Sales development in the Steinfurt district

Support for an outbound phone team.

I was very pleased about this assignment from Rheine, in the Steinfurt district, near my hometown of Ochtrup.

What was this sales development assignment about?

The goal of the assignment was a strengths-weaknesses analysis of an outbound sales team in a company-owned call center.

Building on this, training and coaching measures should then be developed to further develop and support the employees in telephone operations. This was the preparation for taking on new and additional sales tasks in the areas of cold and warm acquisition.

How are the call center employees optimally prepared for their new tasks?

After a briefing with the management and the discussion of the goals, I coordinated with the team leader of the call center team. Together we discussed the goals and the procedure. From my experience, it is important here to work in close coordination with the local managers. That worked very well in this case.

This was followed by an initial round of 1:1 coaching / side-by-sides. I accompanied the employees during their conversations, and during and after the discussions, there was detailed feedback on strengths and weaknesses. Every employee received written feedback from me.

Based on the insights gained from the coaching sessions, I developed an in-person training program in which I taught employees various communication techniques. They were custom-tailored to receive precisely the methods they needed for successful conversations. Together with the employees in the call center, I developed a structured call guide specifically for this campaign. A major factor in the acceptance and success of the guide was that the employees helped develop it. I incorporated their extensive experience as well as their new ideas into the call guide. The result: a call guide with phrasings that are actually used, rather than one that disappears into an email inbox or is impractical and unhelpful.

What is important for successful sales development / sales team support?

There are a lot of aspects to consider here. First, a clear assignment and a clear definition of goals are important to me. Furthermore, a precise analysis of the current situation. Following that is the selection of methods to achieve the desired target state. After analyzing the current and target states, I can select the appropriate methods to achieve the goal. How far are we from the goal? What else do we need to reach the goal?

It is important to me to involve the local managers in this: good, goal-oriented cooperation and working together toward the objective are important for a successful, shared path: only together are we successful!

Additionally, I have analyzed which general conditions are necessary to successfully implement the new tasks. What would support the employees in achieving their goals?

Thus, we started at several points: analysis of the current situation, definition of goals, selection of means and methods, qualification of employees, and creation of the framework conditions for successful goal achievement.

What was the result of the sales development?

A successful campaign launch! The employees felt well prepared for the new tasks and started work with high motivation. Thanks to the structured and friendly communication style, the new campaign was well received by the customers.

Management and team leadership drew a positive conclusion: a win-win-win situation for the company, employees, and customers. That's how it should be—and that's what makes it fun for me!

When is support in sales / sales development helpful by me?

There are quite a few occasions for this, I'll just list a few:

• Is the sales team failing to reach its goals? Things haven't been going well for a while, but you don't know exactly what is going on?
• They would like to have an outside perspective on their sales team, and have an independent status assessment / current-state analysis conducted.
• You are planning changes, such as running a new campaign, introducing new products, or changes in sales are pending.
• You want to invest in the further development of your employees, do something for their motivation, and increase their conversational competence.
• Customer satisfaction is important to you, and you want to increase your customers' satisfaction
• you want to develop a practice-oriented, structured, and helpful conversation guide
• certain key figures are below target / plan, and / or they fail to increase them
• you have a „gut feeling“ that something is wrong—but you can't quite put your finger on what it is
• The results of the mystery shopping, mystery calling, or employee survey give cause for action
• You lack the time and / or manpower to take care of qualifying your sales employees
• ...and many other occasions that are not listed here yet. Please feel free to contact me about this.

Do you also need support for your sales team in the Steinfurt district, Münsterland, North Rhine-Westphalia, Lower Saxony, or throughout Germany?

Feel free to contact me then.

You can reach me by email (gm@m2b.de) or by phone (0179/9226203).

I look forward to hearing from you Contact.

Please feel free to contact me if you need sales training, acquisition training, or cold calling training for your sales reps, service staff, or customer service employees.

Here you will also find an overview of my Training offer  and specifically for the Cold Calling Training / Outbound Telephony Training.