Year: 2012

Solving Poor Contact Centre Performance the ACTC Way

Posted on | by Sienna Anderson
The Contact Centre (or Call Centre) has become a crucial component in the growth of many businesses today. Many commercial and financial industries around the world depend on Contact Centres to sell products, market services, manage appointments, collect debts and fees and handle sales enquiries. Experience in best practise Contact Centres are repeatedly showing that it is less about the number and speed of managing customer calls and more about the Quality of The Conversation and how Contact Centre teams actually ENGAGE with their customers over the phone However when a Contact Centre doesn’t achieve KPIs or performs poorly, the company can suffer a major setback. Not only can customer satisfaction be damaged, sales and profits can drop and internal relationships can be undermined. It is therefore critical to address poor performance in Contact Centres right away. And the best Performance Development/Sales Training solution to such dilemma is the ACTC Process. ACTC is KONA’s proven solution for Performance Development and stands for Assessment, Consulting, Training and Coaching. Repeatedly, clients who have implemented this 4-phase solution have found a huge boost in the performance and results of Contact Centre/Customer Service Consultant (CSCs) and Team Leaders which has led to:
  • Greater client and staff Retention
  • Improved CSat (Customer Satisfaction)
  • Reduced escalation
  • Increased first call resolution
  • Achievement of KPIs
ACTC Process solves Contact Centre performance problems in 4 stages: Phase 1: Assessment. When all the systems and processes are in place, the recognized problems will usually involve the lack of conversational skills of the CSCs with the customers. Many Contact Centre staff do not build immediate rapport with the customer, and many don’t handle conflict well. Culturally, some do not even comprehend the customers they are talking to because their probing and questioning skills are poor. When it comes to sales, many CSCs lack ownership of the call so that the customers aren’t convinced to commit into buying the product. Team leaders can also be lacking in their abilities. Many have been promoted from within and don’t know how to Coach their team. Assessing and identifying the specific capabilities and skill sets required to overcome these challenges is critical so that effective current and future strategies and Performance Development that will to address the problems. Phase 2: Consultation and Customisation. Your business is different to most others so your management team must identify the specific skill set which will help the CSCs as to how they can effectively engage with their customers going forward. With a well-planned Skills Matrix, the CSCs will now be able to fully grasp the true essence of their role and the different skills they will need, depending on if their role is inbound or outbound; sales-oriented or marketing focussed; retention or customer service Phase 3: Training Contact Customer Service and Sales Training Modules must be a) time bound so to not take your people away from the day to day business for too long, b) Customised specifically to their role and language (not some generic, off the shelf, by the manual, course) and c) delivered in a practical and experiential method, rather than a presentation, so that the CSCs and Team Leaders actually have to demonstrate the conversational skills they are required to use with customers They must be trained how to build rapport and find common ground; how to gather information by asking probing questions, to listen carefully, all before they match their services or offer to the customers need or close. They must learn the skills to convert sales by negotiating with the customer and by deftly handling any objections and to manage the call. When it comes to the Team Leaders, they must be trained to become coaches rather than superstar CSCs Phase 4: Coaching The last part of the ACTC methodology is crucial as Coaching ensures that everything learnt during training is demonstrated on the phone. Practical application of the knowledge is what makes a difference so regular coaching for individuals and small groups must be conducted. In the most effective Contact Centres the team leaders carry this out by listening to the calls, calibrating their quality and Coaching individual development plans for their CSCs.

There are two 5 o’clocks in one day

Posted on | by Sienna Anderson

When I heard in April that I had qualified for the Hawaii Ironman in Kona, it gave me 5 months to prepare and plan for the biggest race of my life. However now with only 8 weeks to go I am in the middle of a heavy few weeks of training. Last week I swam for over 2 hours, rode over 9 hours and ran over 50 kms. This was in addition to presenting client sales and management training workshops, running a business and spending time with my family
 
People often ask me how do I fit it all in and still find time to train 16 hours a week leading up to a race.

I simply say that we all have the same amount of time every day – it is what you do with it, and how disciplined you are. Just as in business. Often the most successful people are the ones who just get on with it and do the hard work needed to be successful. They don’t take short cuts or look for the easy ways out or find excuses and blame others.

That is all I do with my KONA Group client training and Kona triathlon training.  I build my day around whatever sales training workshops, business development, swimming, cycling, strength and/or running I have to do that day and don’t get involved in low value activities or ‘stuff’ (I also mention that there are two 5 o’clocks in one day, and while I often see them both though please don’t expect me to be out partying after 10pm !!)
 
If you had to take your partner or child to the doctors next Wednesday you would make time in your diary so if your desire to achieve something is big enough you can always make time rather than excuses.

Race overview – Swim leg
Ironman Triathlon races start with a 3.8 kms swim and in most races you are allowed to wear wet suit. Most races that is except at Kona. Having grown up in Yorkshire swimming isn’t my strong leg so a Triathlon wetsuit, which is made of a 5 mms thick neoprene rubber, and is a lot tighter and smoother than surfers or water skiers wet suits, gives me a lot more buoyancy than just swimming in speedos. They also give plenty of extra protection which is absolutely needed.
 
Imagine being in the middle of 1800 people, all treading water, spread in a group no wider than the length of 2 tennis courts. Then the starting cannon goes off and the whole area turns into a mass free for all, like an industrial sized washing machine, full of thrashing arms, legs and bodies as we all swim over and into each other, trying to get to the first marker buoy without drowning.

To compound the situation your heart beat has suddenly been given a massive shot of adrenaline, mixed with fear of the day in front of us, and with your head submerged under water you gasp for breath trying to gulp in air rather than lungs full of salty water. All the while trying to not get kicked in the face or hit by a flying arm from a faster swimmer.

All pretence, bravado and BS is left behind as it is race on!

A few years ago I raced in the UK IM with a broken hand and a cracked rib which I’d damaged 6 weeks before the event having stupidly gone boxing training with a KONA Group client at EPAC in Adelaide. 200 metres into the swim start, no breath, no vision, and no direction I threw my right arm over and smacked it into the back of another swimmers head, bringing a scream of pain from my tortured oxygen starved lungs, in the spilt second before I wrenched a mouth full of air. That was a long day out.

Kona is unfortunately a non wetsuit swim which means no added buoyancy and probably an extra 10 – 15 minutes onto my usual swim time of 70 minutes. So in preparation I am spending time in the pool or gym with an aim of getting stronger and to come out of the water unscathed. Plus save as much energy as possible that I will be needing for the 180 kms bike leg and 42 kms marathon that follows.

In between planned trips to New Zealand, Singapore and around Australia running training workshops and Motivational Speaking at Client Conferences I plan to increase my swimming, running and cycling with a goal of swim training 6 kms a week, 400 kms on the bike and 60 kms a week running in the last 4 weeks leading up to my taper 2 weeks out.
 
And that is why there are two 5 o’clocks in one day!

Positive Disruption and the Creation of Commercially Aggressive Leaders

Posted on | by Sienna Anderson
Many businesses these days can be seem teeming with ambitious managers but desperately short of leaders – Commercially Aggressive Leaders. The company you are in right now may probably be exhibiting such forms of leadership up on the higher rungs. There may be plenty of changes taking place in the strategies, structure and engineering of your organization yet your company is nowhere near in making the BIG progress that you are all expecting. Leaders and managers in many businesses and companies today may have wonderful ideas in mind to get the business to move forward. The problem, however, is that these leaders are sometimes too afraid to put the ideas into execution. The brilliant plan stays in the drawing board, always an objective and never coming into fruition. The company’s leaders and managers have lost the nerve, the spunk, the commercial aggressiveness that is necessary to propel the business to greater success. To mask their trepidation, they resort to excuses and blame the economy, the government and the global happenings out there. Many leaders have been prattling about change but they have been creating goals that are far too easy to achieve. There seems to be some limitations in the expectations and goals which they have set not only for the company but also for themselves. They fear making sacrifices. They are not strong enough to eliminate non-performers. They simply are unskilled and not bold and fearless enough to take on the job. Because of this, Positive Disruption is fiercely needed. Positive Disruption is a business strategy which requires the creation of Commercially Aggressive Leaders. This is a stronger form of leadership. There is courage, resilience and willingness from a leader to make a REAL difference. Whether the company is a small-scale industry or a globe-straddling network, the presence of a commercially aggressive leader in it will be a major driving force for its immense success, for its remarkable breakthrough and for its formidable operation in the future. It should be remembered, however, that Positive Disruption and the creation of Commercially Aggressive Leaders isn’t for every company. There is no room for softness in this kind of leadership. Hard decisions are made. Risky questions are asked. It is all about bold, daring projects. There’ll be none of doing the same things as they have been done many years before. There is palpable transformation and innovation in the business. The leader is all about change, putting plans into execution and getting the right people on board. Yet, despite the strength and the tenacity of Commercially Aggressive Leaders, they shouldn’t be put in the same category as dictatorial leaders. Commercial Aggression may be present but this type of leaders knows how to develop a high performance environment for everybody with open communication and with incentive growths. People lacking abilities may be kicked out but the right people for the job will surely be kept and well taken care of. Commercially Aggressive Leaders is a must in many industries today. Product knowledge isn’t enough in the business battleground nowadays. Exceptional people management, coaching skills, strong customer relationships, strategic marketing opportunities and actual execution of ideas are also deemed necessary. Making a difference is something that is truly lacking in many business leaders and managers today. Change is needed and it should be taking place fast before the company falters and succumbs to complete failure. To grow forward, Positive Disruption and the creation of Commercially Aggressive Leaders may simply hold the key.

Beware Your Top Performing Sales People!

Posted on | by Sienna Anderson

By Peter Helft, KONA Group, Victoria

Everywhere I go companies talk about the 80/20 rule. Most companies know that they are too dependent on just a handful of clients for the bulk of their revenue. Your competitors are yapping at your heels (usually on price), and if those clients walk you’re in trouble. Sound familiar?

I also usually discover that this small group of incredibly important clients is attached to an even smaller group of sales people! In small to medium businesses that’s often only one person.

While I completely advocate that your top sales people need to be looked after as they’re very important to your business, it is worth acknowledging, however, that your “number one” sales people can come with all sorts of challenges.

First, they carry the relationship with the major clients, right? And it’s them that the clients are buying, right? If you were to lose that staff member you’ll sure as night follows day lose the client as well, so you put up with their “eccentricities”, right?

Wrong!

One observation: these “most important people” in an organisation tend to build “brick walls of fear” around themselves. They tell you things like “I don’t need to report because my results speak for themself”; “I don’t need to go to a training session – look at my revenue”; “I’ve been doing this a long time and I know what I’m doing”; “I get job offers from our competitors all the time”.

You may also find that sometimes your “top” performers seem to make your service delivery harder than it needs to be. Their stuff is always going wrong! You can be sure they’re blaming the business for any issues that may arise.

Now I’m not suggesting that your top sales people are bad and you should get rid of them. However our experience has proven that that closer scrutiny of their activities would give you real opportunity to grow your revenue as well as improve the skills of the particular staff member.

But it’s like walking on egg shells isn’t it? How do you move in to an environment where you can start to check what’s going on with your top staff and major customers?

Firstly you need to continue to support and nurture your staff. You should also discuss their careers, ambitions and personal growth with them. Most people want to go higher and get new skills – even if it’s just so they can earn more.

In many cases there are products or services that your major customers could buy from you but don’t. You’ve been given many reasons why they don’t and pushing the point is tricky. An idea of a way through this is to offer your top sellers some help. What about an independent audit of the client’s needs conducted by the sales person along with you there manager or an external “consultant”? Call it a client business review – a logical and acceptable thing to do with a major customer (and something the customer will welcome). Visits to the client by both people will give you a good view of both your client’s, and the sales person’s needs and behaviour.

Once you have that knowledge you can add some further incentive (perhaps for both sales person and client) for growth achieved from particular areas. With it can come some ongoing coaching or training to help that person in those particular areas of need that the audit may uncover.

In addition, how are your managers and sales people measuring their relationships with their clients? If it is on gut feel and revenue then this is only 30% of the relationship.

If they don’t have an ‘Interlocking’ strategy or a ‘Brickwalling’ Process in place then your top accounts could be vulnerable!!

Each case is different and yet I will guarantee that there is growth opportunity within your top clients that is currently not being achieved through either a lack of ‘Interlocking activity’ or particular sales/attitude skills.

At KONA we love to talk about these things and to find specific and tailored ways of working through challenges like this to get you revenue growth and happy, open staff that stay for the long haul.

Tips on How to Retain Top Sales People

Posted on | by Sienna Anderson
Increasingly over the 13 years KONA Group have been working with clients the importance on Employee Retention has increased dramatically With unemployment levels low and a new generation of ‘experiential employees’ coming through; (employees who are looking for experiences at work rather than a life time career) more and more companies have a problem when it comes to retaining their good people and especially good sales people. Note: while most companies want to retain their employees rather than lose them and have to start at the beginning each time, this does not mean that you would want to retain employees who more of a liability than an asset. We are talking about employees who have a lot of potential to be great at what they do and those who are already exceptionally good at sales. Good sales people are not easy to find, and good ‘Hunters’ are even more difficult. They are unique and they need to be handled carefully if you want to enjoy the talents that they can contribute to the company as those who are exceptionally good will have no problem at all looking for a new company to work for. Have you ever noticed that when companies ask for volunteers for redundancy it is often the top performers who put their hands up, as they know they will get work elsewhere as they walk out with their redundancy cheque! So, how do you retain your best sales people? Instead of trying to find out first what makes them happy, start with the things that don’t make them happy? You should start listening to your people’s grievances because that is where it starts. When an employee starts complaining, that is a sure sign that he/she is not happy with something. Known as ‘Hygiene Factors if a good employee is not happy it typically comes down to one or some of these factors: policy and procedures, overly or poorly supervised, their relationship with their boss or colleagues, work conditions and inequity (I am being more successful than the others so why aren’t I paid more), position and title, salary and security If you could find a way to find out what is behind their complaints, you will be able to address them. One of the most common complaints of sales people or any employee is the salary. If your sales people think that they are well compensated, they are earning enough and they get the amount of money that is equivalent to the results they bring in, then they are happy. Happy employees do not normally quit their job. The second thing that makes people stay with their company is if they have good benefits. Aside from their pay, workers look at their benefits such as being able to work independently, reward structures and company culture. Some very highly valued benefits are not related to money. If the benefits are unique to the company and they are not likely to be able to get the same thing somewhere else, this is more than enough reason to stay with the company. Always look for different and personal ways to motivate your sales people. While money is often identified as a motivator, do you know exactly what your people are going to spend it on? A holiday, new car, wedding, deposit on a home. If you know this then you can reinforce their reasons to come to work by putting posters, pictures, screen savers and score boards around the office as they progress towards their personal goal. That way they are working for themselves not just you Sales is not an exact science and this is why your people will greatly appreciate it if you could educate them further, teach them new skills and strategies and let them know what works these days and what doesn’t. When they have been successful, let them know and celebrate their success. Look for ways to CTDSR – Catch Them Doing Something Right as an acknowledgement from management for a job well done goes a long way. And often it doesn’t cost you a cent. Final thought: Successful sales people pay the wages of everyone else in the business. So what are you going to do to ensure a) they keep performing, and b) you don’t lose them to the opposition
For your unsuccessful sales people, before you “make them available to industry” check out KONA’s Sales Coaching.

Stop Talking about the 3P’s

Posted on | by Sienna Anderson

Being in sales is a very tricky business.

The formulas often change, skills need to be acquired, strategies formed and planned.

How many of us have been accosted by a sales person and we got so turned off the moment he uttered his first two sentences? How many of us have actually been lured slowly and find ourselves purchasing without planning to?

This has happened countless times to some of us and perhaps a few times to others. Let us face it. We often tend to avoid sales people like the plague. Why? Because we have encountered really bad sales people and do not want to have the same experience.

So, what are they doing wrong? Sales, indeed, is a tricky business. One wrong word out of your mouth and there goes your potential customer. How can that be avoided? By learning the skills of a good sales person and that is to avoid the 3Ps.

In any sales talk, these 3Ps will eventually surface. You will eventually let your potential customer know about the product, the price and then you will have to make a proposal at some point. But unskilled sales persons do this at the very beginning of a conversation. An exceptional sales person will never get to the 3Ps immediately.

The reason why many sales people are unsuccessful is because they make blunders like this. The moment they spot a potential customer, they start talking about their products. They go on and on about how great the product is and how it could actually benefit a lot of people if they have it. Afterwards, they go on and let the potential customer know how cheap it is and how they are giving such great discounts and then they go on and give their proposals.

The difference with successful sales people is that you will not hear them speak almost at all.

Great sales people will be actually just asking potential customers about their life and their problems and then provide solutions to these problems.

Selling a product is ineffective when you do not even get to know your customer. You need to know what their needs are and you get to know how they think. The way to sell a product is to make your potential customer realize that they actually need your product so that it may solve some of their problems.

How can you sell to your customers if you do not know what they need? Before you actually approach someone with a proposal, you need to carefully plan. Avoid the 3Ps as much as you can in the first meeting and just get to know your customer.

Build a relationship. Spend time with them because you will eventually reap the benefits.

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What information do your managers have to manage their team?

Posted on | by Sienna Anderson

Are your managers any good at managing people? If not, have you given them the tools to do so?

Broadly speaking managers do two things. They manage the running of the section of a business they are looking after, including information, systems and numbers. The other is the people that report to them, which is a very different skill.

If you were to mark all of your managers at their competence in understanding the two areas they look after, how would they score? In my experience, the understanding of people will usually come off worst.

I was having a conversation with a contact recently, and the old adage came out that you join a company, but you leave a manager. Meaning that it is the organisation that draws you in, the product or service you represent rarely lets you down, it is the manager that will bring you to leave.

Many managers get their job as a result of being good at what they do for a long time. Sales for example, if you are good at what you do, eventually your experience and perceived seniority will create a situation where the discussion of leadership arises.

But management is a specialised skill, and very different set of tools are required.

What so many of these managers need is a tool to be able to manage their teams properly. Rather than hoping they excel naturally, if you use a good quality profiling tool like DISC (the classic 4 quadrant assessing tool – Driver, Influencer, Steadiness and Compliance) you have a full report on every member of the team. It is not a judgement or a scoring system, but a guide to productivity for the individual and for the manager to know exactly how to manage the individual.

The report I use identifies –

  • Natural Style
  • Adjusted Style – (How they are currently changing themselves in their current role – Great discussion to have with a direct report.)
  • Strength on different workplace tasks.
  • Decision making
  • Communication style
  • Motivations and situations that reduce them
  • How others perceive them
  • Primary role in a team

Gone are the days of ticking some boxes and finding out if you are one of 4 styles, D, I, S or C. The theory is the same, but sophisticated reports read like a manual to how you work and how you can manage people effectively.

Give your managers the blueprint so they can manage their people with full knowledge of themselves and more importantly, a full knowledge of what is required by the people reporting to them.

For a sample report and an explanation of its uses, please contact us.

Strategic Selling Skills

Posted on | by Sienna Anderson

Carefully crafted questions will not only unlock the secrets to winning your prospect’s confidence but you can also win a space in your prospect’s kingdom.

There are a wide range of skills you need to master to be successful in strategic sales, but here I am going to suggest just three that are absolutely necessary.

What you need to know, though, is that I am not going to suggest anything to do with prospecting as this is a whole area of discourse that deserves its own article. Rather, I am going to focus on skills required when you are already engaged with a prospect.

The Top 3 Skills of Strategic Selling

I am going to focus on what I consider to be the top three skills of strategic selling, and these are

  1. Asking great questions
  2. Listening critically
  3. Gaining agreement at various stages of the sales cycle

So why did I pick these three skills to be the top three skills of strategic selling?

Because without these three skills, none of the others would be relevant.

Without the capacity to ask carefully crafted  questions you would not uncover enough about your prospect to make a relevant and timely presentation.

Ask Questions, Then Listen

To properly qualify your prospect you need to ask questions and listen to the answers (of both what is said and all those things that are left unsaid).

And if you are not gaining some sort of agreement from your prospect along the way then you do not have much hope of suddenly gaining agreement right at the end of your sales cycle.

A Closer Look at the Top 3 Skills

At this point it is well worth a closer look at these three skills:

Ask Great Questions

Carefully crafted questions consist of a series of qualifying (and disqualifying) questions, probing questions and trial closes (which jets us straight into skill number 3). Use carefully crafted questions and you will win your prospects confidence and with it a way to enter into his kingdom.

Listening is a common ability that many of us have, but critical listening is a development of this common ability that develops into an ability to listen with intent and purpose.

Critical Listening

Critical listening involves the ability to sift through the answers you hear to determine what is important to your prospect, what are the prospects underlying goals, what are her/his fears and constraints as well as what will motivate him/her to select you over your competitors. And if you are selling in the corporate world where there are more than one decision maker you will need to listen carefully to hear what all of the key players are saying.

Your listening will also need to pick through what is being said about your prospects evaluation process and using that information to develop your own selling approach for this opportunity. Listen critically and you will discover secrets about your prospects that you will be able to use to your advantage in making the sale.

Gaining Small Agreements Along The Way

And now to our third skill – the skill of gaining small agreements along the way. Different to transactional sales, strategic sales take a long time. Typically the sales cycle of a strategic sale is often 3 to 12 months before it comes to fruition.

You will typically visit your prospect many times along the way. It should be a clear goal you have in mind that at each session you have with your prospect that you should gain agreement to another step each time you meet. It can be just a small agreement but it needs to be something material to the overall goal of making your sale.

Pay attention to these three skills and your strategic selling will become far easier than you might otherwise experience. What I must say, though, is that of these three skills carefully crafted questions are the keys to successful strategic selling.

Contact KONA

Contact KONA today on 1300 611 288 or email info@KONA.com.au to discuss how we can help you start solving your business problems with our sales training professionals.

6 Ways to Avoid Wasting Money on “Panic Marketing” Choices in 2012

Posted on | by Sienna Anderson
At the start of the year many Australian business owners are too quick spend big on marketing activity only to be disappointed in the results. I’m making it my personal crusade to stop people in business from throwing any more money away on needless, wasteful and potentially damaging marketing! Panic marketing could be anything from spending big on developing a new website, advertising or loosing thousands by signing up for online social couponing deals in an attempt to attract more customers. I’ve met too many businesses who have spent big on panic marketing tactics without having a strategy of how the activity will build their business. Marketing from a place of fear such as lack of customers, cash flow or the state of the economy it becomes tempting to choose a marketing quick fix without thinking through the repercussions. My advice is to have an objective approach, which comes down to making the right choices based on your understanding of these 6 questions: 1. What do you need for your business, numbers of clients and their value? 2. The top five to seven attributes of your ideal client, who are they? 3. The goals your ideal client wants to achieve, what do they want? 4. How you can help them achieve their goals? 5. What proof do you have that your product or service delivers results? 6. Where does your ideal client like to hang out, what do they do, what do they read and the media they consume. By understanding even 1 of these questions you will increase your marketing impact, understanding all 6 will maximise its effectiveness overall. I read a quote recently from the Author of Guerrilla Marketing, Jay Conrad Levinson, basically saying that marketing is your opportunity to educate people about how you help them get what they want. As opposed to a larger proportion of marketing I still see today which is focussed on educating people about their business, frankly who cares? Those businesses that choose to continually sell to the masses using features, benefits and group discounts will soon be wiped out, paving the way for those that choose to serve their customers by creating and offering something of value. Its not just a numbers game anymore, its about building relationships. The problem is that many businesses, even those with highly experienced marketing teams, are getting the numbers terribly wrong, damaging relationships their bottom line. As a business owner or CEO are you and your marketing team struggling to hold a unique marketing position, generate the best and most profitable leads for your sales team and generate massive return fro every marketng dollar. Contact KONA today on 1300 611 288 or email info@KONA.com.au to discuss with Sarah (https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarahbirken) how she can show you how to start solving your business problems using effective brand and communication strategies.