Tür-zu-Tür-Vertrieb: Was ist das Erfolgsrezept irischer Versorgungsunternehmen?
Im Energieversorgungsbereich hängt Erfolg oder Misserfolg des Haustürgeschäfts davon ab, in welchem Land man als Vertreter:in aktiv ist. Im Vereinigten Königreich zum Beispiel zögern Versorgungsunternehmen davor, allzu viele Ressourcen in den Tür-zu-Tür-Verkauf zu investieren, da immer die Gefahr besteht, dass durch diese Praxis ihr Markenruf geschädigt wird. In Dänemark gilt diese Art des Direktvertriebs sogar als ein Eingriff in die Privatsphäre und ist daher gesetzlich verboten.
In Irland hingegen ist das Haustürgeschäft eine beliebte und erfolgreiche Verkaufsmethode von Energieversorgungsunternehmen. Große Anbieter wie Vodafone und SSE Airtricity investieren beträchtliche Summen in ihr Haustürgeschäft und erzielen auch tatsächlich eine hohe Rendite. Diese Art des Vertriebs ist zum Eckpfeiler ihres Geschäfts geworden.
Doch wieso sind irische Unternehmen im Gegensatz zu ihren ausländischen Pendants so erfolgreich beim Verkauf an der Haustür? Irische Versorgungsunternehmen wissen, wieso das Haustürgeschäft in anderen Ländern so verpönt ist, und haben sich daher bewusst dazu entschlossen, es besser zu machen. Unter anderem nutzen sie daher Vertriebssoftware für regulierte Branchen, mit der sie sowohl ihre Kundschaft als auch ihre Marke schützen.
Irische Versorgungsunternehmen setzen Schutzmaßnahmen um, um Fehler und Fehlverkäufe zu vermeiden
Bevor ein Unternehmen Vertreter:innen losschickt, um sein Angebot von Tür zu Tür zu bewerben, muss es zunächst einige Kontrollmaßnahmen für ein effektives Gebietsmanagement umsetzen. Ohne diese Maßnahmen steigt das Risiko, dass jemand im Außendienst versucht, Kund:innen zu täuschen oder Verkäufe zu registrieren, die gar nicht stattgefunden haben. Wenn das nämlich passiert, leidet darunter nicht nur der Ruf der Marke, sondern das Unternehmen muss unter Umständen Strafgelder in Millionenhöhe zahlen. Im schlimmsten Fall wird der Gesetzgeber einschreiten und das Haustürgeschäft vollständig verbieten.
Ob einer dieser Fälle eintritt, hängt natürlich maßgeblich von den Aktivitäten der Vertreter:innen ab (auf das Vertretermanagement werden wir gleich noch genauer eingehen). Doch um proaktiv unnötige Risiken zu vermeiden, können Unternehmen sich eines wichtigen Hilfsmittels bedienen: der richtigen Vertriebssoftware.
Irische Energieversorgungsunternehmen zum Beispiel nutzen die Formulare von PSI, um zu verhindern, dass ihre Vertreter:innen die falschen Produkte verkaufen. In diesen Formularen werden Produkte aus einer vorbereiteten Produktliste aufgeführt und anhand der Kundenantworten auf vorherige Fragen gefiltert. Da Kund:innen dann nicht mehr dem Kauf eines Produkts zustimmen können, für das sie sich gar nicht qualifizieren, kann die Anzahl an Kaufrücktritten reduziert werden. Dies ist eine effektive Schutzmaßnahme gegen beabsichtigte und versehentliche Fehlverkäufe.
Wir arbeiten immer eng mit unseren Kund:innen zusammen, damit die Skripts in ihren Formularen Vertreter:innen genau aufzeigen, was diese mit Kund:innen besprechen sollen. Dadurch sinkt das Risiko, dass Vertreter:innen aufgrund mangelnder Informationen falsche Versprechungen machen. Die Logik des Systems und die daraus resultierenden Einzelschritte sind so gestaltet, dass Vertreter:innen immer den korrekten Interaktionsablauf mit dem:der jeweiligen Kund:in durchlaufen und somit niemals die falschen Fragen stellen.
Irische Energieversorgungsunternehmen nutzen Vertriebssoftware für das Vertretermanagement
Wie bereits erwähnt sind die Aktivitäten von Vertreter:innen im Außendienst ein wichtiger Faktor für ein erfolgreiches Haustürgeschäft. Da Ihre Mitarbeiter:innen jedoch alleine unterwegs sind, haben Sie die knifflige Aufgabe, ihre Aktivitäten zu lenken, ohne direkte Kontrolle über ihr Verhalten zu haben.
In Irland stellten diese Bedingungen früher ein Problem dar, sofern Vertreter:innen rein auf Provision arbeiteten. Es kam dann nämlich sehr häufig vor, dass Vertreter:innen ihren Kund:innen absichtlich falsche Versprechungen machten oder dass sie zusätzliche Formulare ausfüllten, um ihre Quoten zu verbessern. Wenn diese Vertreter:innen nur mit Klemmbrett und Papierformularen ausgestattet sind, ist ein effektives Gebietsmanagement schier unmöglich. Mit der richtigen Vertriebssoftware allerdings holen Sie sich die Kontrolle zurück.
Mit PSI sorgen Sie dafür, dass alle Außendienstaktivitäten geokodiert und mit entsprechenden Zeitangaben versehen sind. Auf diese Weise können Sie dann problemlos unehrliches Verhalten aufspüren, beispielsweise falls ein Vertreter abends um 22:30 Uhr einen Verkauf registriert oder sich während der Registrierung weit weg vom Zuhause des:der jeweiligen Kund:in befindet.
Durch die GPS-Lokalisierung können sich Energieversorgungsunternehmen im Ernstfall auch besser gegen Kundenbeschwerden schützen. Das PSI-System erstellt nämlich eine eindeutige Beweiskette, damit Unternehmen genau nachvollziehen können, wie jede einzelne Verkaufsinteraktion zustande gekommen ist. Falls ein Unternehmen sich dann gegen eine Beschwerde wehren muss, stehen diese Informationen innerhalb von Minuten (statt Wochen) bereit.
PSI unterstützt Unternehmen außerdem dabei, dass ihre Vertreter:innen ein effektives Training für den Außendienst erhalten. Irische Energieversorgungsunternehmen können Schulungsmaterialien direkt auf die Geräte ihrer Vertreter:innen hochladen, damit diese immer und überall Zugriff auf die nötigen Arbeitsinformationen haben. Daneben werden auch Daten zur Vertreterperformance erhoben, sodass Teamleitende mit PSI ganz leicht bestimmen können, in welchen Bereichen sich einzelne Mitarbeiter:innen noch verbessern müssen.
Irische Energieversorgungsunternehmen wissen, dass ein perfektes Onboarding zu einem erhöhten Kundenvertrauen führt
Für ein erfolgreiches Haustürgeschäft ist es unerlässlich, Kund:innen vor Fehlverkäufen zu schützen. Aber das ist nicht der einzige wichtige Aspekt, der im Rahmen von Kundeninteraktionen zu beachten ist. Um Ihre Marke zu schützen, müssen Sie auch Vertrauen zu Ihrer Kundschaft aufbauen. Dazu gehört ebenso ein effizientes, zuverlässiges Kundenerlebnis wie ein effektives Vertretermanagement.
Ist der Verwaltungsprozess papierbasiert, besteht ein größeres Risiko, dass Fehler geschehen, die Ihrem Markenruf schaden – selbst wenn Ihr:e Vertreter:in an der Tür alles richtig gemacht hat. In Irland merkten Unternehmensverantwortliche früh, dass Papierformulare in dem Zeitfenster zwischen dem Verkaufsabschluss an der Haustür und der Rückkehr ins Büro leicht beschädigt werden oder verloren gehen können. Auch lagen Formulare, ehe sie das Backoffice erreichten, mitunter tagelang im Eingangsfach, bevor sie manuell bearbeitet wurden.
Wenn Kund:innen zu lange warten müssen, um den Status ihrer Bestellung zu erfahren – oder schlimmer noch, wenn ihre Bestellung nicht im System gefunden wird –, dann werden sie natürlich schnell eine schlechte Meinung über Ihr Unternehmen entwickeln.
Irische Versorgungsunternehmen wollten dieses Risiko nicht mehr eingehen und entledigten sich kurzerhand des zugrunde liegenden Problems: Nachdem ein Verkauf in PSI registriert wurde, wird dieser sofort vom Vertretergerät entfernt und zur Verarbeitung weitergeleitet. Dieser Prozess ist vollständig automatisiert, sodass die üblichen Verzögerungen, wie man sie von der manuellen Verarbeitung kennt, eliminiert werden. Vertriebsteams bietet PSI darüber hinaus eine einfache Möglichkeit, zusätzliche Dokumente hochzuladen (zum Beispiel die Zustimmung des:der Vermieter:in), wodurch wiederum das Risiko von Kaufrücktritten reduziert wird.
Die PSI-Plattform wird kontinuierlich weiterentwickelt, damit irische Versorgungsunternehmen künftig noch mehr Tools zur Verfügung stehen, um eine Vertrauensbasis mit ihren Kund:innen zu etablieren. Während der Pandemie führten wir zum Beispiel Remote-Unterschriften als neue Option auf der Plattform ein, damit Vertreter:innen Verträge und andere Dokumente an Kundengeräte senden und Kund:innen die Dokumente aus sicherer Distanz prüfen und unterzeichnen konnten. Auch Kund:innen, die ihre Bankinformationen nicht an der Tür mitteilen möchten, profitieren von dieser Option: Sie haben nun eine alternative Möglichkeit für die Angabe dieser sensiblen Daten.
Da die Sicherheit von Kundendaten heute von größter Wichtigkeit ist, erleichtert PSI Nutzer:innen zudem die Compliance mit Bestimmungen wie der DSGVO. Bankinformationen von Kund:innen werden aus dem System entfernt, nachdem ein Verkauf genehmigt wurde, und alle sensiblen Kundendaten werden nach drei Jahren standardmäßig automatisch gelöscht. Bei Bedarf kann das System auch so konfiguriert werden, dass die Daten schon nach kürzerer Zeit gelöscht werden. Mithilfe von PSI können Sie auch effektiv mit Agenturen für Außendienstservices zusammenarbeiten: Agenturmitarbeitende sehen ausschließlich die Unternehmens- und Kundendaten, die sie tatsächlich zur Durchführung ihrer Aufgaben benötigen.
Wenn auch Sie Ihre Vertriebskampagnen effizienter gestalten möchten, kontaktieren Sie uns. Wir erklären Ihnen gerne, wie PSI Ihnen weiterhelfen kann. Alternativ können Sie auch unseren Leitfaden zu den Vertriebslösungen von PSI durchlesen.
Door-to-door sales: why Ireland’s utility companies have the edge in the field
If you look at door-to-door selling in the utilities market, you’ll see a wide variation in success around the world. In the UK, for example, utilities companies are hesitant to put too much into field sales for fear of damaging their brand reputation. In Denmark, doorstep selling is seen as a privacy intrusion and prohibited by law.
But in Ireland, door-to-door is a thriving sales channel for telco and utilities companies. Major players like Vodafone and SSE Airtricity invest considerably in their field sales, and see such a clear return on that investment that door-to-door campaigns are a core pillar of their operations.
The reason why things are different in Ireland isn’t the Irish people are simply more receptive to door-to-door sales reps. It’s that the utilities companies here have seen the issues that have made doorstep selling so contentious in other countries and committed to doing it right – including using sales software designed for regulated industries to ensure their customers and their brand are always protected.
Ireland has protection against mistakes and mis-selling
When you’re embarking on a door-to-door campaign, it’s essential to have controls in place for effective territory management. Without those controls, it’s too easy for bad actors in the field to mislead customers or report sales that never happened – not only will your brand reputation take a hit if that happens, but you could also risk fines in the millions, and legislators might even step in to ban door-to-door selling altogether.
While sales rep behaviour plays a huge role in that – and we’ll talk about rep management shortly – there are features your sales software should have to ensure door-to-door selling doesn’t get your brand into trouble.
For example, Ireland’s energy companies are using PSI’s journeys to prevent the wrong products being sold to customers. The products in the journeys are drawn from a set product list and filtered by answers to previous questions, meaning fewer broken sales as customers can’t agree to a product they later find out they’re not eligible for. It’s a guard against both intentional and accidental mis-selling.
We always work with our clients’ assurance teams to make sure the scripting in their journeys is exactly what reps need to be saying to customers, which reduces the risk of reps misrepresenting a product because they don’t have the answers they need. The logic and journey of the system is designed to always take reps on the correct path with a customer, so that they never see questions that shouldn’t come up.
Ireland’s energy companies use sales software to manage rep behaviour
As we’ve said, sales rep behaviour is critical to making door-to-door field sales work. When you send reps out to knock on doors, you’re faced with the challenge of managing them while having no direct control over what they’re doing on their routes.
In Ireland that used to be a real problem in the days of commission-only sales reps, when reps were notorious for either misleading customers or filling out forms themselves in order to record sales. When those sales reps are only armed with a clipboard and paper, effective territory management is almost impossible – but with the right sales software, it’s a different story.
At PSI, we learned to make sure everything a rep does while they’re out on their route is geocoded and time-stamped. That means you can immediately see if a rep is logging a new sale at 10:30pm or far from a customer’s address, and the data keeps them honest.
That GPS location data also gives Ireland’s energy companies more assurance in case they do find themselves facing a customer complaint. The PSI system gives companies a clear trail of evidence so that they can know exactly what happened with any given sale, and the information can be retrieved in minutes rather than weeks should a brand need to protect itself.
At PSI, we also made it easier to ensure that reps have received the right field sales training. Ireland’s energy companies can upload training materials directly to a rep’s device so that they always have access to what they need, while the ability to capture and report on rep performance data gives a clear indication of where each member of the team needs to focus their training.
Ireland’s energy companies know that perfect onboarding builds customer trust
While ensuring customers are protected from mis-selling is a key part of making your door-to-door sales a success, it’s not the only aspect. Protecting your brand in the field is also a case of building trust with consumers, which includes delivering an efficient, reliable customer experience as much as it does managing rep behaviour.
When the process relies on paper, for example, it’s easy for mistakes to harm your brand reputation even if your sales rep did everything right on the doorstep. Ireland learned early how paper forms could get lost or damaged in the time between completing a sale and returning it to the back office team. And when it did reach the back office, it might have been sitting there for a week waiting for manual processing.
If customers are left waiting too long to hear back about the status of their order – or worse, if their details are lost altogether – it’s easy for them to form the perception that your company isn’t looking out for them.
Ireland’s energy companies eliminated that risk by doing away with the core problem. Once a sale is captured in PSI, it immediately comes off a rep’s device and is sent to be processed. Everything is automated, removing the delay that always comes with manually handling data. It’s also simple for sales teams to upload additional documentation like landlord’s consent, reducing the chance of broken sales.
We’re also continually evolving the PSI platform to give Ireland’s energy companies more tools for building trust with customers. During Covid we integrated remote signatures, allowing reps to send contracts and documentation to a customer’s own device, where they can review and sign at a safe distance. This functionality also gives customers another way to enter their bank details if they don’t want to hand them over at the door.
And in an age where the security of customer data is paramount, PSI makes it easy to comply with regulations like GDPR. Customer bank details are purged as soon as a sale is approved and the system automatically clears all sensitive customer data after three years as standard, and can be configured to purge more regularly if needed. PSI is also designed to take field sales agency partnerships into account, by making sure that agencies can’t see any company and customer data beyond what they need to fulfil their role.
If you’re ready to take your sales campaigns to the next level, speak to us to find out more about how PSI can help, or read our guide to PSI’s sales solutions.
How PSI’s sales software raises the game for customer experience
When it comes to improving your customer experience, it’s all too easy for software platforms to promise the world. If marketing were gospel, almost every field sales solution on the market would be a silver bullet, with its one unique feature ready to transform your customer journeys overnight.
But the reality is that customer experience doesn’t work like that. There’s no single box you can tick that will flip your CX to first class. In truth, what makes the biggest difference is multiple marginal gains – which you can only achieve by drilling down to every facet of your customer journey and making improvements across all areas of your organisation.
In the years we’ve been supporting telco and energy provider sales teams, seamless customer experience has regularly been highlighted as part of what sets PSI’s sales solution apart. And how we do that isn’t by promising one golden feature, but by giving sales teams the tools to sharpen up every aspect of their customer journey.
Removing friction from customer sign-ups
When you want to understand what your customer experience really looks like, there are few people better placed to ask than your sales reps. After all, they’re the ones speaking to your current and potential customers every single day, seeing both their frustrations and their delights as they move through the stages of signing a contract.
That’s why it’s always important to us when our clients’ sales reps return positive feedback on both their own experience of using the PSI system, and on the ease it delivers for their customers. The PSI system is designed to remove as much friction as possible from the customer journey, and that in turn creates a slicker sales process from the rep’s perspective as well.
With PSI, customers can get their contract documents and summary emailed directly to them by a field sales rep on their doorstep, and can review and sign their contract on their own device. That gives customers more control and ownership over their contract, but it also means that they aren’t left waiting for someone in the back office team to log their details and chase them up at a later date.
Providing a more efficient sign up process also means there’s less risk of customers falling through the cracks while their details are passed from one team to another.
Rep management that builds brand trust
Customer experience isn’t all about how quick and simple it is to sign a contract. In the telco and energy sectors, trust is a huge component behind customers choosing one provider over another, and the more they trust a company and its sales reps, the better their experience.
And while products, service and pricing all play into building consumer trust, your field sales team also has a significant role to play – and one that PSI’s Territory Management solution can go a long way towards helping them fulfil.
It’s no secret that poor territory management can lead directly to poor brand reputation. Picture this scenario. You send out your field reps on a Monday, and one of them knocks on every door along their route. But when it comes time to record the results of those visits, they don’t bother because the form is too long-winded to fill out.
The following week, another rep knocks on those same doors again because they aren’t aware that the previous visit took place. If those leads said they weren’t interested before, they’re now going to be frustrated at being ignored, and they’re less likely to trust your brand as a result of that customer experience.
Recording customer dispositions is straightforward with PSI, meaning you can get all the information you need about each customer interaction while ensuring potential leads don’t get overworked because of incomplete records. And with rep management tools like GPS location tracking, in-system training and real-time performance metrics, you can be certain that your field reps are giving customers the best first impression of your brand.
A system that keeps selling – even when offline
Sometimes a customer’s experience when speaking with your reps can feel outside of your control. That’s often the case in rural areas or connectivity blind spots. You can put the best rep team possible out in the field, but if nothing will load when they’re trying to showcase deals or complete a sale, their professionalism and ability to deliver a pitch are going to be completely overshadowed.
Offline functionality is a core feature of PSI’s sales software, and contributes to customer experience in a number of ways. For one, it ensures that reps always have all the address and route data they need to execute a campaign.
But when the rep is at the customer’s door, it also means they’re able to show the full range of products and packages available as easily as if they were online. Reps can focus on delivering their pitch without dreading a spinning wheel or a blank loading screen, and customers can see the same deals as others in better connected areas.
And if the customer does choose to sign up, they’re still able to do so even if the rep’s device is offline, meaning they won’t need to wait for a slow mobile connection to catch up – or have to wait to complete the sale at a later date with another rep. The sale will process quickly, and the system will update and complete validations as soon as the rep achieves connectivity again.
If you’re ready to take your sales campaigns to the next level, speak to us to find out more about how PSI can help, or read our guide to PSI’s sales solutions.
Leads +, Sales + or Enterprise: a buyer’s guide to PSI
Leads +, Sales + or Enterprise: a buyer’s guide to PSI
Finding the right platform to support your sales process isn’t always about looking at the price. It’s also about finding sales software that can deliver what you need today, and empower you to get where you’re going next.
Do you need to dig deep into the performance of your field sales teams? See the bigger picture of end-to-end sales journeys? Or do you need to tie multiple sales channels together in one clear place?
PSI's sales software comes in three configurations: Leads +, Sales + and Enterprise. We’ve put together this guide to all three to help you find the package you need.
Leads +
You can think of Leads + as our essential field sales tools – a foundational sales territory management platform for overseeing campaigns and rep performance.
At its core, this package is about giving more power to both your field reps and your sales managers. Leads + lets your field sales team work on an unlimited number of addresses and leads, and think more tactically about how you engage with them. With the Opti Route algorithm you can optimise routes for each sales rep, to ensure that each area is maximised without being overworked.
While your agents are out in the field, GPS tracking and real-time rep management tools give an eagle-eyed overview of their performance at all times. And as they report the results from every door, you can follow and collect powerful data insights to hone future campaigns.
The features in Leads + underpin the rest of our packages because we know that field sales is essential for telcos and energy companies. Whether you’re planning to grow to multichannel sales or you’re an incumbent who’s already there, you will always need the ability to manage your sales territory and your field reps.
Sales +
Sales + takes the foundation of our territory management toolkit and builds on it with an end-to-end sales package.
The entire sale - from first recording potential customers to closing the deal - is wrapped up in one place. As well as digital contracts and bank validations to complete the sale, that includes document templates, a customer document portal, and email and SMS communications. Engaging with customers at any stage of the process is seamless for both them and your sales team, and all of the communications can be customised with your own branding.
That means there is less manual intervention required to move the process along and no data lags that risk breaking a sale. Your entire team can access all the information they need in one place and as close to real-time as possible – they’ll be able to know the exact status of each sale as soon as the rep leaves the customer’s door.
If you’re trying to grow quickly, Sales + gives you everything you need to tighten up your sales and provisioning process, while letting your internal tech team focus on adding value to the business.
Enterprise
If you’re operating on the level of multichannel sales, Enterprise is the package that helps you integrate each channel into one cohesive process.
Enterprise brings all sales journeys together under one roof, no matter where they start or finish. If a customer journey begins with a field sales rep visiting their door but finishes online, that sale is treated as one end-to-end process within the system. There’s no lag as they move between channels, and no risk of customer details being lost or duplicated along the way.
Enterprise also comes with even greater flexibility. With the power to set up custom journeys, workflows and data reporting, you can map out the PSI platform to fit your existing sales workflow and optimise it fully.
If you’re ready to take your sales campaigns to the next level, speak to us to find out more about PSI can help.
Grow, compete, retain: why energy companies need to get ready to sell again soon
Grow, compete, retain: why energy companies need to get ready to sell again soon
Across the UK and Europe, consumers are looking forward to a time when they’ll be able to pay less for their energy usage. And with the wholesale price of gas falling to its lowest in almost two years, that time may soon be here.
For the energy sector, that means a chance to send their sales agents back out into the field and compete for new customers once again. But to take advantage of this opportunity to grow – not to mention to keep hold of their current customer base – their sales teams will need to be well ahead of the curve, and have the right tools and clarity to move intelligently when the time comes.
Your customers are waiting for prices to fall
In February the wholesale price of natural gas fell below €50 per megawatt hour. That’s a significant drop from its peak of €320 per megawatt hour in August 2022, and the lowest the energy sector has seen since September 2021.
In response to that, Ofgem in the UK has begun dropping its energy price cap. For the second quarter of 2023 it went down from £4,279 to £3,280, and it’s expected to continue falling to £1,966 by the end of the year.
But while wholesale prices are falling for energy providers, the benefit of that is still yet to trickle down to the consumer. Due to their fixed price contracts, customers are locked into paying the higher prices they’d signed up at.
When their contracts end, those consumers will be looking to switch to whoever can supply them for less – and that opens up a significant opportunity for energy providers who are ready to get out and sell again.
The advantage will go to the agile
In 2020, the year before the current energy crisis began, almost 6m customers in the UK alone changed their energy provider. When prices are low and competition is high, there is a large appetite among consumers to capitalise on better deals and more innovative tariffs by shopping around.
If the price of energy falls again in 2023 and the market opens back up, that appetite may well return. Energy usage has been one of the most daunting household expenses for many consumers over the last two years, with some being forced to choose between paying for heating or paying for food. If there is a chance for them to save hundreds on their next bill just by switching providers, they will be open to it.
The first providers to respond to that will be at an advantage, but they will need to be ready to move fast. No one wants to be out on doorsteps trying to sell now because they aren’t going to win new customers while prices are still high. But they still need to be proactive, not reactive, and start planning how they’re going to deploy their next sales campaign ahead of time.
That will mean thinking tactically about where to focus resources, drawing intelligent data insights on where gains can be made, and knowing how to maximise the productivity of your entire sales process. It will also mean asking yourself if you’ve got the right tools to move with that level of speed and precision – and if not, what do you need to get there?
Think smarter on customer retention
When it’s time to sell again, one of the biggest challenges for the energy sector will be that a competitive market won’t just mean an opportunity to grow your market share. If everyone else is out on doorsteps offering lower prices, there’s a risk that you could lose as many existing customers as you gain.
If you have the right sales system in place for customer acquisition, it’s easy to turn that same insight and tactical approach towards retention. The PSI system, for instance, can draw on the data you’ve already gathered, so all your current customer information is already at your fingertips – and that gives you a clear advantage over your rivals.
Your sales team will know exactly when your current customers’ contracts are ending and what kind of deal they were on before. That means you can get started on customer engagement before your competitors have had a chance to get their boots on. And with their details already in the PSI system, their retention form can be populated automatically – giving your customers an effortless, positive experience, and your sales reps a better chance to close the deal quickly.
With sales software that gives clarity and insight on the state of your customers, you can think intelligently about how to engage them long before your reps arrive at their door. To learn more, check out our thoughts on effectively returning your sales agents to the field.
One Touch Switch: embracing new telco rules for the good of your customers
One Touch Switch: embracing new telco rules for the good of your customers
This year is one of major change for telcos. From upgrading critical infrastructure to implementing One Touch Switching, there is a wave of new regulations, obligations and security frameworks that UK telecoms providers will need to be ready to embrace.
Navigating those changes can be difficult. But when the new regulations are so focused on protecting consumers and giving them more power to choose the best available deals, there’s an opportunity for telcos to turn legislation into a competitive sales advantage.
Safer networks, stronger service
For the UK telecoms sector, there are two major pieces of legislation dominating the horizon in 2023 – the Telecommunications (Security) Act and the European Electronic Communications Code (EECC). And while both of them are broad frameworks touching on all areas of the telecoms industry, there are two significant prongs to this new wave of regulation.
The first is aimed at upgrading and modernising telco infrastructure, and promoting investment in that area. But that doesn’t just mean updating a telecoms network’s capabilities – it also means making the infrastructure more robust.
Both the EECC and the Telecommunications (Security) Act have obligations for service providers to strengthen their network against cyber threats and to notify the government of any breaches. The Telecommunications Security Act goes even further, requiring telecom companies to only work with trusted vendors and suppliers who meet stringent security criteria laid out by the UK government.
That focus on network security feeds into the second part of the legislation – to better protect consumers and ensure they get the highest quality of service. The European Electronic Communications Code in particular is designed to give consumers more freedom and power in choosing a telco provider, by encouraging competition and introducing new rules on billing and contract length.
With consumers in the spotlight, meeting these obligations is as much a matter for a telco’s sales and operations teams as for their technical side. But if they’re not equipped with the right tools, they can risk not being able to deliver the kind of customer service that’s required.
One Touch Switch
Legislation isn’t all that’s putting consumer empowerment in an ever greater spotlight. There’s also Ofcom’s plans for One Touch Switch, to enable customers to change to a new broadband provider without having to speak to their current provider first. Although the adoption has faced delays and there has been confusion on what exactly is required, this is still something telecom companies will have to bring into their sales process soon.
In a nutshell, One Touch Switch is about making it easier for consumers to change their broadband supplier. But it’s not just about creating less admin in the switching process – it’s also about giving people more options to choose from in the first place.
Every telco provider has an obligation to match their broadband service to what else is on offer, in terms of speed, pricing and contract length. The idea is that sales reps can show consumers that they’re offering the best package out there – not just on price but on the quality of the service too – and that customers can make an informed choice on whether to stay or switch.
Ultimately, it’s about extending more freedom of choice to broadband customers. And while that’s being driven from a regulatory perspective, internet service providers who embrace that into their sales process can make it a core part of their brand.
For example, our Touchstone sales platform makes it easy to give customers a grace period to review their offer before signing the contract. That extra time can help them to a) be more confident in their decision, and b) trust that a sales pitch isn’t pressuring them to switch.
Look after your brand by looking after your customers
While navigating new restrictions and regulations can be a challenge, it also presents an opportunity for telecoms operators to build their brand. When so much of telco sales depends on trust, doubling down on looking after consumers doesn’t just satisfy legislation – it also builds a competitive advantage.
For example, take the pre-documentation that has to be sent during a sale. Once your sales rep has agreed a sale with a customer, they need to send all of that over before any contract is signed. With PSI Fusion they can do that instantly, and send it directly to the customer’s device. They can still have a grace period to review the documents, but that isn’t prolonged any further than it has to be.
The sooner those documents arrive, the better the experience for the customer. They can focus on going over the offer in their own time rather than wondering when everything will arrive. Most importantly, they’ll feel reassured that you’re honouring your obligations to look after consumers and deliver the best possible service.
With such a unique framework of regulations governing the telco world, your sales solution needs to be one that takes that into account. A general sales tool might do everything necessary for another industry or jurisdiction, but it won’t be set up for the nuances of meeting telco legislation and providing customers with the frictionless experience they’re looking for.
To learn more, check out our thoughts on boosting your customer experience with territory management or take a look at our End-to-End Sales or Multichannel Sales solutions.
Tactics, insight and impact for energy companies: how to launch effective sales campaigns in the field
The last few years haven’t been easy on the energy sector. As energy bills increase, many consumers find it hard to trust large energy companies who seem to profit from putting up their prices. Meanwhile, the rise in wholesale supply costs has left several of the UK’s newer, smaller providers stretched to or even beyond capacity.
Against that backdrop, field sales campaigns need to work harder than ever. Consumers need more than lower prices – they need to know they can trust a potential new provider, and understand what sets them apart from everyone else on the market.
First, ask what your potential customers are thinking
Before you start sending sales agents out to people’s doors, there are some fundamental questions you need to answer. What problem are you trying to solve, and for whom? How can you help your potential customers to understand the value of your service? And what resources do your reps need in order to get that message across?
When it comes to energy, the problem is fairly straightforward – your customers need reliable, affordable electricity. The questions they have are less likely to be about what they’re buying and more about your company in particular.
Consumers often see switching energy providers as a hassle, so they need to know why you are different from their incumbent. That’s not just a question of cost – it’s also about trust.
People have seen their bills shoot up in recent years – some are even choosing between heating their home and buying food – and they need to know what makes one energy company different from another. Imagine what questions they will have, and work out how to arm your reps to put any concerns to rest.
Take a tactical approach to your sales territory
To roll out an effective sales campaign, you need to be tactical about where you’re sending your field sales reps and what outcomes you need them to achieve.
The difficulty for energy companies is that the market is very mature. When everybody already has a supplier and there are no new products or innovations to sway them, a tactical approach often means testing the waters on whether it’s a good time to sell, focusing on building trust or acquiring certain groups of customers.
Bringing that laser focus requires effective territory management. That means more than gathering addresses and assigning them to sales rep routes. It’s about getting the most out of your campaign tools to optimise the routes in an area, deploy reps efficiently and get reports on results as they happen.
PSI’s Territory Management solution can help here. It allows you to approach an area tactically by creating unique routes for each agent and ensuring no routes are overworked.
Outcomes are reported in real time, giving you the insight you need to react quickly to what’s going on in your sales territory. And there’s no limit to the amount of data you can upload and manage at one time, so you won’t be held back even when handling multiple campaigns.
Keep one eye on the bigger picture
With any sales campaign, there are two key areas to focus on – getting the most productivity out of your sales team, and delivering the best possible customer experience. And if you’re striking out into new areas, you need to ask whether the tools you’re using are still capable of doing that as your customer base grows.
A common problem for growing suppliers is that when they get near or reach enterprise size, they find they’ve outgrown the systems they were using before. The tech isn’t able to keep up with where the company is going, and some customers inevitably fall through the cracks.
Field sales might be your focus at your current stage, and you have a solution in place to cover that. But if that solution can’t also handle multichannel sales when you need it, it’s going to fall short. But if your partner is as used to working with big players as they are with new entrants, they will be able to follow you on the scaling journey.
Even if reaching that size isn’t on the horizon right now, you need to be acting bigger than you might be right now. Your ambition will always be to build a larger customer base, and mergers, acquisitions and amalgamations are a fact of life for the sector. Companies that aren’t thinking of that long term vision can quickly get caught out.
The PSI platform can be that reliable partner, whether you’re at the field sales stage or growing towards multi-channel. Our intuitive software puts everything you need to quickly create and launch campaigns at your fingertips. Real time reporting lets you monitor your lead capture and market penetration as it happens, and the data insights from that help shape the targets and direction of your next campaign.
There is a long game you can play here. If you start out with sales and territory management tools that can easily scale as you do, you can continue to roll out each sales campaign as effectively as the last. To learn more, check out our thoughts on boosting your customer experience with territory management or take a look at our Territory Management solution.
Tactics, insight and impact for Telcos: how to launch effective sales campaigns in the field
The telco industry is one that doesn’t stand still. As the infrastructure evolves and networks grow more capable every day, ISPs are constantly developing more products and rolling out to new sales territories.
The difficulty for their field sales teams is that so much change can be dizzying for consumers. When a sales rep turns up at the door, customers often don’t know what they already have or what else is on offer, and getting their interest can be the first and biggest hurdle.
An effective campaign has to go further than price and download speeds. It needs to help guide customers through the options available, and use the data at hand to make a tactical impact fast.
First, ask what your potential customers are thinking
Before you start sending sales agents out to people’s doors, there are some fundamental questions you need to answer. What problem are you trying to solve, and for whom? How can you help your potential customers to understand the value of your service? And what resources do your reps need in order to get that message across?
For ISPs, it’s easy for that value to get lost beneath industry jargon<link to Gigabit broadband blog>. You can’t take for granted that the people you’re selling to will know the difference between fibre-to-the-cabinet and fibre-to-the-premises, for example, or that they see a need for full-fibre in their daily lives.
Put yourself in your customers’ shoes – imagine what questions they will have and what education they’ll need from your reps. From there you can work out how best to arm your reps to explain the options clearly and accurately.
Take a tactical approach to your sales territory
To roll out an effective sales campaign, you need to be tactical about where you’re sending your field sales reps and what outcomes you need them to achieve.
In the telco space, that tactical approach is a daily fact of life. The nature of constantly evolving technology and capabilities makes for a dynamic market. When new properties are ready for service, telcos need to react fast to what’s available, getting pre-marketing and sales teams in the area first to get ahead of the game.
But to get there first, your data has to be up to date. You need a system that takes in the latest address data so that you can create a tactical campaign off the back of it.
Bringing that laser focus requires effective territory management. That means more than gathering addresses and assigning them to sales rep routes. It’s about getting the most out of your campaign tools to optimise the routes in an area, deploy reps efficiently and get reports on results as they happen.
PSI’s Territory Management solution can help here. It allows you to approach an area tactically by creating unique routes for each agent and ensuring no routes are overworked.
Outcomes are reported in real time, giving you the insight you need to react quickly to what’s going on in your sales territory. And there’s no limit to the amount of data you can upload and manage at one time, so you won’t be held back even when handling multiple campaigns.
Keep one eye on the bigger picture
With any sales campaign, there are two key areas to focus on – getting the most productivity out of your sales team, and delivering the best possible customer experience. And if you’re striking out into new areas, you need to ask whether the tools you’re using are still capable of doing that as your customer base grows.
A common problem for growing suppliers is that when they get near or reach enterprise size, they find they’ve outgrown the systems they were using before. The tech isn’t able to keep up with where the company is going, and some customers inevitably fall through the cracks.
Field sales might be your focus at your current stage, and you have a solution in place to cover that. But if that solution can’t also handle multichannel sales when you need it, it’s going to fall short. But if your partner is as used to working with big players as they are with new entrants, they will be able to follow you on the scaling journey.
Even if reaching that size isn’t on the horizon right now, you need to be acting bigger than you might be right now. Your ambition will always be to build a larger customer base, and mergers, acquisitions and amalgamations are a fact of life for the sector. Companies that aren’t thinking of that long term vision can quickly get caught out.
The PSI platform can be that reliable partner, whether you’re at the field sales stage or growing towards multi-channel. Our intuitive software puts everything you need to quickly create and launch campaigns at your fingertips. Real time reporting lets you monitor your lead capture and market penetration as it happens, and the data insights from that help shape the targets and direction of your next campaign.
There is a long game you can play here. If you start out with sales and territory management tools that can easily scale as you do, you can continue to roll out each sales campaign as effectively as the last. To learn more, check out our thoughts on boosting your customer experience with territory management or take a look at our Territory Management solution.
Gigabit broadband in the UK: government targets and the opportunity for telcos
At the start of the decade, the UK government pledged to make gigabit broadband available across the country by 2025. Although this target has since been revised to 2030, Ofcom reported at the end of last year that 70% of UK households can now access gigabit broadband packages.
But despite the drive from both government and private companies to rollout the infrastructure, uptake from consumers is still slow. Part of the problem is that the gigabit initiative is still ongoing, and many households across the country aren’t aware they can upgrade yet. That’s not helped by a confusing picture of who’s responsible for the rollout, with private telcos, central government and regional authorities all involved at various stages.
But it’s not just gigabit that isn’t being fully embraced. Ofcom’s 2022 Connected Nations report also found that while 97% of UK homes can access 30Mb per second broadband, only 73% actually take it.
As more choices are put before consumers, it becomes harder for them to know which one is the best for them. Telcos have a huge part to play in helping them navigate their options – and a huge opportunity to build more loyalty and trust with their customers as a result. For new ISPs, there’s also a chance to lay down the right customer relationship from the get-go.
Safety and convenience matters just as much as cost
It’s easy to point fingers at cost or a lack of infrastructure as the reason behind slow uptake. But while those factors certainly play a part, the habits of individual consumers is just as large a barrier to overcome.
In the UK currently, 73% of broadband coverage is provided by just four companies: BT, Sky, Virgin Media and TalkTalk. BT alone occupies 25% of the broadband market.
Consumers feel safe with those larger telcos. They’re established companies, with years of service and customer reviews behind them. If something does go wrong with the network, they’ve got ranks of customer support to call on and engineers to deploy.
It’s hard for new, smaller telcos to compete against that. Even if the service they’re offering is thirty times faster, consumers still see switching to a less-established provider as a risk. Will they be able to deliver the promised speeds? If there’s a problem, how long will it take to resolve it? Are new ISPs less likely to stick around?
But more than that, consumers rarely want to think too much about their broadband provider. Shopping around for new deals is confusing and time consuming. Unless their bill shoots up or there’s something egregiously wrong with their current package, they’re unlikely to browse around at who else is on the market.
Effective field sales campaigns can be a powerful opportunity for newer ISPs to overcome those challenges. If there’s a perception of risk in switching to a new provider, field sales reps can listen to those concerns and address them directly. And most importantly, they can engage with potential customers about the options available to them.
Do consumers even know what’s available?
In 2022, internet service provider Zen found that 32% of UK adults said they couldn’t define what full fibre broadband means. When those that said they knew what full fibre meant were presented with possible definitions, only a third could actually identify the correct one.
When consumers weigh up their broadband options, they’re met with an array of jargon. Both Fibre to the Cabinet (FTTC) and Fibre to the Premises (FTTP) are offered up as fibre broadband, despite FTTC still using slower, less reliable copper wire for part of the connection. Terms like Superfast and Ultrafast broadband are used both as definitions for specific download speeds and marketing terms.
For many consumers, gigabit broadband is just another part of an already unclear picture. If they’re not sure what kind of connection they currently have, the prospect of upgrading it to gigabit is unlikely to have much of an impact.
We recently spoke to a BT customer who signed up to their first Wi-Fi contract in 2022. They explained that while they knew they needed Wi-Fi for their phones and TV, their knowledge about what service they were getting was limited.
“I was paying over £20/month for speeds of less than 3MB,” they said. “It was my daughter who found this out and realised we could actually get a much better full fibre service for a similar price. During initial sign up, no one took the time to explain these options, I could still be paying through the roof for bad internet!''
That education gap is a clear opportunity for telcos to reach out more directly to their customers. They have the expertise to decode all of the options and terminology, and it’s expertise that a large section of the market clearly needs to make more informed decisions.
For that to be truly effective however, it needs to go beyond defining things by download speeds. If they’re already uncertain what broadband they currently have, talking about megabits per second likely won’t illuminate much for them. Even if gigabit broadband is far beyond what their current package is capable of, they need to know what that means for their personal internet usage.
Speed won’t matter if consumers don’t believe it
A 2020 Censuswide survey of UK households served by the big four ISPs found that 22% rated their internet as “OK” or worse. 20% also said they felt they were overcharged for the service they received.
In theory those figures suggest that a large section of the market should be low-hanging fruit for providers offering gigabit speeds. But the problem for new or smaller telcos is that dissatisfaction with their established competitors often reflects poorly on the industry as a whole.
A common point of distrust for consumers is signing up to a deal that promises fast broadband with speeds up to 500Mb or more per second, only for their average speed to be far lower in reality. When one of the country’s largest providers lets them down like this, it makes them question how a telco they’ve not heard of before can deliver true gigabit internet instead.
With a smaller share of the market, new telcos are also more easily harmed by poor customer experiences. If they say they can provide gigabit broadband but their online reviews say their network is patchy or their engineers didn’t show up to appointments, consumers will question whether they can really deliver on their promise.
Again, this is an opportunity for new ISPs to create a competitive advantage from their field sales. Reps do more than speak to leads and close sales. They’re the bridge between a telco’s brand and its customers, and the relationships they build on their routes will be key to winning trust.
Building that trust isn’t easy, but it’s what consumers need to get on board with gigabit.
To learn more about building trust with your customers, read our thoughts on using territory management to boost customer experience and brand reputation and field sales: the untapped competitive advantage.
Boosting your customer and employee experience using effective territory management
Customer experience and the bottom line are inseparable. According to McKinsey, companies that prioritise positive customer experiences see a 20% improvement in customer satisfaction, a 15% improvement in sales conversion, a 30% lower cost-to-serve and a 30% improvement in employee engagement.
Speaking of which, employee experience is almost equally important to a company’s bottom line. Happy employees are less likely to become quiet quitters or churn with the latest wave in the great resignation. They’re more likely to feel they belong and bring their all, resulting in more positive customer experiences.
There are no instant miracle-grows for employee and customer experience. To address them properly, it often requires major transformation, from product to organisational redesign.
For telcos and utilities that use multichannel strategies, though, there is low hanging fruit to be picked at the first point of contact – and this all comes down to effective territory management.
Territory management underpins customer experience
Whether they are approached by a rep or browsing online, customers can need time to make a decision, particularly if it’s one that ties them into a commitment of 12 months. In telcos and utilities in particular, it’s also extremely likely that the potential customer already has what you’re selling, and won't want to be hounded by a sales team to make the switch.
Knowing that a rep is going to call is more likely to result in a better customer experience than a call out of the blue, or worse, a call when the potential customer has made it clear that they won’t be interested in switching for several more months.
Customers have never had more choice than they do now and a negative experience with a brand is something that will stay with them, and may even translate into PR damage through word of mouth and social media.
Conversely, a positive experience created by a rep calling at an agreed upon time, i.e., doing what they said they were going to do, builds customer loyalty and trust in a brand. On one level, it’s a small thing, but these small things are what differentiates one brand from another in a crowded market. And these small moments can only happen if the right tools are in place to ensure communication with potential customers is coordinated carefully.
How multichannel sales tech helps
By using a territory management tool from the very start of your scaling journey, you make achieving market penetration far more likely. For Ogi, a new contender in the ISP and managed IT services space, it enabled them to use product and campaign data to deliver great customer experiences at scale.
Alexander Breverton, Ogi’s Telesales Manager, said that without the right solution for the task, “we wouldn’t have had the success we have had, it’s safe to say.”
Great customer experiences are fed by great data. If a rep can find out if a potential customer is happy with their current supplier or products, and record that data, and learn when they may be free to make the decision of staying or moving to a new contract – all this can later make the difference between a smooth sales process and a missed opportunity.
By recording all this with smart multichannel sales software, sales reps will be prompted when to re-establish contact. A second team won’t try to contact the same person too early or through an unpreferred channel, and they won’t start by asking the same questions as before. It’s a simple thing, but valuable to customer relationships.
Effective territory management tools can also be used to plot routes for reps based upon previously recorded customer data, anticipating what customers in certain areas might want or need. This could help create more of a bespoke and targeted approach, saving time for sales teams and potential customers by pitching products more likely to be more relevant to their needs.
The quality of territory management affects employees directly
For employees, effective territory management makes their entire experience less frustrating. They get better sales results by wasting less of their time contacting people who don’t want to be contacted.
Also, using the data recorded through initial contact, reps can be provided with warm leads to reach out to, once the potential customers are out of contract. This is more likely to increase conversion rates than knocking on doors of people who may not be interested.
All this equals better sales results. And this in turn leads to better pay and happier reps who are more likely to stay in their role.
Effective territory management can also be used to allocate field sales teams workloads more evenly, based upon their hours, their location and transport situation. Instead of being given an unknown number of doors to knock on in a housing development, they can know their exact routes and how many households they need to visit, which can help to make sales targets more motivating and less daunting.
Everyone wins
By using the right territory management tools, you can collate data that goes way beyond customer surveys. Reps can be sent to the right places, at the right times, to pitch the right products. Customers can be contacted at the time they want to be contacted and be provided with information that’s relevant to their needs.
Customer and employee experiences are built upon effective territory management, and when the experience is positive from the first interaction, that’s what your brand will be known for from the very beginning – and this is particularly important if your brand is new to the market.
To learn more, see how our multichannel software helped the new telco brand Ogi to grow or get in touch to schedule a demo.
