Transfer Calls Now to Make More Sales*

Transfer Hot Leads to the Point of Sale

Companies who use centralized call centers - whether in-house or outsourced - often prevent sales! They encourage a prospect's interest and then say - "I'll have your account executive call you back tomorrow. Or, worse yet, "In 5-10 days."

Why? The account executive is in a different city, with a different company or with an outside rep firm. However, telecommunications technology can enable the prospect to be transferred to their sales rep immediately. This type of connection is sometimes called "hot transfer."

Technologies that enable this connection are available from the phone companies that supply lines; others are inherent in phone systems. These technologies include:

• Centrex off-premise transfer.
• Take back and transfer.
• Corporate software-defined networks (SDN) transfer.
• PBX trunk-to-trunk transfer.

Speed dial buttons can be programmed to invoke the transfers, and the CSR can stay on the line, wait for an answer and "hand-off" the call. If the sales rep is not available, the CSR can leave a message with the contact information, get back to the prospect and tell them they will receive a call.

A respected mutual fund company used "hot transfer" to transfer technical calls from stockbrokers calling about reselling closed-end mutual funds. The outsourced call center transferred the technical question calls directly to the particular fund's underwriter. Transferred calls often resulted in sales - with individual transferred calls generating as much as a $5 million each.