Call Tracking
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How to
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Sales are being lost because of problems in call handling, you are aware of it but unsure of how to better work with your sales team to handle calls more effectively?
THIS POST IS FOR YOU IF…
- You feel your team is getting stale on the phone
- You don’t have the time to lean over the shoulders of staff to listen in on calls
The Situation
You feel that conversion of incoming phone calls is dropping, and wonder if certain team members are getting stale on the phone. You start thinking you may have an HR problem and you start trying to find time to write job classified add. While most of us (sales managers) are acutely aware when this happens, you don’t have the time to lean over the shoulders of staff to listen in on calls and ensure they’re being addressed effectively.
The Solution/The Fix
Have salespeople listen to badly handled calls. They will learn that on numerous occasions, callers are so frustrated after being on hold or sent to the wrong department that they simply hang up. They hear missed opportunities to tell customers relevant information. [Learn More] And they notice how frequently they have failed to create a sense of urgency for customers to set appointments.
How to do it
I gave my team Knowme access to the interactive Scripts for Automotive Dealerships, which provided a framework for the proper way to handle new and pre-owned vehicles calls.
Next, I gave a Knowme manager access to the member of each of his teams with the best phone skills. I made them responsible for listening to all incoming calls, sourcing them appropriately and leaving him feedback so that he could track results.
In addition, I assigned one salespeople to follow up on calls in which prospects hung up after being on hold or being transferred to the wrong department. Because Knowme logs originating phone numbers, that person was able to call them back, apologize, explain their ability to reach them, and turn what had been an abandoned call into an appointment and potentially, a deal.
Next, I gave a Knowme manager access to the member of each of his teams with the best phone skills. I made them responsible for listening to all incoming calls, sourcing them appropriately and leaving him feedback so that he could track results.
In addition, I assigned one salespeople to follow up on calls in which prospects hung up after being on hold or being transferred to the wrong department. Because Knowme logs originating phone numbers, that person was able to call them back, apologize, explain their ability to reach them, and turn what had been an abandoned call into an appointment and potentially, a deal.
Results
I recovered about 25 deals per month. As my team began to see results from practicing those skills, even staff members that were once uncomfortable with call reassignment became motivated, demanding more phone training from team leaders and sales managers.
The trick was shifting the responsibility to team leaders for using Knowme to review sales calls while I provided oversight.
The trick was shifting the responsibility to team leaders for using Knowme to review sales calls while I provided oversight.
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How to
Keep your customers from walking when an employee leaves
Monitoring and sharing the sales workload ensures that your targets are met…
THIS POST IS FOR YOU IF…
- You have turnover in sales people
- You know that sales people in the past have taken leads to your competitor
- You’re tired of getting on your team about personal calls on their cell phone
The Situation
As manager of a car dealership, my company has experienced its fair share of employee turnover. But, does employee turnover always translate into a substantial loss of clients and customers?
The Problem
Employees were routinely giving customers and clients business cards that included their personal cell phone numbers. Then, when that particular member of our sales team left the company, we would lose all the customers associated with that salesperson. I think it’s a great idea for salespeople to give out their cell phone numbers to customers - it helps build trust. But it has its downside too… when they are in the middle of the showroom, they should not be talking on their cell phone (either business or personal call) because this may be the first impression of a walk-in customer. The walk-in customer may not feel the salesperson is welcoming in them. And we all know the customer that is here is the most important person in the dealership!
The Solution
I give a Knowme toll-free number to all the members of my sales team for use the on their business cards and business correspondence. This simple move not only decreases the chances that employee turnover will negatively translate into the loss of clients, it has also solved the problem of my team using cell phones on the floor. Now when a salesperson ends their employment, the 800 number is re-directed to another salesperson, and a continuing relationship is maintained.
How to do it
With the advanced statistics available from Knowme, I can see which of my sales staff are performing the best, and which need some help. The data is much richer than just numbers, so I can help them with technique. I know at the start of a month how many sales need to be made, and how many calls and appointments it will take to get there. With the automated system, my staff work consistently, and I can help them to reach their own goals without having to come down hard at the end of the period. I also know that the sales load can be shared out to make sure we all win!
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How to
Get Consistent Sales Results
Monitoring and sharing the sales workload ensures that your targets are met…
THIS POST IS FOR YOU IF…
- You want to guarantee you reach sales targets
- You need to know that your sales people are on-board
- You’re tired of playing the “bully” to motivate your staff
- You feel as though your salespeople are drifting off in your Monday meetings.
The Situation
YOU KNOW what this months sales targets are, and you know how many sales people you have, but you DON’T KNOW whether you will reach the targets, and you don’t want a mad scramble at the end of the month to get there – you want an easier time!
The Problem
Even with your customer database (CRM) system in place, you are forced to get on at your staff to work hard, and give them individual targets, meeting with them individually to give them targets. Asking them to prepare reports is fruitless. Why does it always seems that not enough sales have been made at the end of the month? You hate being the bully and pushing to reach the goals, but you’ve got to push them to reach your own sales goals. And you hate having to burden your top producers with the left over workload.
The Solution/The Fix
Campaign based marketing and having consistent sales is simple with Knowme.
How to do it
With the advanced statistics available from Knowme, I can see which of my sales staff are performing the best, and which need some help. The data is much richer than just numbers, so I can help them with technique. I know at the start of a month how many sales need to be made, and how many calls and appointments it will take to get there. With the automated system, my staff work consistently, and I can help them to reach their own goals without having to come down hard at the end of the period. I also know that the sales load can be shared out to make sure we all win!
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How to
Improve Customer Service
Old systems waste more time than they save, and stress you out too…
THIS POST IS FOR YOU IF…
- You are fed up with guessing what other team members have done
- You find you are taking your work home with you
- Your sales people keep hand written notes - your CRM processes are a joke
- You need to enjoy dealing with customers more
The Situation
YOU KNOW how tough some customers can be, but the next call could be a time-bomb, and the first you’ll know about it is when they explode without warning. Their problem wasn’t handled and now they are mad with YOU!
The Fault
With an ineffective system (or worse, no system at all!), more time is wasted than is saved by the tools. Notes taken on paper get lost and are not shared around the office. And a database which is not connected to the rest of the business means that you are constantly dealing with situations that you don’t know anything about. But it is not your fault…
The Solution
Knowme automatically brings up customer records, all the history of an incoming caller and any relevant information, so that you are never caught out by a customer call.
How to do it
Now that I use Knowme, my customer service calls are so much better and so much more professional – I can always be responsive to each customer’s needs. I never have to apologize for not knowing that they called in before – everything is already there, before I even speak to the customer. And because the call is recorded automatically, even if I don’t know how to answer their question, I know that my manager can help out and even phone back the client himself. Now I can concentrate on helping those who call in.
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How to
Setup and Monitor a Referral Program
Using a unique “customer recommendation” phone number ensures we give referrals the special treatment they deserve…
THIS POST IS FOR YOU IF…
- You want a customer referral program, but don’t have the time to figure out how to do it
- You need referral tracking but don’t want to re-train Sales
- You want to know precisely how your program is doing
- Your suspect that your “Where did you hear about us?” data is off.
The Situation
CUSTOMER REFERRALS create the best new prospects – they buy the most, they stay with you the longest and they create the most new referrals too. Best of all, a referral costs virtually nothing. But unless you can track your referral program, you have no way of knowing where your new prospects have come from and evaluating your referral offerings. Your data shows most customers say they heard about you from TV, even though you haven’t been running TV ads.
The Problem
Customer service has a pretty busy time as it is. Sales know that anything added at the beginning of a phone conversation, that is not focused on the customer, is going to hurt their pocket book, plus it is always a battle to give them more to do. But because you want to introduce or tweak your referral program, you think that you’re going to have to add another question to the script - “can I ask you if someone told you about us please?” - what a waste of time!
The Solution
By adding a special “VIP client” or “customer recommendation” phone number, which is only given out by your clients when they refer you to someone, Knowme can keep track of how referrals are going – all behind the scenes! I get this simple “whisper”,
just before the call connects, so I know all about the caller before I even speak to them. Sales loves it because they know before the call starts that this is an easy one. Customer service love it because these calls are all emailed to them - they don’t even have to worry about missing a call. As a follow up, referring customers can be easily tracked and thanked.
just before the call connects, so I know all about the caller before I even speak to them. Sales loves it because they know before the call starts that this is an easy one. Customer service love it because these calls are all emailed to them - they don’t even have to worry about missing a call. As a follow up, referring customers can be easily tracked and thanked.
Why it works
I had no need to re-train our frontline staff when I introduced a customer referral program. Each customer is now given a special phone number to give out when they make any referrals. When the new prospect calls in, they can then be greeted instantly as a valuable contact – and given the special treatment that they deserve. It is natural that we then ask them who it was that recommended them, and we can quickly tie together the networks of our customers. The best thing is that Knowme keeps track of all this automatically so there is no more begging the front line for inaccurate data. Referrals are then as simple as 1-2-3.
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How to
Keep Your Staff
Removing the administrative backlog from your sales people frees them up to sell…
THIS POST IS FOR YOU IF…
- You find your sales people leave because they are frustrated by all the paperwork
- You want to help your staff to grow, but don’t know who to help the most
- Sales staff turnover is a problem in your company
The Situation
You invest a lot of time and effort in your sales staff. They have to get up-to-speed on the products, who the key customers are and all the systems, and then they leave because they don’t like all the paperwork. Back to square one…
The Problem
It can take ages to train new staff. You need them on the front line quick, but you’ve got to know that they understand what to do. When you put them on, the sales system is not there to support them. First, they end up spending more time pushing paper around rather than making sales calls. Then, it won’t be long before they find a better job where they can spend their time on the phone to clients, rather than filling in forms. What went wrong?
How to Fix It
Using Knowme, I can quickly train staff to a high level, simply by letting them listen to top calls. When they are “live”, all the “back end” part of sales calls are dealt with – everyone can get on with selling. I can see my sales staff progress prospects through the sales chain, and no lead will ever be dropped. Because the system automatically bring up all the details of the next prospects, my staff can almost forget about report making. Even more than this, I can see at a glance how things are going, so that I know where to lend a hand. Because I can effectively support my sales people, and because they are able to spend much more time selling in an effective way, it is much easier to keep my staff. They like the simplicity of it all too.
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How to
Create an Effective In-House Phone Training Program
Using Knowme means that your new marketing message can hit the floor running.
THIS POST IS FOR YOU IF…
- You regularly change and improve your marketing messages
- You are thinking about a new roll out
- Getting cooperation from Sales and Customer Service people is like herding cats.
The Situation
WHEN YOU create a new marketing message, how on Earth do you get the sales people to use them? Over time, Sales gets its own ideas about what it wants to do. Everyone is heading in their own direction. Chaos is just around the corner. But you have the job of getting the world to know about your new marketing message. What can you do?
The Problem
When the sales staff are working at full capacity, with high targets to achieve, you can’t get breakout time to train them with your new marketing message. It is doubtful if you could even persuade the sales manager to let you pull the sales people off the phone to train them anyway. But it is vitally important that everyone is working as one. THEY need your latest marketing message and YOU don’t want complaints landing on your desk. You don’t want to waste their time… and what if you need to change the message again next week? Sales will kill you!
The Solution
With the simple web interface of Knowme, you can create as many campaigns as you want, and the system takes care of everything for you, including tracking your success! Your life, managing marketing, is made simple!
How to do it
When I create a new promotion, I can get a completely new phone number, just for this campaign. All our marketing materials use this new number, and I can assign a budget to it. As the marketing kicks in, new clients use this number to call in. Sales love the simple to use caller ID system which automatically pulls up customer details, even for a new prospect, but I love the fact that I can instantly see how my new campaign is running. Now I don’t have to guess if we are hitting customer’s “hot buttons” - I know it for a fact. If only all marketing tasks were this easy!
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How to
How to Create Accountability
When you don’t know what your sales staff are doing, targets will be missed…
THIS POST IS FOR YOU IF…
- You have a hard time getting Sales to enter data in the computer system
- You frequently hear, “Do you want me to sell, or do you want me to fill out reports!”
- You have trouble getting your team to open up
- You feel you’re spending way to much time preparing reports for the big boss
The Situation
YOU HAVE sales staff who seem to be busy, but your sales targets are slipping but you don’t even know who is doing what.
The Fault
Your job is high stress as it is – motivating your team to keep up a high standard, but if there is no way to know who is doing what, this can be a recipe for unexplained missed sales targets – and more stress. Without a way to effectively monitor the quality of calls or to track the progress of prospects, you can’t control the situation.
The Solution
By having calls come through your Knowme numbers, database entries are automatically created, half of the work is done without thought. The note field is short - only 225 characters - and customs sales stages are made with just one click. This means that you’re not asking Sales to write a book. You can automatically monitor who has called, call statistics and even the results of that call. And it is a simple matter to create accountability with your sales staff.
Why it works
When my staff can’t cover up the number and type of calls that they are taking, and when I can see at a glance the whole picture of the day’s sales activities, it is much easier to keep my staff motivated and “on target”. They hardly have any report making to do, so they can concentrate completely on the call. And, when we have sales meetings, I don’t have to ask my salespeople fill out reports because the data is already there. What’s more, because of call tracking, I know much quicker who to help and support. Sales targets are reached and exceeded every time. It’s great to look good in front of the boss, and I have the proof!
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How to
How to Recognize Star Performers
You want your top seller to feel rewarded but you don’t want to pay them more.
THIS POST IS FOR YOU IF…
- Your budget won’t allow you to increase commissions
- You want to reward your star performer AND
- You want an overall increase in sales to make you look good
The Situation
Star performer sales staff often out perform the worst in the team by many times. There is only so much you can do to reward them, and bonuses and commissions can only do so much to improve overall sales.
The Fault
Most small businesses see money as the only way to recognize top performing sales staff, but to keep them happy AND to improve the whole team’s sales requires much more than this.
The Solution
With Knowme automatic call recording, you can review the calls that your star takes, and then figure out why they are on the top of their game. It is a simple matter to mark great calls as “training material”, and then share working methods with everyone.
How to do it
Knowing details about my customer in advance means that I can understand their point of view more easily, and I can quickly respond to their questions, defuse their anger, or smooth things over - saying things like, “Yes I saw you called three times about your warranty paperwork.” As the call progresses, this helps me to build up rapport with my client. Knowing if this is a new customer or an old one also helps me put the customer at ease, because sometime mistakes are made even with long time customers. Being able to record important details as the call progresses, and also seeing any previous call information, means that I can relax and be really present with the customer so they don’t feel like just another number. When they feel good they don’t bitch at me, which reduces my stress. I think of it like this – it’s the opposite of what happens when you call a big company.
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