Cold calling via telephone. It almost sounds old-fashioned when you look at the technological developments of recent years. But telephone acquisition is far from passé and is actually an excellent start to attract prospects into your sales funnel. But don't call too early, because telephone acquisition is a profession in itself and not just a piece of cake. As a sales professional, you have to convince the prospect of your product or service within a very short time. In fact, first try to avoid putting the handset down immediately. Because no matter how smoothly you chat, sometimes a telephone conversation doesn't go entirely according to plan and before you know it you make a terrible blunder. To prevent such a blunder, we have listed 5 blunders during a telephone acquisition. If you have any questions about this, please call us.

1. Delay and don't call

Just organizing your desk, getting an extra cup of coffee, going to the toilet, checking your emails, looking at your smartphone, chatting with colleagues: all procrastination to avoid picking up the phone and calling the next number on your prospect list. . This sounds obvious, but procrastination is more common than you think. Often you don't even notice it. Therefore, set a target of how many prospects you want to reach, enter the numbers and call! As they say in English: It's a numbers game. And you're complicating your game by not calling!

2. Forgot to introduce

Your story is correct, the prospect sounds enthusiastic, but suddenly the question arises: “Who am I actually talking to?” A painful moment. In all the haste of the many outgoing telephone calls, you have forgotten to introduce yourself, the distinguishing feature of telephone acquisition! Because even though every prospect can nowadays look up information online or buy products/services, what is lacking is personal attention. Of telephone acquisition you respond to this and can answer all questions and objections directly from person to person.

3. Calling at the wrong time

After a long day at work you come home to enjoy your delicious dinner. But suddenly you get a call from person X. Asking if you have 5 minutes to hear how great product X is. Annoying, right? Correct. Therefore, consider at what times you would not like to be disturbed, for example late at night, and take this into account. Do you work at an international company? Make no mistake about the time and first check in which time zone the prospect is located. It is very embarrassing if you call a prospect out of bed, there is little chance that you will transform him or her into a lead.

4. Food or drink

A telephone picks up all sounds from its environment, including the smacking sound of someone who is chewing gum a little too enthusiastically. Very irritating for the prospect and also very unprofessional. Therefore, just take some time to have a quiet lunch and do not have lunch during a telephone conversation. And if you have to drink during a long telephone conversation, don't guzzle!

5. The price

A common mistake is to quote the price too quickly. Instead of charging the great low costs for your great product, it is first important to find out all the needs of the prospect. Then you try to understand the objections, finally this one to bend with the benefits that your product or service can offer. Only then start talking about the possible costs, otherwise you will scare the prospect off far too quickly.

Have you ever made a blunder during telephone acquisition? Or do you want to get started with telephone acquisition? Then take a look at our telephone acquisition training.