Sales Boss 101: Practical Ways to Boost Your Team's Performance

Today on the podcast, we're going to be looking at call support. I repeat today on the podcast, we're going to be looking at call support. Now, call support is just one of these things that a manager or a business owner can do to support the sales team, help the sales team to sell more. And I must admit, excuse me, even though the podcast has been going on for a while, usually I focus on how to make the person who has the sales responsibility sell better.

So for those of you who are entrepreneurs, self-employed, I've been focused on how to get you to sell better. For those of you who are salespeople on behalf of someone else, Aspire, you work for Orga, you work for Madam, and Madam has given you charge of selling one or two things. My focus has always been on how to help you sell better, but I have forgotten and I've often lost sight of the fact that there are things that Olga and Madame can do to help you sell better as well.

And so one of these things that we're talking about today is call support. I'll explain what that is in a moment. So hello and welcome, especially those of you discovering the podcast for this for the first time. My name is Tavishima IED, I'm the host of the podcast. I'm making today's recording at home. So there's going to be noise in the background. Now, if you like things business related, solving business problems, how do we get profit?

What's wrong with our marketing? This negotiation is not working out, you know, blah, blah, blah, stuff like that. Then this podcast is your jam. And so subscribe on the Spotify, YouTube, Apple or any player of your choice. And if you'd love to connect with me, you can call, send a text message via WhatsApp message on 08064662140. So like I said today, call support. That's what we're going to be looking at. What is call support?

What are the kinds of call support that is sales manager can offer, can offer to the sales team or that an Olga can, you know, use to help the sales team? And then why is call support important in moving the business forward? OK, so call support now and I explain it by the way, on the podcast, every time I give a definition, I am not trying to give you the textbook definition, the academically correct definition of what a practice is.

I'm just trying to use a very simple everyday working man, working woman definition so that you remember because it's my core thesis that easy to remember means easy to do, easy to apply. So for those of you who are nerds when it comes to these sorts of things, please don't send messages and correct me. I understand. I know my definitions are limiting. I'm just trying to give a definition that somebody will remember and that somebody will do.

So call support just means there's somebody responsible for making these calls. You are the auger. What can you do to support this guy or to support this girl? To lift them up small, to help them small so that they can be more effective at their job. Now call support doesn't mean you're abdicating responsibility as per these guys responsible for selling. If me as org, I'm not doing call support. If me as Madam, I'm not doing call support doesn't mean I'm doing this person's job.

Sometimes it might feel that way. And to be honest, call support is one of those aspects of improving sales performance. That you as the organ, you as the business owner, you as the Madam is one of these parts that you will find frustrating. But unfortunately, depending on your organization, it might be a necessary step for you to take to improving your finances. Now, I have spoken to a few, not too many, you know, like 2,

let's say 2, two or three people who think they are not caught out for this because they don't have the right disposition or something. But don't worry, this is something that anybody can do in your own unique way. Even if all you do is you say why, you will come and sit down, watch me make a call. You make one or two calls even that is helpful and it's instrumental if you don't think you are good enough to to coach, but just know that nobody is born a coach.

Just like we learn how to walk, we learn how to poop, we learn how to eat, we learn how to drive, we learn how to, you know, whatever. It's the same way that we learn these sorts of things as well. So for those of you who are responsible for mining the ship in your business, you're the orga, you're the Madam, you're the supervisor, you are the orga at the top, you are the whatever. It's one of these things that we, it would be nice if we learn is going to yield some benefits.

So call support now. It's, it's three ways. Number one, you provide strategic guidance because sometimes some of these young bloods, sorry, hold on. OK, forgive me, I thought the call was coming in. You know, I make these recordings using my phone. I mean for those of you who are just joining today, I make these recordings using my phone. So once in a while these interruptions come through, you know, a phone call, a text message, something like that.

That's why I said now this thing is a three-way something. Number one is strategic. A lot of the young bloods that you have working for you now, you know it's their first time. Maybe they've held another job before, but they don't have the business argument. They haven't been working for too long. Your place is the 2nd or the 3rd place that they're working at. Sometimes this is the first time that they're selling. So they don't have a strategic importance.

They don't have a strategic understanding, you know, of the importance of sales, how things work together and how to guide conversations. So that's a lot that needs to be taught. Now they're professionals like me that exist in this space and it's our job to help facilitate that. But to be realistic, if somebody has not learned this thing before, sometimes it might be a lot to get some people and it depending on their disposition.

Because let's face it, there are some sales people who are useless. They don't want to learn, they just want to collect salary. Those kind of idiots. Well, I don't know. It's just to get them out of the organization, unfortunately, and move them to someplace else where they will be very, very happy because there's some people who are in sales departments and you know, honestly speaking, they will thrive in the marketing department where they're in charge of social media management.

So yes, they like things related to revenue, but they want to be much more on the creative side and they don't want to pick up the phone anyway. Let me not get sidetracked, but all I'm just trying to say is I'm providing strategic support. You guide people through it, OK, You know what, young man, young woman, in this industry, for these kinds of customers, this is how the conversation usually flows from this stage to this stage to this stage.

At this stage, we're looking out for this. At this stage, we're looking out for this. At this stage, we're looking out for that. That is strategic support. You just chill in the office, maybe whether you let them know or not, you know, you just raise your ears more. You hear the conversation after that you say, actually, could you come here? You know, we need to talk. And then you put him through a through put him through a few things, strategic support, then tactical tactics just means what are the 123 steps that you need to do to do this?

And in fact, there's one of my clients right now that the Olga and me who are currently fighting with the still sales team. And this is the level where we're at the tactical things because these people don't want to do it. You finish the call, record the note in CRMCRM they don't want to do, schedule the next call, schedule the next kind of activities, send this kind of text message. Now that is the, that is support at the tactical level, you know,

do this. Then there's emotional guidance. Sometimes emotional guidance might be nice and soft. You know, you can do this, you can do this. Sometimes emotional guidance might be harsh. Like I had to scold this particular set 3 weeks ago when they were telling me that look, we can't do this, not enough time, we can't do this. And then one of them decide to challenge me and say that you do, you do this. And then, you know, I lost my SHIT on the call and I had to turn a calm look, do you know what?

I have to do this because I'm self-employed. I kill what I eat. If I don't do this, I lose track of calls. If I lose track of calls, nothing enters my pocket. If nothing enters my pocket in January, me and my wife will quarrel in February. I had to tell him and also I had to tell him. That's the reason why your guy also is on your necks about on these sorts of things because your guy is looking at the fact that he has sent you 50 leads.

Each lead is costing about 115 to maybe 6K to procure. So with 50 leads sitting on your desk, you didn't process any of them for him. That is real live, real time money leaving his pocket. Your revenue does not enter in January, February, him and Madam, they will have a serious conversation and here are business partners that will have a serious conversation. By the way, those of you salary earners who think you're guys always in your case, try to think of things from that perspective.

For you guys, the stakes are not the same. End of the month will come January 31st, you collect your 250K350K400K, whatever it is that he's paying you, regardless of how well you perform. So there's sometimes that emotional support can be rough. When you talk to your sales team, you talk to your people and let them know that look, this is the 401. This was going on. So times I have to shake them up a little. But either way, call support strategy.

This is the overall industry. This is how the whole thing works. These are how conversations work. This is how we move from stage A to stage B to stage C Tactical Chukudi be doing this, be doing this, be doing this. Enter notes like this, schedule reminders like this, Send emails like this. And then emotional. I know you're tired, but don't worry. Wake up. Wake up. Yeah, man, don't wake up. Wake up. You can't do it. Or Cynthia, I understand you're tired, but don't worry.

You're capable. You've been able to rise through circumstances before your personal life. You'll be able to do it here on the job. Don't worry, Cynthia. You are capable. You can do it. And then sometimes it's rough. Like, cool. What the hell is wrong with you? Come on. When you wake up, sit up my friend, you don't know we have bills to pay. Do you want to be out on the streets or more hit that phone and they don't mind me.

So in a nutshell, that is called support. Now call support can be done in different ways. Number one by offering live and real time support when people are on the phone. Now there's some managers who the barging on the call as in the grab the phone, like if somebody is like, you know, the guy, don't they fumble too much to collect the phone and I'll say, oh, hello, sorry to barge in. My name is ABC. I'm the manager at so, so, so and so.

I heard that you were talking to my colleague and I can see that he's not been able to furnish you with all the information that you need. So that's why I'm taking over this call so that if there are any questions, any problems, I should be able to sort you out. I hope you don't have a problem with that person will say yes, then you now continue the conversation from there. That is barging in for me. I never budgeting because I kind of think I really ruin somebody's confidence because you pull that kind of move on a salesperson.

There's some salespeople that do feel as if the ground you just open and swallow them. So the next time they have to make a call now inside their heart to be Bing Bing, Bing, Bing Bing Bing doby shaking. So me, I don't barging or maybe I don't know how to barge in. Well, but anyway, you must budget. Please use how I say use discernment, use wisdom when it comes to barging in, and only do it in critical moments if you find that you're barging in on your stuff every single day.

So let's say today Chukwudi is making a phone call. You barging, you collect the phone. Tomorrow he's doing phone call, you barging, you collect the phone. If in one week you barging like 4 times. And honestly, you might be overdoing it. So critical moments when it's a difficult question, a difficult objection, or maybe the technical issues are complex. The technical issues are complex and two goodies on the phone or synthesize on the phone and they are clearly struggling and the technical things need to be resolved adequately.

In fact, that one has happened to me back when I worked in the Department of Works and Pensions. So I'd only been there for a while and there was a problem with the client claim and the guy was getting agitated. I was trying to explain some complex issue. Did he now enter the racial racial matter because I was back in the UK? The guy asked her, where are you from? So I thought he meant like the business development center.

So I said, well, I'm Aberdeen Job Center. I said, no, you know what I mean, where are you from? And I understood. I said, oh, so I looked at my manager and just did my, you know, you know how you do eyebrow like you signal somebody. And then I asked the guy, would you prefer to talk to someone more local? The man said, thank you very much for understanding. So I now give the phone to my manager and the manager carried over from there, was able to explain the technical something.

And then after that the manager came and apologized. Oh, I'm terribly sorry you had to go through that. And I said, no, it's OK, it's perfectly fine. Not like what's fine? But you know, anyway, it's just one of those things, you know, when you're doing a job as a foreigner, when you're doing a job in the UK or in America, you have to mind the phones. You know, it's one of those things, Isaac, that is expected. You know, people don't like the fact that certain jobs are being outsourced overseas.

And so somebody picks up the phone, they hear a different accent. They just assume that, oh, OK, this thing is being outsourced any by Nigeria. We don't face those problems. Where was I? So the point of just trying to make is that in difficult moments, complex technical issues, difficult objections, then yes, as a manager, you know, grab the phone, rescue Chikudi, rescue Cynthia, rescue this matter. Then there's some other managers who whisper.

And yeah, me too. I don't believe in whispering, but it's an option. In fact, there's once that I've done something similar to a whisper. I'm a salesperson was on a call and he forgot to ask one very important question. So I just sent a WhatsApp message to the phone because I advise that if you're minding the phones, if you make phone calls, you need a headset because to hold the phone and you know, make 10 phone calls every day.

Your shoulder will hurt, your biceps will hurt. So I knew that on the call as I send a message, you know, the table flash notification will flash on top of the screen and then, you know, he asked the question. So that's also a form of whispering. That's the way that you're helping your salesperson keep track of the conversation. Then there's also listening and observing, silent monitoring. That's the one I prefer to do.

I just keep quiet. Just the listen, just the listen. Make one or two notes. Now I've heard the call. I said what you could do, Can you step into my office for for a minute? You know, we need to talk about a few things because I don't believe I don't believe in washing people down in public because probably washing somebody down in public is that you destroy their morale and sales. Sales is difficult. We're trying to increase performance, bringing down somebody's morale.

It's not really it's not really helping the matter. So I like to acknowledge in public if somebody has done a good job, say correct, we're done, that was a good one, we're done, we're done. Whatever is need to scold, you know, I'm going to wash you down in, in private, not in not in public. So, so you could come to you please. Or if it's an online something, it's OK after this call, you could it is something you are nice to talk about.

Then after that, now talk to you could and then tell him, OK, this and this and this is what we could have done better. So that's listening and observing. Then another important part of it is a pre call strategy and planning. Pre call strategy. I'm planning just means, look, before we hit the phones today, we need to understand a few things. What are we trying to call? What's the strategy? What are we trying to say? What are we trying to achieve?

And let's plan how this call will go. So in yesterday's coaching session that I had with another customer, the one that I spoke about, another client who is in the content production space, this is precisely what we did. We're going to go and call this person. You think that there's room for business here. So what are we, what's the agenda for this call? What are we trying to planning to do for this call? I heard the guy out and I told him, look, you know what,

instead of trying to sell on the phone, the agenda for this call should be #1 see if they're interested then #2 book a meeting. After all, the office is not far. So tomorrow on the way into from to what you will branch their side first. How do you see the guy say, you know what, that makes sense. I said cool. So therefore, in his own case, the agenda for this meeting, the goal of this meeting is not close to sale. I'm sorry.

The agenda for this phone call is not close to sale. The agenda is booking meeting. Are you guys interested? Are you free? You will live around my side self tomorrow morning around 9:00 I can pass through. Sure. Jude is the one that is responsible. Would you be around? OK, no problem. That's it. So this is pre call strategy and planning also very important. So you're a manager, you're responsible for sales team. You should be doing this with your team.

You are the Olga, you are the Madam, you are the Olga at the top, you are the whatever you should be doing this as well. Now, role-playing is an important part of this. So almost, I mean, this year I've done more role-playing than I normally like to do, but for a team that's. It hasn't quite grasped the fundamentals. It's not a bad way to get people thinking fast, thinking on their feet and helping them to anticipate different kinds of objections.

When the customer sees this, what do you see? If the customer does this, what do you do? Help them to build conversation. But this thing that I mentioned about pre call briefing is really, really important as a sales manager or Zanoga. OK, we're calling so, so and so today. What's the This person hasn't returned. This person hasn't gotten back to us since we sent the proposal. OK, so what's the agenda for the call? We need to have these conversations because if you send someone a proposal, the person has ghosted you.

You can't just call without an agenda. If the person picks, what will you now see? So now let me leave the organ at the top and the sales manager. Now let me talk to those of you who hold the phones and who are responsible for selling. Think through some of these things now because the best one was you. Now you now begin the fumble. Oh, it's true Cody. I'm sorry. You remember last week I sent you a proposal. You know all that?

MMM, you know it's not. You know it's not helping you. So before the call, do small pre call briefing. Even if your guy doesn't do pre call briefing for you, you do pre call briefing for yourself. I tell people this all the time, but it's like people don't believe me. If you can look at my desk, it's a little scattered. Yeah, my father just called me about that. I say that young man, you should always clean your desk.

And in my mind I'm looking at him and saying you're telling me I should clean my desk. Have you seen your own desk? Well, anyway, my wife would say that's hypocrisy. No, I don't think it's hypocrisy. I think it's just that, you know, our parents, you know, they struggle one or two vices and they don't want you to fall into that same vice. So my father's desk was always untidy. So I think he was just trying to correct me so that I won't grow up and then my own desk will be untidy.

So I always have my daughters before I call, I map it out. Nobody's here to do pre call briefing for me. So me, I will brief myself. I want to call Mr. Jacob. What do I want to achieve on this call? How do I think this call should go? I'll just map it out. Small, small lines, you know, dot dot dot you know, slash slash slash, you know, 3-4 lines, Then I'm confident I can make the call. If we lose track, I can bring it back on focus.

So the pre call briefing before a major call, very, very important. Discuss who this prospect is, the person you're calling, discuss the background, discuss where you are, discuss the objective that you want to achieve on this call. Come and put out one or two talking points and maybe potential challenges. So like in this case, you send a, what's it called, a proposal, a quote, person hasn't, person hasn't gotten back to you.

One of the talking items that I've recommended within the last one month has been how does it go again? So how do we compare to all the proposals that you have received so far? So instead of Hello Mr. Chukwudi. Yes, this is Davish man from Solar Power Company. You remember I issued you a proposal two weeks ago. So instead of not asking him, have you read it? You just say so for all the proposals you've received so far, you know, how do we compare?

How do we rank you can only ask these kinds of things confidently. If you thought about it ahead of time and if you just scribbled something on the sheet of paper, you know, scribble two or three things guide the conversation. The person on the other end of the line, you know, will feel you like, oh, these guys, these guys are professional. You know, somebody will say confidence because somebody this year has told me that about about confidence.

Now I wish I had your confidence. His confidence. Nothing is just pre call briefing. I'm just planning one or two things. That is how to make you appear to people like, oh, this guy is a confident professional. So if your line manager, your guy is not doing it for you, do it for yourself. If you're listening to this podcast and you have been making phone calls before now without scripting something, stop it. Get a small sheet of paper or get a small jotter or for those of us who are parents, the books that your son used for or your daughter used for primary school last last time the one that he didn't finish carried tear out the pages in front all the other pages in back that he didn't use.

Does it? That's your journal. Begin a do pre call briefing and script out one or two things. Guide your conversations. Help yourself to be much more effective. These are some of the small, small things that are standing in between you and your commissions, in between you and your Nara and gobo. So let's see what else post call analysis after a call, it will help as an auger, as a manager, as a Madam, if you can debrief immediately after a call.

So OK, that was all right. I like the way you did this. I like the way you did that. We could have improved this, we could have asked this kind of question and you know, next step, let us do this to to improve. Now there are some companies where they record calls so they can do review, for instance, Tel telcos in Niger. So if you call MTN, if you call Glow, if you call Airtel, you know, they are recording the phone conversations so that the line manager can say afterwards that, oh, Nancy, you know, good,

you did this, good, you did that. But next time say this, next time say that. Hey, on this call recording thing, somebody challenged me on it. So I had to confirm from one of my colleagues who is still a lawyer and the position of the law has not changed. So I've said it before, somebody challenged me on it, but I've confirmed the position of the law has not changed. You are not allowed to record phone calls without anybody else's consent.

So if you must do that, just let the person know just like the telco companies do because I'm Mr. Chugudy. Oh yes, I'm calling from so, so, so, so OK, no problem. Oh, sorry Mr. Chugudy, just for training purposes, this phone call is going to be recorded. It's not a problem. You know, I asked Mr. Chugudy, let him say, OK, no problem, let's continue or know why you'll be recording my call. So OK, no problem Since your objects are we're not going to record the call.

The reason why I'm calling is and then you go in straight and do your how do your business, but ask then as the oga, as the manager, provide actionable feedback and specific feedback to a person. Now one mistake that orgasmic in this part of the world, Orga and Madam that they make in this part of the world is too many things bottle up, they become angry and so they just explode. Monday morning, first thing team meeting.

It's just bad. They just begin to vomit everything on their chest. Nothing doesn't help because Chukudi is there, Nazi is there. You know, Khilichi is there in a choice there, but you've vomited all kinds of things and you know Shah, they know you're upset, but they haven't had specifics about what needs to be improved. So when you're vomiting vomit in a very specific way in a natural, this is what you need to work on at ABC.

This is what you need to work on adequately next time. You could have done this one better. Specific, specific things that they can work on. Don't just vomit everything that has been on your chest been going on for the last two weeks. In fact, it's a good idea to do these interventions when they happen. So if you're walking by and you hear a natural fumble a call badly, you say natural, can I see my office please in about 5

minutes. And then you have that conversation with him. You tell him, oh boy, you fumble that call, die. You should have done this. You should have done this, you should have done that. So specific, personalized feedback. Then let's say, OK, I've already spoken about, you know, motivational support or emotional support. In fact, motivation, That's one I don't do well if I consider myself a demotivator because I'm trying to let people know that look man, this is hard work.

So these are the things that we need to do so that we can scale, move to the next, to the next level, what we should try and encourage our staff, encourage our people, try and use positive reinforcement. In fact, that's one thing that one of my clients does very well. Every time somebody closes the sale, they celebrate it in the water group, they shout out the guy. So it's a good thing. Oh, also give your salespeople,

your sales team, give them tips on how to handle rejection. Because new people coming into the business, they take it very personal. Very, very personal. If somebody shouts at them, they take it personal. If somebody doesn't return phone call, they take it personal. If somebody caught the phone on them, they take it personal. Somebody ignores them, they take it personal. So we should be having these conversations about the proper way to deal with with rejection.

And just in case you are wondering the different ways of handling rejection, but my own way begins with realizing that when people reject you, so long as we're talking about business. Now, if you're toasting a babe and the babe rejects you, trust me, it's personal. It is personal if you don't like you, but for business purposes, if somebody rejects you, it is not you that is being rejected, it is the business proposition or the value proposition that is being rejected.

The person has called the phone because they think the proposal is rubbish, not because they think you're rubbish. The person hasn't gotten back to you because he thinks the price is ridiculous, not because he thinks you are ridiculous. The person doesn't want to go ahead with you because he doesn't think the company can do the job. He lacks faith in the company. It's not that he lacks faith in you. So the beginning of dealing with rejection for those of you who have to man the phones is to understand that look, it ain't none personal, just business.

After a while, you know you won't you won't take it personal. Well, his relationship and they're rejecting you. Yeah, it's personal. There's stuff you need to work on. All right, anybody That's the topic for another podcast episode. So call support now, it's the driver of business growth. It can be annoying, it can be frustrating, but it helps to drive growth. It can help to improve sales and performance because this kind of coaching on live calls, it helps people to improve real time how they can adapt communication or how they can solve problems.

But this is not something you do just one time. It's something you do continually over time. Then you start to see the results. Oh, it's about to rain. OK, let me rock up quickly because with the rain, the audio is going to get really, really bad. So I think that's the reason why this call support is really, really important. And then after a while, it will make sure that things are consistent with the team because you notice that with your teams,

you know, is always up and down. You know, maybe Chem is a superstar. Kelis, she's like middle of the park. And then Abdul Kadir is the one that is struggling. And then, you know, so up, down, up, down, up, down. But after a while, you know, you can't raise. By the way, your sales team will never be equal. There's no how that you have a sales team and everybody's is a superstar. It's not it's not possible. Statistically speaking, that's not possible.

But at least when you do these kinds of things, these kinds of call support, you are raising the quality, raising consistency across the sales team. Now, the most important reason why I think as the organ and the Madam you should be doing call support as the boss is because sometimes as the boss, you are removed from some things on the ground. There are some things on the ground level you don't know is normal. You're in the office, you're chopping AC, your sales team is out in the field or they're the ones speaking the phone.

That's some things you don't know. When you are doing call support, you will be hearing some things. The things that customers are saying that you've not been hearing, you will hear. And that is how you now know whether you need to adjust your prices or you need to change strategy or you need to change this. You need to improve that. So that is the most important reason why as the Olga, as the Madam, as the business owner,

even though you're no longer using the phone, you should be doing call support because you'll be hearing direct customer feedback. You'll be there. And based on what your sales person is saying, you'll be, you'll get a sense of, oh, OK, the customer is taking it like this, taking it like that. And then you'll be able to identify gaps. OK, What does my salespeople need to do to improve? What is it? Is it this, is it that you know,

things like that? Or is there a problem with the product or with the service? Where are the gaps? You'll be able to get all the information that you need. So it's been 30 minutes. Let me bring this episode to a close and I hope I've been able to convince those of you who are organs or madams in the business that call support is important. This is the reason why you should be doing call support. And even though it can be annoying, even though sometimes you feel as if I want to break this person's head, you know,

just still do it. Oh please, those of you who are not Nigerians listening to the podcast because I received a message my LinkedIn today, an American guy and the guy's like, oh, how you doing? And then you started vibing. I was like, oh, OK, that's true. Foreigners still listen to the podcast. Please, when I say, you know, I will slap you or I'll break your head is a man who was speaking in Nigeria. It doesn't mean as if, like, the person will actually tear you slap.

You know, we're not savages in this part of the world. No manager actually tears somebody's lap. So just a man who was speaking, you know, when the manager says if I slap you, it's not as if in Nigeria we go around slapping people up and down. So just realise that there are certain manners of speech that's an colloquial expressions in different parts of the world. So for those of you Americans listening to the podcast, nice hearing from you guys, by the way.

Just don't try to speak pigeon or just don't try to type pigeon. You know, when you tried it, it sounds wrong. It sounds I can't explain. I can't explain. We'll be like me trying to forge a Northern Texan accent or something like that. So, you know, just don't do that. So reach out and let's chat. But it's OK, You be you. I know you're trying to build rapport and, you know, speak pigeon and all that, but you know, it's a little bit much.

Just dial it back, you know, you be you. Let me be me and we'll not be good. All right, now let me bring this to a close. So that's it and that's all. Thank you very much for listening. Remember, if you'd love to connect, you can call, send a text message or a WhatsApp message on 08064662140. Thanks for your time and attention. I'll catch you next time. Same place in your headphones or in your speakers.