The Characteristics of an Outstanding Sales Representative

Below you will find some top tips to develop your selling skills for those all important sales representatives in your company. Keep the following in mind when you are making a direct sale.
Don't come across as being aggressive, this is a common mistake with many sales representatives. Build up a rapport with the potential client, you need to introduce your service or product, but before this listen to your customer, find out about your potential client and distinguish whether they require your product or services. Be honest and truthful to the client and display that the product or service is a necessity to them, if you believe in this product or service, and how they will benefit from it will come across in your approach.

Going back to the topic of not being aggressive. How many times have you been in the position of having a pushy sales person trying to get you to close a deal with you? How did you feel at that point? Did you tell any of your relatives or friends that you had a good experience with this sales person, or recommend that sales person? Or recommend the product or service that you are selling? Probably not! Who would you rather buy from?...a sales person that came across friendly and helpful. Asking what your needs are, how you currently manage your business day to day activities, that seemed really interested in you and your needs, or a sales person who would not let you go until you have the closed the deal and making you feel intimidated? I know who I would choose.

Remember that when you close a deal with a client, these are the people who will secure future sales, in way of telling relatives and friends about the product or service they have purchased from you, do you think they will do this if they were pushed into a sale and weren't happy about the sale??


The number one top tip of all time with direct selling from a sales person perspective is..... Talk less and listen more! Find out about this potential client. Don't bombard them with information about the product/service, which you find maybe useful to the client, when actually it isn't! Remember this from the start! 

Stacey Howells is the Operations Director at WagTap Contact Solutions which provides a number of first class telephone answering services that are designed to save clients time and money, reduce stress and staffing levels and improve customer satisfaction and retention.

WagTap specialises in Virtual Assistant services, out of hours and overflow call handling, sales order processing, information request lines, media response lines, customer service support, outbound telemarketing and market research services. Click here to try WagTap FREE...

How Can Your Business Benefit From a Telephone Answering Service

A company that treats their customers or potential customers with respect will get respect in return. This ultimately means more money for the company. People would rather do business with a company that shows them respect than with a company that seems to be heartless. Telephone answering services provide a personal touch. A great advantage to using a telephone answering services is the cost. If you are paying for a telephone answering service you will not have to pay the wages of a few staff members that do the same job, therefore you are saving alot of money. Also a telephone answering service could work out of hours and on weekends, so your customers calls would always be answered., where as it may be hard to find a staff member who is willing to work out of office hours and on weekends or even on holidays. If you would like to handle some of your calls, but are unable to answer them all, then most telephone answering services provide an option where you can divert your calls to them if your lines are busy or when you are out of the office, this means you will never lose out on business.

Some telephone answering services provide your own personal secretary, this is great for the customer because then the customer feels valued. The personal assistant will always be at hand to answer your calls in your company's name. This is great because the secretary would have researched all about your business and it gives a professional image to the customer.
By having a telephone answering service your business can grow and you will never miss out on a sale. In most cases when a customer gets an engaged tone or an answering machine, they hang up and call another company. This means you have missed out on that sale and your competitors would have made a new one. Getting a telephone answering service can prevent all that, as there will always be someone to answer the calls for your customers. It also makes your business seem a lot larger and more professional.

There is always a call recording facility available so you will know exactly how your customers are being treated. If a customer has a great experience, they are always more likely to stay loyal to your business. If they have had a bad experience, they will often go somewhere else plus they will most likely tell friends and family about it, giving you a bad reputation and bad press. Mishandled calls can definitely lead to loss of customer interest. Obviously, you do not want this, so getting a telephone answering service is a great option. Your customer will feel welcome and will feel at ease talking to the friendly operator knowing that they are in safe hands. This brings a professional touch to all your business needs.

Mishandled calls can also lead to a loss of customer interest. Not only can mismanagement lead to low call volumes but it can also lead to reputation damage. All it takes is for one dissatisfied customer to start talking to his friends and acquaintances about how badly he was treated by your company. That's negative publicity, and negativity spreads like wildfire! In this age of economic recession, it is very important that you treat all prospects with respect and an enthusiastic response.

You can use a live phone answering service for friendly customer service, for overflow calls (if your own staff are unable to help or sick) and for that extra professional touch to enhance your business.

Kristy Howells is the Senior Accounts Manager at WagTap Contact Solutions which provides a number of first class telephone answering services that are designed to save clients time and money, reduce stress and staffing levels and improve customer satisfaction and retention. 

WagTap specialises in Virtual Assistant services, out of hours and overflow call handling, sales order processing, information request lines, media response lines, customer service support, outbound telemarketing and market research services. Click here to try WagTap FREE... http://wagtap.co.uk/index.php?option=com_artforms&formid=3&Itemid=63