Selling Small Business Telecom? 5 Tips To Close Deals Faster

As business telecom markets become more and more competitive from large acquisitions and a new wave of substitute services, you need a sales approach that doesn’t just keep your company current, but keeps it ahead of other telecom service providers.

A key factor in gaining a competitive advantage is your ability to close business telecom deals – and close them faster than the competition.

Here are five quick tips to help your sales team not only generate and qualify leads, but close them into long-term customers:

Tip #1: Optimize Your Training Regimen

Whether you’re hiring an in-house sales team or outsourcing sales entirely, efficient training is a must for closing deals faster. Initial sales training should take no longer than one week, getting your sales representatives on the floor faster.

In contrast, if you train your new salespeople for a whole month without any on-the-phone experience, you delay your ability to close opportunities by that much longer. When new team members get on the phone faster, the more tenured members of your team also help guide them through the sales process – and maybe even help them close a deal on their first day.

After initial training is complete, institute on-going training that further optimizes and develops their specific sales skills. This way, your sales team is always ahead of both industry and technological changes.

Tip #2: Utilize Consultative Selling

Your business telecom prospects are constantly bombarded with sales calls, so it’s imperative to distinguish your team from the competition. Have your sales team refrain from sounding like typical salespeople on the phone. Rather, have them use a consultative approach to selling phone and business Internet services.

You want to give your prospects an experience over the phone that is unlike every other cold call they may receive. . Instead of merely making a pitch, have your team ask open-ended questions and co-create their ideal forward-looking solution. Then, naturally introduce how your telecom offerings coincide with the solution you’ve created together.

Tip #3: Capitalize On Competition

Telecom sales are competitive rather than ad hoc. This is because telecommunications are a built-in cost in most small-to-medium-sized business budgets. However, SMB owners know the competition is fierce and that they can easily find a better deal in the event that your services don’t meet their needs.

In order to close the deal faster, you need to understand what their current telecom provider is not doing, then solve those specific pains with your product or service. When you keep competitive advantage and product points-of-difference at the forefront of your conversation, you’ll be able to beat your competition to the close.

Tip #4: Filter Your Leads Efficiently

In order to close deals faster, your telecom sales process needs a robust lead qualification process. If a particular prospect’s answer to your cold call is “No” and is always going to be “No,” you don’t want your sales team investing time or resources on that sale.

Ask each prospect a “trial close” question early in your conversation. Questions such as, “If I can solve your issues or challenges, are you willing to consider the switch to my business telecom service?” are great at filtering out prospects who will not bite. If they say “Yes” or only have minor objections, the conversation continues, but if the answer is a resolute “No” with no possibility of a sale, then you need to end the conversation and move on.

Tip #5: Leverage List Intelligence

Closing deals faster and more efficiently requires you to work with clean, reliable data. When your contact and lead database is continually updated and managed with a strong list intelligence approach, your telecom sales team wastes less time on bad leads or duplicate data. As a result, they’re able to close deals faster as a result of higher-quality leads.

As a business telecom provider, your company needs to stay ahead of industry trends and shifts so you aren’t caught in a competitor’s crossfire. To maintain a competitive edge, use these five tips to close your business telecom deals faster and more effectively.