I have always believed that the call center industry was one of best breeding grounds for
professional development. If you’ve ever worked for a call center at any level, you can attest
that it can be a crucible for fast-paced learning and adaptability.

There are so many skillsets that are acquired and developed during one’s call center career:
Sales, Multi-tasking, Time Management, Reporting, Customer and Client Services, just to
name a few. I’m proud that as an entrepreneur, on any given day I can not only use the “skills”
learned, but also the call center mindset or attitude. There’s just a way of doing things in that
environment.

With some adaptation, I believe that most small business owners can benefit
from using some of the same rules that call center professionals live by:

1. Finish the script. In a call center, whether handling Inbound or Outbound calls, you must
read your entire script. There are no outs; there are no excuses. Every word in the script or
call flow was designed for a specific purpose, to evoke a certain response, to lead to a specific
outcome. You must trust, work, and go through the whole script. No exceptions.

How this applies to Your Business:

• Create a “script” for your business. Know what you want to accomplish and create
structured goals and actions to get you there.

• Know your audience. Understand and identify with their pain-points and possible
objections.

• Be consistent. The key to unlocking the potential in any script is mastering it, then delivering
your full performance consistently, every time. Do the same with your service, your brand,
your EVERYTHING!

• No excuses. You have to do what you set out to do. Period.

2. Assume the sale. Call center superstars, whether on the phones or in management and
beyond, understand the power in assuming a positive outcome to every endeavor. It goes
beyond confidence; it’s about approaching the tasks at hand, especially sales, from a tactical
and logical perspective.


How this applies to Your Business:

• After all, every endeavor is a numbers game. A higher number of attempts equals a higher
likelihood of successes. If you try 5 times you may get 4 No’s and 1 Yes. If you try 20 times,
you may get 15 No’s and 5 Yeses. At the end of the day, you got 5 Yeses, and that aint bad.

• Be persistent. The road of entrepreneurship is fraught with failures. Keep going, and KNOW,
through-and-through, that your success is inevitable.

3. Know your product and/or service. The best call center professionals don’t want to just
sound knowledgeable, they want to BE knowledgeable. Knowing the
product/service/procedure/client, etc. inside and out, and knowing where to quickly get
information, inevitably leads to stand-out performance.

How this applies to Your Business:

• Arm yourself with knowledge! Your goal is to provide a stellar service or product
experience, right? You can’t do that if you don’t fully know and understand your product
offering, available resources, or even more importantly, what your customer really wants or
needs.

• Be prepared and be confident. Give your confidence a boost. You automatically feel more
in-control and more confident when you feel knowledgeable and prepared.

Remember, your business becomes uniquely yours with practice, patience, passion, and
persistence. Use all your great experience and talent and funnel it right into your business!

Look out for Part 2 of ‘6 Call Center Lessons for Your Small Business’!