We talked to Sydney Finkelstein, co-author of “Think Again: Why Good Leaders Make Bad Decisions and How to Keep it From Happening to You” back in March. In this excerpt, Syd discusses 4 red flag conditions that could indicate faulty decisionmaking.
For more information, you can access a web site with more resources about “Think Again.” And you can find the complete 20-minute podcast here.
I’ve heard from several friends in call center operations that outsourcing inbound telesales to the Philippines has resulted in close rates below expectations. In at least one case that I know of, a company is re-establishing an internal sales center to try to get to the root of why telesales is harder to offshore than customer care.
After listening to hundreds of sales calls and care calls and helping companies find actionable patterns in them, I’ve got some opinions on the subject.
1) Sales is harder to script than care – a care call is bounded by the product or service the customer has bought. There’s only so much that can go wrong, and most/all those scenarios are documented and can be scripted into the CRM system. Sales calls are open-ended; they can go anywhere, and can veer off track at any moment. Will the prospect complain about the price? Will they bring up a competitor you’ve never heard from? Any left turn a prospect makes can cause an offshored rep, already managing language complexity and reduced empathy, to panic or lose his place (see “confusion kills sales,” below).
2) It’s easier for a prospect to give up than a customer - anyone who has made a call through an offshored center knows that it’s more difficult to communicate with someone who’s from a different culture, with a different accent and familiar with different figures of speech. That difficulty can breed frustration. A current customer with a problem is more inclined to persevere through the frustration, in order to solve her problem, than a prospect, who can hang up the phone or say, “No thanks” and be no worse off than she was before.
3) Confusion kills sales - if your sales process has a number of steps, and/or it has options a customer has to understand and select, the rep or the customer is prone to become confused. And if the rep gets confused, the prospect is soon to follow. My experience listening to and finding patterns in sales calls tells me that confusion is a sales-killer. There are enough negative emotions swirling around the buying process that adding confusion into the mix can tip a sale from Yes to No.
What have your experiences been with offshored telesales? Are there other reasons sales is difficult to outsource?
(If you’re interested in getting a deeper read as to why your telesales operation is undershooting its objectives, we can help.)
(Photo by vlima.com via Flickr Creative Commons)
Related posts:
Complex sales: it’s all about the negatives
My friend Mark Lowenstein, a longtime wireless industry analyst for Yankee Group and now for his own firm Mobile Ecosystem, wrote a great piece in his recent newsletter on how wireless is changing self-service. He has graciously allowed me to repost it here.
The Evolution of Device-Based Self-Service
With a challenging economy and continued high cost of handset subsidies, advertising, and network capex, wireless operators are continuing to search for ways to save on operational expenditures. Over the past few months, I have had the opportunity to do some research in the area of customer service, and particularly the implementation of device-based solutions, as one of the ways in which operators are saving cost without compromising the customer experience. This column presents a summary of the key findings of this research. If you would like a complimentary copy of the full White Paper, please email me and we will send it to you.
Self-service – defined as the ability of the customer to activate, manage, and troubleshoot their service without human intervention, is now being used across three broad categories of functions:
More recently, the mobile device – with its ubiquity, improved functionality, and usability – has emerged as an important, and complementary tool in the self-service arsenal.
In addition to successful implementations of Web-based self-service solutions, operators are deploying device-based service solutions as well. Properly implemented, these solutions reduce the number of calls or length of call to customer care, while also reducing fulfillment costs, and optimizing service/feature plan selection. Business cases presented in the report demonstrate cost savings of 40-70% for device-based activation and service enrollment functions, with more than 90% of activations/programming now automated in some implementations. For self-care functions, cost savings of 20-50% have been realized, and we are seeing 50% reduction in calls to care centers.
Positive customer experience and demonstrated ROI with initial self-service implementations, combined with improvements in device interface, memory, and speed are leading to an aggressive roadmap for implementation of new capabilities in the account management area, such as viewing data usage consumption, changing price plans, and replenishing minutes for pre-paid accounts. We also see some potential revenue-enhancing opportunities, such as promotion/up selling of services and the creation of loyalty programs and greater tie-ins to advertising. Device-based self-service will also play a critical role in helping operators work with the growing number of third-party retailers selling wireless devices and services.
We also spend some time in the report discussing a successful go-to-market approach. A good user experience, which includes ease of navigation, simple presentation of information, and completion/confirmation of transactions, is one important element. I have also found that many go-to-market solutions fall apart without proper training in the channel, including retail sales and customer support representatives. We have also found cross-promotion with Web-based account management solutions to be effective.
Over the years, I have written about how wireless is unique in providing free customer care across a breadth of issues, many of which have little to do with the core service operators are providing. As devices and services become more complex, I believe one of the more effective ways to “resource” for high-touch interactions on complex issues is to implement a flexible, and user-friendly suite of self-service solutions for the more commonplace elements of activation, account management, and entry-level care, across the Web and device channels.
Sue Shellenbarger, in today’s Wall Street Journal, reports on a Harvard Business School study that showed benefits of taking some time off from work every week. Shellenbarger also tried to keep one day per weekend work-free all month. She also reported good results: “On one recent Monday, after an invigorating weekend of working out, attending church and watching college football and hiking with friends, I quickly solved a work problem that had baffled me the previous week.”
What’s surprising about this study is that the results are a surprise to anyone. Working while exhausted does not promote the world’s greatest critical thinking. Yet, crushing work schedules continue to be a badge of honor among senior executives. I wonder how many bad acquisitions could have been avoided if the acquiring CEOs and CFOs followed Shellenbarger’s prescription?
Related posts:
The 21-hour-a-day trader
To innovate, get some rest
In this minipodcast, my friend Robert Wiesheu, who has sold in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa for more than 10 years, discusses a little-known corner of the sales world: the use of local agents to break into a new country market. It’s a challenging area with lots of traps – listen to Robert’s common-sense recommendations.
Related post:
Full Shop Talk Podcast with Robert Wiesheu
There are no standards for creating business email addresses, and so the formats chosen reveal a lot about the company behind them. Here’s an overview:
Corporate Titans (or wannabes): jennifer.mann@titancorporation.com. This format is serious, sober, and says, “Don’t mess with us – we have thousands of employees.” (An extreme example is Accenture’s format: Jennifer.n.mann@accenture.com.)
Friendly SMB’s: jennifer@philsflorist.com. Everyone’s on a first name basis with them.
Sole Proprietors: westshorecpa@gmail.com. The lack of your own domain name is a dead giveaway – technology is not a big part of your strategy.
Nostalgics: MANNJ72@firstnationalbank.com. The seven-character name comes from old IBM-mainframe-style user ids, which were limited in length. This format says: we loved the world before servers.
Do email address formats affect the way you view companies? Which model do you prefer?
My colleague had set up a meeting with a prospect. I traveled to the office and we spent time preparing – chatting about the customer, next steps, do we set up a projector? etc. Then, at the time the meeting was supposed to start, the email arrived. “I’m sorry, but I won’t be able to make the meeting,” wrote the prospect.
“Did you confirm the meeting?” I asked.
My colleague shrugged. “Sure, we agreed on this time two weeks ago.”
It’s natural to blame the prospect here. He had agreed to the meeting–didn’t he know how to manage his calendar?
But this example demonstrates something important. We needed that meeting more than the prospect did. Delay won’t affect him much – his work will go on. Delay affects our timing of revenue (assuming we win), or even the likelihood that the prospect will do anything at all (remember “Time Kills Deals”?).
As much as we talk about “value exchange” and “partnering” with our customers, the truth of the matter is that during the selling cycle they are more important to us than we are to them.
And that means, even when a prospect commits to a meeting, we need to follow up – a week ahead (”here’s an agenda for our meeting”), then a couple of days before (”really looking forward to meeting; is there anything else you want to cover?”). Because if they forget, we pay the price.
Related post:
Shop Talk Podcast #1: Gordon Adams on “Time Kills Deals” (worth the listen to experience a truly primitive podcast – they have gotten a lot better sounding, don’t you think?)
Kathy Hansen of the A Storied Career blog has been conducting interviews of storytelling figures large and small for nearly two years now, and has collected these into an e-book, available via this link.
I’ve been following the interview series with interest and, as mentioned in the title of this post, it’s a very wide-ranging look at storytelling and its uses. As such, there’s some of it that doesn’t speak to me very much. On the other hand, there are parts that I find extremely valuable. Like this…
Cynthia Kurtz on “approaches that don’t respect the integrity of the raw story and end up … injecting the biased interpretations of people outside the community:” There are two positions embedded in that statement — raw stories and self-interpretation — and I can tell a story from my own experience describing how I came to my current understanding of each position. The first position is that raw stories of personal experience are far superior to crafted stories for the things I care about when working with stories. For the purposes of advertising products and services, delivering specific purposeful messages, and entertaining people, crafted stories are often (but not always) best. But for the purposes of helping people learn, think, make decisions, get new ideas, grow, and get along, I’ve found that there is nothing better than a raw story. (NB: The entire interview with Cynthia is so valuable I have printed it out and refer to it regularly.)
and this:
Whitney Quesenbery on storytelling in user experience design: Although user experience [UX] stories are built on insights from research, their purpose is to help create something new. Often, they explore how a new or updated product can change an unsatisfactory experience into a good one. They describe a possible future condition, and in doing so help it become a reality.
This is not all user experience stories, of course. Sometimes, we use stories to present a current or past situation. But the reason we spend time thinking about current experience is to be able to create new experiences — and move us into the future. … Every UX project involves managing a lot of information. Even a small site involves balancing the business goals, user needs, and technical possibilities. When you are working on a large project it’s hard to stay focused on the goal of creating an excellent user experience, because you are managing so many details and (sometimes) conflicting needs. The other difficulty is keeping the “user” in sight. Perhaps that sounds strange for work on the user experience, but typically the users are not part of the design and development team, so it’s easy to ignore them.
With their ability to communicate so effectively, and on such a deep level, stories are one way to manage both challenges. They are a natural way to describe events, brainstorm ideas, engage the imagination, and build community around the new design.
oh, and this (self-promotion alert):
John Caddell: There has been an immense amount of investment in the last 20 years in business-process re-engineering and process standardization and in IT systems and to support those initiatives. We’ve taken process improvement about as far as it can go. In fact, we’ve taken it a bit too far. With companies applying Six Sigma to things like sales processes (???), and not surprisingly achieving poor results, it is time to seek new tools. And narrative is a perfect tool to help shed light on complex questions (Is our reorganization helping the company to perform better? Is this a good or lousy place to work? Why aren’t people buying our new product?).
Here are some of the other contributors whose work I know and respect:
Stephane Dangel
Thaler Pekar
Shawn Callahan
Ardath Albee
So, I’d recommend you take a look; you’ll likely find things that you can use.
This post is part of Charles Green’s Carnival of Trust, a monthly review of blog entries discussing elements of trust in relationships among people and companies. Thanks to Charlie for inviting me to host this month’s Carnival.
What is trust? Or, more directly, what are the conditions for trust to be present, between a customer and a company or between two companies? This was a theme of several great blog entries this month. To Ron Ashkenas in the Harvard Business Publishing Conversation Starter, simplicity creates trust. He writes: “When you create complicated explanations of products, services, and contracts, customers often feel that you aren’t being truthful about what’s being offered.”
In a selling situation, a salesperson’s knowledge and insight are essential to creating trust, according to Dave Brock. “If the customer doesn’t know, immediately, that you can contribute to what they are doing, they will be reluctant to engage in any kind of discussion with you.”
Roger Dooley of the Neuromarketing blog writes that fairness and transparency are essential to trusting and effective relationships between partners and that engaging in those behaviors (which are rare indeed in many business dealings) can yield better profits than every-man-for-himself negotiation.
Another dimension of trust is allowing autonomy – the ability to loosen the leash a bit and allow employees to make their own decisions rather than the system deciding for them. For example, deciding what material they need to access, even if it’s outside their everyday needs. Bruce Schneier discusses the ineffectiveness of “role-based access control” and argues for a system that sets employees’ access rights but allows them to override these controls when they decide it’s necessary. These escalations are closely audited and inappropriate accesses are penalized. In a world where companies are logging keystrokes to “ensure” remote workers’ productivity, Schneier’s proposal is welcome indeed.
A warning to companies reinventing themselves: merely acting differently can impact the trust their customers have in them, according to Lewis Green in his post, “Social Strategies Grow Out of the Culture, Not the Tactics.” Writes Green, “When customer service is outsourced overseas and customers perceive a decline in their experience, people conclude that efficiency and cutting costs are more important than customers.”
Being able to balance a corporate strategy with the need and perceptions of customers is necessary for trust, as well. So writes Bob Sutton about the dust-up caused by Wal-Mart creating an imitation Girl Scout cookie for sale in its stores. (I posted earlier on Sutton’s post, here.)
Wally Bock talks about the unique and rare breed of trust between an employee and his/her boss (”How Do I Trust Thee?“). To Bock, a boss must be willing to stand up to his own management and defend/protect the employees who work for him. Without this, trust is nonexistent. This post made me think of my management experiences: how often did I stand up for my employee, and how often did I find it easier to agree with my boss about things the employee should do better?
Indirect means of building trust are necessary when your product is intangible – when you’re “selling the invisible,” writes Jorge Lazaro Diaz. Doctors, for example, can build trust in patients by listening to them, showing care and concern, and running an organized office. Patients see these behaviors as proxies for what they’re really in the market to buy, but what’s hard to measure in advance – curing what ails them.
And to wrap up, remaining on the subject of doctors, Scott Eblin mines a New York Times article about a palliative care specialist for leadership lessons. Dr. Sean O’Mahony talks to patients who are dying. He is honest, clear, caring, and curious about his patients’ feelings. He also keeps a level of detachment, preserving his emotional reserves for other patients and his own needs. In this case, passion does not promote trust, it can damage it.
(Thanks to Ian Welsh for collecting an excellent batch of posts to choose from.)
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