Posted: 09/1999
Agents in Training
By Khali Henderson
As demand and availability of advanced services--Internet access, frame relay, digital subscriber lines (DSLs), etc.--moves downstream, network services agents are faced with an increasingly complex sale for which most are ill-prepared. To make matters worse, agents say, few of the carriers and resellers they represent are arming them with the skills they need to sell these data-centric products.
To be fair a few suppliers are mindful of the growing need for sales training and have implemented programs for their agents with this in mind. Not willing to wait around for their suppliers to come to the classroom, so to speak, some agents are taking the matter into their own hands. Some are educating themselves on selling in the new data world; others are making training a contractual obligation of their supplier.
Whose Job Is It, Anyway?
The training gap is being addressed from both sides of the supply equation, but where does responsibility for training lie? The answer to this question depends on to whom it is asked.
"The responsibility squarely lands in the lap of the agent," says Len Bailey, vice president, Synergic Communications Group Inc., a master agency based in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. "Forget about shouldn't, agents can't depend on the carriers and resellers to provide it for them."
Bailey says that agents need to take advantage of resources that are readily available to them via the Internet, free equipment vendor seminars, trade shows and their more experienced peers. Bailey's conclusions were reached after becoming an agent in May 1998 and soon discovering what he describes as both a lack of training generally and a lack of in-depth product and sales training specifically. "After four or five months, I realized we had to come up with something ourselves," he says.
Synergic's experience is not unusual, says master agent Kieren McCobb, president, TeleConfusion Removal (TCR) Inc., Milltown, N.J., adding that carrier/reseller-sponsored training for agents is spotty at best. "The reason [training] is not provided is that it is not demanded," McCobb says. "It is requested, but not demanded at contract time."
"As long as you are negotiating terms for pricing and commissions and service levels, you should include training--what will be offered, when and where. Training is every bit as important as all those other things normally included in a contract," he says.
While he believes that the obligation to provide training most logically falls to the agent's primary day-to-day interface--be that a carrier/reseller or a master agent--McCobb says it is incumbent upon the agent to know that he or she needs training and to demand it at the signing of the contract.
What's Missing
Agents complain that while few carriers and resellers offer training, those that do fall short of providing the type of instruction agents really need. "They tend to tell agents what a product or technology is," explains McCobb, who, in addition to being a master agent, is a trainer for hire. "That's a step in the right direction ... but it doesn't tell them how to sell it or how to spot the opportunities to sell it."
Bailey agrees, saying that even with plain vanilla 1+, agents were being trained to sell a per-minute rate. As an alternative, Synergic has developed a four-week training program for its subagents with emphasis on application selling. After training and evaluation on product knowledge, sales techniques and systems and processes, Bailey says Synergic's agents are taught five steps to application selling:
- How to approach the customer;
- How to qualify the customer;
- How to reach agreement with the customer on his or her needs;
- How to fulfill those needs; and
- How to close the sale.
Later, they are taught how to apply these steps to selling products to vertical markets such as the travel industry, where Synergic now boasts numerous clients.
One of the primary components of the Synergic plan is "shadowing," wherein a new representative spends a week following a senior representative through the five-step process. A joint sales call with teacher and trainee also is cited by McCobb as the ideal training method since it allows "students" to see classroom theories working in practice. Learning by watching quickly can turn to learning by doing as the teacher allows the student to try out his or her new-found sales techniques. Says Bailey, trainees confounded by a prospect's objections learn quickly how to answer them the next time they come up.
Suppliers Respond
While many master agents such as Synergic and TCR have assumed responsibility for training their subagents to sell their advanced products and services, some carriers and resellers also are stepping up to the plate.
"Historically, I agree that many resellers have maintained budgets which do not allow for significant investment in training programs," says Brian Twomey, senior vice president of sales and marketing, Trans National Communications, Inc., Boston. "Given the simplicity of many of the products ... it has not been necessary. Going forward, resellers need to consider how important it is to them to penetrate the data market early."
In September, Trans National will roll out its data services training program, which complements its existing voice training program in place for the past two years. After polling its agents, Trans National decided to make its program available in two formats--a manual and a video--that review not only the services, equipment and engineering requirements, but also the needs-benefit analysis and real-world applications.
ATCALL Inc., Vienna, Va., also will roll out in September a revamped training program that includes its data services. The training will be a one-on-one conference call with a Microsoft Powerpoint presentation as a guide. In first quarter 2000, ATCALL also will hold an in-person training at its headquarters. "It's essential to give agents the tools to sell your products," says Jason Schnur, vice president-subscriber services for ATCALL. "It's a mistake to assume that the agent has all the tools you have to sell your products. Just giving them the rates is not a formula for success."
The founders at UniDial Inc., Louisville, Ky., agree. Since its inception in 1993, UniDial has emphasized training for its agents, but recently updated its program with a revamped two-day orientation class called POWER (Preparing Ourselves in Ways to Effect Revenue) and new two-to-three-day modules for its local and data services. In addition, the company began this year a multicity road show for its integrated data services.
Reseller TMC Communications, Santa Barbara, Calif., held its first data services training class in June for its new Internet access, integrated access, asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) and frame relay products. The training, conducted in conjunction with TMC's carrier, IXC Communications Inc., Austin, Texas, was an interactive, hands-on session covering technology and sales techniques, says TMC's marketing director Sheri Grose. Grose says more than 50 agents were in attendance, ranging from novice agents seeking product knowledge to veterans seeking sales tools and a better understanding of TMC's particular offering. TMC plans to hold the training at least twice a year depending on demand, she says, adding that the company is investigating putting training materials online.
Who Should Pay?
On the question of who should pay, carriers, resellers and agents have different answers and different solutions.
McCobb says it's not unreasonable to expect to pay $100 or so for in-depth training from your carrier. However, some suppliers like ATCALL's Schnur say that carriers need to make that investment in their agents. "We are asking for a fairly significant commitment in our contract," he says. "We need to provide training at our expense. Ultimately, if they're successful, we are going to be successful."
UniDial has come up with a unique compromise wherein it charges agents $100 to attend its data road show, but refunds the fee if the agent makes a data sale within 30 days of attending the class.
So far both companies--TMC and UniDial--with existing data training programs have reported what they regard as a positive return on investment (ROI) from their efforts. Tony Hunt, UniDial's director of training, says that in the last six months 250 agents, subagents and direct sales representatives have been trained on the companies data products; during that same period revenue from data services has tripled. TMC's Grose reports similar results, noting that since the training, data sales have risen 30 percent.
Khali Henderson is editor-in-chief of PHONE+ magazine. Agent channel editor Jill Collins contributed to this article.
