Sales call center job description – How to hire a great sales team

Assembling a good sales team is hard – perhaps the hardest task of all for a sales call center. Investing time towards careful hiring is necessary if your goal is to grow. Read our tips on what to consider when hiring the team players that close like never before.

Everyone in the sales business knows that selling is hard work and requires far more than luck. While hero stories about individual superstar agents still abound, modern call center sales teams rely heavily on collaboration and developing efficient sales techniques together.

A good team optimises campaigns more efficiently than a group of individuals. Common best practices and a willingness to experiment on new methods progresses the results of everyone in the team.

In our previous blogs, we’ve already covered what call centers should consider when hiring individual agents and managers. In this blog, we’ll concentrate on the metrics and attributes you should pay attention to when assembling a sales team.

Combination of KPIs and soft skills key to successful sales call centers

Running a successful call center is a numbers game. Your teams have to deliver results or your call center doesn’t fulfil its main purpose. But behind the numbers, there is a vital part that can’t be measured as easily as call metrics: soft skills.

For a call center focused on sales, there are certain KPIs that you shouldn’t ignore:

• Sales per agent: Measuring the number of sales each agent and team makes is the most basic and vital metric. Targeting a certain number of sales should always be part of a campaign.
• Calls per hour: The more your agents call, the more possibilities your team has to close deals.
• Conversion rate: In addition to call number, the profitability of your operation depends on the percentage of calls that reach the goals. Depending on the campaign, the goal can be a sale, setting up an appointment, a donation etc.
• Average contact attempts to close a deal: Knowledge of how many contacts it takes for your agents to close a deal provides insight into the quality of your team’s sales process and scripts.
• Revenue per successful call: Not every deal is worth the same effort. Identifying the revenue for a closed deal allows your team to put the results of a campaign into a larger context.

Being measured and evaluated isn’t easy. Every call center agent will make more calls that fail to lead to a sale than calls that bring in revenue. Teams should be equipped to deal with negative emotions without losing their drive.

A major factor in keeping agents motivated is teamwork. Agents and team leaders should create an atmosphere where everyone gets the support that allows them to improve. Instead of failures, the team should strive to share their experiences and best practices with others, so the whole team can reap the benefits.

Top 5 qualities for call center sales teams

Sales teams can be diverse. There should be room for individual strengths, weaknesses and areas of interest. There are, however, some fundamentals that can make or break your sales team.

To become a tight-knit group that closes like never before, a sales team should be:

• Determined: You can’t win every time. You should, however, assemble a team that is determined to improve and try again despite occasional setbacks.
• Innovative: You should encourage your team to try new sales techniques and technologies. Sticking to best practices is smart, as they have been proven to work, but the call center world is changing rapidly and your sales teams should keep up with new trends.
• Results-oriented and analytical: Every member of your sales teams should be aware of their performance levels and potential actions required to optimise the operation.
• Empathetic and positive: Empathy is key in both customer contact and teamwork. Your whole team has to enjoy helping each other and finding the right solutions that meet customer needs. A positive attitude should come naturally to an agent as it helps close deals.
• Calm under pressure: Call center work is hectic. Your team should focus on what matters, even during the busiest hours and occasional problems.

Where should you post call center agent job ads?

To maximise the visibility of your sales call center agent jobs, consider both international and local job sites. You can find international candidates for remote call center jobs in global services, such as Indeed, Monster or Workable. You should also try to find local talent through regional channels that are popular in the area you are hiring for.

These days also social media is a huge channel for recruitment. LinkedIn and other job-related platforms are definitely worth including in your recruitment process. Post a job template in your official social media channels that your employees can share on their own accounts. For a more visual approach, you could try Instagram stories or TikTok to attract younger talent.

Every call center has its own demands and strengths

The qualities listed above are good guidelines and approximations that support you in drafting effective sales call center job ads. You are, however, the expert of your own call center and know the special skills required in your business environment. You should always emphasise the qualities that work for you.

It’s also good to keep in mind that today’s recruitment is not all about your needs. To attract the best talent, you need to offer candidates something else besides a job.

The work culture you create in your call center might be one of the most important factors that govern what kind of people want to work for you. If you get the balance between your demands and what you can offer right, you also start to attract the right kind of candidates.