When it comes to paying bills, some people have a million excuses (both valid and invalid) for skirting their obligations. Unfortunately, lenders constantly deal with borrowers' excuses when it comes ...
If your financial institution is interested in increasing revenue, phone and email sales are an indispensable tool for generating profit. Consider the following statistics:
- Due largely to COVID-19, 41% of financial services organizations report having increased phone conversion rates by 25% or more in the past 12 months.
- Phone calls convert to 10-15x more revenue than web leads.
- 64% of consumers would choose another financial institution after a poor call experience.
- Email marketing drives customer acquisition and retention, according to 80% of professionals.
- Email marketing has an ROI of $42 for every dollar spent.
- 60% of consumers say they’ve made a purchase as the result of a marketing email they received.
In this blog post, we’ll let you in on the five key secrets to successful phone and email sales for your financial institution.
1. Passion
If you don’t get up every day excited about what you’re doing, then how will you get your members excited? You must love what you’re talking about. The passion for what you do and what you provide comes through when you’re talking about your products and services. You must be enthusiastic about what you do and what you can provide. Without passion, you become just another solicitor.
2. Purpose
What is the specific reason for the call or email and what do you want to achieve? If you’re making the initial contact, perhaps it’s building rapport. Is this a follow-up call or email to gather more information or to review information previously sent? Clarify the purpose or reason for your call before launching into the conversation.
3. Preparation
Alexander Graham Bell once said, “Before anything else, preparation is the key to success.” It’s vital to keep your tools sharpened and prepare for each call. Don’t rely on luck or past experiences and consider research as formalized curiosity. Remember, each call is unique—at least to the individual you are calling! Some important questions you can ask yourself include:
- What am I doing to prepare?
- Do I have the information necessary for the call?
- How well do I know my products and services?
- How will they enhance my member’s financial well-being?
- What do I know or want to know about my members?
- What questions do I want to ask?
- Have I prepared answers to questions that my members may have?
- Have I prepared for their concerns/objections?
- How will I summarize the “next steps?”
4. Personality
Be yourself—you are a unique brand! Without being too scientific, basically, your personality is the combination of your behavior and characteristics. For telephone and email sales, focus on your confidence, delivery, and sense of humor:
- Confidence: Be confident in your capabilities to help your member. It’s important to have the ability to transfer your confidence to the client to build rapport and gain their trust. Don’t doubt yourself and be comfortable with sharing your views. Don’t apologize for interrupting their day with your call.
- Delivery: How do you come across on the telephone or in your email? Your tone, pace, volume, and clarity can deliver a message in a positive (or negative) manner. Practice these by recording and listening to yourself. Use gestures when you’re on the telephone; these lead to facial expressions and people hear the difference. Have an objective co-worker review your email for both grammar and spelling, and also for clarity.
- Pleasant Disposition: A smile is more powerful than a frown. Put up a picture of a friend, colleague, or favorite historian/actor. Imagine you’re talking to a person and not a disembodied voice.
5. Patience
Always be ready to listen, don’t interrupt, don’t disagree. Ensure you have the capacity to accept or tolerate what your client is asking/saying without getting upset or angry. The hardest test in life is having the patience to wait for the right moment. If you ask for the sale too soon, you may be pushy, if you wait too long, you miss the opportunity.
As with any essential skill, successfully landing phone and email sales takes practice. Don’t just read this blog post—take action. Commit to perfecting the five essentials listed above. Develop your action plan and practice. We become what we want to be by maintaining consistency. Practice means consistency, and consistency leads to success!
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