Recruiting for Telesales

[Cma87]

Hello,

I am reaching out to the community on here. I hope someone can share some knowledge and advice.

We are a small business with a turnover of approximately £4,000,000. We have a telesales department with two staff in it. Our telesales manager is currently looking to recruit for another sales person to work on the phone. The position is office based.

So we've been through 3 recruitment companies and we've had no luck in finding someone who fits the bill. Our telesales manager has interviewed several people and two of them have made it through. A chap who didn't turn up for a second interview and a girl who accepted the job (Nice girl but I said she wasn't up to it) we interviewed her, I happily put it to a vote of 3, I was out voted, I kept quiet, she sent an email at 9.01am on the day of her appointment to say she wouldn't be turning up. I didn't say I told you so : )

We are offering £20,000 with an on target of just over £26,000. I expect that we should be able to find someone who is intelligent, can speak in a confident tone and can hold themselves to a high standard and understands what it takes to build a good base of customers by being a professional sales person with a consultative approach or are we expecting too much of this person? (Do they exist??)

Should we be looking to pay someone closer to the 30K salary band + sales bonus who has a deeper understanding of business and commerce on a whole, who could create a good impression and promote our business and its services whether standing alongside a buyer from a national chain or a small businesses proprietor.

 

[HFE Signs]

As you know telesales staff are subject to abuse a lot of the time, this it what puts people off, nobody wants to go to work week in week out taking abuse. Good luck with it all but personally I'd look for other methods of bringing in the work.

 

[Cma87]

As you know telesales staff are subject to abuse a lot of the time, this it what puts people off, nobody wants to go to work week in week out taking abuse. Good luck with it all but personally I'd look for other methods of bringing in the work.

Thank you for replying.

Just to clarify. I am looking for someone who is professional. I think its fair to say if a person is getting anywhere near abuse whilst trying to build a customer base over the phone they are either calling the wrong people or that person is going about it all wrong! : )

Its important to gauge things like the mood of your target/customer. We are looking for someone who can say, "I can tell you are busy, when would be a convenient time to phone you back?" not someone that goes on and on until they put the phone down.

I will find out everything I can about a business (Financials, press releases, employees, their current suppliers, their in store offerings) and then I will pick up the phone and have a conversation about why we would like to work with them and what we can offer a valuable partner in their supply chain.

I expect everyone to be able to do the same. Perhaps that's too much? I welcome all responses.

 

[HFE Signs]

Most people don't want to be called all the time nor do they want spam emails, target or not, they simply want to look for what they want themselves when they want it, this is the great thing about technology we have it all at our fingertips.. advertise your business in the right places and let people call you

 

[Scott@KarmaContent]

From the sounds of it, you're not looking for someone just to bash some calls out. You're looking for a professional, sales driven individual to develop business. Why not advertise it as 'Internal Sales' or even better 'Internal Business Development Executive'. Yes I know it's a bit wordy, but it reflects the role better than just 'Telesales', and you should see a higher quality of candidate applying. A lot of good sales staff will not even look after ads that ask for 'telesales', there's a stigma to it.

 

[Cma87]

Most people don't want to be called all the time nor do they want spam emails, target or not, they simply want to look for what they want themselves when they want it, this is the great thing about technology we have it all at our fingertips.. advertise your business in the right places and let people call you

If that model suits your specific business then yes however the supermarket chain I supply didn't pick up the phone and ask us to come and present a range we had to contact them and I think its great if you can have a website that does all the selling for you but we're not a retail business we sell to them. We'd probably disappear in a short space of time if we didn't contact businesses to sell to them as would several others.

 

[Cma87]

From the sounds of it, you're not looking for someone just to bash some calls out. You're looking for a professional, sales driven individual to develop business. Why not advertise it as 'Internal Sales' or even better 'Internal Business Development Executive'. Yes I know it's a bit wordy, but it reflects the role better than just 'Telesales', and you should see a higher quality of candidate applying. A lot of good sales staff will not even look after ads that ask for 'telesales', there's a stigma to it.

I do apologise, we actually did specify a similar job title. I will edit my original post.

 

[HFE Signs]

Thats a little different then, as you said telesales I understood calling people from a list all day long, day in day out. You're looking for a business development manager / new business developer or whatever title you wish to give it. Maybe your advert needs to suggest a more accurate job title and maybe spend some time laying out the job specifics. Best of luck

 

[Cma87]

Thats a little different then, as you said telesales I understood calling people from a list all day long, day in day out. You're looking for a business development manager / new business developer or whatever title you wish to give it. Maybe your advert needs to suggest a more accurate job title and maybe spend some time laying out the job specifics. Best of luck

We did exactly that from day one so the resultant applicants were off the back of a solid job specification and if you are interested the exact title was, "Internal business account manager"

We still received many sub par applicants. Almost like we had branded the word telesales all over it.

This is the issue.......

 

[telemax]

£20k is very , very much on the low side if you want someone decent.

 

[QuoteSift]

Have you thought about setting a home based operation there are some brilliant salespeople out there but not necessarily in your geographical location. A properly set-up home operation can be better than any office environment if you create it correctly.

 

[webnise]

Have you thought about setting a home based operation there are some brilliant salespeople out there but not necessarily in your geographical location. A properly set-up home operation can be better than any office environment if you create it correctly.

I think this is a good idea and worth trying.

 

[kate1]

OP what are you selling?

 

[London Gary]

Cma87,

As per Kate's question: what are you selling?

And is Quotesift's suggestion a practical one for you?

Gary

 

[Sonicco]

I would recommend increasing the commission structure upto 35k. This will attract a more professional candidate, you could always hire grads and train them up.