The center where I’m currently consulting, for example, blends this. Although there are agents who say “I was hired on to do service and I can’t (won’t) do sales”, they work side by side — and in conjunction with — those that are more sales oriented. Another organization I used to work for was the same way. In both cases, management decided to allow the agents their personal preference. If you felt you were only service, then you wouldn’t have to do sales. For those that had the personality, interest or skills in doing sales, they were given that opportunity and rewarded accordingly. New hires were expected to do both. This new change was conveyed in the interview process.

Salaries are tied into this as well. Those agents who are truly service only will, in time, lag behind. This is already evident in the differing salary ranges. Those that generate revenue for the company have a higher payscale than those that don’t. If one considers that, in general, the skills for customer service are the same as taking orders, then the diference in range is $1.01 per hour. Add outbound sales to the mix and the increase shoots up an incredible $4.33 per hour (over $9000 per year!).

I don’t forsee that this will change. The more you can offer the company in terms of revenue opportunity, the better off you are and the more valuable your skills are. If you’re just service right now, look at learning how to sell .. the sooner the better.

Some suggestions:

• Cold Calling for Women: Opening Doors & Closing Sales (Useful for men as well as women!)
• Telephone Sales For Dummies

Those are two books that some of my agents have found to be quite useful. The other that I often suggest to people because it is quite interesting is Baseline Selling: How to Become a Sales Superstar by Using What You Already Know About the Game of Baseball, but it doesn’t apply to a normal contact center environment. If you’re an account manager and can work through a longer cycle time, then it might be worth reading.

For Team/Group Managers, some of the same exact groups had the following median compensation (includes base pay and annual bonus/incentive):

• Inbound order entry – $61,400
• Inbound with selling – $65,500
• Customer service – $69,200
• Internet support – $63,700
• Collections – $69,900
• Full account management – $73,700
• Technical support – $63,100
• Outbound with selling – $71,900

Compensation levels vary from $61,400 to $73,700 — a range of $12,400.  This equates to approximately from $29.50 to $35.43 per hour, a $5.97 variance.

The areas that I expected to be the highest (outbound with selling) wasn’t — the agents have a much large difference between the highest non-selling and that level (over $3 per hour) but the team/group manager was highest at the Account Management level.  After considering this, it makes sense — full account management requires a much greater level of quality management and focus on standardized processes.  A customer that has assigned account managers will expect greater service and, in turn, a company needs to pay for it at the manager level.

The amount that a call center agent is paid makes a big difference to them and to the company’s success. In general, the median total cash compensation varies about $3 dollars depending on job role until you start to include the selling aspect of things. Many people don’t enjoy sales and aren’t good at it, so cash incentives are used to defray this. Median total cash compensation includes base pay and annual bonus/incentive.

Here’s a select list of functions with their median compensation for an intermediate-level representative. All wages are in hourly rates.

• Inbound order entry – $13.99
• Inbound with selling – $12.69
• Customer service – $12.98
• Internet support – $12.86
• Collections – $14.09
• Full account management – $14.56
• Technical support – $14.37
• Outbound with selling – $17.31

Taking the Outbound with selling outlier out of things, the range is $12.69 – $14.56 as the median compensation for a call center agent with some experience.
For Team/Group Managers, some of the same exact groups had the following median compensation (includes base pay and annual bonus/incentive)

• Inbound order entry – $61,400
• Inbound with selling – $65,500
• Customer service – $69,200
• Internet support – $63,700
• Collections – $69,900
• Full account management – $73,700
• Technical support – $63,100
• Outbound with selling – $71,900

Compensation levels vary from $61,400 to $73,700 — a range of $12,400. This equates to approximately from $29.50 to $35.43 per hour, a $5.97 variance.
The areas that I expected to be the highest (outbound with selling) wasn’t — the agents have a much large difference between the highest non-selling and that level (over $3 per hour) but the team/group manager was highest at the Account Management level. After considering this, it makes sense — full account management requires a much greater level of quality management and focus on standardized processes. A customer that has assigned account managers will expect greater service and, in turn, a company needs to pay for it at the manager level.

One of the blogs that I read is by Penelope Trunk called the Brazen Careerist. She’s got some very interesting topics and subjects that she covers. In July of ‘08, she wrote a post called:

Figure out how much you should be paid (and three cheers for transparent salaries)

I thought it was quite interesting, specifically the transparent salaries aspect. Every company that I’ve worked for has had strict rules related to discussing salary. Person A wasn’t allowed to speak with Person B about their salary. Even ranges tend to be hidden. I’ve never really understood the logic within it.

According to Penelope, companies should simply have their salaries publicized. Everyone should know everyone’s salary. I guess I don’t see a problem with this and can see certain advantages. She brings an example of her own personal business and some of the employee’s thoughts on the concept into her blog.

For example, the person who was underpaid was not so much jubilant about a potential raise, but upset about his current underpayment. The person who’s losing the housing allowance mostly for tax purposes does not seem to mind. The person who is making way more than everyone else minds a lot that I’m planning on revealing everyone’s salaries. But honestly, I think that person will work much harder if everyone knows the truth. And it should be that way.

People who are paid more should be expected to bring more to the table — not necessarily work harder, but better, more effective, and more efficient. The concept of transparent salaries is something that, to me, is just an extension of the “pay for performance” philosophy that a lot of companies are moving towards.

It makes sense to me.