How to maximise the performance of telesales staff is a constant question for many managers. Telesales training courses typically focus on questioning and listening skills, handling objections and closing the sale. These are essential skills, but how much is actually practised once the employee is back at their desk?

For example, some telesales staff may be introverts, who find it much harder than their extrovert colleagues to pick up the phone and make a call. I have worked with sales teams who were not reaching their targets for sales visits. Their managers were at their wits end why did the sales team not just make a call and ask for an appointment? To the managers it was glaringly obvious. The teams, however, tended towards introversion and were uncomfortable with the idea of forcing themselves on the client, as they saw it, and kept putting off the calls.

When we discussed the problem in terms of them helping and supporting the client by explaining their services and how they could solve the clients problems, they were able to operate from their natural energy and started to make the calls. An almost 100% success rate in securing appointments encouraged them to continue!

This is an example of how telesales coaching brings the training to life. The coach spends one-to-one time with each member of the team as they talk to real customers. Unhelpful habits and phraseology is identified and better alternatives practised which immediately result in better rapport and deeper understanding of customer needs.

With the support of the coach, they are able to experiment with new behaviour they would never have risked or even considered while working alone, and start to experience better results than ever before. Their new success leads to increased confidence, a markedly more positive attitude and sustained improvement in performance.

In a recent programme, there was an immediate increase of 300% in appointments made! Figures for subsequent sales are not yet available, but at the very least are likely to be several times the cost of the training, in itself an excellent return, not even taking into account the probable rise in job satisfaction and reduced staff turnover.

Andy Britnell

Andy Britnell has worked as a professional musician, a cheesemonger and in hotels, including Claridges and the Savoy in London. He spent 15 years with BT, latterly designing and delivering international management, sales and graduate development programmes. He now lives in Cornwall, UK, where as well as enjoying the surf and the coastal footpath, he runs a training and coaching practice specialising in sales, customer service and personal development training for the private and public sectors. He is an accredited coach and trainer of the Insights Discovery System which is a model based on the pioneering personality profiling work of Carl Jung. Using colour as a common language for better understanding of self and others, it helps people operate and communicate more effectively. Andy gains great satisfaction from helping his clients to grow and learn, and from the rapid progress they make in their business and personal lives. He works constantly on his own development and practises Ki Aikido, the ancient Japanese art of working with energy.