ICMI's Customer Management Insight - April 2008 - (Page 36)

S T R AT E G Y caught in the position of service versus cost and are always pressured to do more with less. If you can show that the interactions you’re handling are driving additional value for the business — growing sales and generating revenue — you’ll have more opportunity because you’re creating value in multiple dimensions. ” TALK TO EACH OTHER No amount of planning and strategizing will make your service-tosales transition successful if there is a lack of communication — among contact center executives, managers and agents, and between the contact center and other enterprise departments, such as marketing and sales. Communication was listed by 63 percent of survey participants as “very critical” to the successful implementation of a cross-selling initiative. “I was very interested to see that, says Stanfill. “One thing we ” commonly see is that leadership does not communicate a proper motive to the organization as to what is driving the shift from service to sales. They need to put the message out: We are not serving our customers at the highest level possible if we’re not meeting their stated and unstated needs. ” According to the survey, the top primary business driver for crossselling in their companies was to increase revenue (stated by 42 percent of respondents). Only 13 percent said it was to build customer relationships, and just 11.5 percent said the goal was to increase customer retention. Fyfe, who has worked with Stanfill on sales rollouts, says everybody, from top to bottom, has to believe that sales can be service- oriented. “For us, this was a cultural component — that service was really an underpinning to how we sell, ” explains Fyfe. “The numbers mattered, but during coaching, we always linked it back to our approach — doing the right things within the service process that lead to sales. Our clients saw that we recognized their needs and that we had products and services to offer that could help them. ” Lamson says being able to spread that message relies heavily on everybody’s buyin. “Managers can’t espouse the view that sales is only for the company’s bottom line. They must philosophically believe in its importance to the customer. ” One survey respondent says that the key is this: “Have a passionate leader who understands sales, embraces the opportunity and can share that passion with key individuals within the team to lead the entire team to embrace the opportunity. ” FINDING WHAT WORKS FOR YOU Every call center operation, to some degree, is discrete, with its own goals, resources and limitations. That’s why it is so important to get to the bare bones when it comes to rolling out a sales program in the call center — how executives make their decisions about what does and does not fit in their operations. For Prudential Financial’s Individual Life Insurance business, it is especially critical that any cross-sell or up-sell activity doesn’t interfere with the company’s faceto-face selling channels or disrupt service, says Reynolds. “The comment at the end of [ICMI’s 2007 Call Center Cross- Selling Survey Report] about starting small really resonated with me, ” says Reynolds. “Add to that the idea of trying to isolate new sales activity. I can't imagine rolling out a sales pilot by just adding it onto the responsibilities of a service representative who likely has very different expectations, skills and goals for success. If a handoff is not ideal, find some other way to dedicate a small team so you truly can gauge the requirements and the whole system — people, process, marketing and technology — you need to put in place. Once you give yourself a chance to work out the kinks and understand what your programs require, and what your reps can do with the leads you give them, you will have a higher degree of confidence for your business case and will better predict your value to the firm and to your employees. ” Fyfe agrees. She’s a staunch believer in pilot programs and incubators. “At Deluxe and LifeMasters and other organizations, we’ve used multivariable testing with process improvement firm QualPro, she ” says. “You can roll out various factors that you can test to see if it will improve your sales effectiveness, specific client offers, team incentives, conversation flows. We did a lot of testing to help decide whether we should move forward. • LAYNE HOLLEY is the managing editor of CMI. layneh@icmi.com icmi’s insight www.icmi.com | APRIL 2008 36 http://www.icmi.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of ICMI's Customer Management Insight - April 2008

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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