This is my response on the AA-ISP Expert Forum as someone asked the following question:
Are there resources that offer suggestions for helping an inside sales rep conquer a serious case of phone anxiety–just not wanting to talk to customers on the phone? I would like to try to coach to the problem before coaching her on a different career path.
Here’s my response:
In the past, one of the biggest criterias for hiring inside reps was their comfort with the phone. Now that has changed. Being comfortable with tools and being a great writer is almost more important. When someone has major phone anxiety, it’s important to look around at a few things:
1.Understand where the anxiety stems from and observe the general work style of this individual. Are they extremely methodical, analytical and only comfortable when they have the right amoung of knowledge, tools and processes in place.
2. How well does this individual know the product? This seems to be the biggest problem right now because so many products/services are being thrown over to the inside team that they are paralyzed with fear on their messaging.
3. What is the general morale of the team and how comfortable are they in their sales world? Have they been beaten up for bad calls by management and lost all trust?
4. If they can slowly slide into making calls, perhaps they can start by answering some inbound calls, requests, web leads so they can become more comfortable and knowledgeable.
5. If you can turn the anxiety into adrenaline- then you’ve got a champion but if you cannot work it, sales may not be for them.
3 Comments
You’re right: It is absolutely possible to coach someone at this point. Great tips! Thq very much!
O very nice,i will add a bit to it
Some corporations and business owners don’t have the time to provide quality customer service and communication services to their customers and clients; therefore they outsource this department to a telephone answering service. Most of these services are set up like a call centre and have operators who will provide inbound or outbound phone calls. If the company has a large clientele and cannot keep up with the demand, they can use these services in order to protect the integrity of their business. Since most businesses are judged by the quality of their customer service, it is a good idea to use these types of services.
Number 2 is an interesting point, it is so important your team understands what they are talking about when on the phone to customers and clients, it is often a fear of not knowing the answer to a customers question or trying to ‘blag’ their way through that can cause this anxiety, a real problem in some call centres today.