The customer service representative (CSR) brings two avenues for increasing sales.
By John J. McCann
Much has been written about the importance and value a well-trained, competent outside sales representative brings to any distributor organization. As we move deeper into the computerized age, the outside sales representative will continue as developer of the one-to-one relationships with important customers. However, this personal relationship can grow immensely with the assistance of one more employee — the in-house, customer service representative.
I have personally seen the positive response and respect given to the customer service representative (CSR) from both the customer and the sales reps themselves. When you hear comments like, "I don’t know what I would do without my CSR!" that tells you a competent CSR is worth his weight in gold to the distributorship — and the customer. CSRs serve as the lifeline for both. While the rep is out in the field making calls on current and future customers, there is another trusted source of product and distributor information available to your clients just a phone call away, thus saving customers and sales people much needed time in solving problems.
Normally distributors have assigned designated CSRs to each of their sales representatives. An additional responsibility of sales management and even the sales person, should be to ensure that their CSR receives the most up-to-date training on products and systems and how those products and systems will solve a customer’s problems. When feasible, CSRs should be sent to factory schools offered by manufactures and vendors to learn the newest information.
Training class
While conducting sales training sessions for distributors, I have also run training classes specifically set up for in-house customer service departments. With large distributor organizations, we have split the group in half and conducted two training programs during a morning or afternoon so the phones remain staffed during normal business hours.
During these sessions, review:
Depending upon the goals of a particular training session we conduct role-play scenarios, testing the ability of the CSR in:
No training session would be complete without a review of phone etiquette as well. Sessions like this do not have to be lengthy, just available on a consistent basis to keep the CSRs updated. Another great value for the distributor who shows interest in seeing their CSRs well-trained is employee retention.
It has been reported for years that the corporate headquarters of McDonald’s shuts down one day each year so all home office personnel can go into the field to work at local stores. This gives these employees an opportunity to maintain contact with their two customers — the public who buy McDonald’s products and their co-workers who sell them. A distributor should bring CSRs out into the field once each year to make sales calls with their assigned sales people on key end user accounts. In this manner, the CSRs and the buyers can meet each other on a face-to-face basis. Putting a face to a name and a voice has a way of increasing the bond between two people who deal with each other consistently over the phone. And the CSR benefits from seeing what the sales person does each day.
While I was with the training department of another national manufacturer, all of our CSRs were cycled through ongoing sales training programs. These programs were provided to our sales people and our distributor sales representatives from across the country. Being included in these sessions provided our CSRs with ongoing, up-to-date product knowledge and hands-on opportunities to see our products in action during demonstrations. When asked on the phone by future end users if a product would perform as expected, the CSR can now respond affirmatively and add a supportive comment such as, "I have worked with this product myself, and I know it works!" This sort of positive statement will have remarkable results with the customer, and will cement a bond of trust.
Customer service representatives can be a great source of incremental new business to distributorships. Often CSRs will process incoming orders as well as handle customer problems over the phone. By adding one additional ingredient — sales training — these important team members can dramatically increase their overall value to the distributor’s company.
Teach to ask
It’s easy to teach CSRs how to initiate questions during call-in sessions with customers. When a customer calls to place an order — they want to buy. When they are calling in with a problem, the solution is actually a chance to make additional sales. The ability of your CSR to ask proper questions is critical in determining what the best solution is. A customer doesn’t care who can fix a problem, they just need the problem eliminated efficiently. During the course of asking questions, additional customer needs can be uncovered, thus leading to proposing new products from the distributorship to solve these new-found problems.
Customer service representatives can be trained on a "Product of the Month" basis. They can be taught how a specific product can help customers solve problems. However, CSRs also can be trained on groups of products that yield the most turns for the distributor and in this manner they are now armed with information on many problems to help solve many customer problems.
Two types
There are two types of customer service representatives — inbound and outbound.
Inbound CSRs handle all incoming phone calls for orders or customer problems. Outbound CSRs can be used to go after new business for the distributor or take over responsibility for the less profitable accounts currently called on by sales people.
Soon, I believe, distributors will be forced to turn over smaller accounts, those whose purchases do not cover the costs of having a sales person make personal visits, to CSRs.
A well-trained CSR who can maintain contact with the end user, take orders on a regular basis, probe for existing problems and make product recommendations will allow the account to be handled in a more profitable manner.
With either use, a CSR can become a strong sales arm for the distributor. When customers are calling to place an order, many times adding items to a new purchase order can be easily done with the use of proper questioning techniques, and increased listening skills. The kinds of training conducted with an outside sales force can be structured in a way to make your CSRs an even more valuable selling tool for your distributorship.
CSRs should be included in sales meetings on a revolving basis. Involving them in any sales training classes that become available at the distributor level will pay big dividends. Investing in the professionalism of your CSRs can only aid in holding together the business relationship that has been established between the end user, the distributor and the sales representative.
If I were a customer with a problem and I thought I could get a solution with just one phone call, then your CSR just put me ahead of the game, and increased your sales.
John J. McCann, a Greer, SC-based business consultant, retired from S.C. Johnson Wax after 20 years. For more information, visit http://www.mccannmotivations.com.