|
Answer from our Guest Expert Lillyvette MontalvoPAGE 2Do Your HomeworkBefore making any of your calls, be certain you know your industry well. You mention you don't want to come across as someone who's a french fry short of a full-meal deal, so make sure you know what you're talking about. Remember people will ask you questions, so research and learn all of the basics before you even pick up the phone. Don't worry; people don't expect you to know everything. If you don't know an answer to a question, be honest. Let the prospective clients know you don't know the answer; that they've asked a good question; and if they'd like, you'll get back to them with the correct answer. Hearing you admit that you don't know a particular answer makes them feel you're honest and they'll be more at ease. Most people can sense if you're making up responses as you go along, thus using their lack of knowledge against them. If you do this, it will come back and bite you at some point. So, do your homework and be a straight talker. Mirror, Mirror on the WallNow, don't laugh, but how about practicing your schpiel in front of a Mirror? Believe it or not, this really works! Practice your calls while looking into the Mirror. Notice your expressions as you speak. As strange as this may sound, it's important to know how you look when speaking to others on the phone, especially people you don't know. Even though people can't see your expressions over the phone, many times, they can sense them. They can hear them, so to speak. For example, have a smile on your face as you greet the caller. That smile will come across loud and clear! After that, go looking down the hall... continued
Small Business Tax Center • Idea Cafe Home • Sign Up • Biz Grant Center • CyberSchmooz •Coffee Talk with Experts • People in Biz Profiles • Starting Your Biz • Biz Planning • Running Your Biz • FREE Trade Publications • Marketing • Financing Your Biz • Human Resources • Legal & Biz Forms • Managing Your Biz • eCommerce • You and Your Biz • Gen X • Work@Home • The Fridge • De-Stress • Send an Award • Send an eGreeting • Yoga @ Your Desk • Web Guide • Idea Cafe in the News • About Idea Cafe • Advertise on Idea Cafe • Contact Us • Privacy Policy • Site Map • Small Biz News Copyright 1995-2024, Idea Cafe Inc. Downloads are for personal use only, not for resale to others, and may not be reprinted in any form without written permission from Idea Cafe Inc. DISCLAIMER: We hope whatever you find on this site is helpful, but be cautioned that it may not apply to your own situation, or be totally current at any given time. Idea Cafe Inc. and all of its current and past experts, sponsors, advertisers, agents, contractors and advisors disclaim all warranties with regard to anything found anywhere on this family of websites, quoted from, or sent from Idea Cafe. and its related sites, publications and companies. We also take no responsibility for comments published by others on these pages. TRADEMARKS: The following are Registered Trademarks or Servicemarks of DevStart, Inc.: Idea Cafe®, Online Coffee Break®, The Small Business Gathering Place®, Take out Info®, Biz Bar & Grill®, Complaint-O-Meter®, A Fun Approach to Serious Business, CyberSchmooz, and BizCafe.
|
Coffee Talk with Experts Each week we pluck reader questions from CyberSchmooz and ask our savvy biz experts to give you their ideas -- compliments of the house! Got biz questions of your own brewing? Go post 'em in Idea Cafe's CyberSchmooz. You'll get peer-to-peer help from fellow entrepreneurs. And bookmark this page so you can check back here soon -- maybe our experts will single out YOUR question next! |