The service to sales segue.(destinationCRM.com)(Letter to the Editor)

CRM Magazine, May, 2005 by Brock, Shawn

I WAS ALMOST DUMBFOUNDED when I read this statement in your recent article "From Service Center to Sales Center" (March 2, 2005): "Virtually all respondents--99 percent--declared that probing, relationship building, product knowledge, and service orientation, not sales skills, are the foundation of their service-sales curricula."

It must be a very narrow definition of "sales skills" if those elements aren't included in it. I think this really points to the larger problem that hinders traditional customer service centers in making a transition to a sales environment--they keep using traditional retail and big-ticket sales behaviors as their model. Any good telemarketing/telesales manager will tell you that the skills in the above quote are indeed the building...