Tips for Making Telephone Sales Calls for Your Cleaning Business

Selling cleaning services by making phone calls can be tough, and many people may not be cut out for it. But if this is an avenue you want to pursue for marketing your business, here are some tips that will help you become more successful:

• Sales calls are all about numbers. The more calls you make, the more appointments you'll get. However you'll hear a lot of No's before you get any Yes's, so don't take it personally and don't get discouraged.

• If it takes you 25 calls to get one appointment, then you can use that to plan your days for making appointments. As you get more comfortable with telephone sales calls, your number should get better - maybe you can get that down to one appointment for every 15 calls.

• Do you dread making introductory calls? If so, then your fear or apprehension is probably evident in your voice as you make your calls. This doesn't help your situation, as the caller will be less receptive to you. To help alleviate this, try visualization. Before making the calls, or even the night before you're going to make calls, visualize yourself making the calls, feeling happy and relaxed. The prospect is pleasant on the phone and receptive to your request for a meeting. This exercise can give you more confidence and put you in a better frame of mind.

• Get rid of negative self-talk. Do you say to yourself things like:

        1. People are rude - they hang up before I get a chance to get my message across.

        2. What's the point? Everyone always says no.

        3. I won't get through to the decision-maker so why bother?

Replace this negative self-talk with:

1. Yes, some people might be rude, but not everyone is, and I'm going to talk to pleasant people today.
2. Not everyone says no; eventually I'll get a YES!
3. The decision-maker is not untouchable - some of them do take my calls.

Start putting yourself in the right frame of mind, think positively, and visualize your success. Before you know it your skills will improve and you'll find it much easier to make sales calls over the phone!