Is being an inbound sales rep (where you never call, just answer incoming calls) a difficult job to do? I have a possibility of being a sales rep for a worldwide company at one of their call centers. It is all supposedly just answering the phone and basically taking customers orders, while attempting to upsell. The problem is, a salesman I ain’t. I would starve to death if I ever attempted to sell cars. 
I’m interested in other people’s experiences doing this, especially those that had never sold anything, and how hard it is to learn to do.
I’ve managed an inside sales group before and while you don’t need really strong sales skills, the poeple that tended to do the best were the friendliest on the phone. If you can easily engage a perfect stranger into a conversation (my mother used to do this while standing in line at the store… it drove me nuts) then you will probably do well. They should provide you with upselling lines you can use while the person is on the phone to check their interest. This tends to be a low pressure sales situation so I doubt you will be expected to generate big dollars… but I suppose that depends on the company.
I agree with dolphinboy, if you’re not cold-calling then the quality that would stand you in the best stead is the ability to try all the upsells with every customer and not get discouraged if your percentage of acceptance isn’t terribly high. The call centers I have worked with or for just wanted you to try with every customer.
Also very important: the ability to remain upbeat, to put a smile in your voice, and to maintain your patience when the caller dithers or doesn’t seem to know what they want. These qualities will almost certainly increase your success at upselling.
Good luck!
Roddy
Inside Sales is the name I think you are looking for.
I’ve done some of it with industrial tooling. 90% of our customers were an established base. They call, we take the order. Cut and dry. Most of the time they want to know price and delivery times. So you do a stock check and call back.
Sometimes they call in a panic because they are out of something or your manufacturer doesn’t have any right away. We had to be knowledgable about what we had, to be able to offer an alternative. Or they call and say I need to do this, what do I do it with?
Sometimes people call with half of a part number or other incomplete info and you get to play decective.
If you give good phone give it a shot.
It’s the upselling that’s the drag.
Some places are fine, and let people order what they want. Those are easy jobs.
But if they make you say the equivalent of “You want fries with that” to everyone, you will soon feel sleazy.
And the worst are the bait and switch. They make you talk people out of the sale item as being beneath them. That kind of thing is for people who resent other people, not for the well balanced individual with a sense of fairness and the basic equality of customers and themselves.
I work in an office as an inside sales person. Most of our customers know exactly what they want as we are wholesale distributor of parts and maintenace products. Sometimes we get Retail customers calling from other parts of the country that don’t know exactly what they want or the the occasional Tool, and you can sound all bright and cheery then unplug your head set or push the mute button tell them off then reconnect/un push mute and continue to be cheery. Sometimes I find sanity in odd places.
Over all it is not bad, we don’t have to upsell but, we need to know about the products we do sell in the event of something being out of stock knowing what to offer from either a different manufacture or something that would be just as suitable. I will often times offer less expensenive alternates to help someone out that was unaware that the widget they were looking for is also available from company “Y” at $10 less, the customers appreaciate this and we get repeat buisness because we end up being their partner in what ever project they are doing helping them solve their problems with the best possible service and at the best possible price. That is what makes us their first call, and why new competition in our geographic sphere of influence tough to get a foot hold.
Thanks for all the replies. I’ve decided to forget this job. It’s not that I don’t think I can do the job. But the way this “worldwide” company goes about hiring people is assinine. If I go through the entire “hiring process” and everything falls into line perfectly, it will be over a month before I ever get a paycheck, and that would only be one weeks pay. :rolleyes: Not to mention, their pay structure is a mathematician’s nightmare. Not only that, the “guaranteed” part of the salary is less than minimum wage. :smack:
Maybe I’ll try collections. Anyone ever do that?