The Solution:
Listen, Coach & Automate
The above diagram illustrates One System™. A selection of systems connected and integrated via a standard business network.
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 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.
Most modern telephone systems offer significant functionality, however, no matter how intelligent the telephone system is it is the people using it that counts.
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 for example can run into thousands of pounds, not only in agency costs but also in the time spent interviewing and training new staff with no guarantee for future success.
Creating your own golden goose is always desirable but rarely achievable. However, 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.
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 into 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%!
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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.
Statistics
Voice Recording and Evaluation Software - 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.
What next?
To find out how this structure can transform your business, contact Clearvoice Consulting on 087000 53081 for more information.
If you have any technology queries at all, why post them via our weblog, simply click
here.
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