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How Telephone Sales Training Affects Job Enrichment

July 27th, 2010 by Monica Postell

For me, job enrichment is all about providing mental stimulation and opportunities to grow professionally so your employees – especially the talented ones that you and your customers appreciate so much – stay both happy and with you.

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Does Sales Training for Retail Make Sense? Part 2

July 21st, 2010 by Seth Brickner

In a previous article on this blog we noted the amazing ROI that sales training can provide for retail employees.  Why, then, is this type of training seldom used in a retail environment?

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Does Sales Training for Retail Make Sense? Part 1

July 20th, 2010 by Seth Brickner

A long held belief in the retail industry is that it doesn’t make financial sense to invest in sales training for hourly employees.  The reasons sometimes cited: Read the rest of this entry »

Who Holds the Key to Performance Change in Your Organization?

July 14th, 2010 by Monica Postell

I’m a little behind in my industry periodicals reading. (I don’t suppose you can identify with that.) Anyway, I came across an interesting article in the May 2010 issue of ASTD Training & Development magazine by Barbara Carnes called “Manager: The Forgotten Training Partner.” I had to laugh when she described a “typical scenario” about a manager approaching learning and development for help with some training. After the “usual discussions about outcomes” the L&D person suggested a training plan to which the manager replied, “Can you do it in less time?” Hey, that happened to me! I cringed in recognition when she suggested that the real message behind that question was something closer to “Can’t we just get it over with?” I can’t blame a manager for saying that. Time is precious and if I don’t understand the value of something I’m unlikely to lend my support or give up my time (at least not without a lot of whining and excuses) to participate.

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Hear and Understand

July 13th, 2010 by Peggy Carlaw

UnderstandingCSAT, VOC, CRM, now SCRM. Who’s listening to the customer? These days, who isn’t listening? At Impact, our guiding beacon in driving our customers’ experience is the HEART Model™. Many of our customers have also adopted this model because it provides them with five easy-to-remember principles that balance the best interests of the customer with the best interests of the business and its employees.

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Total Service Through Cross-Selling: A Brief History

July 8th, 2010 by Seth Brickner

Approximately 65,000,000 years ago, as pterodactyls were on their way out and USB devices were on their way in, printer cables were sold separately from home printers. That was standard practice.  Here’s how it worked:

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5 More Tips for Improving Service

July 7th, 2010 by Peggy Carlaw

My co-worker, Monica Postell, wrote a blog post a few months ago called 5 Tips to Improve Service for Your Customers. I love that post for a number of reasons, one being the fact that it features our cultural change hero, the HEART ModelTM. In the spirit of continuously improving customer service, here are another five tips to add to your toolbox: Read the rest of this entry »

Telesales: Is Confidence a Lost Art?

July 1st, 2010 by Vasudha Deming

As a customer, I frequently come across up-sell and cross-sell offers when calling a company for service, and I’m often struck by how poorly this bridge is crossed by the agent. As soon as we move from the customer service transaction into the sales pitch, the agents tend to lose all confidence. Consequently, they tend to lose the sale. 

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Making Training Stick

June 30th, 2010 by Seth Brickner

When it comes to training, every company wants to get the best return on its investment.  Why then do so many organizations ignore the best practices for getting the most out of their training?  Some may simply not know how to leverage their initial training investment; others may fall short in holding the right people accountable for sustained results.

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Help…Is Anyone Listening?

June 24th, 2010 by Monique Castillo

Have you ever felt like you weren’t being listened to? If so, you know how frustrating it can be.

Recently my husband reordered a pair of shoes and the company sent the wrong size. I called customer service to get the right size. A lady answered and I explained our situation. She interrupted me and said she just needed our last name, and then she told me to check my email for return instructions.

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