11. November 2009 by admin.

Okay, what is it? What exactly is a BPO?

BPO is the acronym for Business Process Outsourcing.  The BPO’s function is to take on the responsibility of routine repetitive jobs that are labor intensive. As an example world-class businesses need to focus on their core best practices. Is it really cost-effective for a lumber company to build and staff a call center for inbound customer service billing questions?

30 years ago the answer would have been a resounding YES. However, technology and productivity has changed so fast that now the answer is a resounding NO. The development of call routing, IVRs, IP-based phone systems, the Internet, call monitoring software, call recording software, data collection,  and a host of other productivity enhancing technologies have enabled a single BPO to handle multiple customers at one time.

To make it more interesting today a single call center associate could be handling a payment processing call for customer #1, while a customer service call for customer #2 is being handled through a live chat… both at the same time. As soon as that chat session ends the next one pops up. As soon as that payment processing call ends the call center associate gets a little whisper in their ear telling them about the next call they are about to receive.

The moral of the story is BPO’s allow more routine business functions to be done with less personnel. If you outsource your routine business functions, like payment processing to a BPO then you will NOT have to:

1. Hire payment processing personnel
2. Pay for their benefits
3. Hire a training staff to train them on payment processing
4. Budget or expense any funds for recruiting the personnel
5. Hire a manager to supervise their activities
6. Expand your HR department for all of the above reasons… OR
7. We haven’t even touched on the build out of the technology or the technical personnel you would need to run a call center of your own. 

Years ago the big craze was to outsource routine business functions like payment processing, or credit card processing overseas. The American public is still not crazy about this thought. Luckily there are plenty of BPO call centers in the U.S. that can handle these types of needs.

If you have been thinking about outsourcing to a U.S. company and you don’t know where to start then my advice is to start by clicking here.

David Peterson - President: Atlanta Sales and Consulting

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11. November 2009 by admin.

Since everyone hates or ought to hate cold calling there is another option… Send a letter of introduction.

Sales representatives will find ANYTHING else to do besides cold calling. Unless you have a very good list to call off of it is hard to remain productive as a group and the reps will quickly become disinterested.

There is an option, when you send a personalized letter of introduction with a specific call to action in it then all of the sudden your cold call becomes a warm call.

Or at least that is what you can call it… a warm call. Your sales representatives will determine how warm the call really is. However your professional sales representatives will take this tried and true method of getting to 1st base seriously and begin the sales process right there.

The letter must state:

• Who you are…
  • “My name is David Peterson, I am a sales representative for XYX Corporation.”
• Who your company is…
  • “The XYX Corporation is a major player in the ABC industry, perhaps you have heard of us?”
• Why you are writing them…
  • “The reason for this letter is that I wanted to introduce myself to you and I think that I have uncovered an opportunity for both of us to succeed.”
• Call to action, or next step…  
  • “I will be calling you in the next week to discuss these opportunities.”

This is a very simple way to get your sales reps past the problem and stigma of cold calling by providing them with a list that they know #1 it is to their target market, especially since you spent the money to produce the mailing and #2 The prospect should be expecting a call.

Simple and effective. Give it a try both your sales reps and your prospects may enjoy the whole process just a little bit more.

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