Whoever I call they say they are not interested?

My telecaller executive sent me the above message, and said that one person was rude to him.

Wrong Ask:

My telecaller executive called the HR, and immediately after introducing, he directly gave a sales pitch, Asking if he would like to take training (product/service/offering) from us? — Yes/No/Maybe to which his response was — “Not interested.”

The executive did many things wrong at many levels. 1st he should build a rapport and trust even if that would mean making more than 1 call. Never sell (outbound sales) anything directly on phone. Sales has to happen only after BAF is narrated to him. B-Benefits (what change it will bring in his life?), A-Advantages (what he will gain?) and F-features (technical details) are narrated to customer and that he is now interested to knowing the price. Sales of the product/service/offering has to naturally happen face-to-face by looking at a person (personal brand), by judging (his commitment), and by getting positive vibes (understanding his values and philosophies of life) followed by a good handshake.

As a telecaller executive you are actually suppose to sell an appointment time-slot of 15 min, to the HR, by telling him WIIFM — What’s In It For M e (him) in that 15 min. The actual pitching, prospecting and selling will be done by field sales executive or trainer.

Show me one company who does not do sales:

No matter how big or small the company is they will have a sales component build in their business. Getting business means sales. Take an example there is a professional chartered accountant he is a 1 man army working in his business. He puts 1st 4 morning hours in ‘Getting the business’, that is — He speaks and meet people, promote about his business and carries out prospecting. After the lunch hour, — He ‘Delivers the business’, that is he carries out his work of filing papers, maintaining records etc, for his clients and customers. If you look around and observe all companies have sales or marketing team, their team might be small but they would have one.

No less than Steve Jobs:

Who was Steve jobs, you would say he was genius, an innovator, a visionary. But biggest of all these things he was world’s best salesman. Whenever he would come on stage to present the product, sales of apple products would go sky rocketing. So if you are on sales and marketing side don’t think of yourself any less, you are no less than Steve jobs.

I don’t trust you, you are scaring me:

People don’t buy unless they have a trust in you. Trust is build only when they think of you as their friend and well wisher, and you can befriend someone only after you know them genuinely. If you are selling someone without ensuring that a trust is build first no matter how ace you are, in their mind they would be screaming out loud, — “I don’t trust you, you are scaring me”. As a telecaller your job is to call people to build trust first and then set the appointment.

Be resourceful:

As a telecaller you are on phone and speaking to HR, and if HR tells you that they don’t have requirement or immediate need for soft skills or behavioral training, but they are seeking for technical training in Java. Be a resourceful person, help the HR by telling them that you know a Java trainer and he is good and that I will connect you to him. Be resourceful, help others, you will be seen as a go-to-guy for all the training requirements.

It’s a number game:

It doesn’t matter as a telecaller executive you spoke with 10 HR but you just got 4 response as ‘Yes’. It only means that you need to contact more HR. After all there are lakhs of companies in India.

Are you people person?:

On one end of the spectrum there are techies the introverts, who likes to work alone and independently, they don’t like to speak to people whereas on the other end of the spectrum there are people who can’t live without speaking to people. For them speaking to people and taking to them is like an oxygen. If you are in Sales/Marketing/PR etc. you are in right place, it’s natural for you to pick up phone and talk for hours.

Sugar-on-the-tongue:

If there was to be a survey conducted as to which department or function is sweetest to taking to or speak with, hands down it will be HR. They have to have a cube of sugar on their tongue when they are speaking to anyone. Their strength lies in resolving organizational conflict and creating a happy fun filled atmosphere in organization. As a telecaller if you are speaking with HR you are lucky that you are speaking to not only a sweet taking person on organization but also an assertive, receptive and mature professional. It is very rare that they would be rude to you, unless you are not approaching them correctly. (You can yourself ask them — What would be a right and better way to engage in communication with them.)

Hamster-wheel

In offices, everyone is busy working. We tend to build hamster wheel for ourselves and anything out of hamster wheel we treat it as an interruption. Respect people’s time ask them, if it’s good time to talk to them. When would be right time to reach them. Be responsive in communication, that is reply/revert/respond as soon as it is expected from you.

Originally published at https://www.linkedin.com.