Door to Door Cable Sales & Auditing 101

Are You Losing The Sales Edge To Technology

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Technology is changing rapidly and with this change comes the challenge of keeping up with The Joneses. For cable MSOs, The Joneses are the competitors who offer voice, data and wireless services. Yesterday's double play of video (TV) and data (internet) are not enough to meet consumer demand for additional voice (telephone) and wireless (cell phone) capabilities. Cable and their competitors rush to be the one stop shop for consumers.

The Role of Company Image in Selling

R&D departments, strategic vision and a platform for deliverables are great. But can you sell it, and why will a customer buy from you versus your competitor? Not surprisingly, these are questions any business must ask itself. Company image plays an important part in finding success in selling and arguably the image of a cable company is relatively low tech compared to a wireless provider. However, this does not mean that the business is any less complicated. It only means that the changing landscape of services and technologies must be met with equally changing methods of communicating and selling the consumer. This is best done with the integration of a Customer Relationship Management tool like Sales Force Automation (SFA).

Changing The Image of the DSR

A great place to start is with the people who have direct face-to-face contact with the consumers and this is the Direct Sales Representative (DSR). Polishing the image (Verizon is already doing in some markets) of a (DSR) with SFA is to give them the tools necessary to:

• Access promotional information online using handheld devices.
• Speed up the sales process by reducing credit check time, real time promotion checks, reducing the sales cycle time.
• Have greater knowledge of the customer through online history making for a smoother approach and better objection handling.
• Make up selling and cross-selling easier
• Make more sales calls in a given period of time through more efficient scheduling, faster sales cycle, less time spent on administration and less time calling in orders.
• Makes the DSR look much more professional and capable in the eyes of a consumer.

Efficiency gains lead to additional time available for training and professionalization

SFA has additional value particularly to Sales Managers and back office staff. These advantages include:

• An increase in coaching time with DSRs by decreasing the amount of time spent manually producing schedules.
• Lowering turnover by enabling DSRs to make more and higher quality sales calls (with manager supervision/training) within the first 90 days.
• Reduces administrative time spent on approving sales, preparing reports, reporting commissions and filing paperwork.
• Back office staff (call center) spends less time handing questions and issues from DSRs resulting in faster customer response and greater customer satisfaction.

The advantages of using a CRM include image enhancement and productivity gains both of which will result in higher sales and less churn to competitors. Keeping up with The Joneses doesn't have to be hard if you are smart. Tell us what you are doing to increase the technical image of your DSRs.