Outbound Telesales ?

NoNoDrama

nearlyrich wrote: »

I worked in telesales for an IT company for over 10 years I earned a lot of money because I didn't "read a script" I built up good relationships with my customers and I was a trusted advisor and almost 20 years on some of them are still my customers. Sales is not for everyone you need personality and charisma not to mention a tough outer skin because some days don't go well but the buzz when you hit your target or close that big one is amazing.

This is why they always ask for CRAZY, BUBBLY people I suppose. To be honest I am quite reserved so not sure I'll be any good at it. Although I am target driven. Do you think someone can be 'moulded' into a good sales person?

InsideInsurance

I did "luke warm" outbound telesales before which was calling people who already had one or more services to sell them an additional one. This was after 7 years of doing inbound calls (sales and service).

I'm not crazy, bubbly or even out going but was able to do the job well. Was in the job for about 4 months and after the second month was the third highest seller (or more accurately the 2nd highest as the person who was first actually got dismissed for fraud). You need to be able to come across as believing in your product and learn the typical Q&As and what works well for you and what doesnt.

As to targets, pay etc.... it varies massively, in my experience I was on a little less basic salary than those doing inbound calls. For us we worked on a daily target that was hard 2 sales per hour, if you got over the 2 sales you got an additional 30p for sale 3 and 4 and got an extra 50p per sale for sale 5 and above per hour. The call centre average was about 0.3 sales per hour!

A lot would depend on your list of customers, we were basically selling a warranty so the ideal list was those who'd been a customer almost a year and was the first time the list was used. The worst was the list of brand new customers and the numbers had already been worked twice before so what was left were those that never answered or immediately hung up etc.

I quit after 4 months because 1 shift I literally cannot remember anything that happened as it was so boring I was just on auto pilot and actually over stayed the end of my shift by an hour. My sales sheet was full that day though.

B2B sales can be better in that you get called names less often but can be as soul destroying if your getting lists of duff leads. It can vary a lot as some B2B are just the same as B2C in that its just a list you have that your phone autodials. Others you have to research your own people to contact in which case your skills in identifying suitable people to call and getting through the gate keepers of receptionists and PAs is a skill you learn.