as to whether the product will meet their needs, and without complete knowledge of the industry and the product, your sales agents won’t be able to fully assess the customer’s needs and whether the product fits them.

Qualification

A sales representative needs to be able to quickly and confidently assess the customer and determine whether or not they’re a good fit for the product. This involves assessing several factors, like the customer’s budget, experience using similar products, and the size of their company.

Using buyer personas is an effective way to depict the kind of customers your business can easily and/or effectively satisfy. Once a sales rep understands and becomes familiar with the most important buyer personas, then they more effectively prompt the customer for the right information, and tailor their pitches with the right message.

Rapport

Building a connection with the customer is an important skill, because it directly effects the level of trust between the customer and the company as a whole. If your customers can’t trust your sales reps, how can they trust your product?

Once you’ve developed the right rapport with the customer, making the sales pitch can become a much easier process. As a sales rep and a customer develop a better relationship, the two can relay information much more comfortably, expediting the process.

Note: building rapport is nice, but is only valuable when it saves you time later on when qualifying the customer or closing the deal. If too much time is spent building rapport, productivity falls and it defeats the purpose.

Tone

Developing the right tone when speaking to customers is necessary for closing more deals. Even if an agent is giving useful information, or engaging the customer in a genuine way, if their tone isn’t right then the entire sale could be lost. Listen to some recordings to make sure your tone aligns with your intent as a sales rep: helpful, understanding, and convincing!

Conveying Value

Sales reps need to be able to discuss the value that their product will bring to the customer’s life. This is an essential part of the sales process because it’s the part where the customer decides if purchasing the product will be a positive or negative influence on their productivity. If a customer thinks the product you’re selling is too expensive, then they could be a bad lead, or they could simply be missing a few key points about the service.

After assessing what needs of the customer can be met, it’s time to convey how the product or service will do that and why its unique in that sense. As a sales agent, if you can’t do that, then the customer will never be convinced of the products value.

Overcoming Objections

A sales rep will hear many objections during a sales call. Sometimes they aren’t well-founded, and can easily be addressed by reminding the customer of a certain feature of the product. Others aren’t so easily dismissed, and can require a more finessed approach in order to satisfy the customer.

An important part of overcoming customer objections is to provide value and keep things small. Try and depict the value of the product as early on as possible, but don’t try and paint the whole picture right then. Sell the customer through each part of the sales pipeline, giving them the information and confidence they need to proceed further.

Don’t try and overcome every objection, use your judgement to decide whether or not the customer will be a good fit for the product. If they aren’t, don’t try and make them happy, because they’re looking in the wrong place. Direct them to where they will find a suitable product or service and move on the next lead.

Achieve Objectives

Sales reps need to be able to define and achieve sales objectives for each engagement with a customer. This is extremely important because it ties closely with the structure of the company’s sales pipeline. By using the sales pipeline to determine where the customer is, and where they need to go, a sales rep can establish a clearly defined goal for the current call.