RECRUIT THE A-TEAM

IT’S GENERALLY believed that after a certain amount of time spent working the phones, telephone representatives burn out. I maintain that reps are more likely to “bore out” than burn out, and there are several things that can be done about it.

Why should you, the direct marketing manager, care? Because 1) the job you save may be your own, and 2) the telephone channel is a “pulse of the marketplace” resource you can mine for gold-with the right team on your front lines.

First, why do we want reps to stay in their jobs and try to be the best they can be? They are the voice of the company and the main reason customers will make initial and future purchases or go elsewhere. Period. And the cost to attract, train and bring new telephone recruits up to speed is high (one study cited the average cost at $1,200 per employee). In today’s competitive market, you simply can’t afford to keep burning and churning your phone crews.

Many companies blame high turnover rates on compensation or other issues. Certainly, the pay and incentive scale for your valuable phone representatives should be competitive for your local area. But surveys have shown money is far less important to employees than a host of other factors in determining job satisfaction.

I’ve found that what really counts with reps are things like doing interesting work, having some control of their environment, working with a team they enjoy, being listened to, feeling like they can make a difference and having goals to strive for. Creating a special team that recognizes superior performance, gathers valuable market data and helps every individual in your telephone group get better results can go a long way toward achieving those goals.

Think of this concept as the “A-Team.” It’s a small group of reps with certain critical attributes who have been empowered to fine-tune and troubleshoot for continuous improvement. You can focus the A-Team on a number of different tasks: script development and enhancement, competitive comparisons, issues related to customer dissatisfaction, new product/service ideas-you name it. This is especially effective in “crash testing” new scripts, projects and processes before they’re rolled out to the entire floor-ensuring smooth information flow and consistency while avoiding the confusion and negativity that can result when a new program or process goes “live” without pre-testing.

Select your A-Team members carefully. Resist the temptation to put all your best producers in this group. You’ll need more than sales or service production to achieve a cohesive effort.

To successfully implement this concept you must not only select the right team members. You must give them the environment and opportunity to excel.

* The A-Team must be visibly distinguished from the rest of the group. Seat team members together all the time, whether or not they happen to be working on a specific project. Set them apart however you can: signs, nameplates, pins, etc. This doesn’t require big budgets, just a little creativity. Make sure your visible recognition strategy is flexible; your A-Team will likely gain and lose members along the way.

* The A-Team will require leaders, supervisors and monitors who are dedicated to the group. The different dynamics involved will require a different level of front-line supervision. The team and its leader(s) must be scheduled together and work together all (or at least 75%) of the time, otherwise you will not achieve the momentum for improved results. Accept that you may have to invest in a lower than normal supervisory span of control to get the highest return for your efforts.

* Create as many non-monetary ways to reward and recognize the A-Team. This is especially important if you lack the budget to offer a pay differential for A-Team members and supervisors. This could be something as simple as five minutes extra on break, prime A-Team parking spots or fancy A-Team pens. Remember, the little things count! Just make sure you’re offering the little things that are most important to your team, not the ones you think are important. If you don’t know, ask.

* Make sure everyone knows what it takes to get and stay on the A-Team. This will reduce feelings of jealousy and favoritism and help everyone strive to the A-Team level. The list of A-Team attributes (flexibility, cooperation, etc.) should be understood by all and posted close to the group. This not only helps to change behavior among reps shooting for membership on the A-Team but also reminds A-Team members of their goals on a daily basis. Your prima donna top salesperson who’s used to being on top will quickly get the message that it’s his negative attitude and inflexibility, not his sales statistics, that’s keeping him off this elite team.

* Set expectations up front with all your reps. Be clear about the A-Team mission: to explore ways to better serve your customers via the telephone. Emphasize that this is a collective effort designed to create better scripts and processes so every rep can do a better job. For example, when an overzealous team member wants the script to be completely rewritten to fit her unique presentation style, remind everyone of the goals and the fact that the exercise is a completely voluntary one-that it’s not for everyone. (Implication: Respect the A-Team rules of team playing and keeping an open, flexible mind if you want to stay on the team.)

* Make sure everyone plays by the rules. Another example: Due to the test nature of script building and improvement, it’s very important that test scripts be isolated during crash testing for statistical analysis and presentation control. So Rule #1 may be that test scripts are never distributed outside the team before final approval. Abiding by this rule may become one of your requisites for A-Team membership.

* Follow through with the concept. This is one of the most important challenges in building an effective A-Team. Without management’s continuing support, the initial excitement can quickly fizzle out, creating significant morale problems. It doesn’t take much more than commitment and creativity to keep things going. If you introduce the concept casually and fail to follow through, you’ll have done the entire phone group much more harm than good.