ICMI's Customer Management Insight - April 2008 - (Page 35)

S T R AT E G Y “We found that, in a salesoriented culture, there is an expectation of variable pay, says Fyfe. At ” Deluxe, Fyfe led two call center operations for two different business units — one that focused on small-business customers, and which used a consultative approach; the other handled direct consumers for financial institutions. “We had a more robust incentive on the small-business side because it was much more complex to understand, she says. ” Some experts and executives recommend incentive caps, but others say that it limits potential sales. According to Mary Murcott, business transformation executive and author of DRIVING PEAK SALES PERFORMANCE IN CALL CENTERS, caps are an anathema. “Don’t cap the incentive program, unless you want to cap revenues, she writes. ” To be effective, rewards need to be meaningful for your reps. If your contact center doesn’t have the resources to offer meaningful monetary rewards, Lamson suggests figuring out an alternate reward system. “If I’m a rep making $20,000 to $30,000 a year, and my sales incentives pay $200 a month more, well, after taxes, that’s only $80 — I don’t really notice that, he says. ” Lamson recommends finding more creative ways for reps to rack up those small amounts so that they can see a bigger reward later, such as a points program that offers big-ticket items to choose from. It’s also important to figure out what your operation can afford, says Fyfe. LifeMasters, which provides programs and services that create health partnerships among individuals, their physicians and payors, performed extensive compensation studies and worked with its human resources department and consultants to ensure that its call center compensation was competitively priced for its market. Contact center executives have a unique opportunity with sales, says Fyfe. They can make a solid business case, based on the bottomline contribution, for larger budgets for incentives and rewards. “To the extent that you can selffund, it’s a lot easier for executives to say yes. Call centers are typically Cross-Selling/ Upselling Resources Performance Transformations Inc. Mary Murcott, founder. A consulting firm that specializes in leading Aslan Training & Development. Tom Stanfill, high-performance founding partner and CEO. Stanfill has developed proteams to attain grams for companies such as FedEx, Apple, Xerox, best-in-class techDeluxe Corporation, American Power Conversion, nology, service, sales and ecoBlue Cross Blue Shield, Tyco, Computer Associates, nomics. www.performanceHewlett-Packard, Oracle, ScanSource, GE, and Russell transformations.biz or 972-998Athletic. www.aslantraining.com or 866-362-6496. 6734. Driving Peak Sales Performance in Call Centers, by Mary Murcott. Published by ICMI Press. www.icmi.com Developing Great Sales Leaders. Presentation by Ruth O’Brien, eTelecar’s vice president of Global Service Delivery, at ICMI’s Call Center Demo and Conference in Dallas, TX, May 19-21, 2008. Increase Your Sales Through More Effective Cross-Selling and Upselling. A Web seminar aimed at frontline agents who are responsible for selling to customers, it offers guidance on applying solid cross-selling and upselling techniques. www.icmi.com ICMI’s 2007 Call Center Cross-Selling Survey Report. www.icmi.com. icmi’s insight www.icmi.com | APRIL 2008 35 http://www.incoming.com/WebModules/Products/PubDetail.aspx?ProductId=479 http://www.incoming.com/WebModules/Products/PubDetail.aspx?ProductId=479 http://aslantraining.com/ http://www.performance-transformations.biz http://www.aslantraining.com http://www.incoming.com/WebModules/Products/PubDetail.aspx?productid=481 http://www.icmi.com http://www.ccdemo.com/ http://www.icmi.com www.incoming.com/WebModules/Products/PubDetail.aspx?ProductId=591 http://www.icmi.com

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ICMI's Customer Management Insight - April 2008 Operations: Small Call Centers, Big Potential Ad Index Contents Editor's Page Contact Center Spotlight People: Assessment Tools Recommended Reading Technology: Speech Recognition Special Feature: Best of Show Strategy: Service-to-Sales Success Expert's Angle - High Volume, High Stakes: A Better Strategy for Hiring Experts Angle - Secrets of Recruiting Success/Job Brands: Changing Applicant Reactions to Your Openings Experts Angle - Speech Analytics: Uncovering the Voice of the Customer

ICMI's Customer Management Insight - April 2008

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