Organizations today are learning that call-center agents represent a resource for increasing revenue. Call centers are now viewed as profit centers with their own income and growth targets.

Call centers are proven to be the most effective marketing tool for all kinds of businesses. With the advances in call-center technology, call centers can provide customers with after-sales, cross-sell, and upsell support. They can also improve customer retention rates, effectively gather and disseminate information, and generate higher customer satisfaction.

Businesses spend more than $40 billion annually on this major marketing medium. Unlike other major marketing tools, however, the costs of call centers have been consistently declining. Even more intriguing is the well-documented fact that this tool yields a return on investment of 20 percent or better.

Proper use of call centers has enabled businesses to multiply the effectiveness of traditional tools such as advertising, promotion, and personal sales. Leading corporations are quick to leverage call centers in order to gain a significant competitive advantage.

More and more organizations are discovering that they can achieve a strategic advantage by leveraging their call-center personnel. Call-center agents are a competitive advantage when they serve as a primary customer contact point. And ensuring that all customers benefit from excellent service boosts retention and builds a strong, positive brand image.

Inbound Sales Excellence focuses on techniques and skills that help your call-center agents address the challenges inherent in their unique selling environment.

Program Overview

Inbound Sales Excellence is a highly interactive program that actively engages agents in learning and applying their new selling skills. The program runs a total of 16 hours and is designed in a modular format with five units of study. You may choose to implement the entire course in a two-day workshop, or you may deliver the program one module at a time. You also may select just one or two of the program modules.

The program is flexibly designed so that a variety of configurations is possible to meet your training needs.

Module 1: The Customer Experience (2.5 hours)

The purpose of this module is to discuss strategies for enhancing performance and building customer loyalty. Agents engage in an interactive exercise that builds understanding about the customerÕs perspective of the buying process and about what keeps a customer loyal over time. Agents also participate in an activity that uncovers the challenges inherent in balancing call-center quantity measures against the need for high quality in their customer interaction. This discussion leads to an overview of the other course modules.

Please note that Module 1 ("The Customer Experience") is required for teaching any of the other program modules.

Module 2: Guiding the Call (4.5 hours)

This module helps agents develop their oral presentation and listening skills so they can communicate confidence and competence while gaining better control of their customer calls. This module has three sections:

• Oral Presentation: Agents identify the elements of effective telephone presentation and discuss how these conditions build comfort. They practice demonstrating professionalism to increase customer confidence, which helps them earn the right to ask questions and make a recommendation.
• Call Courtesy: Agents learn how to keep clients engaged during the call process and discuss ways to keep the call on track.
• Listening to the Customer: Agents explore the barriers to listening, evaluate their own listening skills, and learn and practice three types of active listening skills: Selective, Responsive, and Empathic. They also practice "reading" and responding appropriately to customersÕ verbal cues.

Module 3: Discovering Needs (3 hours)

In this module, agents learn a technique for discovering their customersÕ needs so that they can provide a solution that adds value and creates customer loyalty. Agents learn and practice a four-part questioning strategy:

• Transition to Use: Questions that provide a transition from the call opening to exploring and focusing on the customerÕs use of products or services
• Explore: Questions that broaden the discussion in order to learn more about the customerÕs situation.
• Focus: Questions that center on details and more specific information.
• Needs Summary Statement: A concise statement that summarizes and confirms the agentÕs understanding of the customerÕs situation.

Module 4: Providing Solutions (3 hours)

The objective of this module is to help agents make compelling solution presentations, effectively respond to customer objections, and close more sales more quickly. The module has two parts:

• Communicating the Message: Agents learn and practice a four-step process for presenting a solution.
• Answering Technical Questions: Agents implement a five-step process for answering typical technical questions asked by their customers.

Module 5: Finalizing the Sale (2 hours)

The objectives of this module are to model effective responses to customer objections, and provide techniques to close more sales more quickly.

• Handling Objections: The facilitator defines an objection as "a question in the customerÕs mind combined with tension." Agents learn methods for uncovering the customerÕs real concerns and for responding to customer resistance.
• Closing: Agents discuss the assumptive closing attitude and practice techniques for closing the call.

Benefits

Upon completion of Inbound Sales Excellence, participants will:

• Quickly communicate their competence and establish credibility with customers. Customers will be more likely to stay on the phone, respond to questions, and accept the agentÕs recommendation.
• Uncover the customerÕs real needs by using an approach that is efficient for the agent and comfortable for the customer. The length of calls stays within reasonable parameters, and customers willingly share information that helps the agent position a recommendation.
• Make compelling solution recommendations that lead customers to say yes. Agents close more sales and increase revenue.
• Enhance the agent's comfort level and skills for handling customer objections. The agent will be more likely to uncover all of the customerÕs concerns and complete the transaction.
• Close the sale–and the call–in a way that leaves customers with strong, positive feelings about doing business with your organization. Customers will remain loyal over the long term.

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