Blog

Can Somebody Please Train People that Work in Call Centers

October 3rd, 2023 by Kenneth Abrahams

Like many of you I get unsolicited calls every day trying to sell me something. Recently, I had one that will go down in the record books. My phone told me it was a SPAM Risk and still I picked up. How is it that this piece of electronics is so much smarter than I am? To be fair, on occasion it has labeled several of my client’s numbers as a SPAM Risk as well, so it is not infallible, this time it was spot on. So, I picked up the call, big mistake, 5 minutes, and 12 seconds of my life I will never get back.

Thinking that the phone might be right I simply said, “Hi this is Ken Abrahams can I help you.” Since the phone is registered under our CFO Wayde Anders name this is often enough to end the call. Not this time. A cheerful voice asked how I was doing, gave me his name and then launched into his sales pitch. According to him, and it may be true, we had spoken several months earlier about our website and that I had instructed him to give me a call back in a few months. What I probably said was that we were not interested at the time if we spoke at all. Undeterred, he launched into yet another jargon laden monologue on all that was wrong with our website. I let him ramble for a few minutes before politely telling him we were not interested. Things from this point went downhill and a bit sideways.

He tried a different tactic that was even less successful. This has nothing to do with the money, I don’t care about the money was the new road he tried to guide me down. Clients that have worked with us for years know that money isn’t our driving force at FUN Enterprises. That being said, we do need to make money to keep the doors open. Here was an individual making a cold sales call trying to tell me it wasn’t about the money. My reaction was neither subtle nor gentle. Of course, this is about the money. It rang as disingenuous a statement as I had ever heard. It was almost as if there was a commercial vehicle on the other end of the line as you could hear him trying to back up from that statement. There was a good 10 seconds of stammering as he tried to regain his composure. Undeterred he tried yet another avenue.

He had made over 200 calls that day and no one was buying. At the end of the day his boss was going to come to him and ask why he hadn’t closed any sales. There was a very real possibility that he was going to lose his job. Still unmoved and still not buying, the next route was to claim that because he and his colleagues had spent time and effort reviewing our website, I owed him the time and our business. As you might imagine that was no more successful than any other part of his pitch. Patiently, I tried to explain that we were turning down a fair amount of work because we simply didn’t have the staff to cover it. Improvements to our website, increased traffic, and additional opportunities were just not what we needed right now. That didn’t matter to my newfound friend, the focus was on the fact that 200 calls had been made with no sales to show for it. Unfortunately, that was far more his problem than mine.

Years ago, I avoided the title of salesman or telling people I did sales for a living. There was, at least for me, a negative connotation to the title and the work. To be fair, like many people at FUN I have a wide range of roles that I fill. There are many titles I can give to myself, and I choose to call what I do Client Relations and not sales but, in the end, it is the sales that puts food on the table and pays the bills. Over time, I have come to embrace the whole sales thing. Although not traditionally a numbers person the numbers are a challenge to be met and a puzzle to be figured out. As a True Colors Green and with learner as my number one strength in Clifton Strengths, (Feel free to contact me if you don’t understand that piece. Also see links at the end), the puzzle that is sales has been fun to learn and to try and figure out.

In my sales educational journey there have been books, videos, newsletters, training courses, and webinars galore. All have provided me keys and strategies to unlock this puzzle. Some tactics are easy and comfortable to adapt while others make my skin crawl and remind me of why the title salesman had negative connotations for me and still does for many others. Trying to convince someone that you had already spoken, or leaving half a message in someone’s voicemail so that they believe their system cuts you off are techniques I would never bring myself to use. Information about buyer perspectives is always fascinating to read or hear about. Buyer perspective is always changing but even more rapidly since our “friend” COVID 19 dropped by. Things that seem obvious are not always so or simply hearing a reminder is great. One quick example is: don’t try and guess what your client wants, ask them. At times, we know what people need or want from us when realistically if we want to be certain we need to ask.

For those either in sales or training people to be in sales here are a few tips that I have picked up:

1. Never assume you know what a client needs or wants.
2. Most people buy for three reasons: need, price, or relationship.
3. As a salesperson you are there to help your clients solve a problem, not push your wares on them.
4. We were given 2 ears and one mouth we should use them proportionally.
5. Sales are not about the seller; they are always about the buyer.
6. Most clients don’t want to hear about your problems nor should they.
7. Regardless of what you do, it is always important to have a positive attitude.

About the author:

Ken Abrahams has been in sales in one form or another for almost 50 years. He has worked in drug stores, grocery markets, a delicatessen, a cutlery store, and many other places as well. Selling is what he does for a living but trying to help clients out and brainstorming with them is what he loves to do. https://www.truecolorsintl.com/tciblog/ready-for-success-take-the-true-colors-personality-test

https://www.gallup.com/cliftonstrengths/en/home.aspx