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Call Center Hiring Perfected: Understanding the Four Cs

By Tom Stanfill, CEO, Aslan Sales Training

Hiring the ideal call center rep just might be the single most important function of your sales organization. When you consider factors like hiring cost, rep training, lost revenues, and the drain on management, the impact can really add up. Based on our research, creating an effective hiring process will ultimately have the greatest impact on the success of your sales organization. However, most organizations lack an effective process for identifying the DNA of those unique individuals who have the ability to both serve the customer and sell additional products and will thrive in a call center environment.

So, just how do you go about finding this perfect call center employee? It sounds like a daunting task to recruit and screen this special group of candidates, but fortunately, if you accurately define the key characteristics of the ideal rep, in other words if you know what you are aiming for; you can dramatically improve your recruiting efforts. All too often, and organization will only analyze a portion of the characteristics that will ultimately determine a successful hire.

[IF You Aim At Nothing You Will Hit It Every Time]

The key is to build a model for you’re the ideal rep around four key categories. Career Fit, Cultural Fit, Competency, Character- the Four “C’s”- are the four pieces to the puzzle when assessing a candidate’s ability and longevity. When you filter the attributes of every candidate through the 4C grid, you should easily be able to identify a good fit for your company. Now let’s briefly analyze the traits of the most successful telesales/call center reps under each of the four main categories — both inbound and outbound.

Career Fit

As management, you are responsible for the success of your team. Therefore, you are responsible for determining if the job is the best career move for the candidate- not the candidate. The candidate himself simply lacks the objectivity to make that decision for you and a high percentage of the time pursue a position that may not be in their best interest- a lose/lose situation.

The objective of Career Fit is simply to determine if this career move serves the best interests of the candidate. The question isn’t can they do the job or will they do the job, but should they take the job. In other words, given individual personality, hiring, goals, and aspirations, will this position play an important role in the candidate’s career and life? Or is it merely a temporary place to collect a paycheck while they continue to search? Not only will this other-centered approach to hiring ensure low level of attrition, it gives your organization a competitive advantage. We all want to work for a leader who puts our needs first.

[Never Sacrifice the Permanent on the Altar of the Temporary]

To help you determine if the position is a good career fit, consider these factors:

Experience- Does this position align with the types of positions they have pursued in the past, telling you what kind of work they desire and excel at?
Compensation requirements- Will the compensation package meet their minimum monthly requirements or are is the candidate taking an unreasonable pay cut?
Commute. Is the commute time reasonable for the career opportunity?

If there seems to be a fit, go ahead and check off the first category and move to the second “C”.

Cultural Fit

The next category to consider is Cultural Fit. Will this candidate strengthen the team? With Career Fit, you assess whether the position is in the best interest of the candidate. With Cultural Fit, you assess whether the addition of this candidate is in the best interest of the team. Culture is a powerful force within your organization. It determines the type of candidates you attract and the overall motivation of the team. Therefore, assessing how a new team member will affect or even define your culture is a serious task. If one successful, productive rep poisons your culture, it can undermine the productivity of 20 team members.

[Note: 70% of the workforce is disengaged due to factors other than compensation]

All too often, I see managers who opt to keep a misfit rep out of fear of losing their production - even though it weakens the overall culture and production of the team. This is always a mistake! Never sacrifice the production of an entire team to save the success of one rep. True, you risk losing the revenue contributed by the counter-cultural rep, but inthe long run, a successful, cohesive team will out-produce any single rep.

Here are a few traits to consider when analyzing the culturally fit:

Team Attitude- Does the candidate thrive in a team environment or do they prefer to be a sole contributor?
Professionalism- Do they exhibit the level of professionalism required to succeed on your team?
Philosophical alignment- Does the candidate’s approach to service and selling align with your philosophy?

Competency

Competency is the primary focus of most interviewers and hiring managers. It answers the question, “Does the candidate have the talent, skills, and knowledge to be successful in this position?”

While most focus on skills and knowledge (both teachable), the key is honing in on those innate abilities that cannot be taught- talent. Here are the top five Talents (i.e., innate abilities) to consider when determining if the candidate will have the ability to succeed in desired role:

[Talent is the most important ingredient in determining overall competency]

Persuasive Delivery Style – Speaks with authority, passion, and conviction. Does not sound scripted or insincere
Desire to Lead – Has proactive personality style and prefers leading vs. reacting to the customer
Emotionally Engages Listener – Uses word pictures, stories, and analogies to engage the listener
Motivated to Achieve Goals- Burning desire to achieve goals and meet objectives
Conceptual- Able to see the “big picture” and think on their feet enabling them to adjust their presentation of benefits as needed

Once you are confident the candidate has the Talents to succeed, begin focusing on the skills and knowledge necessary to excel. Traits such as listening, questioning, understanding the selling process, product knowledge, will all add to the overall assessment of the candidate. And with all things being equal, separate one candidate from the other.

Character

Have you ever hired a rep that had all the talent in the world, but he simply would not work? Or she was just too stubborn to accept helpful advice on how to improve? What about the rep that is incredibly talented and hits every quota, but his attitude completely undermines your efforts to build a positive environment? What did you miss?

You, like many with the responsibility to hire, need to devote a concentrate on this last category - Character. The purpose of this final category is to determine if the candidate has the work ethic and integrity to maintain an acceptable productivity level and reflect the values of the organization. Arguably, in my opinion, of The Four Cs, Character is the most important category.

In other words, is the potential team member honest both with the customers and with the company? Will he say whatever it takes to get what he wants? Or is he a person of integrity—doing the right thing even when it costs him? Will he maintain the necessary effort to win even when it is difficult? Is he self-centered or other-centered?

These pieces work together to identify a successful telesales/call center rep.

Obviously, I’ve only touched briefly on the components of the 4 Cs here, but if you give some serious consideration to these characteristics during the hiring process, you’re sure to have some success in finding the perfect sales representative for your organization. These characteristics that form the cornerstone of a truly successful telesales/call center rep.

About the Author

Tom Stanfill is the founding partner and Chief Executive Officer of Aslan Sales Training, a global training and consulting firm that offers customized inside sales training, field sales training, and sales leadership development. For over 15 years, Aslan has helped internationally recognized brands, such as FedEx, Oracle, Xerox, GE, Apple and others, improve the performance of their sales reps and managers. Aslan recognizes that selling, managing customers, and prospecting over the phone require a unique skill set. As a result, the company has developed a total solution that includes hiring strategies, transitioning managers into coaches and leaders and improving overall performance. To learn more about the 4 Cs and other keys to hiring, download Aslan’s whitepaper, The 7 Barriers to Inside Sales Success. For more information, visit www.AslanTraining.com or call (770) 690.9616, ext. 104.