Archive for the ‘benchmarking telesales teams’ Category
Sunday, October 4th, 2009
The benefit of one to one sales training for teams in travel is that you can have bespoke and highly tailored training according to what each of your travel consultants needs. Our specialist travel trainer Alan Cook based in Leicestershire has worked with many travel, tour operators, travel agencies, holiday companies and cruise companies over the years.
Travel sales training will get more of your customers here
Alan has worked with Salford based Cruise1st, a subsidiary of Royal Caribbean Cruises, for the last year to help develop the call handling and selling skills of their telephone consultants.
A programme of tailored training has seen several consultants achieve their best figures to date. One consultant identified that, following her regular one-to-one training sessions, she now has much more control over her attitude and behaviour toward customers! In the past she held the misguided view that call handling in a call centre is all about speed and urgency and a desire to end the call as soon as possible ! She now recognises the value of building a relationship with callers. While she takes far less calls each day now, her conversion ratio has nearly tripled; better still she enjoys her work more!!
Alan also joined the senior team on a four-day conference aboard Independence of the Seas. The trip, early in September, sailed to Cork in Southern Ireland and Alan’s conference presentations were made to representatives of several of the leading cruise companies. If you are interested in how we can help you increase the sales output of your travel sales team, give us a call on 01858 461148. Or simply e-mail us at info@tomarket.co.uk
Tags: sales training travel, travel industry mentoring, travel sales agents, travel sales training, travel training
Posted in benchmarking telesales teams, communication skills, sales development training, Selling advice, telephone techniques, telesales, Telesales team assessment, telesales team management, Travel industry training | No Comments »
Saturday, September 26th, 2009
Apparently it’s true, telesales and telemarketing to lead you back into growth.
Recent report said that the strength and skill of companies telesales and telemarketing teams and their training and development is going to be key as markets start to move into the recovery phase.
With marketing budgets severly reduced many organisations are finding that post and particularly e-mail campaigns are less successful than they were 18 months ago. Response rates are said to be falling by up to 90% in some market sectors – simply because customers are becoming saturated with marketing messages in their inbox. Partly as a result spam filters are becoming more sophisticated.
Sales recovery - albeit not smooth
Sales and marketing approaches are going back to the personal approach : to speak on a one to one basis with customers and prospects. Of the 2 approaches field sales activity gives the best quality of contact. However it comes at a price. By the time all costs have been considered it is believed that a salesperson’s visit typically costs around £85. The difficulty has been though that recently there haven’t been enough customers to make the numbers stack up.
Telesales and telemarketing allows you to cover your market far more cost effectively, making up to 20 presentations to decision-makers per day typically. Each of these will set you back around £5.
As a result getting the right staff in trained and equally importantly, motivated ready for the rising market is set to become one of the challenges of the next year or so. There are many people on the job market but not enough with a track record of success. Quality people in this market sector are in short supply.
To beat the rush, the time to act is now – to structure your team in a way that secures them before the rest of the market. We’re currently working with organisations in Cambridge, Birmingham, Coventry, Leicester, Northampton, Kettering, Corby and Grantham to help them get prepared.
Tags: effective telemarketing techniques, selling more on the phone, telemarketing training, telesales team measurement, telesales training, training and development of telesales teams
Posted in benchmarking telesales teams, communication skills, Independent audit of telemarketing team, Selling advice, telemarketing, Telemarketing management, telephone techniques, telesales, Telesales team assessment, telesales team management | No Comments »
Wednesday, September 23rd, 2009
Interim telesales or telemarketing manager – Cambridge. This is currently one of the fastest growing sectors of recruitment, because hiring an interim gives you the flexibility to hire in the expertise you need for a short to medium period of time without the long term financial commitment. The economy is continuing to change rapidly at the moment and businesses need to keep flexible. Salaries is the single biggest element of cost so limiting these fixed costs makes good economic sense.
Help with the management of your team - without the fixed costs
You have a telesales or telemarketing team at the moment and you want to develop them quickly to capitalise on any upturn in the market. But hiring in an interim for a set number of days per month gives you the strong focus you need, without you having to pay them ‘turning up money.’
Interim or temporary or short term contract telesales or telemarketing managers can be highly effective solutions for Cambridge in any business to business or industrial environment such as packaging, healthcare, industrial, electronics, automotive components and accessories, mobility products, marketing agencies, IT consultancy, print, plastics, building and construction suppliers.
If you feel your Cambridge team lacks focus and the right set up, process and organisation, talk to us on 01858 461148. We may be able to help.
Tags: cambridge, developing telesales team, in-house telemarketing training & development, interim telesales manager, telemarketing interim manager, Telemarketing management, telesales manager
Posted in benchmarking telesales teams, Independent audit of telemarketing team, telemarketing, Telemarketing management, telesales, Telesales team assessment, telesales team management | No Comments »
Monday, September 14th, 2009
There is a way to get an experienced telesales or telemarketing manager in your company for a fraction of the usual cost.
Many companies are facing a current situation where they want to provide strong leadership and telesales or telemarketing management for their team, but without wanting to commit to spending the £50,000 to £60,000 that it would normally cost.
Get your team to the next level with some interim management
An alternative is to hire somebody on a freelance basis to do an agreed number of days per month for you. Say you set up an agreement with someone to do 5 days per month. The required investment will be less than half what it would cost to employ someone.
You may additionally get around the need for a lengthy contract and so if your business changes shape or your needs change, you can wind up the agreement. Alternatively you can also use the exercise as a great test bed for trying out a potential telesales or telemarketing manager. Also your freelance manager should be able to help you spec up what you need. No company car, or pension or healthcare either so you have access to quality management and leadership at a fraction of the normal fee.
Many organisations are talking to us at the moment about such an arrangement as it gives much more flexibility and a lack of heavy investment and cost at a time when business conditions are volatile.
Consider the idea of an interim manager for your team. They can help set up or develop KPIs for your team, can help with benefits selling, objection handling and even sales call structure. It could be the best thing to help train, develop and build a telesales or telemarketing team whether you are in Leicester, Northampton, Kettering, Corby, Wellingborough, Cambridge, Peterborough, Birmingham, Coventry, Derby or Nottingham or anywhere across Leicestershire, Northamptonshire, or the East or West Midlands.
Tags: birmingham, cambridge, corby, coventry, developing telesales, how to improve telesales team, kettering, leicester, Leicestershire, northampton, Northamptonshire, Telemarketing management, telemarketing teams, telesales process training, telesales team management
Posted in benchmarking telesales teams, Independent audit of telemarketing team, sales development training, telemarketing, Telemarketing management, telesales, Telesales team assessment, telesales team management | No Comments »
Thursday, August 20th, 2009
Travel industry sales training – holiday companies. Travel companies often have a particular interest in working with training providers who have a detailed knowledge of the travel business.
Sales training and customer service training for these companies is as important now as it has ever been. We are pleased that we secured the services of a top travel industry trainer. Alan Cook has over 25 years experience working as a trainer and most of them with travel companies. He joined us back in 2007, with a wealth of experience in the travel and leisure industry.
Alan Cook - specialist travel industry trainer
If you are looking to increase your conversion rates on the phone, to sell more, to make more bookings of your overseas, or ski or UK based holidays we know a man who can. He’s already been doing it for a number of years. Alan Cook has many years experience having worked for Thomas Cook at Peterborough, and Page and Moy a Leicester based travel company now owned by Market Harborough based travel group Travelsphere.
Contact us info@tomarket.co.uk if you are a travel industry company wanting to do more. We can help.
Expert travel industry training in Leicester, Market Harborough, Peterborough, Manchester, Brighton, London, Birmingham, York, Cambridge, Coventry, Nottingham, Derby. In-house training, coaching programmes and mentoring for customer service, telesales and sales agents for UK breaks, ski holidays, tours, cruises, chalets, escorted tours etc.
Tags: customer service coaching, customer service training, increasing sales, sales training, selling more on the phone, travel industry mentoring, travel sales training
Posted in benchmarking customer service teams, benchmarking telesales teams, communication skills, customer handling, Customer service management, customer service team assessment, customer services, Overcoming objections, sales development training, Selling advice, telephone techniques, telesales, Telesales team assessment, telesales team management | No Comments »
Tuesday, June 30th, 2009
Travel industry sales training is all about improving call conversion rates. We know, we work on this for a living. Or at least our travel industry specialist trainer Alan Cook does. Over 25 years experience in fact of helping travel industry companies improve sales conversion rates, getting more bums on seats.
Travel industry selling - is all about getting your customers here !
Travel Counsellors Ltd are an award winning travel company having won the Queens Award for industry. They’ve also been on the Times/Virgin100 list of most successful (non-quoted) UK companies since Alan started working with them in 1999.
Initially they had 35 consultants, and fewer than 10 were achieving ratios of better than one booking per ten calls. Over a period of working with the company for 3 years the number of consultants had grown, over 30 were achieving conversion ratios of 1 booking every 5 calls, and a number of consultants were even achieving a 1:1 ratio!
If you want us to help you sell more holidays, breaks and leisure breaks, give us a call and we’ll be glad to do the same things for your travel business.
Tags: holiday company training, travel agents training, travel industry, travel industry mentoring, travel sales agents, travel sales training, travel sector training
Posted in benchmarking telesales teams, communication skills, sales development training, telephone techniques, telesales, Travel industry training | No Comments »
Saturday, May 16th, 2009
Some ideas on how to build your telesales – without spending big sums on a manager. A current hot topic in telesales and telemarketing management is the idea of hiring an interim telesales manager or someone for a fixed or variable term. It offers you great flexibility and could be just what you are looking for.
Short term telesales manager to raise your team's performance
Instead of committing yourself to a fixed spend you can buy some quality management that can finish as soon as the job is done.
So how might they help you ? You can expect a good quality short-term contract telesales manager to help you in many areas managing your team. They should contribute ideas across a broad number of fronts.
Let’s look first at each person’s call pot. Also any effective team needs KPIs – key performance indicators. You probably know what each member of your team produces in terms of results but that is only 1 of the 4 key measures. Getting the team to produce more involves understanding how they achieve their results. They each have a results profile. Do you know what it is ?
It is also a good idea to have the phone team working to support your campaigns. These might be based around product lines you want to promote, or products and services that are more lucrative to you. How well integrated is the phone team currently with your marketing campaigns ? A good manager will help you set this up and provide you with ongoing monitoring.
Incentivising the team is key too. If they WANT to do well, they will. So you may want advice on levels of commission. Also understanding the balance between commission, bonuses and incentives is important. What do they each do, and how do they fit together ? A good quality top drawer telesales or telemarketing manager will be able to help you with this.
If you’re based in Leicester, Northampton, Market Harborough, Corby, Wellingborough, Kettering, Lutterworth, Cambridge, Daventry, Coventry, Rugby, Melton Mowbray, Uppingham, Oakham give us a call on 01858 461148 and we can discuss how you can achieve all these things by hiring a short term or interim telesales manager to run your team. They should be able to set up processes and management systems for you, which they then leave as their legacy !
Tags: fixed term telemarketing management, interim phone team management, part time telesales management, short term contract telesales manager, Telemarketing management, telesales team management
Posted in benchmarking telesales teams, Independent audit of telemarketing team, interim telesales manager, Marketing, telemarketing, Telemarketing management, telesales, Telesales team assessment, telesales team management | No Comments »
Monday, May 4th, 2009
One of the challenges facing those of you with home working teams is that management easily loses day-to-day coaching and motivating opportunities.
one to one training for homeworkers - to sell more holidays !
We have a specialist travel consultant trainer Alan Cook who has spent many years working with travel industry operators to overcome these challenges.
Travel Counsellors, a Bolton based Travel Company and the only travel organisation to win the prestigious Queens Award for Enterprise, came up with a solution when they engaged Alan Cook to travel the country visiting consultants in their own homes and delivering 2-3 hour, one-to-one coaching sessions. The result is that many of the consultants saw their call conversion ratios improve from an average figure of 1 in 10 to a more successful 1 in 5 with several consultants achieving even better results.
If you think you can handle a doubling in your bookings give us a call on 01858 461148 and maybe we can help you achieve similar increases !
Tags: holiday sales, sales training travel, tour operator training, travel sales agents, travel sales training, travel sector training
Posted in benchmarking telesales teams, communication skills, sales development training, Selling advice, telephone techniques, telesales, Travel industry training | No Comments »
Thursday, March 5th, 2009
Benchmarking your telesales team ahead of training is important. To Market will carry out an onsite team audit to help benchmark your telephone team - telesales, telemarketing, and telephone based sales teams.
Everyone naturally wants their telesales or telemarketing team to be at the top of their game. Appraising your telephone team on site at your offices helps you identify training needs before taking the plunge. Getting an independent view of your team can be helpful in the effective management of a telesales or telemarketing team.
The To Market independent assessment or team appraisal takes place at your offices and so is completely tailored to your team and gives specific feedback. You can even download a copy of a real team audit report from the To Market website by clicking on http://www.tomarket.co.uk/sample-audits.php. There is a customer service team audit report and one for a telesales or telemarketing team. They have been cleaned up to protect client confidentiality.
Book a benchmark appraisal on your team today and you may be amazed at how much it helps demonstrate to help with the effective running of your team for just a few hundred pounds. Our senior trainer Andrew Seaward – To Market will carry out the audit on your team.
Tags: assessing telesales teams, benchmarking telesales telemarketing team, progress checking telesales team, telemarketing team assesment, telemarketing team audit
Posted in benchmarking telesales teams, Independent audit of telemarketing team, telemarketing, telesales, Telesales team assessment, telesales team management | No Comments »
Wednesday, February 4th, 2009
With the ‘crash’ of Excel Airways last year, the travel industry lost one of it most successful tour operating retailers – Travel City Direct. Ironically at the time the parent company collapsed, the travel retailing arm was enjoying another successful year.
Travel consultant sales training can help you take off !
The Blackpool call centre manager Ian Moore, attributed much of the success to the call conversion training delivered by our travel sales training specialist Alan Cook. When first involved with the consultants the conversion ratio was a little over one booking every 13 calls. After structured classroom and one-to-one sessions, that ratio came down to a booking every 9/10 calls which in turn contributed in excess of a £3 million increase to the ‘bottom-line’ figures.
If you are ready to handle an uplift in your sales business, give us a call and we’ll send our top man to meet you, have a chat and talk about how we can help you increase your sales figures. If you want to of course !!
Tags: sales training travel, travel industry mentoring, travel sales agents, travel sales training
Posted in benchmarking telesales teams, communication skills, sales development training, telephone techniques, telesales, Telesales team assessment, telesales team management, Travel industry training | No Comments »