Hone your skills to provide better customer service on phone

If you’ve got the experience of calling some company’s helpline and talking to their representatives, you must be having an idea of the difference that the person on the other side of the telephone line can make. Some representatives are able to make a positive impression even before the actual conversation take place. Research shows that a good percentage of angry customers skipped the idea of getting rude and using foul language, just because the person who received the call sounds too polite and erudite. We can safely assume that a big majority of these customers must have skipped the idea of bad mouthing that particular business in front of their friends, as well.

On the contrary, some representatives take pleasure in poking fun at customers and making them feel sorry for even thinking about complaining or making an inquiry. Sometimes it can be due to insufficient training or little or no check over your CSR. Sometimes little things like advising them to call to another number or sending an email to some specific address can prove to be a big enough turnoff (ideally it should be the customer service representative who’ll forward their complains to the concerned department). At times the prospective customer calls a new business and upon hearing a somewhat discourteous greeting, the first thing that comes to his/her mind is “if hiring their services means hearing such displeasing response more often, then there’s no way I m getting into business with these fellows”.

Your customer service staff needs to be au fait with the main idea that they are there for customer’s service. What a “shocking revelation” Mr. writer, you must be thinking, but this obvious point is ignored by customer service staff quite often. CSR people are there to serve the customers, not for giving short answers to their questions and hanging up the phone instantly or take another call. However, it’s not always the customer service staff that makes this mistake, sometimes business owners are themselves the culprits, without even noticing it. If you are a small business and you don’t have the need or resources to hire specialized staff, you must hone your skills to give a better impression.

You don’t necessarily need to join some crash course of improving your telephonic conversation; some mock calls with your family members or friends can give you plenty of advice to work on. All you need is to ask them to comment on your voice quality, selection of words and convincing techniques.

Source:
UK Wholesale Suppliers, Distributors, Dropshippers & Manufacturers
Computers Wholesale Suppliers

Do you need a Sales Compensation Plan?

Sales Compensation Plan, or in simple words “sales commission plan” is a must to attract and motivate a sales force that delivers. In the absence of a sound Sales Compensation Plan (or in case of poor planning), you’ll keep loosing your sales reps (and eventually your sales) on regular basis. Apart from the motivating factor, it also helps in effective HR management, assisting you in carrying out duties like promotions, downsizing and recruitment. It won’t be an exaggeration if we state that the sales-force works as the engine of a business, by the same token sales commissions can be deemed as the fuel that runs this engine. Good commission means good fuel and good fuel means a more strong and effective engine.

Remember, products are more or less the same; and most of the times it’s the sales representative who can make a difference.

How to devise a practical Sales Compensation Plan:

As it is the case with most management decisions, you’re ought to be fully aware of goals and available resources for your business. As a general rule, sales compensation plan is the combination of basic salaries and sales incentives. Basic salaries are fixed wages that the sales people are going to get every month, irrespective of the number of sales they make. Whereas incentives are sales based commissions and you can add further bonuses on reaching some monthly or quarterly targets. While doing the planning, you must be able to come up with the answers to the questions like what percentage of total sales could you disburse as commissions? Or what’ll be the better option, giving out commission on each sale or when they reach some specific target?

A well planned incentive strategy will go a long way towards making your business a success; on the contrary an insincere plan may cause the collapse in no time. There’s no single structure for a good compensation plan, it differs with the type of business, product, industry, and the job market. Sometimes you must offer good basic salary; sometimes just good incentive package will do the trick. However, many businesses just rely on offering a hefty commission and no base salary; such compensation plan can be counter productive as no sales person will take the job seriously, moreover you won’t be able to execute any kind of control over your workforce, let alone holding anybody accountable. Therefore, you must take everything into consideration before finalizing a compensation plan.

Source:
Wholesale Suppliers
UK Wholesale

An overview of Direct Selling as a marketing option

If you are living in some big town, chances are that you must have been visited occasionally by those sales representatives or distributors who come at your doorstep with some products, trying to convince you into purchasing that particular item by stating numerous benefits and offering a price lower than the market rates. That’s called direct selling, and it has been used as a selling medium for over a decade. Direct selling is not limited to distributors going door to door and selling products, it can also take place via internet or home parties. Generally, these sellers are not regular employees of the company; they are commission agents, working for commissions that they can earn in proportion to the number of sales they make. Bear in mind, direct selling is not the same as direct marketing.

Advantages of Direct Selling:
Direct selling is a growing phenomenon, especially in the developed countries. Now, why’d someone prefer direct selling over the conventional methods that have been practiced for years? First, direct selling is not new to begin with. New companies have been using this tactic for introducing and selling their products to the customers, at their homes or offices. For manufacturers, it provides a relatively inexpensive way to launch the product (all you need to do is to hire some commission agents). These sales people are often self-employed and quite good in this trait. You can outsource this task to small companies with trained sales staff who are good at convincing people. Direct selling is also advantageous for sales people, given it doesn’t need any specific education or experience. Anybody can try his/her luck if one is unemployed (being unemployed is not some prerequisite though). It can turn out to be a very rewarding career in case you succeed.

Disadvantages of Direct Selling:
Direct selling is not practicable if you are looking for mass distribution, large businesses cannot rely solely on direct selling in general. Direct selling cannot completely take over the conventional means of selling, because of the nature of this medium (which requires going door to door). Another disadvantage is the credibility factor, because this method is also employed by some fake or low quality manufacturers, some people might be suspicious of the people insistently trying to sell a product, especially if they are not familiar with the product. Another disadvantage is the possibility of half-hearted effort on part of sales people. For the reason that they are not regular employees, you cannot exert sufficient control over the sales staff.

About the Author
William King is the director of England Wholesale Suppliers & Distributors , Wholesale Trade Suppliers, Distributors & Manufacturers and Australian Wholesalers Directory . He has 18 years of experience in the marketing and trading industries and has been helping retailers and startups with their product sourcing, promotion, marketing and supply chain requirements.