*Story from Sales Ninja’s Staff

My wife received a call from a well-known baby’s milk powder company. We recently bought their product just to try it out on our baby. The call was unpleasant and here’s how it went.

Rep: “Hi is this X?”

Wife” Yes”

Rep:” I’m calling from Y, Why did you choose us?”

Wife: “Oh, just trying out”

Rep: “Does she like it?”

Wife: “Er, she is not used to it yet”

Rep: “Oh, is there any reaction after consuming?”

Wife: “No, so far it seems okay”

Rep: “Ok, that’s all, bye!” (Abruptly ends call)

When my wife told me about the call, I realize that the company is killing itself. My wife felt upset at the way the person handled the call.

With this kind of call, it would look better if the company didn’t make the call in the first place.

Here’s where they went absolutely wrong

Representative call JUST to get information.

It’s most likely they have a list of questions to ask my wife. So when my wife answered the call, the representative just blurted out the questions and got the answers – that’s it. If that was what the company was looking for, they should just use automated calls and recorded the answers. 

Instead, what they should have done is to train the representative to be more human, to interact more, be friendly and make the customer feel happy to receive the call. Let’s face it, who likes talking to automated answering machines?

The company didn’t train them well

The company probably only trained the callers to ask those important questions, period. But, this caller didn’t seem to be trained in rapport building.

Probably a better conversation would have been like this

Rep: “Hi is this X?”

Wife” Yes”

Rep:” I’m calling from Y, I understand you recently bought a milk powder from us. Are you feeding it to your baby boy or girl?

Wife: “Oh, yes, it’s for my girl”

Rep: “Wow, I have a baby girl too! what’s her name?”

Wife: “Oh, her name is …”

Rep: “Ah that’s a nice name… So, just to check with you… etc”

See the difference with such an opening? It’s simple but very effective for rapport building. Your conversation will be more pleasant from then on.

There was good follow up, but…

The company did the follow-up, but it could have been improved. There was no call-to-action at the end of the call. It could have been better if the representative ended with this

“Oh, did you know that we have just launched a new product Y? You should really try it and the nearest place you can get it is at… etc.”

“I’d love to send you a sample of our best selling milk powder, which I think your baby girl will love”

“Well, maybe I’ll call you back in 3 weeks time to find out how your baby is doing with our milk powder”

At least with this call-to-action, you might convert this customer into a repeat customer again through your new products or with your good customer service.

Cold calling or telemarketing is very important and it’s tough to do it without proper training. But, once mastered, customers can be seduced and impressed with what you have to say and eventually BUY over the phone.

With these phone techniques, you can easily find new customers and make them your customer with maybe just 1-2 calls.

If your cold callers are making the same mistake as the milk company above, you are in danger! Learn how to cold call the right way to get prospects to be happy, begging to buy from you, and finally get that sale. Find out how to cold call effectively here.

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