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Cold calling, sales calls, speaking to your existing clients/colleagues. Although (occasionally) terrifying these are all vital when it comes to the success of any business. In a work office environment you can usually muster up the strength to make a call, But when working remotely or from a home office this can have its own unique set of challenges.
So how do you make calls when working from home or working remotely? Why is it important to ensure you have a strong internet connection? And just how much prep should you do before you jump on a call? Keep reading to find out more!
(Just a heads up a lot of people reading my blog are in the process of designing their own home office. If you want to save some of the painstaking time I did in designing my office, you can find my recommended products here)
Ensure you have a strong internet connection
Hang on a second… what?
Don’t you make calls through your phone? The truth of the matter is that most work calls nowadays are made through voip style systems in order to record most calls for training and monitoring.
Now this isn’t necessarily a problem at work where you have much stronger internet connections, but at home this can get a little bit tricky and break out often.
On top of this you’re likely going to need to summarize the call on a CRM platform or note app of some kind meaning you will need to listen back to the call which will be done online as well!
So how do you make sure you have a strong internet connection?
- You can either switch broadband providers my top choice is Virgin Media’s superfast fibre optic broadband
- You can move towards a wired connection instead of a wireless connection – my best choice for an ethernet cable can be found here
- You can look at wifi boosters which help boost your signal
Speaking of Which TP-Links wifi booster isa great option to ensure you have a strong internet connection. Even if you live in a small environment having a wifi booster can ensure you have strong connections and avoid any chance of a connection dropping out. You can read more about it here.
Make sure your devices are charged
So imagine you’re in the middle of a call listening in on a crucial meeting your boss is giving you and boom… your laptop/phone dies.
It’s important, more so than anything else when working from home or working remotely, you keep your devices fully charged.
The best way to do this in my opinion is with a portable chargers.
Now with thousands of different options out there what would be a good device to choose as a portable charger. In my opinion simplicity is key and finding one device that can do everything would be incredible.
Luckily I’ve scoured the internet and found the MyCharge adapter. So this device is awesome in the sense that it allows you to plug multiple devices, laptops, phones etc all into one place. You can read more about it here.
There have been far to many sales calls that I’ve made in the past where the line cuts off so insure you invest in portable chargers!
Make sure you have a quiet area to make calls
There have been several times in my life when I’ve called someone remotely and i’ve spoken to people who were either driving or had a barking dog in the background… Trying to listen effectively has been almost impossible.
Making sure that you have a quiet spot in your house to make calls is super important. A home office ( which this blog is focused on) is an amazing option but I appreciate that might not fall under everyone’s budget.
Instead you could always focus on soundproofing an existing room with noise cancelling headphones like the ones found here.
This should hopefully mean that people should be able to hear you. One of the other things I would recommend would be a USB mic of some kind ( my favorite being the Blue Yeti) which should improve the call quality on your phone and actively allow the person on the other end to hear every word!
Understand what you are going to say before you say it
This is probably the most valuable take away from the post, and Harvard Business Review agrees with call prepping one of the most important aspects prior to any interaction.
Making sure you know what you’re going to say on the call is is vital to the success of that call.
Questions I like to ask myself before any call include
- What would be a win on this call for me
- What would bearing on this call for the other person
- What is the information I need to get off this call
- What do I need to contribute on this call
Now if you’re still interested in learning a little more about some sales calls tips when working remotely check out this blog post I wrote here.
Ask open questions
So this is great advice for making sales calls period.
One of the most effective ways to ensure you have better sales calls in to as open questions.
For those of you unfamiliar with open questions think about the w questions. Who? Where? What? When? why?
To help I’ve also made a list below:
- What would happen if you did not address this problem
- Why did you decide implement this product
- How many people are involved in the decision making process
- What could be one thing you could do to make the problem go away
These types of questions will get your prospect thinking and make them a lot easier to understand their pain points and problems.
You can then position your company and its products against that.
Anticipate any questions that will be asked
Similar to the point above, you also need to anticipate any questions the person on the other end of the phone might ask.
Objection handling is one of the most important skills you will need to master when making sales calls as it is likely your prospects will also have a few questions for you too.
For example if your on the phone to a manager and they want to know your figures for that quarter not only should you have the numbers ready but you should be prepared to answer any follow ups like:
- Why are the numbers the way they are
- What is the story behind these
- Who was involved and what did they contribute
- What do you think the numbers will be before hands
Making sure you’ve done enough prep before any call is vital trust me I’ve been in situations on calls where I haven’t done this and people are able to see right through his behaviour.
Actively listen to your prospects
You have 2 ears and 1 mouth
That is for a reason.
Just because you are on a call doesn’t mean you have to speak in order to get your point across.
Instead try to listen to what the other person is saying and what exactly it is they want from you. If you don’t know the answer it’s more than okay to say you don’t know, come back and find the information and then take things from there.
One of the ways that I love to use when actively listening is at the end of a statement circle back to the point that was initially made about just so yourself and whoever it is you are speaking to are all on the same page.
Try to recall back from memory the last sales conversation you made and note it down. The listen to the call back and highlight the difference in your recollection. It will likely show some wholes in your listening skills.
Focus on pace
One thing a lot of people don’t tell you about on sales calls is pace.
It’s such an easy thing to miss if you don’t pay attention to it and so listening back to your calls and the pace of your conversation will give you a good idea if what you are talking about is being communicated effectively.
One step that I implement to this day is to just talk about 25% slower than you usually would and you will find you get a lot more out of the conversation with your prospects.
Have an end goal in mind
Once they are a few years into their roles salespeople get very good at using their calendars and making sales through the previous relationships they have built with prospects.
They do this very effectively by simply asking things like:
- When a good time to have the conversation will be
- When the firm will be reviewing the providers they currently have?
Simply put, figure out the end of the call at the beginning and make sure you know when you will next be speaking to the prospect.
Speak confidently
Easier said than done right? Especially if you’re unfamiliar with making calls let alone making them in a home office.
I guess one of the key things to say about confidence is that it’s a learnt skill, not something that people are born with. There are tons of great books on the subject ( my favorite being Ted Talks by Chris Anderson) but I think there are a few things you can do immediately to speak confidently on the phone
- Speak slowly, this will automatically calm your mind and let you actually think about what you are saying
- Realise that the person you are speaking to is just a person, job title or not
- Once again prep before going into any call and even practice that call with a friend or a colleagues
Making calls when working from home
One of the many benefits of my role is that it allows me to work from home a few times a week. You might be thinking hang on a second Fehed, you’re probably doing some admin job that doesn’t require you to make a lot of calls.
Oh how I wish this was true!
My current role is as a sales development rep which means that i’m pretty much constantly on the phone all day speaking not only with prospects but also management and contacts.
Now according to research by Gong 20 minute calls are likely to lead to more success in my line of work then longer calls.
This means that as a minimum you need to be prepped and ready to go for 20 minutes without any distractions, be able to answer any questions the person on the other end might have and just basically have your stuff together.
Wrapping things up
So there you have it, hopefully these pointers will have helped you get better at making calls from home and even touched upon how to be more confident.
Finally a lot of people reading my blog want to know what products I recommend for a home office/remote working. You can find out my recommendations here and learn how I make money whilst working remotely on the side here.
The content on this on this site has been written by Fehed Nicass who has over a decades worth of experience in sales and has worked remotely for the past 2 years.