Call Center Training Solutions Blog

If it is time to increase your sales results, try several of the following techniques. Do not be hesitant to try some of the tougher ones. They will help you “mature” both your sales force and your floor-management.

1) Put the Stack Rankings On A White Board

This is an easy one that all centers should do. We are amazed at how many sales centers hide the sales results. They may have some team results visible, but not individual results. This is usually because they do not want to make the lower performers feel bad, having to see their 28% of quota up on a large board.

There is nothing more motivating, however, than to see yourself at the bottom of a list. It will dawn on you, “Hey, I think I’d like to be out of that bottom slot. I guess it is time to start selling.” The end result will be better performance. Read More »

In many call centers,  Sales is a dirty word.  We­ll call the agents «product specialists,­ not sales people. Telephone associates dread the idea that they are selling anything to callers. Claims are made that all callers hate to hear cross-sell attempts and these attempts  blow up in our faces, every time we try. If you ask just a few people you will hear all the reasons why selling is a bad idea.

The good news is that those comments represent only half the story. Sales centers are usually much more lively than service-only centers. Telephone associates can make more money. When revenue is positive, the call center can spend more on its employees and facilities. Best of all is that customers are more educated about ways to enhance their lives through increased use of your product line. Everyone wins. No one loses. Let­s never apologize for selling. Read More »

In most inbound sales or customer service call centers supervisors struggle with resistance. Some telephone associates resist selling because they  weren­t hired to sell. Others resist because they believe that callers will buy what they want to buy, and everything else is just  pushing products on them. Even in inbound sales centers (e.g. catalogue sales), many telephone associates will resist offering the top-end product first or cross-selling attempts.

Although this can be very frustrating for supervisors, the good news is that each supervisor has an arsenal of tools available to help break this resistance. Even better news is that most resistance to selling can be broken without damaging overall center morale. Read More »