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I had the opportunity to hear Tammy Erickson speak about the future of the workforce (Confab Conference, 11/29/2007). Tammy is co-author of Workforce Crisis: How to Beat the Coming Shortage of Skills and Talent . In her book, Ms. Erickson and her co-authors explore the world of work and the expectations of each of four generations (Traditionalists, Boomers, Gen X, and GenY). The authors identify a seismic shift that is starting to happen in the workforce as Boomers move into semi-retirement and leadership positions are held by Xers and Yers. Tammy says Gen Yers are happy to do the work but cannot imagine taking 60 hours to do it or committing to the face-to-face posturing they see being done by elder generations. Time to rethink the jobs to be done: How do we revise and redefine our Telesales jobs to ensure that we are prepared to respond to the GenY candidates who will be looking for a blend of work and life outside of work? Fascinating stuff. We need to embrace it now in order to define jobs in the near future. Check out Tammy Erickson’s blog on Harvard Business Online.
Point-by-point comparisons of the candidate’s experience to the position you are hiring to will create more successful outcomes.
A complete understanding of the position you are filling is an essential part of the hiring process. Now, that might seem obvious but it is (or perhaps it is not) surprising how often an attractive candidate is hired and is later to be found incompatible with the job. And this after there has been the usual investment of time and energy to get the Telesales person oriented, acclimated, trained, supported. All Telesales managers can point to at least a few of these hires over the course of a hiring lifetime.
Dave Kurlan, in his blog ‘Understanding the Sales Force’, gives an ever-too-frequent example of a sales person hired with sales experience that is incompatible with the new, current position.
So, how can you stack the deck in your favor?
Start with a complete understanding of the position you are hiring. And write it down. Make sure the interview tests for comparisons to the attributes and characteristics of your job profile. Assign the components to the each stage of the interview (pre-screen, initial interview, follow-up meeting, etc.) in order to end the process with a complete comparison. And be sure to check in mid-process to ensure you are on track to compare every point. Of course, this is Telesales, you can always call the candidate to get a response to any unanswered categories if you find the interview team has not filled in every category.
Continue here to see the Telesales Position Checklist for Interviews.
Greg Brown offers some practical advice in his work.com ‘Guide to Sales Incentives’. His best advice?
Make the program simple. Easy to understand, easy to measure, easy to track. Provides the incentive to get the job done without having to get bogged down in the details.
Promote it, promote it, and then promote it some more. Leverage the program to the hilt by referring to it constantly.
Track progress publically. This ensures accuracy but, more importantly, it taps into the competitive juices of the Telesales people.
Be sure to have the rewards on hand. Make it real and make sure your reps trust the program by rewarding in a timely fashion.
In a survey of 205 b2b marketers and a review of the results of thousands of telemarketing campaign records, TeleNet Marketing found that it took an average of 7 calls to connect with C-Level prospects and that it took up to 12 calls to C-Level contacts before daily call returns started to drop off. The full survey results are presented on Marketing Sherpa, reference article 30060.
Recommendation: Tell your reps the results are in the numbers. And be sure that they are armed with targeted voicemail scripts which give the prospect a compelling reason to return the call.
There are so many moving parts to Customer Service and Telesales organizations that it is good to work with some standard checklists. www.justsell.com has a number of good ones that can be used as is or customized to an organization. Check out the Sales Evaluation. It is designed as a self-evaluation tool for sales reps but could easily be used by managers. The Customer Service Checklist is a good, basic start for a new Customer Care department.
In his book “Management by Baseball”, Jeff Angus highlights FUN as the key ingredient for Rule 14.99 (page 231). ‘Fun drives effective change. An organization that wants to drive change has a better chance if it promotes playful attitudes and ideas....’ ( Jeff Angus’ blog).
A teleselling environment is an ideal environment for introducing stress-reducing fun into the game of selling.
If you are looking for suggestions on how to add FUN to your telesales meetings and training offerings, grab a copy of The Big Book of Sales Games by Peggy Carlaw and Vasudha K. Deming.
Try Spin Vox (http://www.spinvox.com). Using your cell phone, you can ‘dial in’ a message that is converted to an email. When you return to your office or boot up your email, the message will be waiting. Simply proof, make any minor modifications needed, address it, and send it on its way.
SpinVox is currently offering free service for anyone who signs up now for its beta software (click on the ‘Get SpinVox Free’ button).
Try Dial-A-Note. Described as ‘a virtual assistant for the busy professional’, Dial-A-Note (http://www.dialanote.com) from CiviCom provides you with access to transcription support 24/7. And it claims to be 1/2 the cost of a US-based assistant and 1/5 the cost of an executive typing service.
Simply dial, dictate, and look for it to arrive in your inbox.
Ideal for the person who spends their life on the road, gets caught between meetings, or is keyboard challenged. And it leaves you time to do what you do best.
Covering topics ranging from telemarketing to customer service, prospecting to account management, this blog provides tips, techniques, and practical advice about the business of doing business by phone.