Ringing true: 6 takeaways from recorded calls

Advertising has long been an inexact science, but it used to involve much more guesswork as to how and why consumers were responding to ads.

The Mad Men of the ‘50s and ‘60s would be astounded at today’s call-tracking software, which can measure specifically which of your ads are leading to phone sales, and provide data about your most and least-responsive audiences. CallView360, for example, easily records and times calls, identifying their source and determining which ad in which medium precipitated them. It uses that unfiltered switch-level data to compile cost per call, cost per lead, and ROI, creating customizable menus and graphs that help you prioritize your budget.

Why use recorded calls? Because they allow your company to review sales conversations to become more strategic, correct ineffective methods quickly and retrain employees to maximize revenue.

If you’d like to use call recording to help boost sales for your company, consider these six tips:

1)      Play back calls with reps to discuss their challenges and provide them realistic solutions.

2)      Reward reps who hit certain targets and/or go above and beyond during sales calls.

3)      Pay attention to how your top reps close their biggest deals, recommends Howard Brown on Salesengine.com, and then share that info with staff. Observe how they handle objections, ask qualifying questions and listen to prospects. What is their tone? Do they get down to business or do they favor friendly chit-chat?

4)      Based on your sales staff’s strengths and weaknesses on the phone, consider custom-routing calls more carefully. A campaign’s ineffectiveness, after all, may reflect more on the rep than the strategy. CallView360’s Call Routing feature can direct calls to certain centers or reps based on time of day, location, caller ID, or which center boasts the highest productivity.

5)      Spot-check shorter calls to hear what’s going on. “A short call usually means one of three things: A rep botched their pitch, scheduled a better time for a follow-up conversation, or was able to quickly disqualify a prospect,” Brown states.

6)      Mazimize CallView360’s RoundTrip feature, which lets you easily compare data and success rates from multiple call centers or automated sales destinations. Use what you gather to improve media buys, close rates, average order value and overall ROI.

Reviewing employee call patterns can be a win-win for the manager, the rep and the company itself, Brown stresses, as it can lead to a better understanding of your sales resources.

“The best sales managers actually try to ascertain why certain reps aren’t hitting their numbers,” he says. “Then [they] look at what they can do to help underperforming reps succeed.”