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Customer Magazine - April 2008: Do you need more staff to increase turnover or is there an alternative?
Given the right circumstances, most companies would relish the opportunity to increase their sales to such an extent that they only needed to concentrate on the administration.
Even with the best will in the world forecasting sales is not a science, it’s more like science fiction and is more likely to cause stress through incorrect or misleading data than any other aspect of business.
Unlike other areas of your business, sales can be the least quantifiable as invariably, the act of selling happens away from the manager who needs to monitor the activity and performance. Yet from new business sales all else flows.
The raw material required in the production of sales is your staff and they need to be quality managed and monitored just as much, if not more so, then your product or service if you are to achieve the level of sales you desire.
The first part of the process is the telephone call. Whether your telesales team sells products direct or if they make appointments for field sales executives to sell face-to-face, the telephone is the single most important tool that your team has to use, yet it is the least managed and monitored. This is because, for the most part, you can only hear one side of the conversation.
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Sales on the other hand can have an off day – or two! Poor sales performance is often attributed to a downturn in the market or to ‘the customer’s simply not buying at the moment’ or to a host of other well-worn excuses.
The solution: listen, coach and automate.
Technology continues to play an enormous role in the development of businesses however to succeed in this arena a director needs to have a creative awareness of what is achievable with the technology available in order to instruct an IT department or supplier.
By combining the functionality of commonly used systems it is possible to create a structure that can assist in accurately forecasting and maintaining your team’s performance like never before. Identifying where a sales person is having difficulty with their delivery or close can also become far easier and quicker. This is the only strategy that can guarantee consistency without stripping away valuable management time.
The objective is to focus on the end result, i.e. the sale, and work back from there.
Components Required
Some of the components required you may already have, but here’s the complete list:
- Telephone System
Computer Telephony Integration- Voice Recording & Evaluation Software
- CRM Software
- Automated Dialling Software
- Contact Centre Management Software
Most modern telephone systems offer significant functionality, however, no matter how intelligent the telephone system is, it is the people using it that count.
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The cost of running a business is illustrated on the profit and loss account. It is the responsibility of a director to manage the costs, not simply to keep them to a minimum, but ensuring the business gets value from money. Recruitment can run into thousands of pounds, not only in agency costs but also in the time spent interviewing and training new staff.
Creating your own golden goose is always desirable but rarely achievable. This structured solution can ensure consistency in output, consistency in training and instant identification of existing or potential problems that can be rectified quickly through coaching.
Telephone System
Every business has a telephone system, however to ensure connectivity to other products the telephone system needs to have the facility for computer telephony integration. If your telephone system does not have this at present, it may be upgradeable.
Voice Recording
Some businesses use voice recording for dispute resolution so that if and when disputes occur businesses can resolve them quickly and effectively. This is a typical scenario within the financial services industry.
Call centres are also high users of voice recording; you may well have heard adverts that say “calls may be recorded for quality and training purposes”.
However for typical sales companies with say five plus sales executives, voice recording is not normally considered as it is thought of a being too expensive. Fortunately the cost of this equipment has reduced dramatically over the past few years and in some cases is as little as £200 per user.
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CRM Software
Nowadays most sales departments operate using a database in one form or another, from simple Microsoft Access databases through to off-the-shelf products like ACT!, Goldmine and Microsoft CRM. Once implemented these software packages can provide a sales team with all the sales tools necessary - as long as the customisation matches the business process. this is key.
By integrating a database with voice recording, it is possible to insert every conversation with every customer in the respective customer's history. This enhances your level of customer service by all staff being aware of previous conversations.
Automated Dialling
In conjunction with a customer database automated dialling software uses the common data, i.e. the company name and telephone number in order to produce a call list. The dialling software maps the call against the original database record simplifying the activity for the sales team and massively increasing productivity by as much as 100%!
Inbound Contact Solutions
With an increase in outbound activity it stands to reason that eventually the number of inbound communications received from your customers will also increase.
With so many options available to your customers to contact you it is essential to structure all inbound activity in the same way.
Typically a business will receive communication in the following forms - telephone, e-mail, Web Chat, fax or SMS text messaging. It is possible to manage and distribute the flow of inbound communication to identified staff to maintain a high degree of customer service, customer response and most importantly, customer retention.
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Statistics
Voice Recording and Evaluation Software - Maximising return on investment in productivity & staff training 100%+
Source: www.etalk.com
Integrated CRM Databases - Increase in productivity 41%+ - Return on Investment 16% - 1000%
Source: www.searchcrm.techtarget.com
Automated Dialling - Increase from 20 minutes to 45 minutes talk time per hour 100%
Source: www.nms-adaptive.com
Contact Centre Software - Return on Investment up to 300%
Source: www.nucleusresearch.com
The above statistical claims are made by manufacturers when their products are used in isolation; the overall increase in productivity will be significantly higher if they are used together. This may help to justify an investigation into the feasibility of such a structure for your business.
Conclusion
Before you take the plunge and employ more people to increase your sales take a moment to consider what technology can bring to your business; it is one-off cost, it rarely goes sick, it never needs a holiday and it won’t want a pension.
This technology takes the guess work out of forecasting and enables you to plan your future in the knowledge that the targets are achievable based upon tangible management information.
For more information, you can begin by asking your telephone system supplier or IT provider.
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