Telemarketing: Outside Sales’ Right Hand

Within any sales force there are Superstars and then there is everyone else. Most business owners would love to clone their very best salespeople and fill their sales force with these clones. The salespeople would love to be cloned too, as long as they could keep the commissions from all those additional sales.

Back in the early 1980’s I was given the assignment of setting up a Telemarketing department for the purpose of making cold calls and selling our valves and fittings. I had been working at what was affectionately called Inside Sales, but as we all know, was really a simple order desk. My job was to pick up the ringing phone and take down the orders for fittings and replacement parts for capital equipment. Occasionally, of course, there would be a big equipment order based on a previously delivered quotation.

To be honest, that job was boring enough, but making cold calls by phone for valves and fittings got old very quickly. A few thousand dollars in additional sales each week didn’t seem worth the effort. (But then, these were 1980’s dollars, so it was quite a bit more in those days).

One thing I noticed during my time on the order desk was that most of our outstanding quotations for capital equipment would sit in the filing cabinet and never again see the light of day. So one day I began pulling out these quotes and phoning the contact person. When I asked about the status of their inquiry I was very often told that they were still interested in placing the order, but never received any follow-up from the salesman!

Now I had myself a mission. I put together and implemented a plan that very quickly began bringing in an additional $80,000 to $100,000 in monthly sales. Actually, this money had just been sitting there, ready to be collected. To many, this may not seem like much, but for a struggling small company with 175 employees it made an impact.

An outside salesperson for a small company spends much of their time “maintaining” their accounts. Many of these activates can and should be handled by some sort of customer service mechanism. The sales force very quickly adapted to the idea and began telling their accounts to “Call Rick,” whenever minor issues arose. Anything I could do for the account from my end, like answering product questions, sending brochures, checking availability or delivery status, shipping a demo product—and sometimes even closing the sale—would free the salesperson’s time for the most important aspects of their job. It’s my view that a salesperson should be selling, closing, getting the order. Support staff should be handling most everything else.

There’s obviously nothing new here. But many small and even mid-size companies don’t fully utilize the tools they have available, nor have they fully embraced the philosophy to its most rewarding potential.

Here is the Procedure we implemented:

• Prospect calls the company asking for a quotation.
• Support staff documents all the specifics of the features they need.
• If standard feature requests, then Price given over the phone.
• Ask for the order, and if necessary, asks when the prospect will need delivery, and ask for the name of the decision-maker. Sometimes the final decision or approval was made by the Purchasing agent/manager. At other companies the quotation request would be made by them on behalf the of the decision maker. It could be difficult at times to get past this “firewall” in order to get the process expedited.
• Follow up with written quotation sent by mail, along with appropriate brochures for the product.
• Notify the salesperson.
• If staff Closing attempt fails, salesperson visits for second Closing attempt.
• Staff follows up with prospect by phone a few days later, verifies receipt of the quotation, and again asks for the order.
• Staff solicits questions from the prospect, again asking about delivery requirements, numbers of approval signatures they need, etc. Staff asks if they have other needs to expedite the order, such as more information, a product demo, or testimonials.
• If approval process timetables are set in motion by the prospect, the quotation goes into a Tickler file, with a follow-up call scheduled for a time agreed upon.
• At the appointed time, staff calls the prospect for status update, and offers to help with more information, schedule a salesperson visit with the decision-maker, etc.

Many, if not all of these functions are traditional Sales, but coming from in-house staff, especially if called Customer Service personnel/department, can be disarming to the prospect. And it was.

Most of the accounts very quickly adapted to the idea of getting regular follow-up phone calls. We were always asking if they needed anything, if they were having problems, and offering any assistance to any need. The relationships we were building with many of the clients became important as we were able to discover their future plans for additional purchases.

One benchmark of the success of our program was hearing clients tell me they were planning to place another order, and were just waiting for my regular “checking in” call so they would be sure to talk with me directly.

The salespeople obviously loved this program because they were able to spend much more of their time where it was truly needed. They were Closing more sales face-to-face because they now had the time to shoot with a rifle rather than blast with a shotgun. Their commission incomes were rising, so they gave us wholehearted support.

Most companies can benefit from a coordinated effort between an outside and inside sales team. If you already have a telemarketing staff who’s primary responsibility is following up referral or inquiry cards and setting appointments for outside sales, kick it up a notch. Your system is pretty much already in place.

This method is a win for the sales force, the company, and the customer.