Selling from home is very profitable compared to selling person to person. When selling in person you have gas and car expenses and more than likely you will be eating out every day. Working from home not only saves you those expenses but also allows you to contact at least 400% more prospects every day. As long as you can dedicate sincere time and effort to develop the business and show a high personal integrity in your dealings with prospects.
When dealing with prospects and clients over the phone it is especially important to let your client know that you care about their needs and objectives. It is crucial that all your communications, and dealings should exude the element of sincerity. People want to do business with a company that cares about the customer.
Therefore, salespeople wanting to get into a sell from home business must get the following 7 things right before they embark on this venture.
1. You need to be the toughest boss you ever had:
Selling from home takes the discipline to ignore the everyday distractions that pull you way from selling. If you were at the office or making person to person sales calls you put in a full day’s work. Don’t let your family and all the things that need to be done around the house prevent you from putting in a full day’s work while you are working from home. You need to be the toughest boss you have ever had.
2. Selling from home takes the right kind of personality:
If you have always sold in a retail setting or if you meet your prospects at their place of business, selling from home is going to be an experience that you will have to get used to. Sitting on the phone and in front of a computer 8 hours a day can be exhausting. Do you have the personality to stay upbeat and engaged with your clients and prospects on every call? Always try to take a minute at the beginning of the call for small talk. Take a genuine interest in their lives and then keep great notes so the next time you talk you can pick up the conversation. People want to do business with people they like.
3. Be Prepared:
Before you start calling be sure you know your product inside and out. It is always uncomfortable but practice your sales pitch with a family member or friend. Or at the very least practice what you are going to say repeatedly to yourself. Think about questions your customers will ask. You need to have good answers to possible
objections.
While you are talking with your prospects you need to show that you are knowledgeable about your product and be able to demonstrate how it solves the prospects problem. Always remain upbeat and positive. Your attitude will show
through in your tone of voice.
4. Be a Good Listener:
Many good salespeople have a personality that wants to control the conversation and lead the customer to a close. Great salespeople are great listeners. Engage in the conversation with your prospect and lead them into talking about themselves and their needs for your product. How does your product meet those needs? People are more likely to do business with a person they like talking to.
5. Avoid conversations that create cynicism and mistrust.
Don’t sound even a wee bit like those glib talkers. Use a template that highlights your product’s value propositions and its advantage over the competition’s products. Highlight product attributes and not the need for their sympathy and generosity for the product.
6. Follow‐up:
Don’t stop following up until the prospect says NO. You don’t know what is happening in the lives of your prospects. They may just be busy with more important matters. Don’t be a bother but at the same time don’t stop calling. As time goes on wait weeks or even months between calls. After all, when you call it only takes a few seconds of your time. And always leave a voicemail. This is your opportunity to give your prospect a quick commercial about you and your product or service. Do not miss that opportunity.
7. You need a good CRM:
When selling over the phone you must have a good CRM (Contact Relation Manager). This allows you to keep track of your clients and prospects along with many other tools that will make your life easier. Many CRM programs are
hard to learn and make tracking simple information difficult to do. We recommend eTouchCRM because it is extremely easy to learn and it displays your information is a commonsense layout.
eTouchCRM has click to dial so you can call with just a few clicks of the mouse. In today’s world Text Messaging from your computer is a must have. eTouchCRM has a text message system that allows you to schedule a text to send it at a later date along with text message campaigns that can be sent to an individual or a group. Text message and
email campaigns will send a series of messages to your clients and prospects on any schedule that you want.
When selling over the phone (depending on the product or service you are selling) prospects will want to look at your information and not be ready to buy on the first call. The CRM calendar is a valuable tool. So, you call them back on the scheduled date and time. Also, using a saved email and the mail merge feature you can have an email ready to send and merge in the quote and even attach a company brochure so you can send the email, quote and brochure with a click of the mouse. eTouchCRM has these and many other features to make your selling day go easier.
Selling from home involves a great amount of discipline and organizational knowledge. If done correctly you can talk with more prospects each day and get more sales than the salesperson in the store or making person to person sales calls.
About the author:
Marc Montgomery has been in sales since 1976. Always excelling with each new sales job. In 1998 he started Montgomery Insurance with his wife Kelly. In no time at all Marc was the regional Manager for Montana and Wyoming. In 2007 Marc started selling health and life insurance over the phone and internet. That first couple of weeks were a little scary. Until the sales started rolling in. That year Marc was not only in the top 5 in the nation but had a 94% retention rate of his customers.
The principles listed above are what Marc attributes a large part of his success to.