6 success factors for contact center cross-selling
By Joe McFadden, Vice President of Marketing, SalesPortal
Cross selling for contact centers is not a new concept. But it doesn’t always live up to its potential, or expectations, for that matter. While there are known successes, many contact centers have been implementing cross-selling programs for years that have never accomplished management’s objectives. The trick is, how do you do it profitably and with strong close rates that will impress marketing executives on both sides of the equation?
Here are six success factors for contact center cross-selling programs:
1. Integrate the concept of selling into a service culture. It’s a challenge, but it can be done successfully. This includes implementing new hiring and training requirements, along with other elements. The idea of cross selling must be deeply embedded into the center’s service culture with complete buy-in by everyone.
2. Change training processes. Training falls into two categories: training on sales practices and skills; and training on an expanded cross sell product line. If you want agents to cross sell successfully, you must equip them with the tools needed to succeed. You can’t do this halfway. Be committed.
3. Adapt the hiring model and practices of the contact center, because you need agents with different skill sets. Striking the right balance between service skills and sales skills can make the difference. Promote from within, identifying those service-side agents that display the right sales skills and motivation. Evolve the requirements for new hires.
4. Ensure company leadership is on board. The right leadership has a measure of vision, ability to implement a cross-sell program with the right success components, and the ability to rally the executive management team around a success plan. As you go about integrating this concept into the company’s fiber, it is essential to have buy-in from top management.
5. Logic and best practices indicate that an incentive plan is required to motivate a workforce. Develop an incentive program that makes sense for your organization.
6. Use the proper tools. Tools such as intuitive knowledge bases, scripting tools and decisioning engines that intelligently determine the best offers to make a customer and product relevancy to meet a customer’s needs are critical to the success of a successful cross-sell program. They also contribute to work satisfaction for the agents doing the cross-selling, because they make the process easier and more intuitive. Plus, the impact of and need for sophisticated but intuitive tools at each agent’s desktop increases in the absence of sufficient training.
Joe McFadden is vice president of marketing for SalesPortal, the first partnership marketing network for enterprises using contact centers as a strategic customer engagement channel. He has more than 25 years of experience, primarily marketing customer service software solutions to global enterprises. He has launched several first-in-category products participating in the rapid growth of leading solution providers. For more information, visit www.salesportal.com.
In Q4 2012, we conducted an informal survey about factors for successful cross- and up-selling initiatives among contact center professionals in a few LinkedIn groups. This shows our findings.