by Nathan Teahon, Vice President
I love my team. I suppose a lot of people say that, but how many really mean it? If they do mean it, do they understand why? That question of why is very important, particularly when an organization is growing. It takes a team to grow, and you can only grow successfully if you continue to execute on what has led to success in the first place.
Additionally, the world of telemarketing services is hard, and there are a lot of moving parts and various strengths needed to pull everything together into one synchronous machine. Below are the top 5 reasons why I love my team.
1. Seasoned Professionals
This year QCS is celebrating its 10 year anniversary and as I look back I am astounded by the consistency of our team. I work with many companies that battle the constant churn with their managers, so much so that I feel bad that they must be constantly training new people. It’s one thing to have turnover, but when you are turning over managers and leaders of teams it’s very difficult to take steps forward because you are constantly taking two steps back.
That consistency is only able to take root because they are seasoned professionals in the outbound telemarketing as well as the inbound telemarketing spaces. Over 80% of our management team has 10+ years of industry experience with none having less than five. There are a lot of lessons learned over those years, and yes, mistakes too. The learning and growing process never ends, but having the breadth of experience we have on our team has been a major factor in both our success and growth.
2. Culture Fit
One of the challenges a company faces when experiencing growth is maintaining its sense of culture. Just about everybody has worked in an environment that isn’t very healthy, or has silos built up. Every step of way, each and every time we add a new member to our team, this important question is always asked: Is this person really a good fit for our team? At the end of the day I am proud that our organization isn’t just made up of good managers, but really great people who are supported by equally great families.
3. Diversity of Skills
A well-rounded team is made up of individuals with varying skill sets. Not everyone can be great at the exact same things, and why would you want them to be? Everyone has their strengths and weaknesses and while recognizing one’s weakness and trying to work on minimizing those weaknesses is a good exercise, it’s more important to recognize what a person’s strengths are and how can you maximize those for the betterment of the team.
Our team has a very diverse set of skills. Below is a breakout of skills for just our Leadership Team. Not surprisingly there is some crossover here and there. But on a list of 34 different strengths, the eight members on our team represent 27 of those different strengths in their list of Top 5. In the world of Telemarketing Services, that kind of diversity is key in keeping up with the ever-changing landscape.
4. Goal-Oriented
I don’t know how you can be successful in outbound or inbound telemarketing without being driven by hitting goals. In our world it is easy to take for granted, but I see it all too frequently where I walk onto a call center floor and see no indication of how a team is doing. It boggles my mind when a call center agent or manager can’t fully tell you what KPI’s they are driving toward. If everyone doesn’t have a clear picture of what “winning” looks like, how can you expect to win? This is something that I love about our team. Everyone wants to know what the goal is and how do we know if we are winning. For the day, the month, and the year. For Client A, Client B, and Client Z. For our company as a whole.
Telemarketing services is a very unique industry in that it isn’t difficult to have a scoreboard on performance. Honestly, that hovering scoreboard isn’t something that every person can handle. I am proud that our team not only thrives in that world but embraces it.
5. Intelligent Urgency
The biggest common trait that our team members share but also something that has become a motto is attacking each day with a sense of Intelligent Urgency. There is a fine balance that needs to be walked at times. I referred to that scoreboard and our team wanting nothing more than to “Win” for our clients, and that creates a heightened sense of urgency. That is an excellent trait, but there can be times where the temptation is there to jump and make changes before putting in the proper time and analysis to understand if those decisions are the right decisions.
The other side of that coin is analyzing something so deeply that you are afraid to make decisions. Paralysis by analysis. There has to be a balance between the two and it’s difficult to nail that line every time, but I love how our team embodies this concept in how they attack their day to day. Act urgently and don’t be afraid to make the wrong decision, but also be sure to act intelligently and understand the reasons behind the decisions being made. When our team is mindful of that concept, they are serving all parties in a way that inspires pride.
Nathan Teahon is the Vice President at Quality Contact Solutions, a leading outsourced telemarketing services organization. As a highly competitive person, Nathan brings his “A” game to work every day, ensuring that each of his clients wins on a daily basis. Nathan carefully balances the operations resources and client goals to ensure his clients receive the highest possible results at the lowest cost. Nathan is a true, born and bred telemarketer. He grew up in the business and intimately knows (and has played) every position on the field, including supervisor, quality assurance, call center manager, program management, account management, and call center psychologist. Nathan can be reached at Nathan.teahon@qualitycontactsolutions.com or 516-656-5133.
