TeleIntelligence

At our call center we do not compensate the callers with a bonus if they get a lead.

In our TeleIntelligence Programs, we pay our callers well, train them well and treat them well. They can work any 20 hours a week that they'd like and wear shorts in the summer and sweats in the winter. We work with high caliber clients and only do B2B calling. We don't sell aluminum siding to residents on a Sat morning.

Our callers are also not sales people. They are calling and qualifying opportunities to be turned over to sales people. We have not had turnover in more than a year and we have some of the original callers we hired on staff.

Paying a caller a bonus puts the onus on a caller to decide what a lead is. They will be generous in the description because they are motivated to do so by the additional money they will earn. With our programs, the callers are motivated by the quality of the lead. They continue to work with the customer, garnering feedback so that they are in a better position to ask more relevant questions and take each opportunity as far as they can.

We are proud of the way we work and the results we produce. Contact us at 312.697.0885 or adale@fullcirclemgmt.com if you'd like us to create a successful program for your company.

Time Management

I developed our Time Management workshop based on feedback from salespeople. The comments on the Sales Training evaluations I received said "all of your sales processes sound great, we just don't have time."

So I developed a Time Management course specifically for sales people. We're usually a right-brained bunch doing a ton of multi-tasking and a military style approach which focuses on perfection and rigid time management practices won't work for us. I started doing some research a created a pretty unique program.

I begin the one day session by re-assuring my group that I do not want them to work more hours. We already work a ton of hours and the answer is not to work more hours. The goal is to get more out of the hours we already work.

I actually use a time management assessment to identify the components of successful time management and where the participants can improve.

Personally I'm great at meeting deadlines. No one would ever guess that I have a time management issue. I do and my greatest challenge is Procrastination. I can come up with a million creative things to do when there is a task before me that I don't want to do.

I've learned to work around this challenge. One of the tactics I use to avoid procrastination is to set a time limit. I had to figure out how to set up my Internet service in my office. I hate this stuff. I avoided it for several days and came up with many excuses. Then I finally scheduled a time from 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. to figure it out. I figured it out by 3:45 p.m.

Knowing that I would not have to do it for more than two hours helped me to stop avoiding it. And I completed the task before my deadline which thrills my sales person's heart.

TimeMgmt Flyer

Great Start, Poor Follow Through

I'm working on renting a beautiful apartment on the NW side of Chicago. I have the ad posted in a local newspaper.

A woman from a rental agency contacted me. I admired her creativity. Great place to look for prospects to sign contracts to rent apartments and a great place to scout out properties for your renters. Clever.

She said she had a renter for my property. I felt that was a lie but moved forward anyway because if she's clever getting contracts perhaps she'll be clever in finding renters.

I submitted a contract and haven't heard from her again. Too bad.

I have this experience when I'm coaching and training sales people. They have GREAT intentions when they get going but fizzle out pretty quickly.

There's a statistic that most sales are made after the fifth call. Most sales people call once and quit, 25% call two times and quit and only 10% keep trying.

If the metric is sales are made after the fifth call, if you haven't called at least five times, you are not even in the game. If only 10% of all sales people play there, you don't have much competition.

If you look at your CRM system and note that you have not made five points of contact, get to work!

Networking Meetings

When you attend networking meetings, mix it up. If you sell technology don't go to meetings that will attract other people in technology.

Go to a meeting of an association of florists, general contractors, manufacturers, service providers. If you do, you'll be the one of the few technology experts or maybe even the only one and you'll make a lot of contacts.

Mix it up.

The Power of the Customer

“There is only one boss. The customer. And he can fire everybody in the company from the chairman on down, simply by spending his money somewhere else.”

Sam Walton (1918–1992) American retailer founder of Wal-Mart

As customers we have power we forget about and don't exercise often enough. Wal-Mart is a great example. Many people don't feel right about the fact that American workers don't have adequate health care, yet the largest purchaser of health care in America, Wal-Mart does little to challenge the problem. In addition, we struggle with wages that don't meet the minimum living expenses but turn a blind eye at the exorbitant profits Wal-Mart posts.

Let's fire them.

I'm not afraid of a fair negotiation. Going for the cheapest price and leveraging your vendors has a long-term ripple affect. I was recently at a meeting for small business owners. We were discussing the lack of available financing and how it was affecting our growth. One man who once owned a $25 million company with no debt bragged "I financed my business on the backs of my vendors."

Yuck. He entered into business relationships with no intention of paying within terms. Stretching out his payments for 90 and 120 days. Vendors who wanted business and trusted him fell for it and he was able to grow a profitable business.

He asked for my card. He's starting a new venture and needs sales support. There's no need for him to call me. I'm not financing anyone's business and he's not the kind of guy I want to do business with.

Trust is key in mutually beneficial business relationships. Customers like him would ruin FullCircle Management.

Can I Wear Jeans?

I was just asked by a sales rep if he could wear jeans to a meeting.

My response is dress one level up.

Sales Calls

When you're meeting or telephone prospects make sure to have a goal of what you'd like to accomplish.

One of the goals I have is to "make it the best call they've had all day."

Find a reason to connect with your prospect, give them some value, an idea, a new way of looking at things. Make them laugh. We're all stressed out and busy multitasking with too many requirements put on us. Isn't it great when someone comes along and lightens our load a little bit?

Make it the best call they've had all day.