Each day a telephone salesperson must have a game plan for the day. It’s not enough to walk in the door, put your stuff away, grab a cup of coffee, switch on your computer, put your headset on, and make the first dial. The first key is to plan each and every call... no exceptions. This is the most important step in the telephone sales process.

• Why are you calling this person?
• Is it to book an appointment?
• Is it to confirm the information was received and reviewed?
• Are you making a presentation on the call?
• If so, what type of presentation is it, what is it for, what are you selling, will the close happen on the call?
• What’s the goal for the call?

Ask yourself what you want to see happen before the end of the call. Let me give you a warning, however. When you ask this question, you want to be optimistic but also realistic. We want to be positive and forward thinking but not delusional. To expect the prospect to sign a listing contract or exclusive buyer representation agreement on the first call is delusional. To expect to peak interest, secure the information of the decision makers, receive permission to send information, qualify their needs, and book an appointment to make a sales presentation to all of the decision makers next week is optimistic.

There should be a primary objective for each call that you make to a prospect. That primary objective needs to be tangible. A tangible objective would be to book an appointment, create a lead with full contact information, or ask all of your qualifying questions to a prospect.

You should also have a secondary objective to fall back on. Don’t hang up the phone without getting at least the secondary objective accomplished if possible. A secondary objective would be sending out information to a prospect who truly wants it and has committed to reviewing it and booking a follow up call. There are numerous possible secondary objectives based on where you are in the sales process with the prospect.

The second key is thoroughly planning out the words you will use. You have done the first step of identifying your objective, you should now be able to select the best scripts to use to accomplish that objective. You will want to select an opening statement, some bridging statements, a series of questions to determine their needs, and objection handling scripts.

Professional athletic teams practice for hours before each game. The have a series of pre-determined plays to run in certain situations in the game. As a professional salesperson, you are really no different. I would suggest that you practice the scripts you will be using for the day before your first call. I realize you can’t practice them all, but you can at least warm up for your day of calling.The third key is to establish your call length in advance. Set a goal for how long the call will last. It doesn’t mean, however, that you need to be abrupt or rigid on your calls with a prospect. There is a value in personal connection, rapport, and some chit chat on calls. Having too much chit chat or small talk, though, can waste your time and the prospect’s time. There will be prospects who want zero chit chat. Being effective at telephone sales is really about establishing a routine that creates repeatable, tangible, and trackable results.

It’s almost as if you are in high school chemistry again, and you are trying to establish the control group of numbers that you can count on. When you make adjustments to your calls, you can tell whether performance improves because of the changes you undertake. The length of the call is part of that process.

In some cases, the longer you are on the call, the worse it gets. For most salespeople, brevity is something to aspire to achieve. You should know how long a typical lead follow-up call, presentation, appointment booking call, or service after the sale call takes. All of these calls have typical lengths. When you exceed the planned call length, then you have to evaluate and ask yourself if you stayed focused on the primary objective or it you switched to your secondary objective. If more time invested on this call will not raise the probability of achieving your primary objective, my advice is to go to plan B (your secondary objective) and rebook for a couple of days later.