Five golden tips to help you win more of the enquiries you receive

Insight from Diane Banister is the MD of Intelligent Dialogue a sales and customer service training company helping clients have better conversations, win more business, keep existing customers and grow their revenue.

Intelligent Dialogue loves to see people and businesses thrive so their website www.intelligentdialogue.com is full of resources.

You’ve spent eons on social media, promoting, posting, commenting about “national insert relevant topic day” connecting with people. Following the rules so you get enquiries and leads.

You do it religiously every day, because you want to get your phone to ring or your inbox to ping with opportunities and enquiries.

However do you actually make the most of your enquiries? Really? How many do you convert?

Whatever your current conversion rate, what difference could it make to your business and income if you converted 20% more of the enquiries you receive?

It’s worth taking five minutes to do that sum.

Where would you be this time next year if you were able to win more of the work that you quote for?

At Intelligent Dialogue we’ve been helping sales teams convert more of their enquiries for well over 25 years. We love to see people and businesses grow and thrive.

For 2020, we thought it would be useful to share some tips which are easily implemented to make more sales:

1) Answer your phone professionally

We all want to be responsive yet when it comes to enquiries professionally means in a quiet work-space, not in the supermarket, dropping the kids off at the school gates or in the middle of a networking event. You and the caller need to be able to concentrate on the conversation. If you are distracted you won’t be able to get your message across and you’ll lose the opportunity. If you cannot do this, consider investing in a call handling service.

2) Respond quickly

If you are out and about, go and sit in the car and make the call. Worst case scenario email and arrange a time to call back. Research shows a response within an hour means a more productive conversation with the “buyer” because it is at the forefront of their mind – literally at the top of their to do list. The longer you leave it the more distractions get in the way of you making that sale.

3) Prepare a guide ready for the conversation.

What questions will you need answered before you can work out how you can help? Why should they buy from you and how will you articulate that? A small script to ensure you are heard will help ensure the relationship starts in a healthy manner.

4) Practice the conversation.

Know your opening lines, and how to lead the conversation. That way you’ll have more time to listen to, take a genuine interest in and tune into what the buyer is looking for. You’ll be able to understand why they have called you, and identify the pain they are experiencing.

That will help you explain your products and services in a way that will mean something to the “buyer.” The more your messages can resonate with the potential customer, the better the chance you have of making that sale.

5) Agree the next steps.

Don’t just put the phone down, ensure you understand what they need from you to help them make their buying decision. When will they even make a decision? How? Who else might be involved?

Agree the next steps with them. You might need to send some information through, make sure you agree a time to speak to them about it.

Always link to the next step and agree when and how you’ll speak again. It will keep momentum in your sales process and a flow of enquiries moving along your pipeline.