The Science of Telephone Sales Management

"body">"laws" underpinning certain types of conversations.
I'm in the middle of building a new salesAlso, and crucially, we can monitor and manage
management seminar and I'm breaking out atelephone salespeople in real time, listening, side by
separate unit on the differences between generalside if we wish, to every word being said. When
sales management and the management ofsellers deviate from the call path that has been
telephone sales.developed, tested, and proven to work, a finger
And there are some crucial distinctions, though Ican be pointed exactly to where the seller needs
just want to touch on one, here.to get back onto his message.
Telephone selling can be, and because it can be, itNothing else, in any other area of business I
should and must be, SCIENTIFIC.know, attains this kind of clear feedback and
What do I mean?guidance, nor benefits as much and as directly as
First, let's establish the value of science. When anthis kind of intervention from management
area of study or conduct becomes scientific: (1) ItAs you know we can preserve the entire
is systematically and critically monitored,transaction in a phone sale through recordings for
measured, and managed, and recognized as anunlimited playback and analysis, if we deem it to
important process; (2) Its mysteries are revealedbe useful.
over time; (3) And this leads to greaterBy capturing events, live and recorded, we can
understanding and more consistent control of itsLEARN MORE and MAKE RAPID ADJUSTMENTS
causes and effects; its inputs and outputs, and its& IMPROVEMENTS.
results and contributions.And then, we can revise scripts for all, and
Ultimately, science aspires to being able to say,distribute the latest and the greatest, very
like a recipe, if you heat water to 212 degrees,quickly, applying en masse our newfound
Fahrenheit, at sea level, the water will boil.knowledge.
Keep doing exactly this, and you'll keep gettingOf course, none of this is visible to the buyer,
rewarded with boiling water, which as we knowwhich contributes to its effectiveness.
has its uses beyond making pasta, significant asIn field selling, the closest we usually get is
that one is.accompanying a seller to see a prospect, but we
A well run business seeks consistent and reliablecan't exert such meticulous control without
results; in a word, predictability. This makes nearlyseeming unduly intrusive and distracting.
everybody happy, from workers to shareholders.Having said this, using a scientific, systematic
Selling, as a discipline, as a field, also strives toprocess seems essential, at least in telephone
produce consistent, reliable, and ever-improvingselling, because WE CAN.
results.Why would we ever accept making sales as an
Specifically, we try to the extent we can toidiosyncratic, iffy result when it can become more
govern carefully those known behaviors thatpredictable, commonplace, and more profitable?
produce and increase "yeses," and discourage orAgain, this is one of the crucial differences and
avoid "no's." When we're failing at this job, weactual advantages of telephone selling versus field
seek understanding to help us to recover quicklyselling.
and to get back on track.Given its potential for meaningful, practical
Telephone selling is, potentially, more scientific thanresearch and the leverage the resulting know-how
field selling because we can control at least onecan produce for companies and for salespeople, it
side of the communication equation: What themakes you wonder: Why hasn't there been
seller says, how he says it, when he says it, andgreater "brain formation," in the telephone sales
how he responds to what the prospect says.arena?
In practical terms, we can SCRIPT the salesWhy aren't our best and brightest communication
process, bringing it to a boil, if not at will then withscientists and scholars attracted to it?
great consistency, once we have discovered theNow, that's a mystery worth unraveling!