Which sales manager doesn't know the following situation? A potential advertising client calls the radio station wanting information or a quote, mentioning that they had already sent a request by email a few days prior but unfortunately hadn't received a reply yet.
Now the search for the „guilty“ party begins. Who received the original request and then didn't process it? It usually turns out that the internal service department properly forwarded the request to the presumably responsible field service colleague, but that person hasn't had time to respond to the request yet.
No one on the team deliberately worked sloppily or knowingly wasted revenue potential. But of course, work was not carried out satisfactorily in this situation. How many potential new customers have already been lost in such a way? Which enquiries on the website, at reception, by phone or by email were registered by the sender but never resulted in a trusting customer relationship?
Even though sales teams should inherently always be interested in new revenue and therefore work in a service-oriented manner, it could still be worthwhile to take a closer look, specifically at the relationship between internal and external sales and the workflows between these departments or employees.
Who has which tasks?
Many internal staff members see their job as answering the telephone, forwarding email enquiries to their external sales colleagues, writing quotations for them on demand, analysing market research reports, counting plans, preparing ma data, and similar tasks. In short: to support the much „more important“ field sales team.
However, this outdated assessment and division of labour hinders the development potential of employees and wastes revenue potential for sales and the radio station. Nowadays, the full potential of all team members in sales should be able to unfold. A shortage of skilled workers, high customer expectations and pressure to make sales leave no other strategy possible. The back office is part of sales and can be actively involved.
However, the prerequisites for this often first need to be created or mutual assessments and expectations clarified and adjusted. This is because, based on experience, field sales staff who have been in the business for a long time often believe that they are the only ones who know how to sell. They would even perceive any possible involvement of the internal sales department with „their“ customers as interference. And many internal sales staff probably fear that they would get in the way of the field sales team, annoy customers, or be unable to manage their other tasks.
Clarification
The task of sales management is therefore to make it clear that everyone in the team is equally responsible for customer satisfaction and revenue. Albeit in different forms. But in such a way that each team member can have a positive impact from their respective position and that more revenue can be achieved together. This attitude should be encouraged and demanded by everyone.
In the initial example, the relevant internal sales representative could have had a friendly conversation with the interested party before or in parallel to forwarding the request to the external sales team, clarifying initial questions and informing them about the next steps. This way, the potential customer feels taken seriously and valued from the outset. Even if the internal sales team cannot fully answer the request, this is not a problem at this point in the „customer journey“. The interested party now knows that a response will follow quickly. And internally, the internal sales team can clarify the next steps. Does the responsible colleague in the external sales team have time for brief contact? Or will the contact temporarily remain with the internal sales team?
Such internal arrangements should be made daily, e.g. in a short morning meeting, whether virtual or in person. The use of a shared CRM system should be a given anyway.
Unlock Upselling Potential
The sales support team should not only be actively involved in lead processing. There are enormous opportunities, particularly in upselling, if colleagues from the areas of administration, dispatch, or media services use their often extensive knowledge of advertisers and their own company to sell additional products and services. The following examples demonstrate this:
- The dispatcher knows all the customers' campaigns and immediately recognises when only a few additional bookings can lift the advertising company to the next discount level. Campaign Management can address this in the next phone call with the customer and suggest suitable new offers.
- The field service assistant has learned from the customer service assistant that their usual point of contact is currently difficult to reach due to a branch refurbishment. They can use this information to offer help with a possible advertising campaign for the reopening.
- The media service has carried out an industry analysis for a field team member and found that a specific advertising product/package is particularly effective for this sector. This information should be communicated to all team members at the next sales meeting at the latest, so that the relevant product/package can also be offered to other clients from this sector.
To be valued
Especially because the internal service teams can contribute so much to the joint success and customer satisfaction, they should also participate in the commission and bonus system of the radio house/station. Everyone in the sales department works towards the common (revenue) goals and everyone benefits from it. There are no limits to how this can be structured. A good system clearly shows the value of each individual team member to the collective whole.
Anyone who organises or restructures their sales team in this way is also better equipped to deal with the challenges of the skills shortage. In my experience, there is higher staff turnover among external sales staff at radio stations than in internal sales. An independent internal sales team that is actively and productively involved in sales can at least cushion this deficit to some extent. And external sales staff feel well looked after and supported when they know they have a great internal sales team alongside them, pulling in the „same revenue stream“.
Yours, Andrea Anders
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