If you sell-to consumers, you need a robust call center sales team. Reaching consumers is critical if you are in industries such as Travel Services (Hotels, Rental Cars, Cruises, etc.), Telecommunications, Cable/Satellite/Entertainment, Home Services like High Speed Internet, Home Security, Online Retailers, Insurance, etc. No matter what you do (online or offline) you need to convert customers continuously. You need to sell. However, building, staffing, managing and operating a call center is expensive. You need a partner who has the solutions and infrastructure in place. I am not saying you should not have "any" call center, but it helps to have an outside partner who To do this, it really helps to have cost effective, high conversion solution. This is why a "sales driven" call center is very important.
As the founder of a call center outsourcing provider with over 28 years in building, staffing and operating sales call centers targeting consumers (both inbound calls and outbound calling), I always keep things simple by focusing on the following:
Hire Right. If you hire the wrong call center representatives any sales project will fail right after launch. You need to clearly define the "x" of each call, and what is considered a successful "sale," and then design the right profile of sales rep to hire. So many companies miss this and wonder why they are struggling in the first four (4) weeks. Hiring is critical.
Train Right. Train, Train, and Train some more. I cannot emphasize this enough. Conduct formal (meaning classroom) sales and product/service training. Also do not forget systems and process training. Then, conduct daily "on the spot" training either by your trainers, or via your supervisors, or both. Conduct weekly coaching sessions, listening to calls great calls and problem calls. Train, Train, Train!
Incentify Right. One of the first questions any great sales person will ask (at some point in the interview process) is "tell me about your incentive or commission plan?" You want candidates who ask this, who want this. It is important. Why? Because it ties spending to performance. You need a budget for this. People are motivated by how much additional pay they can earn. This needs to be clear, and needs to be a true motivator. And, it must be reasonable, and achievable to drive the right behaviors.
Measure Right. Capture and review (hourly, daily, and weekly) the right metrics. Data is critical. There are many tools on the market to help you capture and analyze data related to a managing a sales campaign. Invest in these tools. Most of them are SaaS-based (Cloud) tools that are very easy to use. In addition, in 2018 there are some very good Artificial Intelligence (A.i.) tools which can monitor calls, transcribe to text, and help you analyze key words and phrases. I am happy to share the ones which work best. Simply call me and let's discuss!
Manage Right. Lastly, manage, manage, manage. Your supervisor should be monitoring live calls, and coaching on the spot. They should be helping every agent on their team to close as many calls as they can. This is their job, and they should be incentified to do so. They need to real-time data on demand. This is critical to managing any program. Lastly, keep your teams small. Each supervisor should not have more than ten agents they manage daily.
These five points will work. Yes, I realize they are a bit high level, but if you have a call center sales team, you need to focus on these. Become an expert at all five of these critical skill sets within your own "culture" and business and your will increase your sales. Finally, contact me. I am happy to share my experience, in much more detail, about these five points, or any other ways I can add value for you and your team.
Steve Shefveland, Founder
Emerging Global Services, LLC
602-312-8900 / steve@emergingglobal.com
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