You Don't Have To Be Large Corporation To Outsource Your Customer Service

Companies spend thousands upon thousands of dollars trying to attract customers to their business. Radio, TV, Newspapers and of course the internet are the most common form of attracting customers. You build expectation of grandeur only to be greeted by a machine when the prospective customer calls your business. The most frequent greeting is "We appreciate your call. In order for us to serve you better please listen to the following options" Then we expect this potential customer to take another minute or two to listen to all the options.

Well guess what. 80 % of these first time callers to your business hang up. I find it bazaar that the most important part of that being a conversation with the customer is being discouraged. Automated phone attendants are disrespectful of peoples time. It adds a layer between you and your customer. This is where marketing and sales don't work as a team. I expect the decision to go with an automated attendant is left with accounting folks. Well guess what. The accounting department does not want the sales team in their department. The sales department should feel the same way about accountants being in their department. Humans talking with customers is a cost of sales and not an administration expense.

In short, successful companies understand the importance of human contact with their customers. These companies understand if you wanted to communicate with a machine the potential customer would email their business. That seems understandable. They also understand that when a customer phones their business they expect a human to answer the phone. Hello!

You don't have to be a big corporation to make this happen. It's rather simple actually. You out source your phones to a contact centre. Any contact centre worth their salt has the technology to answer the phone as if they are sitting inside your front door. It's a shared service that you only pay for when the call center works on you behalf. This of course after a modest base monthly fee that includes customer care services. It's all scalable. No calls get missed. Every opportunity is captured.

So how do you do the math to see if a contact center is a solution for you?

• Calculate how much it costs to obtain a new customer. This is easily calculated by the number of new clients you obtained last year divided into the total cost to capture new revenue. Advertising, Sales Staff. Sales Staff Expenses.
• Calculate how many prospects it takes to make a sale. This will bring you the cost per contact.
• Contact your phone company and ask for the total number of inbound phone calls in a particular month. Also ask them the most important question. How many abandoned calls with in 10 seconds of the auto attendant answering the call. Remember that 80 % hang up and move on when greeted by voice mail or an automated attendant.
• Take the closing ratio ( prospect converted to customer) and divide that into the number of abandoned calls. This should give you a feel for the lost opportunities.

I expect you find that the cost of the contact centre will be covered by new business generated. Add to the mix the increased customer experience of your existing customer base and watch the sales grow. Do the math. Include your contact centre as the front end of the sales team. Watch your customer satisfaction and sales numbers soar.

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Are You Pushing Business Or Pulling Business ?

Time and time again sales people have pitched me with features and benefits before they have even asked me if I have any knowledge of what they have to sell or program they propose. They just keep talking and move to a close. Two things come to my mind. That poor person just does not get it. Even worse that poor person's boss does not get it. These types of people are the types who give sales people a bad wrap. I honestly could not sleep at night having sold someone something they did not need or want.

We all have to carve a living out of life. Some of us get the chance to do what really turns us on. How good is that? For me I get to do two things that really excite me. One is being the sales leader for a contact centre. I work with companies who have some pain in their processes that I help resolve. Having been an entrepreneur most of my life I know that the biggest issue with business is growing business. More important is growing business profitably. Most successful business owners know they can't be good at all things. Basically I love helping my customers grow their business. I am also a business coach. I help my clients turn their dreams into successful businesses. I also help business owners turn their struggling companies around. This is all very rewarding to me. I am a lucky guy. For me it's not sales.

I ask that you think hard about what I have stated in the previous paragraph. I get joy in helping other people find their success. The only way I can do this is to find out what they want to achieve. I can only do this by asking questions. This is where the pulling business part kicks in. It is only through asking the questions and really listening that the solution become obvious. I should point out that it should also be obvious for your customer or client too. It is when you get to this stage you can then ask your potential customer how would it feel if this was the solution that would benefit their business. Please note that I have asked two questions here. One was the emotional part and the second being the good for your business part. I truly believe if you marry the two questions together and the answer is yes to both you have sale. The potential customer came to the determination of what they need to do. They are making the purchase. I did not sell them anything. This is what I call pulling business.

I agree that at some point of the process there has to be a features and benefits conversation. To be really successful at selling you have to be good at pulling. This is achieved by asking good and thought provoking questions. It is only after answering these questions that you can move to the benefits and successful ending. My experience is, don't rush. It pays to be patient. When your customer has made a purchasing decision it has been made for the right reasons. Have you noticed that no where in this article did I mention price? If you do not focus on the price your potential customer will not focus on the price either. Isn't it time you started pulling your way to successful selling?

Sell Like You Don't Need The Money

Selling is more than just an art. Selling is about listening. When we listen opportunities often present them selves. More importantly your potential customer knows when you are rushing to close the sale. They can sense when you need the commission. This is a terrible position to find yourself in because the transaction becomes about you and not them. Your deal is toast. When you sell like you don't need the money it becomes about the value in what you are proposing.

Why is it that some people are better sales people than others. Of course the reasons vary on this. Many books have been written on the subject and I expect many more will be written in the future. Once again there is no single solution that works for all. Companies Like Sandler, Xerox, Miller Heiman and Dale Carnegie all have succesful programs that will help you close a higher percentage of sales due to their proven sales formulas. If you have never taken a professional training session you should understand that two things are certain. You have to have a system and you have to present yourself as being credible.

I was a certified Miller Heiman sales trainer for a large corporation. It was not the full Miller program but adapted to their Conceptual Selling studies related to the Office Products Industry. I traveled the Eastern US and Canada presenting the Conceptual Selling system to the companies sales teams. What I saw in the field amazed me. So much of the training was about products and not about how to create loyalty and respect. I can tell you when it's about products the next place the customer goes is price. There is no loyalty in price, so get over that notion. Your only as good as you last quote when it's about price. Selling like you don't need the money makes it about them and helping them purchase the product adverse to you selling the product or service.

There is a sales tactic made by many sales people in the financial industry that sends me over the wall. They often open the appointment ask, stating they would like to get together and go over your financial needs and make an assessment of your current state of affairs. What I hear in this situation is this. Tell me everything about your finances and I will find something to sell you. Your prospect feels uncomfortable sensing you are trying to sell them something. You must find a way to be unique in your approach and make the ask related to a benefit for them that is not painful.

All the best closing techniques are useless if your prospect senses you need the money.

Selling like you don't need the money says several things.

• The customers best interest are at hand.
• That you are knowledgeable and confident your product or service fits the need.
• The process is a shared experience and no one is in complete control.
• The solution takes into account the long term benefits and not just the immediate requirement.
• You don't need this sale to make your car or mortgage payment.

Selling like you don't need the money has benefits for you to.

• Your creating life long customers.
• Business finds it's way toward you, I call it pulling business instead of pushing business.
• Your income will become more even.
• Your existing customers will provide you with referrals.
• You don't have to sell the product twice because it was sold(purchased) right the first time.

There is nothing like good old fashioned respect and self confidence as a good starting point. All the best sales people out there make it about the customer. It's your role to help your potential customers and prospects make an informed consenting purchase to their customers benefit.

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