Sales and Average Order Value Increases of 15%
West Marine operated an inbound sales center in St Petersburg, Florida. This included about 100 sales people who took sales calls and provided service for existing customers. Customers would inquire about everything from a spinning rod to an inflatable boat to a complete navigation system. Sales people were supposed to sell, but most did classic “order taking” only. They did very little to influence the sale or even participate proactively in the dialogue. West Marine wanted to increase both its Sales Per Hour and Average Order Value.
Unique Challenge
The biggest challenge at the start of the initiative was the generally low expectations of sales performance. Although the leadership team had some veteran Supervisors, many sales people were regularly missing sales targets.
Training Provided by Call Center Training Solutions
The great opportunity was to more effectively connect with the caller. Many of these sales people were boaters, themselves. CCTS believed it would be easy to coach and encourage the reps to become more active on calls. The focus of the training would be for the reps to get to know the customers, why they boated, what they needed (beyond their initial inquiry) and then present a cross-sell product. In addition, the training would hit hard on call fundamentals, making every call great so customers would be happy they called West Marine.
- Training’s Big Idea: Talk “boating.” Think about the obvious products of interest and suggest one.
- CCTS built a fully-customized version of its Telephone Sales Mastery Inbound program.
- CCTS trained all the reps with its own instructor team.
- CCTS also delivered Call Center Floor Management for all front line staff.
- A Power Hour was implemented by senior leadership (Power Hour video).
- There was a lot of excitement about the training and the agents responded very well.
- Many agents had immediate success, both in cross-selling and closing more business.
End Result
Through a four-month training initiative, the center increased Sales Per Hour by 15% and it increased its Average Order Value by 15%, resulting in a significant increase in revenue to the organization, plus happier, more well-equipped customers. The training proved that the sales people were much more capable than they realized. As a result of the floor-coaching hour, results were sustained long-term.