Ways To Be More Persuasive On The Phone 7

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About Dirk Zeller

For more than 25 years Dirk Zeller has sold, published, spoke, coached and motivated salespeople worldwide. His sales strategies, time management systems and success principles have impacted people worldwide to expanding their lives.

Dirk has spoken to audiences worldwide and is widely regarded as one of the most influential thinkers and sales strategists of his generation. He has authored more than 10 books that have achieved best seller status.

For additional information or to shop for Dirk Zeller’s best selling books, DVD’s, CD’s, online training materials, and more go to www.DirkZeller.com.

This book is a how-to guide for gaining the skills and knowledge to become a Champion Telephone Salesperson. It’s about acquiring the knowledge, organization habits, time management techniques, personal motivational strategies, action, and positive attitudes necessary to enable you to rise to the top in both your business and life.

Telephone Sales for Dummies® is not a book of theory, but of “real stuff ” that works. It’s packed with proven programs, processes, tested techniques, and tried-and-true skills, strategies, and scripts.

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Just because the person on the other end of the phone can’t see you doesn’t mean your

image doesn’t come across loud and clear. When you sound professional, you’re seen as a professional—even if the prospect has not met you yet. Conveying that image takes a little more than dressing for success and the gift for gab. Being different can equate to sounding different.

1. Use Market Stats And Trends

Because more prospects both buyer and seller are do it yourself or DIY. You must be able

to communicate value to them with more depth. The market knowledge of most agents does not position them as experts. Your prospects take general statements or general facts as merely your opinion.

If you are in an initial conversation or early stage conversation with a prospect they will

discount the value of your opinion over theirs. Don’t say it’s a buyer’s market or a seller’s market as an example. Tell them the home inventory has dropped by 17% in 3 months. Which has moved our inventory down to less than 3 months’ inventory. According to the National Association of Realtors a balanced market is 6 months’ worth of inventory. We are clearly in a strong sellers’ market.

Your ability to track, monitor, and communicate inventory levels, average list

to sales price ratios, days on the market averages, number of sales per month, absorption rates, the percentage of houses selling seven days or less and thirty days or less is critical. These are some of the keys numbers that make you more persuasive and valuable to a prospect.

2. Always Use A Headset

A headset frees your hands so you can take notes. By making a record of important

information, you’re better set to confirm, review, summarize, and follow up on all critical points. And when you’re not concentrating on keeping the receiver vised between your ear and shoulder, you’re free to focus on the prospect. Using a headset also reduces neck fatigue and eliminates the risk of dropping the phone while talking to a prospect—blasting the prospect’s eardrum with a thud on the desktop is not professional. Being effective on the phone requires energy and emotion. It is hard to focus on either of those if some of your energy is focused on holding your cell phone.

Creating a connection between your body and your voice is essential to communicating

more personally. People are attracted to energy and enthusiasm. That is why I recommend standing up as often as possible when using the phone. By standing you are in a more natural

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position to increase the energy and enthusiasm. I realize that sometimes you, as all agents, are making calls as you drive better opportunities.

Have you ever noticed that singers always stand when they perform? That is no

coincidence. They know that their voice carries more resonance, range, and power when their diaphragm isn’t folded over. You can use the singers’ secret for sounding more authoritative and self-assured when speaking to prospects on the phone. Stand tall and observe the energy and enthusiasm that pours forth. Slump into your desk in a question-mark curve, and feel the conviction seep out of your voice. You can’t be standing all the time but take that opportunity when you have that option.

3. Limber Up Your Body

To sound better and be more effective in your phone calls, do some warm-up exercises to

limber and loosen your body. Trust me, you may spend a good part of your day connected to clients by voice only, but real estate sales is a full-contact sport! If you are going to call prospects for 45 minutes, an hour, or a few hours whether new prospects or even past clients for referrals you want your body to communicate effectively.

Do facial exercises before your first call. Tighten your face muscles and relax them,

clench your teeth and then relax them several times. Slowly yawn to limber up your cheeks, muscles, and skin. Balloon out your cheeks (like Dizzy Gillespie) a few times. Loosen your neck and shoulders by shrugging and relaxing. Rotate your neck slowly to loosen the muscles. A few full-body stretches aren’t a bad idea. Stretch your quads, hamstrings, and calves as if you were preparing for a run. Remember, when you’re on the phone, you should be standing for optimal effectiveness.

4. Warm Up Your Voice

Your voice, like your body needs warming up to perform at its best. Start out in the

shower by humming a tune (no matter what others in the household may say about your operatic potential). Humming is an outstanding warm-up for your vocal chords. For that matter, croaking like a frog is another excellent vibration exercise to strengthen your chords.

Get some talk time in before your first sales call. Synchronize dinner plans with your

spouse. Ask the kids what’s on tap for their day. Interact for a few minutes with another agent or even leave a few voice mail messages for your lender, title officer, or attorney that you know will not be in the office yet. These will all help warm up your voice.

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5. Put In Pre-Call Practice Time

Every real estate agent benefits from rehearsing base scripts and dialogues before picking up

the phone. Every salesperson. I recommend at least 15 minutes of practice before each calling session. Doing the drill out loud is preferable. Don’t be put off by teasing colleagues—they won’t be laughing when you lead the sales board soon. Practice it all: your opening statements, prospecting scripts and dialogues, appointment objection handling, lead follow-up scripts, and closes.

Sneaking in a follow-up practice session at the end of the day doesn’t hurt either.

Find a supportive other agent in your office or even online, your broker manager, or even your spouse. If you put in the time regularly to improve your phone sales skills you’re sure to come across in any phone conversation as the consummate real estate professional, you are.

6. Bundle Your Calls

This tip is one that few agents do. When we do finally start calling we do what I term

scatter calling. It’s when we do a past client call, then lead follow up calls, then do some calling around listing and sales calls for example. We are using multiple different scripts, approaches, closes, and getting different objections.

For maximum effect and optimal impact, plan your call schedule to group calls by type. For

example, make all prospecting calls within one block of time—first two hours of the morning, say. Then follow with a session devoted to lead follow-up calls. You could start with calling past clients if that is the easier way for you to get started.

Make at least 10 like calls in a row. By focusing on a type, you find yourself

more “in the zone,” zeroed in on the skills and strengths you need to tap into for a successful call outcome. And as you tick off the calls, one by one, you find that with each call, you get better.

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BONUS Record And Replay Your Calls

If you really want to be the best, you have to objectively review yourself. There is nothing

more objective than an actual recording of your calls. It takes real guts to do this so it is a BONUS!

Not only do you create a reliable record of the phone conversation when you record

your calls, one that you can refer back to as often as you need to, you also create a valuable tool for self-evaluation. Did you speak too fast? Talk too much? Sound too aggressive? Come across as unprepared? Hear yourself as your prospect hears you, and you’re bound to discover ways that you can improve and fine-tune your sales and sales delivery.

7. Spice Up Your Delivery

There’s a reason that people listen to rain, ocean waves, and gentle winds to help

them fall asleep—the steady sound is soothing and hypnotic. Not exactly the effect you want to have when trying to get a prospect excited about your product. Avoid speaking in a flat monotone—instead, spice up your delivery to grab attention. No jokes or humorous stories, please. Play with three vocal elements to vary your speech:

Tune into your tone. Your speaking voice is comprised of several qualities, including

rhythm, intonation, and inflection, resulting in a one-of-a-kind vocal personality that distinguishes Jimmy Stewart from Pee Wee Herman. I refer to this vocal fingerprint as tone. While your tone is what makes your voice yours, you can optimize your phone communication by paying some attention to it. Make sure your tone conveys the message you want it to.

Play with the volume. Not the volume on your headset, but the decibel of your own

voice. Talk too quietly, and you generate lots of “Could you repeat that?” requests. Speak too loudly and the prospect must hold the receiver at arm’s length. Keep your volume within a reasonable range, but be sure to vary it to hold the prospect’s attention and emphasize key points.

Mix up the pace. Most real estate salespeople are guilty of speed-talking.

Chalk it up to enthusiasm, nervousness, desire to get in the sales points before the recipient hangs up. This is especially true with new leads and specifically internet leads. Slow talking can be just as bad—it makes people want to finish your sentences for you. Moderate the pace of your speech—occasionally varying it for effect or emphasis.

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Talk less, listen more. The more you listen to others talk, the more you learn. Also

ask questions frequently to create a dialogue not a monologue. In sales we are not like comedians. If you do all the talking, you’re not going to hear anything you don’t already know.

Start by asking a question or two—then let the other person talk. Tune in to learn

more about the prospect, their needs, why are they starting to search for homes at this time, then probe their priorities and values. You just may find that by giving the prospect a chance to talk, you discover the best way to answer those needs and meet those priorities and values. Don’t forget to add in market trends and numbers, if you do at least the prospect will hang up thinking how smart and knowledgeable you are compared to other agents they have met!

Which of these that I have shared with you do you need to change first? You won’t

do all at once so select the one that will have the biggest impact on your lead generation, lead conversion, or appointment setting capabilities. Our job as real estate agents is to communicate with prospects in the most persuasive avenue possible, most of us do that via the phone.