TSR - Telesales Representatives

How much time do you spend on the different parts of your job?

What have you learned from the different sales jobs you've had?

How would you break in a new territory for an employer?

How many accounts do you like to handle at one time?

When do you find silence to be useful in selling?

What are the skills needed to be successful on the telephone?

How detailed are the sales reports you prepare?

What do you feel are your personal limitations?

How do you get people to work in cooperation with you?

What makes a successful sales person?

How do you define a new customer's needs and expectations?

What kind of problems do you have to solve as a salesperson?

How do you get a reading of people upon first meeting them?

How do you approach understanding your customer's needs?

How do you establish rapport with a stranger on the telephone?

What do you consider the most crucial part of your job?

What kind of rewards are most satisfying to you?

Explain your role as a team member of a sales force.

How do you deal with disagreements with others?

How do you organise yourself for daily activities?

What kind of people do you like to sell to?

How do you turn a buyer into a regular customer?

Why do people buy a product or service from you?

Describe the best and worst manager you've ever had.

How do you deal with angry and upset customers?

What is your sales target and how is it established?

How much time do you spend developing new business?

How do you target new accounts for prospecting?

How do you acquire new sales leads?

Who are your major competitors and why?

What business trends do you see developing in the market?

As soon as I know that this is a DNC number, I will apologize at once to the customer for the error and assure them that their number will be immediately included in our internal DNC list. I will also make a note in the CRM application so even if the system error happens again the next agent won't be forced to deal with an escalated problem. I will also report the problem to my team leader or manager as soon as I hang up.

To make telemarketing more efficient every call should be planned with an objective in mind. The opening statements made by the telecaller should be made interesting to grab interest. It is the contribution of each tele caller that makes telemarketing successful and thus each tele caller should be motivated enough to make a deal and be clear with his objective. The objection for tele callers in the sector are easy to crack and thus a response to each should be prepared in advance to cross the hurdle and make sale.

In the telemarketing industry it is critical that you know how to use your voice and choose your words to project a positive image while placing or taking a call. Factors that impact image over the telephone are:

Vocal quality

Vocal tone

Rate of speech

Pitch of the tone

Attitude

Body language

Use of appropriate words

Many times the customer on the end line objects to be put on hold as he fears to be kept long on hold, in such situations following tips can be helpful :

1. Request the customer that it is important that he is put on hold. Make sure this is conveyed in a very polite way.

2. Clear out the objective due to which the line needs to be put on hold.

3. If the customer is very persistent on being on line as a co employee to retrieve the information that requires you to put the line on hold. During this be on line and keep the customer attended.

4. You can also ask the customer to disconnect the line for now and that you will give him a call back.

For survival in the telemarketing industry it is extremely essential that one possesses or acquires

the ability to effectively listen and comprehend. Some of the effective listening strategies are as follows:

► Understanding yourself

► Being yourself

► Never losing the personal touch

► Your attitude

► Be willing to listen

► Setting personal goals

► Being motivated

► Listening actively

► Paying attention

► Asking questions

► Sending appropriate feedback

The following techniques help you build the trust of the customer on the other end of the

telephone.

► Speak confidently

► Take control of the situation

► Show genuine interest

► Go above and beyond the call of duty

I have always met or exceeded my professional sales goals, and most often my personal ones too, especially in the last few years. I think with experience, I have learned to set my personal goals at an attainable level, very high, but not unreachable.

If you are new to telesales you will probably be asked this; they wish to see that you understand the different roles. The main objective of telesales is to close a deal following every call; it is to sell a product or service. Telemarketing is more concerned with raising brand awareness and carrying out market research.

According to me customers should be the priority, if they do not buy we can not sell and thus they should be the foremost priority. The whole marketing sector runs due to end consumer so it should be our responsibility to make sure we have our customers satisfied and deliver what they expect from us. This can be only achieved if every individual from a telecaller to the ceo takes up the responsibility of delivering to the customer and works on their part the right way. If this little bit is done then telemarketing can be made more effective, easy and set to the right perspective.

Following are the characteristics that distinguish direct marketing :

1. The customers are pre targeted.

2. Customers are addressed directly.

3. The response of direct marketing is scalable.

4. The whole process is action driven.

5. Independent of business size.

Telemarketing is termed deceptive when misleading information of product is conveyed to attract customers. Deceptive telemarketing can be avoided by taking the following measures :

1. No telemarketer should represent a product with false or misleading information.

2. Lottery, chance and skill based offers should not be offered where :

► Delivery of prize is conditional and is not conveyed at beggining.

► Information about the prize is incorrect.

3. Offering products at no cost or less price when based on terms and conditions not specified before purchase should not be carried out.

4. Selling products at a very high rate.

When making a call to a customer the call should be directed in the following way.

1. Greet customer politely.

2. Identify yourself to the customer.

3. Make clear the objective of the call

Who you are calling for?

What you are calling for?

4. Give complete information of the product or business you are promoting.

5. Make the customer understand how the objective of the call can be beneficial for him/her.

6. Close in the call with a warm end note.

Marketing can be broadly classified into two categories :

1. B2B - business to business

2. B2C - business to customer

The categories can be further classified into four categories based on the process carried out which are :

Generating lead - Process of identifying a potential customer to make sale.

Sales - Selling out products

Outbound - Calls are made to the customers.

Inbound - Calls are received from the customer.

This very ambitious question is designed to test the candidate. If you have a history in sales you may well have some good ideas, so share these and say that you will be able to see how your experience and knowledge can be used to enhance processes when you start in the role. If you have no experience, say that your enthusiasm and desire to learn from a great team will help the team to become more effective.