subject: Sales Strategies For Call Centre Agents [print this page] The days where everyone in an organization had their one clearly defined role are over. Increasingly, every member of an organization, from the chief executive officer to the call centre agent must have the sales training to "sell" an organization whenever opportunities arise. Sales strategy is no longer the sole domain of the traditional sales team.
Successful call centres know this and provide training on sales strategy for every agent who interacts with a client, even in situations that might not have been traditionally considered to be sales opportunities, e.g., complaint calls. Any opportunity to solidify the relationship with the customer can be considered a long-term sales opportunity.
Sales strategy tip #1: Make sure that staff can track service history, so that callers don't have to repeat themselves to different members of your team. Making it easier for your clients to like you is always a good sales strategy!
Sales strategy tip #2: Make sure your email response times are as fast as your telephone response times.
Sales strategy tip # 3: Train your call centre agents in how to write follow-up emails. These are a too-often forgotten aspect of call centre customer interactions. The emails your call centre agents write will reflect on the quality of your business as a whole.
Sales strategy tip #4: Slow and steady wins the race. Wouldn't you as a caller prefer to have your problem resolved with the help of one person, even if it takes a few seconds longer? Teach your call centre agents the important of establishing a human relationship with every caller.
Sales strategy tip #5: Test your call centre. Survey customers. Seek feedback on your performance. Let your customers know that their opinion matters. This will help improve your performance and develop your customer relationships. Customers like to hear that you are interested in their opinion.
Sales strategy tip #6: Teach your agents the critical importance of the tone of their voice. Do they sound too neutral? That can actually be perceived as a negative. Like actors, call centre agents must be able to modulate their voices.
Sales strategy tip #7: Give your agents lessons on word choice.
Sales strategy tip #8: Teach your call centre agents how to close a sale.
Not all call centre agents will have the skills to successfully implement these sales strategy tips every single time. But that's ok. Call centres should focus instead on building teams with the general capacity to handle different kinds of sales opportunities. And in general, one of the best sales strategy tips is to hire the right kind of people for the job in the first place: people who are confident, enterprising, and able to quickly create an atmosphere of trust.
And once you've made your choice of call centre agents, it can be in your interest to grant them some flexibility, for example, to abandon an "up sell" script if reading it seems to be irritating the client and threatening the relationship. Building a team you trust and letting them do their thing may be the best sales strategy yet!
