10 Tips to Create a Sales
Focused Call Center

Are you struggling to turn your call center into a sales focused area? One of my clients recently had the same challenge.

This electronic supply company's call center was originally focused on customer service only. Since call centers require a large staff, work stations, and expensive call routing equipment, the call center was viewed as a "cost center" by senior management. In other words, they were a drain on the company's budget.

So, call center management decided to transition to a more sales focused role. They asked Agents to suggest additional products to customers. They trained their Agents to "up-sell" new services during inbound calls.

And it worked! By generating add-on sales, the call center became a area that made money, instead of being an expense.

If you want to make this transition, here are 10 steps to create a sales focused inbound call center.

1) Have a good Service Level:

You must take care of the customer’s initial inquiry in a timely fashion to earn the right to up sell. If you can't take care of the initial enquiry fast enough, you shouldn't be trying to further dampen service levels by attempting to up sell.

2) Change the call center culture from a "service" mind set to a "service and sales" mind set:

Often, Agents can be resistant to change. As one Agent said to me, "I'm a service person, not one of those ‘sales people.’" It’s crucial to transition the call center’s culture to a sales mind set to reach full potential.

3) Update your hiring practices:

In your recruitment and in your interviews, find people who are service AND sales focused.

4) Train your Agents on HOW to sell:

Sales people aren't born, they are trained. Your Agents deserve to be properly trained on call center sales skills so they can succeed.

5) Train your Team Managers on HOW to SALES coach and give them the time to do it:

Call center sales coaching is different from call quality coaching and your Team Managers deserve to be trained on the new skills required in a sales call center. Coaching must be a priority to reinforce the sales culture.

6) Set clear sales targets and communicate them to the Agents:

Don't just do it once in a meeting, reinforce it daily or weekly at rallies, team huddles, and performance appraisals.

7) Have a balance between call quality and sales results:

Good sales calls are efficient calls because a well-trained Agent knows how to ask questions, listen for answers and close effectively.

8) Measure and update each Agent on their results:

Give them a goal to aim for and let them frequently know how they are progressing. What gets measured, gets done.

9) Show how call center sales targets affect the "big picture":

Let your Agents and Team Managers know WHY sales are important and how they help the bottom line. Educate them about your business. You'd be surprised how hard people will work if they know they are making a difference.

10) Reward individual and team success:

Have contests, give out prizes, do team rallies and reward days. Change your compensation or bonus structure to reward top performers and encourage further sales success.

Related tips:
This article gives an additional 12 tips to improve your call center sales results. This related story shows how to train the Generation Y (less than 30 years old) employees in your call center.