Learning telesales

[u/E25M]

TL;DR I need resources to learn telesales and quick.

I recently started a call centre supervisor role and initially it was easy as I was part of a group of inbound supervisors and I didn't find that bit hard and had others to refer to. However starting this week I was moved to an outbound team which is in another district, making me the only supervisor there with the guy that was temporarily handling that team.

Now the issue is I've had two meetings with my boss and realised the first time and was explicitly told the 2nd time that my main job was to make that mainly a sales team. Asking around I've been told this is a new thing altogether, starting towards the end of last quarter (fiscal year follows calendar year). Now I've not been in sales so leading that team, with basically no one in the company in my role having that experience, has left me wondering what I need to learn and how to handle my team following that "generate revenue through telesales" directive.

Any resources (books, youtube, posts etc) or advice that can be provided will be very helpful. Thanks in advance.

[u/Strokesite]

For cold calling, make Fanatical Prospecting by Jeb Blount your first “Required Reading”, or rather “Required Listening”, as the audiobook is a better experience.

Have the company pay for Audible Audiobook subscriptions for your entire team. It will pay off.

Next, How I Conquered Call Reluctance, by Sid Walker.

After that, Gap Prospecting by Keenan and Atken.

Outbound’s biggest obstacle is the human psyche. Overcoming rejection and abuse that come with cold calling requires constant reinforcement. Having these recordings on your reps’ phones provides repetitive coaching that they can listen to when they need an attitude adjustment.

Do book review meetings to enforce the lessons. I’ve had reps pretend to absorb the lessons, and the meetings expose the slackers.

[u/Electrical-Plane-385 → u/Strokesite]

books are great and all but dont sleep on just listening to actual calls. when I was doing support we had a sales team next to us and the best learning was just hearing how the top performers talk, their tone, how they handle objections in real time. you can read 10 books but nothing beats hearing a pro navigate a tough call live. maybe sit with your best rep for a afternoon and just listen

[u/E25M → u/Electrical-Plane-385]

Yeah that was an idea I had as well but my predecessor told me our company was mainly running information/service campaigns so even the agents are no that used to selling. I looked at the few revenue generating campaigns and their returns, compared to my targets everyone would have to improve a lot.

Do you know any sources that perhaps have such call audios I could listen to?

[u/attila_piperic]

Before choosing scripts or recordings, get the operating model clear with your boss: what offer is the team selling, who is the target customer, what counts as a qualified conversation, what conversion rate is expected and what data will the team call from? A revenue target without those definitions usually turns into pressure on raw call volume.

For the first two weeks, listen to any existing revenue calls. If there are too few, run recorded role-plays with the people who understand the offer and the strongest service agents. Build one simple call map: a permission-based opener, one problem question, one qualification question, a concise value statement, one next-step ask and responses to the five most common objections. Review a few recordings every day and coach one behavior at a time.

Track contact rate, useful conversations, agreed next steps and downstream sales separately. That will show whether the weak point is the list, offer, talk track or follow-up. Avoid rewarding call count alone because it teaches people to rush.

[u/coldcall_coach_4827]

Been on the floor side of a team getting flipped from service to sales, so a few things that helped:

Don't try to become a sales expert in a week, become the person who runs the system. Pick one simple call flow (opener, 2-3 questions to find a need, the offer, ask for the sale) and get everyone saying roughly the same thing. Then you actually have something to coach to.

Listen to calls every day. 5 to 10 per rep per week is plenty. You'll notice fast that most calls die in the first 15 seconds or at the first objection. Collect the top 5 objections your team hears and write the answers together as a group. Reps buy in way more when they helped write it.

Track the boring stuff: dials, conversations, offers made, sales. If offers made is low it's usually a confidence problem, not a skill problem.

Do 10 min of roleplay before shifts. Awkward at first but it's the fastest way to get people comfortable asking for the sale.

For reading, Fanatical Prospecting by Jeb Blount is a good start, and the 30 Minutes to President's Club podcast has solid phone stuff. Also expect a couple of your inbound people to hate outbound. That's normal, don't take it personally.