Five keys to success in telephone prospecting, classified ad sales

In my 25 years of work in training, coaching and consultation within newspaper call centers—as well as five years as a consultant to Morgan Stanley, whose lifeblood is telephone prospecting—I have come to recognize five keys to telephone prospecting success that we can apply in today’s market for newspaper classifieds.

1. Enthusiasm. Successful telephone prospect

ing is 12 percent what sales reps say and 88 percent how they say it. On the telephone and with life in general, enthusiasm is the little-recognized secret of success. Prospects can only hear and feel your attitude, and it must be enthusiastic, confident and positive.

2. Good lists. Forty percent of a rep’s success will be related to the quality of the list. Besides accurate numbers, a good list has well-qualified prospects with whom reps have some sort of connection, enabling them to build rapport quickly.

Additionally, it is important today to put automatic systems in place that will generate lists throughout the year based on key criteria including:

• Previous advertisers who have not advertised within the last 90 days.
• The previous year’s seasonal or special-day advertisers, many of whom are likely to want to advertise again this year for Christmas, President’s Day, Mother’s Day and other annual occurrences.
• Advertisers whose ads are about to expire.
• Advertisers who have placed ads around special events such as business anniversaries, end-of-model-year, local festivals, athletic events or arts and entertainment.

All reps should receive such lists regularly so they can, for example, call every restaurant in town about advertising their Mother’s Day, New Year’s Eve, or Valentine’s Day specials. Supervisors should provide close guidance and frequent follow-up on using these lists.

3. Pace. Telephone prospecting involves developing a rhythm—one that comes from cutting out all distractions and allows a sales rep to stay focused on the behavior of making dials. If you focus enough on desired behaviors when telephoning, desired results will follow.

When it comes to pace, it is important to set aside block time—times of the day and week that are most conducive for reaching targeted prospects. During this block time, reps should be making at least 30 dials per hour.

4. Skill. Sales reps who have appropriate enthusiasm, a good list and great pace will see their skill level improve significantly because they will be generating enough “at bats” to get better on the telephone. The skills required to become a good sales rep—a good greeting, good discovery questions, excellent objection-handling, appropriate solution, compelling offer and assumptive close—develop significantly under fire from prospects.

It is important to consider giving reps scripts to follow so they communicate effectively and appropriately and avoid bad habits.

5. No avoidance. Prospecting is hard work and reps, by human nature, will succumb to avoidance behavior without discipline and prevention. Get creative—run outbound parties and specify special block times to drive enthusiasm and dials per hour. Have daily contact with reps to see how many dials they can make daily. The bottom line is that we must measure activity level every day to make sure reps are not avoiding what they must do.

It is safe to say that the days when classified reps could sit back and wait for the phone to ring are long gone. Newspapers are no longer the only game in town. We can’t meet our goals by merely serving the calls that come in to us. It has never been more critical to focus on telephone prospecting—and to do it very well.

Listening before you leap

A problem truly understood is already half-solved

When subscribers call in with a cancellation request, the most common reason they give is that they don’t have time to read. In many newspaper call centers, reps hear subscribers give this reason and then immediately jump right on the fix—usually a downgrade in the frequency of delivery or a drop in the price. But they’re jumping far too soon.

The real reason
We have found in our extensive work with newspaper call centers that it is critical to begin a robust discovery phase on the call as soon as a subscriber tells us why he or she wants to quit. Why? Because very often, the first reason a subscriber gives isn’t the real one.

In a robust call flow, our first response to the subscriber not having time to read should be a restatement:

“So if I understand you correctly the reason you want to leave us today is that you don’t have time to read. Aside from that, are there any other problems with you newspaper or its delivery that would cause you to want to cancel today?”

More than 40 percent of the time, subscribers give a second reason that turns out to be the true problem that led to the cancellation call. So on almost half the calls we handle, jumping on the fix doesn’t address the true cancellation reason.

Lower cost, higher profit
It follows that if we find out the true cancellation reason and address it instead of papering over a problem with a quick-fix or a discount, we will have higher customer satisfaction, better retention, and a more profitable organization. After all, it costs much less to keep an existing customer than to go out and win a new one.

We have found that many subscribers don’t call in with a service and billing issue until it has happened numerous times, or they’ve called in previously but the problem hasn’t been corrected. In either type of case, many subscribers don’t reveal the real issue until we complete discovery by restating and assuring help, asking about additional concerns, and then isolating the true reason for calling.

Selling value
Finally, another common reason for canceling is the end of promotional discounts. This occurs when a subscriber gets a high bill for renewal and calls to quit but doesn’t reveal the real concern until we follow the robust discovery process. If we know that price is the issue, we can begin a value discussion with the subscriber that focuses on features and benefits. When we get the subscribers talking about features they enjoy, suddenly price becomes less of a concern because they recognize the value of the newspaper!

The bottom line is that we can’t solve a problem unless we know what it is. We don’t always know the problem unless we ask for more information. There’s an old adage that says a problem well-stated is half-solved. By engaging in robust discovery, we’re helping the subscriber state—and ultimately solve—the problem. We’re helping the subscriber see value. We’re winning loyalty and retaining our most profitable customers—the ones we already have.