There are lots of little secrets that can help you to build sales in your telemarketing unit. But few things goose sales better or faster, than bringing an eagle into the room. An eagle is someone who very quickly soars above everybody else, or if hes shy of achieving the production of your leaders, hes still swooping down on them, minutes, hours or days after hatching from training. If you have to hock the familys silverware, do it, if it means youre going to get an eagle in exchange. How can one person be so important? Eagles are valuable because they say several things through performance that you cant credibly say with words, as the manager: (1) To veterans, who are sitting on their laurels, they say, if you want to stay on top, youre going to have to aim higher or get out of the way. (2) To average salespeople, they say average isnt good enough, you can no longer fly under the radar. There may be a lot of better producers in the incubator. (3) To under-performers, they say, I told you wed have to kick you out of the nestwe cant feed you forever! (4) To everyone, they announce that management is credible; it can duplicate or replace anyone, even the best performers, seemingly overnight. In sum, eagles raise standards, and this is nearly impossible to accomplish on a permanent basis without them. Sure, you have contests that temporarily boost sales, but after the prizes are handed out, performance can easily revert to lower levels, until the next contest comes along. One more thing: Eagles communicate that you are improving, as well, in recruiting, training, and guiding your unit to higher and higher levels of performance. Its a tribute that you can truly be proud of having orchestrated. |
