But here are some things to consider before you change that script!

Ask yourself, how often do you make significant changes to your sales scripts? If it is too frequently (more than once per month) then your sales agents may not have a chance to get comfortable with the script before a new script is rolled out.

On the flip-side, if you change your script less than twice per quarter, your agents may become too comfortable with the script, almost to the point of being bored. Listen to your agents closely, unless they are memorizing legal confirmation statements that have to be repeated a number of times throughout the sale, if your agents have memorized any other portion of the script, it is time for change.

How do you tell if it is time to tweak the sales script?

Review your script from time to time, and see if it’s still leading to some form of lead capture. Ultimately, your script should lead to a sale, customer contact information (a lead), a request for more information, or an invite to a future contact from your business. Look at sales performance on a weekly basis. If you are noticing a trend where results are dropping, then it’s time to work with your agents to change the script. That’s right! Work with the sales representative and listen to their suggestions, and follow these steps before rolling out a new script:

1. Ask your sales agents. After all, they are where the rubber meets the road. They know first hand the objections that they have to overcome day to day. They listen to your customers and know what they want.

2. Add your own suggestions, but only after doing research on customer response and retention. Knowing the demographics of your customer can be the deciding factor on whether they want to be enrolled in a health forum that they access online, or prefer to receive the monthly newsletter in the mail.

3. Thirdly (this is probably the most overlooked step), evaluate how the agents are compensated. Are the agents incentified to pitch the continuity (aka autos-ship) or do they make more money if they sell the year supply? The customer is going to buy what sells and the sales agents are going to sell what pays. I cannot tell you how many times a new script is rolled out and the auto-ship price is dropped but the auto-ship conversion doesn’t go up, just to find out that the call center pays .50 for each auto-ship but $1 for every buy club. If you were a commissioned agent, what pitch would you put your focus on?

And of course, there is no rule that says that you cannot test a new script with a controlled group of seasoned agents and/or revert back to the original script after a couple of weeks if performance takes a nose-dive.

As long as your goals are clearly communicated with your call center and agents, every script change should go smoothly.

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In the Direct Response industry, your call center agents are like athletes in a football game. The sales agents are your front-line, assertive minds that dig their heels in and “go for it”. They typically have more of that “competitive edge” and they are motivated by money or just numbers in general. They are the ones with the loud voice and want to be known or have the upper hand, or at least that is what most employers want in a sales employee.

But what about if you need an agent that works in customer service? What characteristics equate to the perfect support agent? In many centers, if your conversion numbers do not meet the needs of the sales floor, you are transferred to customer service, but depending on the dynamics of your company, if the agent does not make it in the sales department, chances are, they are not well suited for customer service either. 

In many ways, recruiters are looking for the same qualities in a sales agent that they are for a customer service agent but they just don’t realize it. If you are hiring for your sales floor, you need someone who works well in a team environment, has little to no issues with authority figures, is assertive and feels comfortable making suggestions to a customer, has the persuasive tendency to be able to “sell” a customer,  and just over all, a bold, and out-going personality right? 

If you are hiring for your customer service department, you want someone who works well in a team environment, has no issues dealing with figures of authority, can be suggestive to a customer…noticing a trend here?

 Working in customer service for 9 years, I can verify that when hiring, whether it is for sales or c.s. you should be seeking the exact same type of person, a supportive thinker, innovative, respectful, professional, dynamic, and a “roll with the punches” attitude because the DR world is ever changing. What is MOST important, is finding out what the potential employee enjoys doing most. In most cases, that is the “driving” factor.

 In several instances over the years, my best c.s. agents were the best agents when it came to “saves” (customer retention) and they had the highest revenue for reorders, as well as converted more sales than anyone else in the department. These same individuals, were also successful on the sales floor, but chose to come to customer service because they were “happier” doing it. A “happy” agent = successful agent.

 So how do you get the best of both worlds? Look for the same individual, but find out where they feel most comfortable. Provide the same type of training for all employees. Sales training integrated with a customer service supportive philosophy, and then you have your hybrid employee that can take either sales or c.s calls depending on call volume. After all, whether you are playing on the front line, or your position is safety, we all should be thinking customer retention.

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