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Category Archives: Inside Sales Strategy

Fewer Options. More Sales.

Anyone who has ever gone to the grocery store knows this scenario well: you turn the corner of the breakfast foods aisle and find yourself confronted with hundreds of different types of cereal. Cheerios alone have over eleven different flavor options (not even considering size variations!), including original, honey nut, honey nut medley crunch, apple cinnamon, banana nut, frosted, chocolate, multi-grain, multi-grain peanut butter, Dulce de Leche, and cinnamon burst. For the average shopper, so many products on a shelf are bound to trigger a headache unless they walk in knowing precisely what they need.

IS MORE REALLY BETTER?

In 2000, researchers Sheena Iyengar & Mark Lepper set out to explore the belief that the more options we have, the better. In a series of experiments conducted in both field and laboratory settings, they found that individuals are more likely to purchase a product (specifically jam) when offered a limited array of 6 choices, rather than a wide array of 30 choices. Moreover, the participants reported greater subsequent satisfaction with their selections when their choices were limited. Think long-term customer retention.

According to a psychology professor and author of “The Paradox of Choice” (HarperCollins, 2003) Barry Collins, an abundance of options can cause a buyer to experience decision paralysis and not make a decision at all. Or they might make a rash decision based on what is easiest to evaluate, rather than what is important and necessary, triggering buyer’s remorse.

FOUR MAIN PSYCHOLOGICAL MECHANISMS UNDERLYING “THE PARADOX OF CHOICE”.

  1. Regret: The concept of post-decisional regret states that feeling regret increases with the number of options that we have to turn down. We assume a personal responsibility for making a bad choice and find it easier to replay in our minds what may have occurred had we chosen another option.
  2. Opportunity Costs: When making a decision, we are inherently suffering an opportunity cost for not choosing the options we left behind. Our brain requires that we produce reasons why we didn’t go with each of the other options, causing psychological stress.
  3. Expectations: As the number of choices increase, so do our expectations to find the perfect option. With higher expectations, we subject ourselves to higher levels of disappointment.
  4. Social Comparison: With more options, we are more likely to compare what we have with what others, theoretically, could have, therefore increasing our likelihood of simply comparing ourselves to others.

Barry Collins argues that having some choice is good, as it allows people to recognize their preferences and choose on their own volition. However, when too many choices are introduced, psychological satisfaction with that choice can go in the opposite direction. This also pertains to the people behind the purchasing decisions made for companies. At SBR, we were interested in applying this knowledge in a practical way to help our clients increase sales and drive revenue.

TOO MANY CHOICES CAN RESULT IN LOWER SALES.

This excerpt from Barry Collin’s TED Talk reveals the impact that too many choices can have on sales:

A colleague of mine got access to investment records from Vanguard, the gigantic mutual fund company of about a million employees and about 2,000 different workplaces. And what she found is that for every 10 mutual funds the employer offered, the rate of participation went down two percent. You offer 50 funds — 10 percent fewer employees participate than if you only offer five. Why? Because with 50 funds to choose from, it’s so damn hard to decide which fund to choose, that you’ll just put it off until tomorrow. And then tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow, and of course tomorrow never comes. Understand that not only does this mean that people are going to have to eat dog food when they retire because they don’t have enough money to put away, it also means that making the decision is so hard that they pass up significant matching money from the employer. By not participating, they are passing up as much as $5,000 a year from the employer, who would happily match their contribution.

YOUR SALES TEAM CAN ELIMINATE DECISION PARALYSIS.

Salespeople can mitigate challenges caused by an excessive number of options. How? They can target this psychological process by identifying customer’s preferences and present them with a narrower selection from which they may choose. Rather than “product dumping,” and simply listing all of the features of a variety of products, a sales person must narrow the set of options, and present them in a digestible way.

Naturally, they must first determine what the customer’s needs are (by asking directional questions) and then recommend the product(s) that fit their specific requirements. To further ease the decision-making process, storytelling techniques can be used to help the customer imagine how this product will improve their life or their company.

With a smaller selection of defined options, the buying experience will be less psychologically taxing, and more profitable for the organization. Not only will the customer be more satisfied with your company, but also with themselves for coming to a conclusion seemingly on their own. Win-win. Click here to learn how SBR has catapulted sales performance and results for our clients.

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Is it Time to Blow Up Your Sales Plans? Leveraging an 11th Hour Course Correction.

If you run a sales operation, you know and love the challenge of devising plans to achieve a business goal in the midst of numerous competing factors. While some people shy away from being in the “hot seat”, exceptional sales leaders welcome it.

Those who work in healthcare know all too well the intensity of the Annual Enrollment Period (AEP). Close to 50% of the annual sales are obtained in about 8 weeks.

Many healthcare sales and marketing executives spend the better part of the 1st and 2nd quarter reviewing data, analyzing losses and gains. They pull together actuarial, underwriting, legal and other teams across departments to understand the market conditions and health of the products before building sales and marketing strategies. Plus, they need to develop retention plans to maintain their current membership.

To add to the pressure, products are approved by government agencies only a few weeks ahead of the selling window. So the company doesn’t know the competitive landscape until the last moment. Few industries grapple with this level of variable factors as the healthcare industry does.

Combating Declining Sales. 

Given these inherent complexities, it raises the question: how can we consistently boost sales results when consulting with our healthcare clients who face these challenges annually? Here is where course correction has made all the difference.

Some years back, a client engaged us to help their organization reverse a four-year trend of declining sales and repeatedly failing to meet their goal. Using rapid ethnography, we were able to identify the largest barriers and how to correct them.

We had less than 120 days until the start of AEP to make massive changes in practically every corner of the operation. Once AEP started, we vigilantly analyzed daily sales data. Midway through we knew that while the numbers were trending higher than in previous years, at the current rate we would not meet the sales goal. Unacceptable!

Consider Blowing Up Your Plans.

Enter the 11th-hour-course correction. We took a calculated chance that was inspired by how people shop. During the holidays when most supermarkets are closed, there is always one store that remains open. With no other available option, consumers will flock to that store. Applying this to healthcare, we recommended having the contact center remain open until Midnight for the last few days of AEP. During those hours the competitors would be sleeping. Literally!

The result? It worked. In the final three days of AEP, the phone lines were jammed well into 1:00 AM. The extended hours equaled one additional business day, allowing the client to exceed their sales goal for the first time in years. Years later, this technique is commonplace.

While companies may spend months planning for the future, if devised strategies and tactics are not heading in the right direction, you might need to blow up your well-conceived plan. Sure, taking a risk to course correct at the 11th takes some nerve, but in the end, it may be well worth it.

 

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What Chocolate and Prune Juice Can Teach Us About Shopping for Health Insurance.

In a 2004 study, researchers assigned participants to consume a snack – either chocolate or prune juice. Half of the participants consumed the snack immediately, while the others had to wait 30 minutes before consuming. Those who ate chocolate enjoyed the product more when they had to wait 30 minutes before tasting it, while those who drank prune juice disliked it even more when they had to wait.

This teaches us an important lesson about emotion – for a positive experience, a delay will increase enjoyment. However, for more negative experiences it is better to, as Nike says “Just Do It” because a delay will intensify the negative emotions when you finally get around to doing it.

In health insurance, it is rare to find someone who equates the annual hunt for adequate health insurance coverage to eating a delicious piece of rich dark chocolate. We know that consumers frequently wait until the final days of AEP (Annual Enrollment Period) to select a health plan. Can health care professionals leverage this knowledge about delays to help members feel more satisfied with their decision at the end of AEP?

Health insurance carriers want prospects and members to have a positive AEP experience – increasing retention and satisfaction. Frequently viewed as a negative experience, putting off a healthcare purchase will surely guarantee an even more extreme response. Health carriers can remedy this by encouraging consumers to sign up early – get the process over with!

The key to successfully changing attitudes about AEP is communication. Reach out to prospects and members early on. Communicate that being an “early bird” will allow for a painless process, guaranteed to be satisfying because your team will support them along the way. While some of the regulations limit offering incentives, you can market the psychological benefit, a value in and of itself. Although members may not recognize the immediate advantages of avoiding delay, they are sure to look back on the selection process more favorably than they would have if they procrastinated.

Does your marketing and sales communication encourage prospects and members to complete the AEP plan selection process early, while emphasizing the ease of purchase? Use your next marketing campaign to inspire consumers to avoid delaying…another way to help boost member satisfaction.

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Getting Less by Expecting More: “Multitasking” Behaviors Are Stifling Call Center Agents

Multitasking has been under scientific scrutiny since the 1960’s. Diverse and web-centric channels for work and play have questioned the brain’s ability to do more than one thing at a time. MIT neuroscientist Earl Miller explains that, “When people think they’re multitasking, they’re actually just switching from one task to another very rapidly. And every time they do, there’s a cognitive cost in doing so.”

There is no better proof that multitasking – or, rather, the attempt to multitask – is alive and well than the contact center industry. If you spend any time peering over the cubicles of call center agents, moving between two or more computer screens, jotting down notes, and plugging digits into their calculator, you have to wonder, what’s all the fuss about? They seem to be multitasking whizzes! (Side note: In one Rapid Ethnographic study of a call center, SBR found that agents migrated between an average of two computer screens and seven different windows during a single call!)

When production value is prized above salesmanship or consumer engagement, the most effective call center agents have to become adept at managing multiple activities in quick succession. The problem is that most companies want call center agents to engage with consumers. The skills required to do so are inherently at odds with mechanical dexterity. You can easily determine whether agents are more focused on the computer than the consumer by the amount of “dead air” during a call. Such is the dilemma for the modern call center.

One big issue is that when people try to multitask, they make more mistakes. Worse yet, when agents switch between different activities, they could be losing the very skills needed to sell and/or support consumers. Researchers at the UK’s University of Sussex found that frequent multitaskers had less brain density in the areas that control cognition and emotional resilience. Sure, an agent might do okay for the first few minutes of their day, but they will soon get burned-out and bummed-out, lose focus, interest and overall job satisfaction. What to do?

  • Experience the agent environment firsthand. Automation can help, but should be built with and for the agent. Too often call center tools are created in a vacuum, often by technical geniuses that know little about or invest no time in appreciating the day-to-day work of a call center agent. An intimate understanding of the job starts with an immersive assessment (our method of choice is Rapid Ethnography) to get an inside look into the agent’s environment. At this point it’s possible to design technological solutions that can do more of the heavy lifting, so agents can focus on the caller.
  • Measure the impact of multitasking on performance. The attempt to multitask is a big time-waster. If you gauge the average amount of time wasted in searching around for information while on the phone you can quickly track the cost associated with multitasking, not to mention the impact it has on the consumer experience.
  • Give agents a chance to recharge. Psychology says that there is a limit to optimal performance and we all have a set point at which all goes south. The best breathers engage the creative part of our brains. If you have or manage a call center, consider a break station that includes games such as pool tables, adult coloring books (all the rage) and other “toys” that help agents switch gears. Even if you can’t set aside a large dedicated space, give agents portable care packages that they can take to the cafeteria.

The modern call center is a motley environment where human-centered communication, technological agility, and product knowledge converge to form the “ideal” agent. But humans are limited and for long-term agent retention and satisfaction, consider how you can create an ecosystem where performance is based on realistic factors. Folks on the receiving end of the call will thank you and so will your bottom line.

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5 Ways to Boost Your Call Center Communications Right Now

If you’ve been in the call center business for more than two minutes you know that the word “scripting” is about as detested as background noise. For the most part we understand why: leaders worry that their agents will sound like mindless, monotonous robots.

While this fear is real, it doesn’t mean that the problem is scripting itself. In fact, let’s just throw out the word scripting altogether and instead focus on crafting compelling communication guides. The latter equips agents with a clear path to engage callers and ultimately focus their attention on sales or customer service (or both). A successful call guide actually makes for a more natural conversation, especially when the product or service is complex. A powerful guide will allow for individual agent personalities to shine.

This is not just lip service. In call centers that lacked a call guide, we’ve been able to increase sales by 5% to 27% simply through streamlined communication guides and associated training.

So you want to make your agents better? Here are five things you can do right now to boost your call center communications. You can pick and choose from this list but instituting all five will give you the most bang for your buck.

 

1. Create a Callflow

Organization isn’t just relegated to your closets. When it comes to drafting call guides, creating a callflow and outline is
the first step. This will also help cut down on call time if that is your goal.

Callflow Brainstorm

Brainstorming callflow for a complex service product

Let’s take the example of health insurance sales. A prospect calls the Health Insurer to get help selecting a health insurance plan. This is a high stakes decision and they want an expert to help. The agent needs to take charge and get from point A to B so that the caller’s needs are uncovered in a way that leads to the ideal plan for them. By deconstructing the flow of a call in advance, you can be sure that key topics are attended to in a logical fashion. Otherwise the agent can go on making extraneous comments or worse yet miss key information.

With pen and pencil, identify your callflow for a general sales opportunity. In the adjacent snapshot you can see our Communications Specialist brainstorming the big picture guide for a complex product sale.

A call guide can be written verbatim for more junior staff or when you are launching a new product. Bullet points will achieve the same goal for more expert and seasoned agents.

 

2. Design the Right Questions

Asking questions is a foundational sales method simply because it works. Frankly, most people like to talk about themselves and asking them questions will make them feel part of the process.

Big word of caution here: in a call center environment you want to ask closed-ended questions (as opposed to open-ended ones). For example, asking someone, “What are you looking for in a health insurance plan?” is far too general and can lead to responses like, “Free, 100% coverage” rather than a realistic fielding of the person’s needs. Closed-ended sales questions include:

  • About how much are you comfortable spending on PRODUCT TYPE?
  • Are you planning on using this PRODUCT TYPE mostly for home or the office?
  • Thinking about the year ahead, about how often do you think you’ll be visiting your doctor? (Health insurance sales)

All of these questions will lead to a response that helps the agent vet the products available. We’ve built algorithms for our clients to automate this process and it makes the Q&A process that much easier for both agent and caller.

 

3. Slay the Opening, “How are you today?”

This is SBR’s biggest pet peeve. Asking, “How are you today?” is one of the first things agents say over the phone. Managers like to fight us on this one so if you’re a Doubting Thomas here’s why…

Asking “How are you today?” is perfectly fine during in-person exchanges and can work quite well in field sales when one can gauge the situation through body language, energy and the like. But over the phone this phrase often stifles the exchange. The caller feels the need to synthesize their day, or, even worse, complain. Either way, it impacts time.

Instead, acknowledge the caller and move to find out how the agent can assist. After all, that is the reason for the call. Don’t get us wrong; there is nothing better than a smart, kind, warm agent who is interested in helping the caller.  But asking, “How are you today?” lies flat when, “How can I assist you today?” is really what people want to hear.

 

4. Cope with Legalese

Sometimes your Legal team mandates certain clauses in order to meet adherence requirements. Fighting with lawyers is usually a lost cause so we typically concede. But when faced with long, complex legalese, break up the content with pauses to the caller:

  • “Do you have any questions before I continue?”
  • “Do you have any questions about the information that I’ve just covered?”

This prepares the caller for any clarifying points and the next phase of heavy content.

 

5. Test & Then Test Again

Expert agents are an invaluable resource. Involve some of your top agents in testing the call guide. Some are excellent at crafting the ideal communication. They can help work out the kinks and test the most natural sounding call guides.

We like to test calls with the top agents while the content is still in development. Once we feel pretty secure with the call guides, we then move to middle-level agents to be sure that the guides are scalable to the entire agent-force.

A final suggestion on lawyers: Because of our many years in the complex product arena we are accustomed to the requirement that the legal staff must approve the call guides. If this is the case in your organization, we find that engaging the legal team in the process and educating them on how call centers work either by having them sit with agents or monitor calls is worth the time and effort.

 

One Final Thought…

If you institute just one of these activities your call guides will invariably improve. Do all five and you should see a boost in productivity across the agent pool. Of course there will be those bellicose agents who will rant and rave about having to follow a call guide. When their call monitoring, quality and sales all improve, they will thank you.

 

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Agents Are Saying What? A Guide to Secret Shop Your Call Center

Anyone in the business knows that call center management is a demanding (if not a thankless) profession. Irregular call patterns could require immediate staffing changes, one-off questions can stifle a manager’s work for hours and industry alerts (like the first year launch of the Affordable Care Act) can put the queue in backlog. In short, something can happen every minute that moves the operation from calm to chaotic.

With all of these demands it’s a tall order to review operations from the consumer’s perspective. The good news is that it’s also relatively easy, quick and cheap to assess an inbound contact center operation. Contact center experts can ramble on for hours about shrinkage, AHT, ACDs, WFM and a litany of other acronyms, but ultimately a critical performance indicator is the exchange between the agent and caller. To get a real “inside look” into this exchange (beyond random call monitoring which is usually relegated to quality control), it’s important for those responsible to assume the position of the consumer.

We have recommended this exercise to countless individuals, from c-suite executives to directors and sales and marketing managers. People are consistently astounded by what they experience when they take on the consumer’s role. SBR’s Lead Ethnographer who helped design our rapid ethnography studies created a methodology for secret shopping contact center operations. The exercise itself is simple and just takes some planning to determine the areas to assess in an inbound call center environment.

Here are four areas we typically include when evaluating call centers via the secret shopping method:

1. Interactive Voice Response (IVR): IVR messaging and call-flows are important to lead a caller to the appropriate agent according to any number of factors, such as line of business or experience level. Ideally, a consumer-centric IVR is meant to efficiently direct calls and simplify the caller experience from the point of call entry. A well-designed IVR should also minimize caller confusion and “bouncing around” between different agents. As the consumer, identify how easy it is to arrive at your desired destination (the right agent). Did you get “bounced around” or reach an agent without making too many selections?

2. Agent Scripting/Communication: It’s not always clear whether an agent is actually using a call guide but we know from years in the business that some form of a “guide” or “scripting” is needed to keep agents on track. Tested call guides/scripting can also enhance performance because agents are operating off the same language and a proven sales approach. Identify how well the agent communicates: are they clear and concise, delivering logical information that most people could follow or do they use illogical descriptions and clumsy filler terms (“like”, “um”, “yea”)? Did the call follow a systematic path to get you the information you need or take illogical paths? Was the agent able to help you arrive at your desired destination or did you hang up frustrated?

3. The Human Factor: Sure, product knowledge is critical to performance but sincerity, kindness and interest in supporting the caller are just as important. These factors and others are considered “soft skills”. Think about what it feels like when an agent opens the call in a lackluster tone asking, “How can I help you today? The agent might be following the prescribed training or scripting but failing to emit the necessary kindness and enthusiasm. When calling, determine whether the agent was warm and professional, showed a willingness to help, was knowledgeable about the products/services and gave you the information you were seeking.

4. System Interface: Many call center agents operate off of multiple monitors and applications (two monitors is not unusual and we’ve witnessed agents access up to 15+ applications during a single exchange). There is a direct impact between the number of applications, screens and competing locations needed to find information and an agent’s ability to assist callers. For example, “dead air” (long pauses in communications) can occur while an agent searches for information. There are techniques to keep the conversation flowing but this can also extend talk time. As the consumer, take note of breaks in the conversation, how long it takes the agent to locate information you request and overall call time. You can greatly surmise whether system overload exists with just a little calculation of hold and waiting patterns. 

Over the years SBR has developed a variety of methods for clients to put themselves in the shoes of their customers. Even the busiest executive has had their eyes opened by this exercise. Click here to learn more about maximizing contact center operations.

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Use Procrastination to Your (Sales) Benefit

It was during the busy holiday season when we were working with a healthcare client. After a long day at the vendor’s site, Sharon (our Principal) was daydreaming on the drive back to the hotel. She reflected on all those people hitting the malls on the days leading up to Christmas and the battles that often ensued for the last doll on the shelves. She wondered why the same pattern happened in buying health insurance? Why did it seem that a huge percentage of the population would wait until the deadline to pick a health insurance plan? And could we leverage that information to impact sales for our client? We did just that. Read on to learn how we brought in thousands of dollars in the final days of AEP for a health insurance company.

Why Do We Procrastinate?
So many people wait until the last minute to make decisions. Students wait until Sunday night to do homework due Monday, salespeople put off cold calling, and managers delay writing reports until week’s end. Something about not accomplishing tasks until absolutely necessary is just so tantalizing. Is this simply human nature to delay the inevitable or do we procrastinate because the last minute seems to be the moment of earliest convenience?

A recent study found that just over 20% of people classify themselves as “chronic procrastinators”. Some even claim that they do better under pressure (although numerous researchers have show that the opposite is true).

Dr. Joseph Ferrari, PhD, author of Still Procrastinating? The No Regrets Guide to Getting It Done, separated procrastinators into three categories.

  • Arousal types, or thrill seekers, wait until the last minute for the euphoric rush.
  • Avoiders tend to avoid fear of failure or even of success, but in either case are very concerned with what others think of them (for example, they would rather have people think they lack effort than ability).
  • Decisional procrastinators simply can’t make a decision.

In the earlier health insurance example, we could see that most people were decisional procrastinators, afflicted with “decision paralysis” from TMI. Health insurance is just too complex and too confusing that people couldn’t make a decision and instead waited until the final deadline, the point of no return.

How to Leverage “Procrastination Polly’s” to Increase Sales
Rather than try to rehabilitate the entire population of health insurance purchasers we figured if you can’t beat them, join ‘em. We decided to extend the health insurance shopping hours for the last three days of AEP. When all other health insurers were closed, our client’s doors were open. This extension allowed more people to select a plan and brought in the equivalent of an additional day of business.

Procrastination is such a universal vice that it’s surprising that more businesses don’t align their strategies to compensate for it from the beginning. It is something that absolutely has to be taken into account when selling a complex product. With a wealth of options and information comes doubt and, sometimes, procrastination. This rings doubly true for health insurance, because of its complexity and convolutedness! So when you can’t change the masses, adapt. Embrace the procrastinators. And then make your business conform to their natural ways of purchasing.

SBR has always come through in facing our client’s business challenges. Creative solutions for unique organizational problems are our specialty here at SBR. If your business needs a push, the call is free.

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Grapes Are Smarter Than You Think

As a company constantly on the move, SBR relishes every opportunity to visit San Francisco – and what trip to the Bay Area would be complete without wine tasting in Napa Valley? Boasting over 400 vineyards with onsite tasting, you need knowledgeable friends or Yelp to help sift through all the options. Flora Springs was recommended by an uber generous client who shipped us a bottle of his top pick, a pricey Rennie Reserve. He insisted we book their wine tour (in his estimation, the best in the Valley).

Lady Luck paired us up with Scott, Flora Spring’s expert host, for the two-hour tasting. Scott showed us that grapes often produce better wine during years of drought and struggle because they are forced to concentrate their flavors. Sure the grapes are smaller but the resulting concentrated flavor produces some exceptional wine. Who knew grapes were so smart!

That got us thinking. When faced with a significant challenge, we can recoil in fear and frustration or be the grape that struggles to produce something brilliant. In corporations, times of duress can often separate the consummate professionals from the rest of the pack. Consider the old adage, “Pressure makes diamonds”. The greatest work, ideas, and streams of creativity and innovation can come in the face of adversity and trial.

Moving about from one meeting to another leaves little to no time to put your next great idea into action. From a business prospective, our rigorous schedules make time for reflection and inspiration seem near impossible. Challenges like meeting sales goals or gaining market share, improving customer service ratings or engaging new audiences with minimal marketing dollars abound and must be solved.

SBR uses various methods to help cultivate this healthy tension and focused attention without the risk of bringing the operation to its knees. Interested in learning more about our strategic approach? Contact us and we can discuss the steps the SBR team takes to embrace a challenge and create exceptional results.

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Takeaways from Sales 2.0 San Francisco

It doesn’t take much to get Team SBR to the West Coast. This time we met up with sales industry trailblazers at the Sales 2.0 Conference in San Francisco to discuss new trends in the inside, field and online sales arenas. Now we’re abuzz with insights, inspiration and validation on the techniques that have worked to accelerate sales.

Instead of moving from zero to 60, complex product organizations should consider their top list of most critical areas to advance sales and consider where sales innovations can support those initiatives. Let’s highlight our top learnings:

1. Complex Customization. Consultants get a bad rap for repurposing the same presentations and reports, selling clients on expensive and sometimes unnecessary technologies, and leaving without really making a difference.  SBR uses a customized assessment process to tailor solutions and we were thrilled to see so many businesses do the same when it came to technology. Long gone are the days of boilerplate solutions; more and more companies are building their systems and services around each client’s need(s) as opposed to a one-size-fits-all approach.

2. Cloud Above All. Let’s start with the good news: many of the latest advancements on the marketplace are owed to nimble cloud-based technologies. It seemed that nearly anything is possible and can be done swiftly. The flip side, though, is that IT should also consider ways to build tools for non-cloud systems.  When we mentioned how many of our clients do not have systems like salesforce.com, it was met with disappointing “oh well” frowns. Many of our larger clients are forced to use bulky, intricate and oftentimes archaic legacy systems that are anything but easy and fast.  Somehow the two worlds need to come together to deliver IT tools for homegrown system companies.

3. Locating Sales Reps Who Understand the Value of the Customer.  If sales reps are fixated on meeting their numbers they will naturally lose the connection with the prospect and in some cases come off as pushy or disengaged. Gerhard Gschwandtner, Founder and CEO of Selling Power, said that during the sales process, focus on the desired business outcome above your personal sales quota (the “value factor”). We feel the same way. At SBR we use the Hartman Value Profile assessment to find the right salespeople who can look beyond numbers and really connect with consumers. The Hartman Value Profile helps vet candidates with an innate “fire in the belly” that can simultaneously focus on sales opportunities and the consumer’s need. Dozens of our clients have been introduced to this tool and have seen amazing results like lower turnover.

4. When Sales is the Goal, Call Guides are not an Option, They’re Obligatory. Let’s face it, most sales representative hate scripts. SBR prefers call guides rather than call scripts that provide all the key information but allow a more natural communication between agent and caller. At Sales 2.0 it was great to hear that there was statistical proof that call guides actually create call control and consistency. Yon Nuta, Cofounder & CEO of Accuvit, showed how to drastically increase sales by analyzing the results of B2B agents who used keywords and followed a system/script as compared to those that did not. The result?  Of the calls where a script was followed, 60% yielded a sale. Call guides can take the caller from beginning to the end in a professional manner and identify the caller’s core need early on in the communication, then promote the product’s features in a way that meets those needs. Call control and communication consistency is possible…and best of all, agents will not sound like robots.

5. A League of Extraordinary Collaborators. Instead of holding onto information and solutions so tightly, Sales 2.0 presenters displayed an eagerness to share their products. The ethos of collaboration was present in nearly every corner. One presenter emailed us his whitepaper and deck (notes included) after we complimented his presentation.  This willingness to pull back the curtain and share insights with others only works to bolster the sales business as a whole.

SBR is always looking to push the envelope, but we do so in a way that introduces new technologies and concepts that meet with each unique client culture. We have to remember that it is the people (not necessarily the presentation) that make or break any conference. The energy was electric and much of that was due to the smart sales leaders who put their whole heart and soul into their delivery.  We can’t wait to return for the Sales 2.0 Conference in 2016!

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What Can Best New Restaurant Teach Us About Sales?

A few weeks ago Miami’s Dolce Italian won Bravo’s latest series, Best New Restaurant. While salivating over the dishes, we couldn’t help but applaud the use of secret diners to film their gastro experience with hidden cameras. The secret diners uncovered some very real issues that could touch all customers. In many cases, the judges suspected these same issues, but couldn’t always prove it (think poorly trained staff, bland food and miscommunication between the front and back of the house). It reminds us that how employees behave when they think nobody is watching is the real experience.

When it comes to any sales environment, and sales contact centers in particular, callers aren’t much different than diners. They will remember the individual agent, how they spoke to them and how they made them feel.  Disinterested and poorly trained agents are just like bland food and poor service.

At SBR, our in-house ethnographers are the secret sauce that uncover these real-world issues. Any sales leader can use the same approach to unearth real (vs. perceived) issues. To get the inside scoop on your consumer experience, skip the hidden camera and pick up the phone* to try and purchase your product or service. Consider these questions:

  • How did the inside sales or customer service agent speak to you (professionally, colloquially, engagingly)?
  • Were you provided with the information you would need to make a buying decision?
  • Did the agent ask questions about how you would use the product or did they just talk in terms of popular features?
  • How simple or complex was the communication? If you knew nothing about your industry, would you walk away understanding your options?
  • Was there any “dead air” (long silences and breaks in the conversation)? Dead air typically indicates a technological problem. The systems are too abundant, redundant or complicated and the agent is busy fussing around to locate the information they need to help callers.
  • Finally, if this one agent were the sole representative for your organization, what persona did they exude? Is that the representation your company wants?

The science of sales and service is built on the end-user experience and a bad one is much like having a bad dinner at a hyped restaurant.  A sour note in sales means more than a bad meal; it directly impacts your bottom line.

* For those of you in field sales, you can go on the road and use the same line of questioning (just be sure to wear a disguise)!

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PACE Conference 2015

Todd Muscatello, Sharon Roberts and Lisa Fiondella at PACE conference in Atlanta.

SBR never turns down a chance to talk about one of our favorite topics: the intersection of sales and ethnography. So when the Professional Association for Customer Engagement (PACE) asked us to be a panelist at their annual conference in Atlanta, it took us about 10 seconds to say “yes”, and just a few hours more to consider what customer engagers might be curious to learn. The panel focused on how in-depth consumer research and the ethnographic method can be used to understand the business consumer and create an amazing experience for the end-user.

Sharon Roberts, SBR’s founder and Principal, provided ways of using ethnography to engage customers. Instead of gathering a bunch of “experts” in the boardroom with stacks of reports and best practices, Sharon explained, we think its better to go straight to the source of the consumer experience. Want to understand what it’s like to buy health insurance in the age of “Obamacare”? Pick up the phone and call your state’s health care exchange. Having trouble hiring and training the sales team? Go on the road and experience what it’s like to be sold to. Wonder what its like for customers to interact with your company? Monitor endless amounts of telephone calls from your call center and assess not just hard skills (like product knowledge) but soft skills as well (such as tone of voice, rapport, willingness to help, and whether they professionally drove the call). Of course, this shouldn’t replace more formal monitoring sessions but it helps to step away from the corporate mindset where we all tend to excuse the lack of consumer engagement.

All in all, a great topic and a fun day in Atlanta. The fact that we got to sit on a panel with one of our clients, Todd Muscatello (VP of Sales for Excellus BlueCross BlueShield), Lisa Fiondella (CEO & Founder of reFocus Analytics) and Rob Marshall (COO of 360CRM) was simply icing on the cake. We’re so grateful to PACE and look forward to seeing everyone again in 2016!

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A Plane, a PowerPoint & an Ugly Baby

You know the excitement at having an entire row on a plane all to yourself? On a recent flight, we were just about to settle into our three-row transporter when a late passenger made their way onto the seat next to us. So much for shut-eye. Within minutes we learned that she was an Executive for a tech company, led a sales team and was eager to get home to her three-year-old twins in Los Angeles.  In great detail she described how they hired an expert company that was known for creating outstanding PowerPoint presentations for the likes of Apple and other preeminent wizards of Silicon Valley.

At an altitude of 10,000 feet, she revealed her newly minted sales presentation. Our mouths dropped (frankly, we have a hard time masking our emotions). The credentials of the company were so strong that we expected the presentation to be a worthy reflection of their brand.  It was visually uninviting, fairly dull and pretty much looked like a rookie designer put it together during an all-nighter. One of our Southern colleagues has a great saying: Nobody wants to hear that their baby is ugly.  In this case, her baby was hideous!

We felt compelled to put our consulting hats on and violate the golden rule of kindergarten : bragging, “Mine is better than yours”.  We couldn’t help it.  The demonstration of a strong sales presentation with a crisp value story was necessary.  So we shared a sample of a few PowerPoint presentations we’ve created for sales teams over the last few years.  Her reaction?  “Wait, what I showed you wasn’t the best version, I need to download another one.”  She did.  It wasn’t better.

Over the past decade requests to create presentations have increased tenfold. This is a win for our clients. It’s one of the big reasons why SBR has built a team comprised of copywriters and graphic designers dedicated to crafting presentations.  So we asked our presentation development team to consider three things that companies can use to create stronger presentations, starting today.

1. Story time: Excellent presentations are built around a story. Long gone are the days of busy theme slides with bulleted laundry lists of product features. Consider the fact the brain is incapable of doing two things at the same time. Reading bullets while listening to you speak is difficult, if not impossible. Consider who in your organization has the skills of a storyteller to help sell your product or service and let them try their hand at capturing your value proposition.

2. Pretty is smarter than you think: If vision is one of our most dominant senses, then a visual presentation needs to honor our need to look at pretty things. White space, clean lines, simple text, pictures! This is an area where hiring outside experience in the form of a graphic designer is worth your time and money.

3. Training needed: Great presentations aren’t meant to replace great salespeople and certainly won’t make up for poor sales skills. In fact, a great salesperson can sell without a formal presentation but can run the risk of appearing unprepared or unprofessional. Take the time to train people on the new sales presentation, especially presentations that are a big departure from their typical methods of communicating.

One day we will brand our own idiom to replace “your baby is ugly,” but for now it’s completely apropos!

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Embrace Rejection!

Ask any salesperson and one of their biggest fears is being rejected. In fact, cast a wider net and many people fear rejection in other areas: Asking a girl on a date. Asking your boss for a raise. Finally writing that novel. Speaking in public actually ranks higher than the fear of dying! These trepidations and others can paralyze even the most ambitious person.

SBR’s inside and field sales training programs dedicate time to overcoming objections, but we’re always looking for new tools and techniques to support this common challenge. Fast forward to the 2015 Sales 2.0 Conference in San Francisco, and we got the new perspective we were seeking: Jia Jiang, author of “Rejection Proof”, brought new light to the sales game that can help salespeople in any industry.

In Jia’s case, he teaches us that rejection (hearing “no”) is indeed non-threatening. The more you experience a “no”, the closer you are to a “yes”. Jia’s experiment illustrates that rejection can be overcome because it is both constant and a numbers game. It’s a matter of shifting your perception.

Easier said than done? We’ll show you how Jia came to this ah-ha moment.

Jia and Sharon at Sales 2.0 in San Francisco.

Jia described how he left a corporate career to become an entrepreneur but soon found himself discouraged by the constant rejection from investors. Feeling the common pangs of fear that come with rejection, Jia could have become crippled by this fear. Instead he entered himself into “Rejection Therapy” where you intentionally force yourself to be exposed to rejection. Eventually, the therapy says, you recognize that the very thing you fear (begin rejected) is not hurting you. Jia took to blogging his daily experience with this intention

“I am going through 100 days of Rejection Therapy, aiming to make 100 crazy requests to get rejected. My goal is to desensitize myself from the pain of rejection and overcome my fear.”

His list of requests was comprehensive, oftentimes risky (fly a plane), bold (ask to make the safety announcement on a flight) and bizarre (get a haircut at Pet Smart). Jia showed a video clip of going into Krispy Kreme and asking an employee to create the Olympic symbol out of donuts. No doubt a crazy request. Not only did the employee produce a beautiful rendition with six accurately-colored rings, but she also gave it to him for free…and with a hug!

The moral here that the more you experience a “no”, the closer you are to a “yes” means that anyone can produce positive results and overcome their sensitivity to rejection. You might even come to enjoy the process. In the sales arena, actively inserting ourselves in encounters that push us to be desensitized and know that we’ll come out much stronger is key. This is an important lesson for all the salespeople and executives that are fearful of the sales encounter.

After listening to Jia speak we ran over to meet him in person and purchased a handful of books. Top of mind was an Executive that was struggling to get his proposal approved. We asked Jia to write a personalized note to this Leader. As we walked back into the conference room, we pulled back the front cover, which read, “Embrace the “no’s” as much as the “yes’s.” What a great way to approach life in general!

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