Making profit center out of inbound telemarketing calls.Hearing the term, "inbound in·bound 1 adj. Bound inward; incoming: inbound commuter traffic. Adj. 1. inbound telemarketing telemarketing, the practice of selling goods or services to customers by means of the telephone or of surveying consumer preferences in telephone conversations. ," many newsletter publishers would assume it's it's 1. Contraction of it is. 2. Contraction of it has. See Usage Note at its. it's it is or it has it's be ~have something only larger operations should consider or attempt. Actually, any newsletter publisher with two related products can probably do it successfully. Here's an example. Dr. Robert W. Fisher's Communications Resources sells newsletters--including The NEWSLETTER Newsletter, which offers clip art A set of canned images used to illustrate word processing and desktop publishing documents. , editorial filler fill·er 1 n. One that fills, as: a. Something added to augment weight or size or fill space. b. A composition, especially a semisolid that hardens on drying, used to fill pores, cracks, or holes in wood, plaster, and tips for parish newsletters--special reports, and a variety of other products to ministers. "Service Selling" is what they call the inbound telemarketing upsell program they have successfully adopted. * The idea was generated internally from staff members who placed phone orders with Eddie Bauer Eddie Bauer (NASDAQ: EBHI) is a clothing store chain. Headquartered in Bellevue, Washington, and a subsidiary of Eddie Bauer Holdings (formerly Spiegel, Inc.), the company was founded in Seattle in 1920 as "Eddie Bauer's Sport Shop" by its namesake, Eddie Bauer (1899 – and were offered "special deals" on related merchandise. * They decided to offer 40 percent discounts to customers who have just placed an order, called the ''Special of the Day." The phone rep would have the discretion, after completing the original order, to make the upsell order. * Training for the program was one afternoon for management to outline the program, empower empower verb To encourage or provide a person with the means or information to become involved in solving his/her own problems the reps to make the offers, and provide manual tracking sheets for order records. The participants were their existing inbound CSRs--of average experience and making about $10 an hour. What they learned running the program 1. CSRs need to be comfortable about making the offers. "It is important to see they are rewarding the customer by offering truly speciall opportunities." 2. Weekly feedback of overall results keeps motivation high. 3. An incentive plan generates excitement and boosts results. 4. "Interest" shown by management is a good motivator. The downside Downside The dollar amount by which the market or a stock has the potential to fall. Notes: You might hear someone say that the downside on stock XYZ is $10. What that means is that the stock could fall by this amount if things got bad. 5. Not every rep is good at "service selling." If they aren't, it isn't worth the effort to keep pounding on them. 6. The program only works on hard orders. It does not work on soft-sell, risk-free trials. The results Offers are presented to 65 percent of incoming customers. Fifty-five percent of the customers who are presented the offers accept them. The average order size increased by 43 percent and total estimated annual revenue is $250,000. You get incoming calls from subscribers--renewing on the phone, ordering a second subscription, changing their address. This could be an opportunity for a sale. If you have phone numbers, you could make a thank-you call to renewers and a similar "special offer." |
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