| Experts Corner |  With the advent of huge spam levels, plus restrictions on email marketing from the EU, what is the effectiveness of permission email to customers and to prospects?
Andy Wood, MD, GI Insight
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Up-Selling and Cross-Selling: Transforming your Cost Center to a Profit Center
Dr. Jon Anton, Director of Purdue University Center for Customer-Driven Quality, BenchmarkPortal, Inc.
 In order to build a successful up-sell and/or cross-sell call center, three topics must be addressed: a) business model issues, b) training and staffing issues, and c) technology issues.
From our database of thousands of call centers, we recruited a group of ten “Best-In-Class” companies that represented major industries to participate in a study to determine what makes a successful up/cross-sell call center. Each participant was an inbound call center with at least 100 seats. Each had the opportunity to up/cross-sell on at least 40 percent of its inbound calls. This article is based on findings from that study.
Business Model Issues
The business model for the successful implementation of an up/cross-sell program must focus on a paradigm shift from cost center status to profit center status via the value of incremental sales. To implement such a paradigm shift, call center leaders are advised to execute a formalized “culture campaign” to shift the department’s focus from strictly service to an emphasis on both service and sales. To ease the typical pains associated with this kind of a shift, it’s advised that you teach agents to sell using a customer needs-based, or soft-sell, selling approach. Before fully rolling out an up/cross-sell program, it is highly recommended that you also launch a pilot program.
Businesses may be well served in achieving up/cross-sell success by also placing emphasis upon factors such as product training, operational efficiency, and agent effectiveness.
Solid executive sponsorship from all levels of the leadership team supporting the call center is of critical importance to a successful up/cross-sell program business model. Executives should show long-term commitment to the program’s success by providing adequate budgets for staffing, training, and technology. Additionally, executive level goals and incentives should be tied to the center’s up-/cross-sell results.
The agent model is also a critical component of a successful up/cross-sell program. Both the universal agent model, in which the agent handles the up/cross-sell, and the dedicated sales representative model, in which up/cross-sell calls are transferred to dedicated sales representatives, can be effective depending on the complexity and price points of the products.
Developing performance-tracking metrics is important in determining the success of a newly implemented up/cross-sell program. Key metrics for tracking individual agent sales performance include: the number of offers, percentage of up-sells, overall quality of service provided, caller satisfaction, and calls per hour. Key metrics reflecting the level of success of the business model at the center level include: call quality, cost per contact, annual revenue, and of course caller satisfaction with the call handling experience. Other metrics to be considered include: average handle time, call-to-sale ratios, repeat sales, orders per call, margin per call, and number of contacts per customer.
Several models exist for compensating customer service agents and they differ from the more traditional telemarketing agent. The most common model being that an agent’s compensation includes a base salary at least 70% of the total compensation plan. Other elements of a total sales compensation package can include sliding scale commission accelerators, gift certificates, cash prizes, team incentives, and/or bonuses based first on providing excellent customer service and then on sales attempts and/or confirmed sales.
Determining how to set and track goals is an important step in setting up the up/cross-sell program. First, a product implementation strategy team should be formed. The team should consist of the call center manager, a marketing analyst, an IT expert and a third party expert who understands how to formalize the product implementation plan and set goals.
This plan must: establish how new products will be sold and presented to the agent, anticipate and set goals for selling the product, and determine how much incentive will be given to the agents. Back-end tracking reports must be devised to accurately present the findings to agents and management staff, including number of sales, cost of sales, and profit margin. Finally, one should design a formal review process that allows validation of the sales goals and assures that the incentive plan is correctly set to drive the desired results.
Staffing And Training Issues
Hiring and training practices for agents and leadership can directly impact the success of an up/cross-sell program. Pre-employment assessment tools can assist management in finding candidates who will make good employees, but they are only effective if utilized properly. The ideal agent profile used in the assessment should be regularly benchmarked and revised to reflect the desired attributes, characteristics, or skills of the company’s top performers with long tenure.
The quality of the training those agents receive can make or break the up/cross-sell program. Training programs must be comprehensive and instructionally sound. They must address all learning styles and incorporate adult learning theories and techniques. They must include definitive facts (for product knowledge courses) and/or skill models (for soft skills training) that are taught in short, easily understood, modules or segments. Learning should be reinforced even after training ends.
The best agent sales training program consists of a rich mixture of customized classroom, on-the-job, computer-based, and one-on-one training combined with sales-skills coaching and positive quality assurance (QA) feedback by trained supervisors. Nesting, a technique where newly hired agents are physically grouped together on the production floor to handle live calls with very close coaching and supervision, is a particularly effective way to build the confidence and skills of new hires in a safe coaching environment.
Technology Issues
Technology plays an integral part in the success of the add-on sales opportunity. Customer relationship management (CRM) sales tools are commonly used by call centers. CRM technology can include: scripting, product discount/spiff identifiers, product coupling, and propensity-to-buy indicators.
These CRM sales tools can be used to “trigger” possible up/cross-sell solutions or prompt the agent to ask for the sale by providing scripts, taking out the add-on sales guesswork. Performance tracking can also be recorded via the CRM system, providing the management team with information including how often an agent asks for a sale, how many sales that agent closes, and the dollar amount of each sale.
Workforce management tools also directly contribute to the overall up/cross-sell effort. By identifying the appropriate increase in call length due to selling efforts and entering in the accurate information into the workforce management software, the correct number of agents are scheduled and sufficient time is given to handle the up/cross-sell call. Adequate staffing promotes agent well being and reduces stress levels; it also increases the opportunity for up-selling and cross-selling.
Along with technology, the marketing department plays a significant role in the up/cross-sell model. For example, the marketing department can identify the proper products that are closely aligned with other products. They also identify the customer’s propensity to purchase other products based on initial products purchased.
This type of predictive modeling support can be provided for the call center via the marketing department and entered into the CRM application. It provides the agent with triggers that help them ask for the sales. Marketing’s ability to fine-tune this operation, along with the CRM tool, increases the sales capabilities enormously.
Conclusion
In order to build a successful up/cross-sell call center, business model issues, training and staffing issues, and technology issues must be addressed. By using such a clearly defined, focused operations blueprint, call centers are equipped to be transformed from cost centers into profit centers.
| BenchmarkPortal is the custodian of the Purdue University Center for Customer-Driven Quality database of contact center metrics, the largest in the world. It provides reports, products and services for contact centers in the areas of operational metrics, customer satisfaction measurement and agent satisfaction measurement. For more information about BenchmarkPortal, call Dr. Jon at 805.614.0123, extension 50, or visit our Web site at: www.BenchmarkPortal.com.
Company: BenchmarkPortal, Inc.
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