June 20, 2014 - Relying on a third party call center services provider to handle that most valuable of business interactions – talking, emailing and chatting with customers – requires a leap of faith that many customer services, sales, marketing and operations managers find difficult to make.
June 2, 2014 – When it comes to call center outsourced services companies, their product is their people. The kind of inbound call center customer services representatives you, the client, want and need depends on your product and your markets.
May 27, 2014 - At outsourced call center services companies, maximizing revenue through effective upselling and cross-selling techniques is a baseline skill that should be continually refined and improved.
May 23, 2014 - The foundation of successful call center services programs is agent training. The outsourced call center provider must be highly skilled at preparing customer service representatives for the client’s unique product or service offering, order processing procedures and customer support requirements.
May 22, 2014
For companies outsourcing their call center services function to a third-party vendor, it’s essential to have an open window into the program and service quality being delivered.
Outbound call center services providers spend their days “pounding the phones” and “dialing for dollars.” It’s not easy to deliver great results. It takes hard work, resilience and talent. It also requires the right perspective.
This means viewing appointment setting not so much as cold calling or even, generally speaking, as sales. It means viewing it as table setting.
What’s the significance? Because too many cold callers at outbound call center services organizations mistakenly take their initial phone call too far down the sales cycle. The goal of the first phone call isn’t to close the deal; it’s merely to start a process that will, we hope, result in a close.
With this perspective in mind, the cold caller takes the pressure off him or herself, it reduces the element of desperation that is a sales killer, it enables the first phone call to proceed at something approximating normal human interaction – that is, within a social environment where the sale process is most likely to thrive.
We’re not talking here about selling kitchen floor mops, pet odor eliminators or windshield ice scrapers. This applies to the sale of more complex products and services, such as a software application or a business service, that requires a more involved sales cycle.
Looked at this way, the appointment setting representative can focus merely on setting an appointment, not selling a product. The initial pitch can be a blend of extolling the benefits of the product along with a low-key pitch that asks for 15 minutes of the prospect’s time.
Taking a low-key approach also reduces the intrusiveness of the call. The caller can sound and behave in a normal way, as in….
“Hi, my name is Bob. I’m sorry to interrupt your day but I’m hoping you have 30 seconds you can share with me.”
An approach like this, which conveys respect for the prospect’s time, is a good way to establish rapport, and many prospects are willing to risk the 30 seconds.
The next statement is critical for moving the phone call along the right path:
“I believe you manage widget manufacturing at your company, is that the case? Then I’d like to see if you have time for a 10-minute call next week to look at a new manufacturing software technology that saves companies between 25 and 40 percent on their production costs. Is that something you might be interested in?”
Again, this is a relatively soft approach and one that shows understanding and insight into the prospect’s professional challenges and business need.
If the initial statement receives a positive response, the next step is to ask for a convenient time to schedule the appointment the following week. After that has been completed, ask one, at most two, questions regarding the issues (or “pain points”) that the prospect experiences.
It’s important to not carry on the conversation too long because you don’t want to jeopardize the sales appointment that has been scheduled and because you don’t want to break your initial promise to respect the prospect’s time. That’s known as “selling after the sell,” and the sales goal of the first call has already been accomplished: Getting the sales appointment.
Beverly Call Center Services Company Wins Training Grant
From Massachusetts Workforce Training Fund
Second Training Grant Awarded to OnBrand24
BEVERLY, MA, April 10, 2014 – OnBrand24, the leading call center services provider in Massachusetts serving companies in the Boston area and nationwide, has received a second workforce training fund matching grant, for $173,140, from the Massachusetts Office of Labor and Workforce Development for advanced customer service and sales skills training.
The Beverly office of Sandler Training, a global leader in the development of powerful sales and customer service organizations, will provide the training. OnBrand24 call center services agents and managers will undergo rigorous training in the most effective sales closing, account management, upselling and cross-selling, and people skills.
The matching grant is funded by a Workforce Training Fund grant through the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development. The grant program is administered by the Commonwealth Corporation. It follows a Workforce Training Fund grant won by OnBrand24 in December 2011, also used in partnership with Sandler, which was instrumental in the OnBrand24’s growth and the hiring of more than 200 new employees over the past two years. Total Workforce Training Fund matching grant came to $5.4 million.
“We greatly appreciate the state of Massachusetts’ investment in the skills and career development of its workers,” said Mark Fichera, CEO, OnBrand24. “OnBrand24 is very excited to build upon the skills our employees have acquired from Sandler, taking our call center services capabilities to the next level. To compete globally in the call center services industry, we need to have the most highly skilled workforce in the world. The Workforce Training Fund helps us grow our business in Massachusetts and cultivating a top-notch workforce.”
OnBrand24, located in the Cummings Center in Beverly, was founded in 1980 and has partnered with more than 400 companies, providing both “inbound” customer service and upselling/cross-selling capabilities and “outbound” B2B lead generation, appointment setting and sales services. The company now has 275 employees, more than 100 clients and projected 2014 revenues of $15 million.
Sandler Training focuses on a wide range of sales and customer service best practices, including effective phone and email protocols, active listening techniques to establish customer comfort, uncovering true buying motives, handling upset and angry clients, generating additional sales through up-selling and cross-selling, effective prospecting and cold calling skills, and advanced sales closing and sales management strategies.
OnBrand24, which provides premier outsourced call center services 24/7, has enjoyed strong growth over the past two-plus years, hiring more than 200 new employees while adding substantially to its client roster. The company was named to the Inc. 5000 list of the fastest growing private companies in the United States, and for two years in a row has been cited by TopTenREVIEWS, an independent business services and products review organization, for call center services excellence.
“We provide each client strong senior management attention, we build customized programs and our staff is highly trained, experienced and motivated,” said Fichera. “Sandler training is ideal for us because of the strong focus we bring the unique requirements of each of our client’s programs. We expect to become an even stronger player in the domestic call center market.”
About OnBrand24
OnBrand24, Beverly, Massachusetts, is a full-service domestic call center services company that provides outsourced telemarketing services around-the-clock for clients in the e-commerce, retail, technology, healthcare and manufacturing industries. All OnBrand24 customer service and lead generation specialists work at the company’s call center facility. The company boasts many long-term client partnerships as a result of its 24/7 unconditional consistency, dedication and loyalty. OnBrand24 prides itself on assuming the brand of each of its customers by mastering the products, goals and culture integral to those businesses. For more information, visit us at www.OnBrand24.com.
