Enterprise Network for Women April Event

The Clarion Hotel at the IFSC was the venue for the April meeting of the Enterprise Network for Women.

The Clarion Hotel at the IFSC was the venue for the April meeting of the Dublin City Enterprise Network for Women.  Over forty members and guests gathered on April 12th to network, exchange ideas and learn about two very interesting businesspeople:   Mary Varilly of True Colours (www.truecolours.ie) and Eveleen Coyle of Fabulous Food Trails (www.fabulousfoodtrails.ie).
The main Guest Speaker at the event was Karen Sommerville from Call Focus (www.callfocus.ie).  With a wealth of experience in various sales roles behind her, Karen set up Call Focus in 1999 to provide training and mentoring in telesales to companies of all sizes.  
Karen told the meeting: “50% of business is carried out over the phone but the power of selling over the telephone tends to be underrated. Businesses became reactive during the economic boom, but now need to proactively pick up the phone in order to generate business.”   Karen took network members through the sales process, dealing with such topics such as:
• Preparation & Planning
• Sourcing Leads
• Outsourcing –V- In-house Sales
• CRM – Customer Relationship Management Software
• Open/Closed Questions
• Asking for the Sale

Benefits of selling over the telephone:
• Very cost effective, especially for lower value sales where face-to-face doesn’t make much    sense.
• Easy to measure results – you can ask questions and find out what’s happening.
• You can encourage in-bound call by using a LoCall or Freefone number
• It’s an easier way to keep in touch with people or just to follow up on leads.

As a general tip, Karen made parallels with the dating scene.  The person who does well is the person who shows an interest in others and does not just talk about themselves!
The Dublin City Enterprise Network for Women meets on a monthly basis. You can join the network at http://www.dceb.ie/event-calendar/networking or email the Network Manager, Pauline Logan, for more information at network@dceb.ie.

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