Management, Human Resources, and Life in a Customer Focused World » Sales http://www.mesritz.us/blog Musings by Philippe Mesritz Fri, 30 Apr 2010 03:17:28 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 en hourly 1 Salaries and Skills, Sales and Service http://www.mesritz.us/blog/2009/02/salaries-and-skills-sales-and-service/ http://www.mesritz.us/blog/2009/02/salaries-and-skills-sales-and-service/#comments Sat, 21 Feb 2009 01:40:14 +0000 pmesritz http://www.mesritz.us/blog/?p=101 Historically speaking, call centers have all too often been split — you’re either a selling agent or you’re a service agent. These two hiring profiles were polar opposites and even when sitting together in the same area they held themselves apart by force of personality and title separation. This was the paradigm that most call centers and companies using a contact center were stuck in. Although this is still often the case, there are more and more situations where it is not. The major shift is that more and more centers are being profit centers rather than cost centers. In this sense, the center must look to where they can successfully increase revenue or decrease costs. Generally, this means looking at how to up-sell products to a customer or use affinity sales to branch the customer calling up for a mop into also buying a bucket from your company.

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:

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.

]]> http://www.mesritz.us/blog/2009/02/salaries-and-skills-sales-and-service/feed/ 0 Customer Service Centers & Sales http://www.mesritz.us/blog/2009/02/customer-service-centers-sales/ http://www.mesritz.us/blog/2009/02/customer-service-centers-sales/#comments Sat, 14 Feb 2009 01:15:00 +0000 pmesritz http://www.mesritz.us/blog/?p=27 There is a topic that is always a challenge at a so called “customer service center”.  These call centers or service centers perceive themselves as answering customer questions and giving the customer information about their account.  They perceive themselves as separate from the revenue, separate from the sales, and separate from the success or failure of the company in many cases.  Their focal point is whether the customer is happy and whether the customer safisfaction scores that they are rated on are high. Although there is nothing theoretically wrong with this, this viewpoint fails in today’s market and opportunity.  To me, it even fails in today’s perception of customer service.  The topic that is a great challenge is that of “sales” (cover mouth, gasp slightly).  Oh no. The word sales!  I’m not an expert in sales, but I know how to convert service people into basic sales people. Going past that, you’ll need to talk to people like Rick (I haven’t used his services, but some day hope to be in a position that I’ll need to).

Reactions that I’ve had in organizations where I’ve helped implement sales environments into a customer service center range the entire length of the spectrum from “Cool! I can now work towards commissions or helping the company” to “I was hired on to do customer service and will never ever sell something.  You can’t make me.”  Really?

Imagine the following summarized conversation between Service Center (SC) and Customer X (X):

X: Hey, I’m calling in because my product isn’t working. It’s serial number 1234.

SC: Great! Let me find you a local repair center. That serial number is definitely under warranty and will be for a while longer.

X: Thanks for your help.

3 months later

X: Hey, about 3 months ago, my product failed and I had to have it repaired. It looks like it is doing it again. My serial number is 1234.

SC: I’m sorry, sir. Your product is no longer under warranty.

X: What?! That sucks. I wish you had an extended warranty.

SC: We do, sir, but you would have had to purchase this before your product was out of warranty.

X: ….

The Service Center has now failed in their charter to offer the customer the best service that they can.  Most self-coined “customer service agents”, however, don’t realize that.  They perceive talking to the customer about anything that could be a sale to be a negative because it is “sales” related.

The same conversation should have gone more along the lines of:

X: Hey, I’m calling in because my product isn’t working. It’s serial number 1234.

SC: Great! Let me find you a local repair center. That serial number is definitely under warranty, but it appears that it won’t be much longer. Did you know about our extended warranty coverage?  We would then be able to ensure that you didn’t have a lapse in your product support.

X: Thanks for your help.  I’m glad you mentioned that! Can you give me more information?

The fact of the matter is that all too often, customer service organizations completely ignore the major opportunities that they have to be able to generate revenue for their overall company.  Service centers shouldn’t need to be a 100% cost center.   Some, such as the one I am currently consulting for, would have a very hard time breaking even through revenue due to corporate or divisional policies, but there’s no reason that there can’t be some sales or some revenue being generated!

Some examples of service-oriented-sales opportunities include:

  • Extended or UltraValue Warranties
  • Accessories to physical products
  • Product upgrades (with, or without, a trade in policy)
  • Software updates
  • Software or hardware enhancements
  • Webinar training

Every business has their own opportunity, their own area that they could offer extra service to the customer and make the customer really happy by mentioning (selling) something.  It’s just a question of figuring out what that something is.

Is your group a customer service center refusing to sell? Remember, there are a lot of situations where NOT selling is more damaging to your customer service (even though the customer may not realize it).

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