How to Close on the First Call

Our PC repair businesses often rely on the generation of incoming calls and is something we work painstakingly hard at generating through advertising and various other tried and tested methods, but receiving a call is no guarantee of receiving business and closing the call on first contact is a sales skill that requires serious practice. In reality the majority of calls I receive are scouting the area for prices and for the potential customer to get a feel for the businesses they approach, the reality is if you let that potential customer slip through then it’s unlikely they’ll call back. There’s always someone cheaper and they might find someone more convincing. To help you get a head start we’re going to cover the basics of how you can close on the first call.

Be Likeable and Approachable

Whenever I go into a sales room I have a natural response to put up the shields, it’s as simple as knowing that these people are here to sell to me and I’m not going down without a fight. This mantra serves me well until I find a salesman that I warm to easily and then before I know it I’m sitting in a comfy chair holding a cup of tea buying a bedroom full of furniture. As human beings we get on well with human beings we like and that initial bond goes a long way to closing a sale, easy enough to say but not always so easy in practice. In real life we don’t bond with absolutely everyone we speak with and so sometimes we find this is the case with new potentials, put your personal feelings aside and be as polite, courteous, respectful and as helpful as you can possibly be. If you’re tired, cranky, snappy and clearly not in the mood to talk, then your potential customer will be off the phone before you know it.

Find Out What They Want

It will be almost impossible to make a good pitch without understanding the needs of your prospect, during the first part of the call you should use your technical understanding of the likely issue and probe with accurate questions to fully understand their needs. At this point go easy on trying to force the sale, we don’t want to chase them off. If the prospect is quick to ask for the price then explain that you need to understand a little more of the issue, how you conduct yourself and the questions you ask will help them see how knowledgeable you are in your field and make them feel more confident that they’ve reached the right place.

Don’t Bad Mouth Your Competition

It’s common for our potential prospects to bring up other businesses in the area during initial contact, “XYZ Computers, are $10 cheaper”, or “XYZ can have it done by the end of the week”. Such comments can be enough to get our backs up but launching an attack on your competition will put your caller on the defensive and hinder your chances of closing a sale. It would in fact be better to praise them (not too much) and then praise your business in areas where you completely outshine your competitor without being big headed. It’s a balancing act but shows off your integrity.

Develop a System and Look to Improve

As you become more experienced answering your phone you’ll start to notice similarities in each call, you’ll then notice you’ll tailor each call slightly depending on the individual, young, old, male, female. Different demographics respond in uniquely different ways and developing that understanding alongside a standard yet flexible script will make you a sales force to be reckoned with. To start with, keep a dedicated note pad or poster within easy reach when taking a call and start taking notes. Write down demographics, what worked, what didn’t, things you should always do and similarly, things you should never do. The notes you gather over time can be worked into a basic script with notes on slight changes in relation to the demographic calling you.

Tie Them Down

A friend working in a call center recently introduced me to the “Tie Down” technique which is effectively a way of getting a prospect to agree with a pertinent point or at the very least acknowledge it, these tie downs can be executed with great effect throughout the call and helps keep the caller fully engaged. After finding out what they want as detailed on the above step you’ll drop in the ties through the remainder of the call, for example say they’re clearly in need of anti-virus software:

“This [insert preferred software] will not only protect yours and your family’s privacy online, it will also reduce the likelihood that you’ll need to pay for another call out in the future so will ultimately save you time, money and stress. Wouldn’t you agree?”

Nobody likes losing time, money and getting stressed so the automatic response is 99% of the time “Yes”.

“Also, if for any reason I’m more than 10 minutes late I’ll give you 10% off the call out charge. Does that sound reasonable?”

It’s hard for people to label things as unreasonable so again the automatic response is usually “Yes” and you’re one step closer to finalizing the deal. Psychologically if the prospect is agreeing with all your tie downs and giving you the positive responses then it becomes harder for them to end the call and walk away.

Warning: Don’t Over Promise

The first few calls I received I found it hard to control myself, offering ridiculous turnaround times and rock bottom prices to entice a sale, the result as you can well imagine was an enormous amount of work and stress for very little money. Resist the urge to over promise and be realistic so that your customer doesn’t expect you to work some sort of miracle. It’s easy to do especially as you feel them slipping away, keep yourself in check, sometimes it’s just better to let them go.

Sell More Value

Competing solely on price is a sure fire way to lose a sale, it’s quite unlikely that you were first in the line to receive a call and its quite likely that you were asked about price in one of the first queries. If cost comes up within the first 3 questions then you can bet your bottom dollar that their biggest interest is their bottom dollar. I for one won’t win out on price against the majority of businesses in my area, I value my time but in return I believe I give a valuable service. Underneath the numbers your prospect will also be looking at value, they just don’t know it yet and it’s your job to show them what they’re getting, how are you better than your average tech and what will you do for them that goes above and beyond the competition? Something to note down in your script.

Ask for the Sale and Be Ready for Objections

Ok you’ve been working hard for the last 5 to 10 minutes so you’ve earned the right to just ask for business:

“I’m free in the next hour or I can be with you at 7pm this evening”

Take the approach that you believe you have the business and the prospect will find it that little bit harder to turn you away, just don’t be overconfident or arrogant. You’ll find the natural response from most prospects is a rejection, they’ve got three other businesses to call and they’re keen to see how they stack up.

“I’ll think about it and let you know”

“If the timing isn’t good I can rearrange one of my less urgent appointments and head over shortly, or we do a pick up and drop off service at no additional charge if this is preferable”

“No I really must make a move”

“No problem Mr Prospect, I hope to hear from you soon but if not I hope you find the help you need and get it fixed”

Ah well, you can’t win them all and there’s no point being bitter about it. See them off with a friendly goodbye and wish them well in getting the problem fixed. You never know, you might hear from Mr Prospect sooner than you think.