What we got by connecting a call center

For us, connecting a call center was the first step in standardizing and automating the sales department.

We have long worked in the market of equipment and tools for industrial use. And almost all the time of their existence they experienced the “ swing effect ”: sales were either good or simply disgusting. And it was impossible to attribute these fluctuations to seasonality - it is present in our market, but does not play a significant role.

It was clear that the main reason is how we sell , and with what intensity we sell .

Therefore, the task was to standardize the sales process. So that specific actions bring a predicted result .

And they decided to start with the most stressful and unpleasant thing for the internal sales department - cold calls . The organization of this process has become our number one task . And we turned to a professional call center.

And the hard and painstaking work of “prescribing” interaction with the client began:

• how to greet;
• how to get around the secretary;
• how to talk about the product, about the key benefits;
• what questions to ask the client to uncover the need, etc. etc.

The work was not easy - although the specialists from the call center took over most of the work, they themselves also had to take an active part .

But honestly, we ourselves were surprised at how strong our product is . At this stage, we received the script and launched the project.

The girls from the call center began phoning customers - the first requests began to come. Of course, the conversations were not immediately perfect - in the first couple it was required to listen to each conversation , make changes to the text, study the best and worst practices: “When customers“ send ”and when they show a keen interest ”



As a result, after a week of work, the girls from the call center began to talk about the product better and more concisely than our managers did, and even myself.

It is clear that when it came to a substantive discussion of the problem, it affected the technical nuances - we had to connect. But for that we are specialists in our field.

In the bottom line, what we got after the introduction of the call center:

1. Stably, about 42% of potential customers after phoning are interested , leave an email and ask to send a commercial offer.
2. 4-5% immediately apply with a specific request.
3. Their managers are exempt from the search for new customers. Now their task is to efficiently process applications and guide the client.
4. Now we have the “How many new applications we want to receive” switch. That is, we can regulate our load .

I would like to ask you, readers a question on this topic:

1. Have you had experience connecting a call center in your company? What were the difficulties?
2. Did you use the services of third-party services, or organized your own department?
3. How did they compose and hone conversation scripts?
4. Did you manage to go to decision-makers in most cases?