Thursday, September 16, 2010

Appointment Setting: Listening Beyond Words

When a prospective customer declines or says ‘no’ it’s really not the end of the world. In business parlance, 'no' could mean either one of two things. One is, “Tell me more” and the other is “Try harder.” It's very difficult handling a 'no' delivered politely, what more of a 'no' delivered a couple of notches above the normal decibel range for hearing? Quite challenging right?

Everyone has a different reaction handling objections. It would normally fall under 'fight' or 'flight' – defend our position and make a stand or drop it and move on to the next call. Both would be appropriate. But more often than not we sometimes neglect the most important aspect in handling objections from customers. It's listening.

Identifying the needs of the prospect and offering an appropriate product or service cannot be achieved by just the telemarketer doing all the talking. Asking the right questions or probing properly will only be of help if listening to the answer regardless of the prospects demeanor or temperament is done.

There are 3 key elements to consider being able to handle objections well that leads to an appointment setting close:

• A well-delivered message. Having an effective call script is also an essential tool a telemarketer assigned to an appointment setting campaign can have. The goal of creating a call script is not simply to tell prospects what to say and how to say it but helps in answering the question your potential customer might ask – “what do you want?”

• The ability to listen beyond words. Try to see past the customers' temperament and demeanor. Underneath the loud voice is a human being with an immediate concern or issue. As much as you're tempted to answer back to defend you, don't – just let them finish with what they're saying and filter through the emotions. Rebutting alone will not land you that appointment. Try to push for a constructive and positive resolution for the concern. If it’s not your fault, just shake it off and don't take it personally or even worse, do not vent out on the next caller.

• Skillfully handling objections. It's not always about you. In all probability they're objecting to the proposition of the appointment and not you. Keeping your composure while handling their objections is a good way of winning them seeing how you professionally take and handle their objections.

Clients are always interested and they just don't know it yet. It's up to the appointment setter to inform the prospect of this need for an appointment. 'No' doesn't necessarily mean 'no' all the time, especially in a business sense. Successful appointment setting basically is all about the right timing, the right attitude and listening beyond words. Remember this at all times and you're good to go.

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