Transcripts
Hello, welcome to the Close The Loop podcast.
Kevin Dieny:We are today going to be talking about managing successful call handlers.
Kevin Dieny:I'm joined by my co-host Matt Widmyer.
Kevin Dieny:Matt is
Kevin Dieny:the sales development manager here at CallSource.
Kevin Dieny:He oversees the ever-growing sales development division while
Kevin Dieny:working as a liaison between the marketing and sales department.
Kevin Dieny:Whether there is an individual or a team operational gap he'll roll
Kevin Dieny:up his sleeves and go to work.
Kevin Dieny:He is a problem solver, he is a mentor, he's a coach all rolled into one.
Kevin Dieny:Matt has a wife and daughter and loves all things outdoors.
Kevin Dieny:So, welcome Matt!
Matt Widmyer:Thanks Kevin, thanks for having me again.
Matt Widmyer:Good to be back!
Kevin Dieny:Yeah, We are really excited to get into this
Kevin Dieny:topic because this is Matt's...
Kevin Dieny:Matt lives and breathes managing his team of SDR called handlers all day every day.
Kevin Dieny:That's his primary thing.
Kevin Dieny:So we were excited to jump into this and share our expertise with everyone
Kevin Dieny:about how you actually go about managing successful call handlers.
Kevin Dieny:And every business that has called handlers needs to be
Kevin Dieny:able to manage them correctly.
Kevin Dieny:It needs to be able to manage them so that they provide, they are able
Kevin Dieny:to achieve their essential function.
Kevin Dieny:Which is answering the phones, routing phone calls, going into discovery,
Kevin Dieny:qualifying, potentially even selling right on the phone right there.
Kevin Dieny:Whether it's inbound or outbound handling who knows what's coming in or
Kevin Dieny:calling out with a very specific plan.
Kevin Dieny:That's the role of the call handler.
Kevin Dieny:From a management perspective how does a business get their
Kevin Dieny:call handlers to be successful?
Kevin Dieny:How do they hire the right call handlers?
Kevin Dieny:How do they train them, onboard them, and send them off with the right behaviors
Kevin Dieny:so that they will be successful in the company and move their way up.
Kevin Dieny:The first question I have for you Matt is why is managing
Kevin Dieny:call handlers so much work?
Kevin Dieny:Why is it so difficult to help call handlers succeed and be successful?
Matt Widmyer:I think the primary reason is because the role itself
Matt Widmyer:comes with a lot of rejection, right?
Matt Widmyer:So rejection could be a little de-motivating sometimes.
Matt Widmyer:If you're having a bad day or you're just getting beat up over the phones,
Matt Widmyer:it's a you have to muscle through it.
Matt Widmyer:If you come in with thin skin you'll get that thick rhino skin after a while.
Matt Widmyer:It's just it's tough especially if you weren't feeling that well it's one of
Matt Widmyer:those roles where the last thing you want to do is make prospect phone calls or
Matt Widmyer:field inbound leads and stuff like that.
Matt Widmyer:It can be a pretty taxing role in itself just because of the all the
Matt Widmyer:rejection that comes with the territory.
Matt Widmyer:There's no one size fits all for this role.
Matt Widmyer:You get tons of different personalities from different walks of life.
Matt Widmyer:So everyone needs their own little management style.
Matt Widmyer:There's no cookie cutter way to do it.
Matt Widmyer:It's a lot of work.
Kevin Dieny:You mentioned that every single person you hire
Kevin Dieny:might be a little different.
Kevin Dieny:So is that mean that the expectation is that the managers should
Kevin Dieny:be able to be successful...
Kevin Dieny:turning any type of person into a successful call handler, or is everyone
Kevin Dieny:cut out for it, or is there a certain type of person that's cut out for it best?
Kevin Dieny:And this other type just will never have any success here?
Kevin Dieny:How do you look at managing all those unique personalities and types?
Matt Widmyer:Not everybody is cut out for it right It's one of
Matt Widmyer:those roles where not everybody is successful right out of the gate.
Matt Widmyer:I think one of the important things is to be able to know can this person
Matt Widmyer:be developed into being successful.
Matt Widmyer:I'm very much of the school of thought where anybody can do anything
Matt Widmyer:if they put their mind to it.
Matt Widmyer:But I've also learned that a lot of people don't want to put their minds
Matt Widmyer:into this, which is fine, right?
Matt Widmyer:It's the decisions being made either from their side or our side.
Matt Widmyer:But I think that if somebody comes through the door with the strong worth work ethic,
Matt Widmyer:a great attitude, and a student mentality they will be successful in this role.
Kevin Dieny:So let's say you've hired a new call handler for your team a new SDR
Kevin Dieny:for your team, what does the onboarding process look like for a new hire?
Kevin Dieny:What do you think that the core important things are for onboarding a call handler
Kevin Dieny:in their first 90 days to be successful?
Matt Widmyer:Our team is broken down into there's a senior level and an entry level.
Matt Widmyer:The seniors are responsible for most of the day to day training but
Matt Widmyer:I make it a point at this point in time anyway just to do some really
Matt Widmyer:strong handholding in the beginning.
Matt Widmyer:Day one is always setting expectations letting them know exactly what they're
Matt Widmyer:responsible for right out of the gate.
Matt Widmyer:Letting them know how they're measured what their quotas
Matt Widmyer:are per day, week, month.
Matt Widmyer:My role in getting that, their accountability partners role
Matt Widmyer:in helping them, and since that's really day one stuff.
Matt Widmyer:Week one stuff, the next few days would be mostly talking about once you're crystal
Matt Widmyer:clear on expectations and I confirm right, and make sure they have all that stuff.
Matt Widmyer:Then we start going into the products and some of the systems we use as well as the
Matt Widmyer:other people they will be working with.
Matt Widmyer:So in terms of systems I'm talking specifically about CRM, sales
Matt Widmyer:automation, anything that there'll be that they don't know how to use or
Matt Widmyer:don't know how to use our instance of.
Matt Widmyer:They'll get some one-on-one training there and then I do it, I'll do it
Matt Widmyer:first, and then we'll do it together.
Matt Widmyer:Then I'll just watch them to make sure they that's kinda like our
Matt Widmyer:mastery, my way of gauging it any way.
Matt Widmyer:Then a lot of it's just products, a lot of Q and A, lot of walking through
Matt Widmyer:what our different products do.
Matt Widmyer:Once I feel like they're comfortable enough to discuss those with
Matt Widmyer:prospects, we'll have them dialing outbound in about a week's time.
Matt Widmyer:And now it's not like we are throwing them right into the deep end.
Matt Widmyer:We'll work really closely with them, listen to some calls
Matt Widmyer:together, a lot of it's objections.
Matt Widmyer:"Hey I'm getting a lot of this," and then we work on okay, well if you hear
Matt Widmyer:this try this if you hear this try this.
Matt Widmyer:A lot of that following up it's usually a daily recap towards the end of the day
Matt Widmyer:and several times throughout the day too.
Matt Widmyer:But then the ongoing after a couple of weeks then they'll get deeper into warmer
Matt Widmyer:initiatives and that's when they start dealing with the inbound leads too.
Matt Widmyer:I want to make sure that they're able to discuss our products from an outbound
Matt Widmyer:perspective before they start dealing with the inbound leads because those
Matt Widmyer:are a little more handle with care, I'm sure you'd appreciate that too....
Kevin Dieny:More unpredictable?
Matt Widmyer:Yeah, I mean it's why they're wild cards as you know so every
Matt Widmyer:single one is whether or not they know what they're inquiring about they have
Matt Widmyer:an idea of what they want and then it's our it's our job to best qualify it and
Matt Widmyer:send it off to where it needs to be.
Kevin Dieny:Okay so I got at least three things from what you said, I
Kevin Dieny:think that are pretty core to onboarding successful call handlers The first one is
Kevin Dieny:it sounds like you have the approach of maybe, the quote, "It takes a village."
Kevin Dieny:You have both mentors within the team, senior members of the team assisting
Kevin Dieny:the newbies getting their feet wet and understanding what's needed.
Kevin Dieny:You mentioned that you call them accountability partners, really quickly
Kevin Dieny:can you tell us what that means?
Matt Widmyer:Basically it's our way of giving the senior members of the
Matt Widmyer:team, I've already proven that they're able to do this job right, from a
Matt Widmyer:trainer perspective, it's really a way to scale our team, they're
Matt Widmyer:responsible for the day-to-day, the really in the trenches management.
Matt Widmyer:A lot of what I do is a larger scale trying to build the team out, work our way
Matt Widmyer:into new verticals and stuff like that.
Matt Widmyer:They get into the actual more of the call training aspect of it, the
Matt Widmyer:one-on-one let's listen to some calls together, let's do it, let's do a power
Matt Widmyer:hour, let's do a blitz real quick.
Matt Widmyer:They kind of keep the swords sharp on a day to day basis If that makes sense?
Kevin Dieny:Yeah, and the accountability aspect are they
Kevin Dieny:actually setting appointments or calls with or for the senior SDRs or the
Kevin Dieny:senior role of call handlers here?
Matt Widmyer:Some of what they set will go to the senior member because
Matt Widmyer:our seniors are also closing deals too.
Matt Widmyer:We also are sending things over to the sales team that there'll be doing too.
Matt Widmyer:So it's a combination of both they're accountable for making sure that their
Matt Widmyer:entry level reps attain their appointment or demo quotas, they're monthly quotas,
Matt Widmyer:and they get rewarded if that happens too.
Kevin Dieny:The village the first main one, is a lot of delegation happening.
Kevin Dieny:And that is allowing the people who are doing this every day all the time, the
Kevin Dieny:senior role, who has proven themselves they're the ones that are going to
Kevin Dieny:be training the new younger guys.
Kevin Dieny:It's coming right out of the experience of doing this every day leaving you to
Kevin Dieny:do some of the bigger picture stuff.
Kevin Dieny:So delegation, you know having everyone in the team contribute
Kevin Dieny:or providing mentorship, it seems like a really important one.
Kevin Dieny:The other thing you mentioned which was really cool was you get them calling
Kevin Dieny:within a week or two, like pretty quick, so maybe other companies throw
Kevin Dieny:them right in, day one, answering, picking up phones, and calls.
Kevin Dieny:But you wanted to make sure they understand that the processes
Kevin Dieny:that we have, where information goes, CRMs, things like that.
Kevin Dieny:The technology and also an understanding of our products.
Kevin Dieny:Maybe even an understanding of the audiences and stuff like that we're
Kevin Dieny:going to be talking too, some objections.
Kevin Dieny:So in that early period of time you make sure that they're going to be
Kevin Dieny:productive I would call that productivity.
Kevin Dieny:So number one, is delegation is a vital component and mentoring and stuff.
Kevin Dieny:The second one I would say is probably focus a little bit on
Kevin Dieny:the productivity giving them the tools they need to succeed.
Kevin Dieny:And you've mentioned it requires a certain type of motivation for someone who wants
Kevin Dieny:to be hungry and take all the tools you're giving them and all the education
Kevin Dieny:and experience from others you're giving them so that they can run with it.
Kevin Dieny:Is that roughly what you're mentioning?
Matt Widmyer:No you summed it up pretty good, and keep in mind the week
Matt Widmyer:timeline that's more of a fuzzy timeline.
Matt Widmyer:One of my most successful reps only had two full days of training and then
Matt Widmyer:they were on the phones, day three and beyond and never looked back.
Matt Widmyer:It is more of a fuzzy timeline but if it takes much longer than a week there
Matt Widmyer:might be some additional things that we didn't account for in the hiring process.
Matt Widmyer:I think a lot of the hiring process is, does this person look like they
Matt Widmyer:are able to get ramped up like anybody else in in roughly a week's timeline?
Matt Widmyer:And if it's like a day or two after it's not a big deal but I don't want
Matt Widmyer:to be sitting in a classroom setting with somebody for a month because it's
Matt Widmyer:not a great use of either one of our time for something, it's probably not
Matt Widmyer:going to work out if it's that long.
Kevin Dieny:Let's go to the next phase, of a maturing call handler.
Kevin Dieny:So they're past the onboarding period a couple weeks months they're out of
Kevin Dieny:their period of time where they're just continually feeling like this
Kevin Dieny:is the first time I'm doing this.
Kevin Dieny:And now at this point they're doing something for the nth time.
Kevin Dieny:So how do you foster a more successful call handler from that point?
Kevin Dieny:How do you incentivize them?
Kevin Dieny:How do you motivate them?
Kevin Dieny:How do you help them to succeed once they've got their
Kevin Dieny:legs and they're running?
Matt Widmyer:I think first things first you have to let everyone know that they're
Matt Widmyer:important piece on the team, right?
Matt Widmyer:Where they're all contributors at an individual level, and their contributions
Matt Widmyer:are getting factored into a team goal.
Matt Widmyer:Acknowledging it's not an easy job, I've worked in environments before where
Matt Widmyer:the call handlers or the entry level people are looked at as the peasants.
Matt Widmyer:They're a cog in the wheel.
Matt Widmyer:Doing the day in day out smacking a yard stick on their desk and making
Matt Widmyer:sure they're making phone calls and hitting the minimums and everything.
Matt Widmyer:And if they don't then there's write-up and stuff like that.
Matt Widmyer:I think keeping them motivated it helps you prevent a lot of that collateral
Matt Widmyer:damage that could come down the road.
Matt Widmyer:I think the most important thing is just to get a gauge on what they want to do,
Matt Widmyer:where they want their career to head.
Matt Widmyer:There's a linear path here for the entry-level reps, they moved
Matt Widmyer:to senior, and then they moved to sales, or they can do more training
Matt Widmyer:if that's what their strong suit is.
Matt Widmyer:But I think just giving them a vision of where the team's headed and right
Matt Widmyer:now we're headed into a good place.
Matt Widmyer:So it's a little bit easier for me to give that vision.
Matt Widmyer:But just letting them know that, "Hey we're going places and you
Matt Widmyer:know you're on the bus as long as you continue to put your head down
Matt Widmyer:and work hard and ask questions."
Matt Widmyer:If you aren't doing well that's fine cause everyone goes through difficult times.
Matt Widmyer:I still remember back as an SDR myself three days in a row of not getting an
Matt Widmyer:appointment you go to really dark places.
Matt Widmyer:Now I'm able to sympathize, empathize a little bit, and just be like,
Matt Widmyer:"Hey, look I've been there before, it's not easy but chop the day up."
Matt Widmyer:And I can give a little advice a little things I tried before if you're just
getting crushed on the phones:go get something to eat, take a walk around
getting crushed on the phones:the building, or something you know.
getting crushed on the phones:I see all of the stuff that I've gone through myself and I see
getting crushed on the phones:them going through and it's just kind of refreshing because I know
getting crushed on the phones:it wasn't like a just me thing.
getting crushed on the phones:It comes with the territory, so it's cool to be able to offer
getting crushed on the phones:that from that side of things.
getting crushed on the phones:I think that's where I do have a little bit of an advantage managing
getting crushed on the phones:this team because I've actually sat in the seat before doing it for so long.
Kevin Dieny:Yeah I think that does help and I think you come at it
Kevin Dieny:with a perspective that at first comes with a bit more empathy before
Kevin Dieny:you know stick to your numbers, why are you down, what's going on.
Kevin Dieny:That does lead me to wondering how important is it for your
Kevin Dieny:team to know the numbers?
Kevin Dieny:To know how they're measured, what's important, what's okay?
Kevin Dieny:Like, is calling a hundred people without an appointment or without a result
Kevin Dieny:that you're going for is that okay?
Kevin Dieny:How important is it for your team to know the numbers you're tracking
Kevin Dieny:and how they're being measured?
Matt Widmyer:Sure, so in any situation really for any job, if
Matt Widmyer:you're going to lay out expectations you gotta manage to them, right?
Matt Widmyer:If you feel like somebody is fully onboard and those expectations aren't being met
Matt Widmyer:that's something that we need to address.
Matt Widmyer:Luckily we have a nice little dashboard in Salesforce our CRM and they're able to see
Matt Widmyer:every metric that they're responsible for.
Matt Widmyer:They're able to see at any given time just by going to that page and hit it refresh.
Matt Widmyer:I think at most places this is a basic function but to all of them they say
Matt Widmyer:it seems like the coolest thing in the world which is cool for me to hear.
Matt Widmyer:It's almost like we're living in the future here but to know
Matt Widmyer:exactly where you're at, how you stack up against everybody else.
Matt Widmyer:Because expectations, they have to just come out of thin air
Matt Widmyer:until we see what's realistic.
Matt Widmyer:And then we can adjust and we have to decide does this make sense,
Matt Widmyer:does this do, are we on metric?
Matt Widmyer:Does this add up into our team goal?
Matt Widmyer:If it does then that's the expectation.
Matt Widmyer:If we fall short we need to work on identifying what aspect we're falling
Matt Widmyer:short on and then manage to that.
Matt Widmyer:If I see somebody making a hundred phone calls every single day and usually not
Matt Widmyer:getting any appointments and then it's whatever they're saying on the phone.
Matt Widmyer:We look at connections too, are we even connecting with anybody who's
Matt Widmyer:capable of committing to it appointment.
Matt Widmyer:If we aren't, then we're having gatekeeper issues usually.
Matt Widmyer:If we're connecting with a ton of people and not getting appointments
Matt Widmyer:then we're botching whatever it is that we say on the phone to them.
Matt Widmyer:It's called training right?
Matt Widmyer:Which, I don't disappear when new people start so even though the call training
Matt Widmyer:is a lot on the accountability partner or the senior SDR level I'm always
Matt Widmyer:available for that kind of stuff too.
Matt Widmyer:I'll make phone calls, I'll listen to phone calls, and we can usually pinpoint
Matt Widmyer:out exactly what we need to address.
Matt Widmyer:If the efforts all there and the results aren't, it's usually nine times out of
Matt Widmyer:ten, it's either a gatekeeper issues or it's just whatever they're saying to
Matt Widmyer:the actual decision maker on the phone.
Matt Widmyer:Every once in a while it will be a list that we thought was a
Matt Widmyer:lot better than it actually was.
Matt Widmyer:It'll sometimes happen with a brand new initiative, if it's the actual list
Matt Widmyer:itself it might need a little bit more cultivating from whoever manages the
Matt Widmyer:partnership, or whoever got the list.
Matt Widmyer:So it's an ongoing process.
Kevin Dieny:I can totally see that and I also like that the things
Kevin Dieny:you're doing to track your performance of the team, there's layers there.
Kevin Dieny:Where you're tracking the performance of each individual person and the
Kevin Dieny:metrics in-between are telling you what needs to be worked on.
Kevin Dieny:You mentioned if any one of these metrics is falling short you know what
Kevin Dieny:conversation to have, what to focus on.
Kevin Dieny:Whether that's the conversation itself, whether that's seeing who they're calling,
Kevin Dieny:what kind of conversation they're leading in with, what they're saying on the phone
Kevin Dieny:listening to some recordings, having a one-on-one time with them that's helping
Kevin Dieny:you to know what's going on with them.
Kevin Dieny:Now that the improvement itself is where I want to go next,
Kevin Dieny:which is incentivizing the team.
Kevin Dieny:How do you quickly boost the motivation or the improvement
Kevin Dieny:of your team, how could you?
Matt Widmyer:Quickly boost the motivation or improvement...
Matt Widmyer:yeah, so there's a number of ways.
Matt Widmyer:One way is just straight up bribery by using gift cards and stuff like that.
Kevin Dieny:That you do use?
Matt Widmyer:Yeah I do, yeah, and now this might not be practical for
Matt Widmyer:every business but even just praise, acknowledgement, walking over their
Matt Widmyer:desk, "Hey, you're killing it today!"
Matt Widmyer:That's enough for most businesses.
Matt Widmyer:And it was enough before we started doing gift cards but I just felt like
Matt Widmyer:adding that layer into it on top of that.
Matt Widmyer:It doesn't mean the praise stops, the praise is still there, it
Matt Widmyer:doesn't have to be anything crazy.
Matt Widmyer:You don't have to give away $500 at a time.
Matt Widmyer:$10 Starbucks card, 25 bucks here and there a couple of times a week.
Matt Widmyer:That's enough to keep people motivated.
Matt Widmyer:There's individual, there's team contests, there's challenges where,
Matt Widmyer:"Hey, I bet you can't do this."
Matt Widmyer:And then if they do then they get a gift card.
Matt Widmyer:Sometimes I don't even tell them I'm having a contest and I just walk
Matt Widmyer:over and hand somebody a gift card because I was having a contest without
Matt Widmyer:telling them I was having a contest.
Matt Widmyer:So secret contest will work pretty good too.
Matt Widmyer:There's a number of things but I think one of the one of the
Matt Widmyer:most successful one of the most engaging one is like a point system.
Matt Widmyer:So for every call you make you get one point, for every appointment
Matt Widmyer:that you set you get 10 points.
Matt Widmyer:And then at the end of the day you have to set a cutoff time.
Matt Widmyer:But at the end of the day at that cutoff time we tally up the points and
Matt Widmyer:then it's the points are all based on what it was being entered in the CRM.
Matt Widmyer:And then whoever gets the most points wins and there's no, "Oh,
Matt Widmyer:I didn't get it in in time!"
Matt Widmyer:Well, too bad because that was the cutoff time.
Matt Widmyer:The points are the points, right?
Matt Widmyer:You have to just be very black and white with contests like that.
Matt Widmyer:And then every time you do run a contest like that there's going to
Matt Widmyer:be one or two things that come up.
Matt Widmyer:"Well, oh, I didn't, I didn't, I clocked in late or I had
Matt Widmyer:another couple of phone calls."
Matt Widmyer:So you have to account for everything and you're going to keep modifying
Matt Widmyer:and adjusting and creating new rules based on every time you do it.
Matt Widmyer:But it ends up being pretty advanced after a while.
Kevin Dieny:I know some of the contests that you've run over there
Kevin Dieny:and I know the impact it has in some comradery, some competitiveness.
Kevin Dieny:It does align well with the emotion that exists over there.
Kevin Dieny:Matt has an area of our office where his team operates and it's
Kevin Dieny:definitely has a different feel.
Kevin Dieny:Everyone there is trying to push.
Kevin Dieny:It does take a lot out of you emotionally.
Kevin Dieny:A day can start out well and then go bad like you mentioned just a few
Kevin Dieny:days of things not going great has a pretty severe emotional, mental impact.
Kevin Dieny:So let's flip the question how do you disincentivize or how do you
Kevin Dieny:keep people using the processes and productivity you have in place?
Kevin Dieny:How do you make sure that they're having the right kinds of conversations
Kevin Dieny:or keep them on the right path here?
Matt Widmyer:Keeping them on the right path in terms of the
Matt Widmyer:conversations that they're...
Matt Widmyer:you're talking about outside of contests?
Kevin Dieny:Yeah, like how do you disincentivize the wrong things?
Kevin Dieny:How do you keep the behaviors you don't want happening from happening?
Kevin Dieny:How do you try to continually reinforce the right stuff and so
Kevin Dieny:that they don't get off track?
Matt Widmyer:Got it, if somebody is performing and then they're no
Matt Widmyer:longer performing or they haven't performed in awhile, we will have more
Matt Widmyer:of a serious conversation with them.
Matt Widmyer:First things first, this is about you, and you're in a performance-based role.
Matt Widmyer:This is why it's so important at the beginning, day one, just to go
Matt Widmyer:so clear clearly over expectations.
Matt Widmyer:Because then when performance related conversations happen you
Matt Widmyer:know what you signed up for, right?
Matt Widmyer:And we talked about this week one and I can confidently say that
Matt Widmyer:to anybody out there right now.
Matt Widmyer:And if someone's not performing, hey we talked about this, we
Matt Widmyer:knew, you know this was coming.
Matt Widmyer:Usually if you see something start derailing we have all the metrics tracked
Matt Widmyer:on a dashboard, so as you see things start steering in a way they shouldn't
Matt Widmyer:be steering you have the ability to still grab the wheel and steer it in the right
Matt Widmyer:direction before it gets to that point.
Matt Widmyer:But if it's someone who you've been working with and they used to have it
Matt Widmyer:and they lost it or they've never had it, then yeah if they're working a really warm
Matt Widmyer:affiliate they could be pulled off of it.
Matt Widmyer:We do improvement plans over the period of a month and if they don't
Matt Widmyer:improve then they may be terminated.
Matt Widmyer:I don't like to hover that over anybody's head like, "Hey, if you
Matt Widmyer:don't do your job you're gone," but that is the reality of it.
Matt Widmyer:There's a reason why we're paying everybody to be in a seat.
Matt Widmyer:It's because there's an expectation of performance.
Matt Widmyer:So if that's not there we can't justify the spend on a seat.
Matt Widmyer:Before it gets to that point we will address it well before
Matt Widmyer:it gets to that point usually.
Matt Widmyer:I've learned over the years is you can't save everybody but there are some people
Matt Widmyer:that you can turn around and we've done a pretty good job with a few of them out
Matt Widmyer:here, and they're still here today too.
Kevin Dieny:I don't feel that as someone who looks onto your team I don't feel
Kevin Dieny:that there's any sort of animosity there or that there's anyone who has overly
Kevin Dieny:complicated conflicts with each other.
Kevin Dieny:There's some pretty good teamwork going on with everyone there even though
Kevin Dieny:there might be pods of people who are on teams and other people on other teams.
Kevin Dieny:Things are kept light enough and friendly enough and everyone's
Kevin Dieny:on aligned and on the same kind of page they're on your team too.
Kevin Dieny:Everyone knows what's expected and everyone's trying to do that, and
Kevin Dieny:I've been over there where they walk over and they'll share, "Hey
Kevin Dieny:this is working for me or whatever."
Kevin Dieny:The openness of being able to have that environment where people can share and
Kevin Dieny:move forward together is pretty great.
Kevin Dieny:It's not if I'm successful it means someone else in the other on the team
Kevin Dieny:isn't, everyone's working together towards similar and shared goals.
Kevin Dieny:So, final question for you here sort of to wrap it up a little bit is, the call
Kevin Dieny:handler oftentimes is the frontline.
Kevin Dieny:They are the one having the one-to-one conversations with somebody.
Kevin Dieny:The phone is a pretty expensive seat, every second they're on a
Kevin Dieny:conversation they're really can only be talking to one person.
Kevin Dieny:They can't have a window open with 10 call conversations
Kevin Dieny:happening, it's not possible.
Kevin Dieny:So it's an expensive touch point for a business to have with its consumers.
Kevin Dieny:And if they mess that up it can cause people to get upset.
Kevin Dieny:I've heard a lot of stories where people were mistreated or rude on the phone and
Kevin Dieny:it sends someone away from the business.
Kevin Dieny:So it seems to me to be a really really important role for a business to focus on.
Kevin Dieny:So if you're the type of business that hasn't really spent a whole lot of time,
Kevin Dieny:hasn't focused on coaching, mentoring, providing the assistance, or maybe the
Kevin Dieny:type of management you may want to your front office, your call handlers, your
Kevin Dieny:secretary, whoever it is that's managing your phones what would you say to them?
Kevin Dieny:Why would you say the call handler is so important to a business?
Matt Widmyer:They're the first impression that business gets usually.
Matt Widmyer:So, if somebody is wanting something and they're inquiring and as you
Matt Widmyer:know it's not cheap to get the phone to ring in the first place.
Matt Widmyer:If somebody on the front lines botches a phone call it's not a good look.
Matt Widmyer:It can go a lot further than just that one sale.
Matt Widmyer:It can destroy any future sales opportunities for that prospect.
Matt Widmyer:It can destroy it, if it's bad enough that they could start talking to their friends,
Matt Widmyer:"Hey don't do business with CallSource."
Matt Widmyer:It could end up being pretty bad.
Matt Widmyer:We as a business, and here's the plug here we actually have all of our inbound calls
Matt Widmyer:are recorded through a tracking number and through our tracking number we do
Matt Widmyer:drink our own Kool-Aid here at CallSource.
Matt Widmyer:So through our tracking numbers those calls are being recorded and
Matt Widmyer:play a disclaimer and everything.
Matt Widmyer:Each call handler that picks up the phone is scored on their call.
Matt Widmyer:So, there are things that need to be mentioned on every single call.
Matt Widmyer:The call needs to be answered a certain way and we need to
Matt Widmyer:be asking the right questions.
Matt Widmyer:What's the person's name, what's their contact information, what's their phone
Matt Widmyer:number, what is the problem they're trying to solve for within their business?
Matt Widmyer:Are there next steps?
Matt Widmyer:There's a laundry list of probably 30 different things and they're
Matt Widmyer:all yes no very objective things.
Matt Widmyer:It would be pretty tough to get a hundred percent on every single call, but if
Matt Widmyer:somebody is very far away from that, then I'll have a conversation with them.
Matt Widmyer:We have the ability to pull them off of inbound leads, from fielding
Matt Widmyer:inbound leads which would be a lot harder to hit their numbers that way.
Matt Widmyer:That's the light warning like, hey you need to get your scores up.
Matt Widmyer:Opting to be able to field inbound leads you're taking some of the
Matt Widmyer:outbound workload off yourself.
Matt Widmyer:Therefore you need to abide by this scorecard.
Matt Widmyer:Every single one of them, I think, has it printed out and put it on their desk.
Matt Widmyer:Every box they need to check.
Matt Widmyer:The only issue with that though is when you first introduce it they just
Matt Widmyer:go down the list like a checklist, and, hey do you do this, do you
Matt Widmyer:do that, what's this, what's that.
Matt Widmyer:Making those key points as conversation points into a back and
Matt Widmyer:forth dialogue is the tricky part.
Matt Widmyer:So there's an art to it but they all get better at it over time.
Matt Widmyer:Everyone here has been on the team for awhile.
Matt Widmyer:They're all pretty good at answering the phone.
Matt Widmyer:Nobody's score is like glaringly bad to where we need to have performance
Matt Widmyer:related conversation as it pertains to it.
Matt Widmyer:But that is a must If you're spending money and get your phones to ring
Matt Widmyer:measuring the performance that people are picking up is a must.
Kevin Dieny:Okay, so let me try to summarize a little bit here.
Kevin Dieny:The first one that we talked about before was the importance
Kevin Dieny:of setting expectations, right?
Kevin Dieny:And delegation making sure that they have all the tools they need to succeed.
Kevin Dieny:The second one was walking them through the processes walking them through
Kevin Dieny:productivity and making sure that they know what they need to do, what's expected
Kevin Dieny:of them but also how they're measured.
Kevin Dieny:Making sure that you're having those conversations with them.
Kevin Dieny:You've just also highlighted that managing successful call handlers it doesn't have
Kevin Dieny:to be so intensive, consume all your time.
Kevin Dieny:It is doable.
Kevin Dieny:And if you utilize a tool that scores the calls for you, shows you who's
Kevin Dieny:trending up or trending down that can save you a lot of time from having
Kevin Dieny:to listen to the calls yourself.
Kevin Dieny:Bringing them in right, setting the expectations right, giving them the
Kevin Dieny:right environment, delegating some of those things to other people
Kevin Dieny:and your team and the training to other tools that could help.
Kevin Dieny:All those things help you manage the call handlers.
Kevin Dieny:We talked about incentivizing the right behaviors.
Kevin Dieny:Starting with empathy, rewarding with gift cards or with praise or finding something
Kevin Dieny:with each unique person that would help them feel motivated to keep going.
Kevin Dieny:It's part of the call handler trade to have the rollercoaster emotions
Kevin Dieny:of up and down, and success and not success, and this list works great
Kevin Dieny:but I need to go to another list.
Kevin Dieny:That's tough, a lot of that you don't have a whole lot of control
Kevin Dieny:of and that doesn't ever feel good.
Kevin Dieny:So as the manager, managing that, helping them getting their legs and helping them
Kevin Dieny:move forward in the right direction.
Kevin Dieny:Another thing you mentioned somewhere in the middle, being able to know
Kevin Dieny:the numbers, being able to know what to improve with each call handler,
Kevin Dieny:looking at the team as a whole keeping that process very transparent...
Kevin Dieny:That to me, connects the dots of setting the expectations and then like you
Kevin Dieny:mentioned, managing what you're preaching.
Kevin Dieny:So was there anything else you wanted to add to all of this Matt?
Matt Widmyer:Yeah I would say just to add to the daily motivation or
Matt Widmyer:keeping the temperament of each individual SDR is so important.
Matt Widmyer:Right?
Matt Widmyer:Because the emotional roller coaster, you have one day where you just
Matt Widmyer:blow away expectations and then you have another day where you connect
Matt Widmyer:with a bunch of people and you strike out every single one of them.
Matt Widmyer:"Nah, we're too busy," or every single call goes bad.
Matt Widmyer:My advice it's gonna happen, and I always let all my people know do not get
Matt Widmyer:too excited on those really good days.
Matt Widmyer:Don't walk around beating your chest because when those really bad days
Matt Widmyer:come it could come back to haunt you.
Matt Widmyer:But also try to stay away from those dark places.
Matt Widmyer:Continue to put your head down and work hard and then you can
Matt Widmyer:work your way out of a hole.
Matt Widmyer:Hot streaks go cold, cold streaks go hot.
Matt Widmyer:It's just a by-product of the role itself.
Matt Widmyer:Everybody comes through the door a little bit soft and then after a few weeks
Matt Widmyer:they'll there'll be carved out of wood.
Matt Widmyer:It's kinda how the role goes.
Matt Widmyer:I would make the roller coaster a little bit more even rather than just
Matt Widmyer:like you know you want to keep the you don't want to keep the highs super high
Matt Widmyer:and you don't want to you don't want to have the lowest super low either.
Matt Widmyer:Because then that can really mess with their mindset on a day-to-day basis right?
Kevin Dieny:Yeah that's really tough.
Kevin Dieny:And the call handler is so important to the business.
Kevin Dieny:They're the front lines oftentimes and they set the stage for what could
Kevin Dieny:be months or years of revenue for the business, it's really important.
Kevin Dieny:And every business can successfully manage successful call handlers.
Kevin Dieny:They can do it.
Kevin Dieny:You can.
Kevin Dieny:You've showed me not every person may not be cut out for being the
Kevin Dieny:best call handler in the world but everyone does bring something unique
Kevin Dieny:and every call handler is unique.
Kevin Dieny:So it is possible to manage them if you can onboard them right, set
Kevin Dieny:expectations as you mentioned right.
Kevin Dieny:You can train them help them know what they need to improve on continually.
Kevin Dieny:You can hold on to them and retain them so that your business can
Kevin Dieny:grow, can make the call handling part of it, not a bottleneck, not a
Kevin Dieny:thing anchoring the business down.
Kevin Dieny:Call handlers are very important and you can manage successful call handlers.
Kevin Dieny:So that's it for today, thank you again Matt.
Matt Widmyer:Absolutely.
Kevin Dieny:And I appreciate everyone for listening.
Kevin Dieny:Go out there and set some appointments or bring in those
Kevin Dieny:calls and answer those calls.
Kevin Dieny:We really appreciate you listening, thank you!
