| When they chose the great scientific wonders of the world, they
never mentioned turning a lead into a sale. Maybe they should have, because this is a
science ETI has made into a business. In a recent interview, Riki Olier, Vice-President of
ETI, explained the reasons behind ETI's success in helping salespeople close business . .
. Q: How does ETI work with a
company's prospect base?
"When ETI is hired by XYZ company for sales support, ETI
becomes, in effect, an employee of that company. This means that ETI personnel identify
themselves as calling from XYZ company."
Q: How does ETI turn business leads into
qualified prospects?
"When we call our client's prospects, we first search to
identify who the decision maker is. After we have the right individual on the telephone,
we start to qualify him/her. We begin by obtaining general research about the company's
need for our client's product or service.
"Many questions may be asked, including: what business is your company
involved in? Is your company familiar with our client's product or service? Do you
purchase it from a competitor and if so from whom? What is your impression of the product
and service of our client, etc.?"
Q: Even when properly qualified,
salespeople still waste time on prospects who are not ready to buy. How does ETI get
around this?
"Our qualifying process is not over until we quantify the prospect by
asking how much and when do you buy. What is the budget? When does it go into effect? When
will you be ready to make a buying decision? Only after we obtain such data do we consider
we've fully qualified and quantified the prospect.
"Putting this all together means we have located a decision maker with a
need and a budget, who purchases the product /service offered by our client. If required
we can go further and set up an appointment with the prospect and our client's
salesperson.
"Armed with all this documented information the salesperson can then meet
with the prospect under the best possible circumstances to close the sale."
Q: Many telephone salespeople, no matter how
good, tend to burn out quickly from the day-to-day grind of rejections and the like. What
does ETI do to minimize this?
" ETI has successfully created an in-house boutique environment
which diminishes burnout. Admittedly there are difficulties and objections. But burnout
occurs mostly because a salesperson does repetitive work, selling the same thing again and
again, week in, week out.
"To minimize boredom we rotate our staff (university graduates) over a
number of projects to provide variety - the spice of life. Telephone technique is more
consultative, and our staff members are trained to recognize that most objections are
actually buying signals.
"It is highly important for our staff to be energetic and smiling. Clients
are assured that their products and services are being presented in the most positive and
professional way,"
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