Challenge: Finding Outbound Dialing Agents with the Strongest Skills
November 25, 2015
By Tracey E. Schelmetic, TMCnet Contributor
Many contact centers, particularly those in high turnover businesses, don’t tend to be too fussy about who they hire. Once upon a time, in the days of “boiler room” call centers, it was a joke that the ideal candidate would have a pulse and know how to use the telephone. With customer demands for quality and first-call resolution on the rise, this is changing…slowly. And while requirements for an inbound rep may still not be very robust, companies that engage in outbound contact center work have known for a long time they need “someone special.”
Outbound work, or telemarketing, takes a certain kind of individual. This is a person who is ambitious and determined, thick-skinned and engaging on the telephone. It can be argued that the best outbound reps are essentially great salespeople, which is why these rare individuals don’t stay in contact centers for very long: they’re often tapped for outside sales positions, leaving the contact center to find a new skilled employee to fill the seat. Nearly every company that engages in outbound telemarketing has had one: a person they wish they could clone.
So what is it about these outbound stars that make them so good? How do you find more of them? Blue Ocean Contact Center’s Kim Campbell recently wrote that just like you can’t train an alligator to go vegan, you can’t train certain personalities to thrive as outbound sales reps. You need to look for inborn personality traits.
“For example, we try to find the perfect outbound sales reps by testing and evaluating a candidate’s neurolinguistic profile,” wrote Campbell. “That means we try to identify and predict the way a candidate best comprehends information and shares that information with others. Once we’ve measured their neurolinguistic strengths and weaknesses, we can gauge whether or not they have the right natural tendencies and preferences for outbound sales.”
Some of the most important skills outbound reps should be able to demonstrate include listening skills, reflected in high scores in auditory perception; kinesthetic skills, or how they connect with others emotionally; and digital scores, or how they follow procedure and adapt to repetitive work.
“On top of those traits, outbound sales teams need to be adaptable, changing quickly with shifting metrics and objectives,” wrote Campbell. “New changes can come monthly, weekly, or daily. An outsourced partner needs to provide outbound sales reps who can go with the flow, and rise to new challenges on a regular basis.”
Contact centers that have a strong need for outbound agents should have a well-established process in place to recruit, screen and hire the personalities best suited to outbound sales work. Many companies focus too much on previous experience in a similar industry. Experts say industry experience is less important than a cultural fit and an affinity for making sales over the telephone.
“On the outbound sales accounts that we handle, barely anyone enters their first day with deep knowledge of home energy assessments, auto loans, or the other core industries they’re working,” wrote Campbell. “Yet our agents consistently hit the goals set in our service level agreements. Why? The answer is we scrutinize each candidate for the right qualities and values that align with our client and the nature of the work, and then we meticulously train them.”
So in the absence of cloning your employees, consider using your best outbound sales agents as a model for a template: what makes that person a great outbound rep? How you can you uncover these traits in others during the hiring process? What motivates them to succeed, and can you be sure to provide it? Once you have those answers, you can begin the recruiting process and more quickly narrow your focus on the right personality traits.