Selling Power Magazine Article

Sales organizations everywhere are trying to figure out how best to sell value in an era of tight budgets and increasing competition. This is especially true in the media-and-communications business.
 

“We are living at a time when people are looking hard to save money and get the best deal,” says Mark Adamy, VP of sales and marketing for Comcast’s Greater Boston region. “People have always wanted value, but it’s enhanced today, especially as the competitive environment is rapidly expanding.” 
 

For Comcast Corporation, a leading media, entertainment, and communications company, this new reality presented a challenge. Comcast typically is not the low-cost provider in a market, thanks to its full-service product line, in-home installation, and more. So it needed a way to show cost-conscious buyers that its service is worth spending a little extra.
 

To address that need, Comcast rolled out a new training program to its inside sales team in early 2011. The program aimed to boost the quality of conversations with inbound callers, largely through improved active listening skills. Reps were taught to listen for cues from the customer and tailor questions and recommendations accordingly.
 

For instance, now when a caller asks for Comcast’s basic service, reps probe for the customer’s definition of “basic,” as the word has different meanings to different people. They also spend time listening for indications of the age and family situation of the caller, among numerous other cues to help the rep guide prospective customers to the right solution.
 

“We are trying to create something very customized that’s even better than what someone imagined when he or she placed the call initially,” says Adamy. Those one-to-one customized conversations are central to Comcast’s value equation and key to its sales growth.
 

Alongside the training in active listening, Comcast worked with consultants at Sales Productivity Architects (SPA) to take a top-to-bottom look at its sales structure and processes to see where efficiencies could be gained and greater value realized. As part of that effort, SPA conducted a time-use study of Comcast’s inside sales supervisors. The study revealed a direct correlation between coaching time and performance: without exception, the supervisors who spent more time coaching had higher-performing teams.
 

Acting on these findings, Comcast removed multiple administrative responsibilities from sales supervisors’ plates and distributed them elsewhere in the company. The extra time is now spent with sales reps doing the following:
 

1. Daily huddle. For 15 to 30 minutes each day, supervisors “huddle” with their team of 10 to 12 sales reps. These huddles can include recognition, discussion of a challenge, best-practices sharing, on-the-spot role plays, and more. “The huddles help reps know that they don’t need to figure everything out on their own,” says Adamy.
 

2. One-on-one coaching. With customer permission, Comcast records inbound calls with reps. Later, the rep and supervisor review the call to talk about what went well and explore areas for improvement. While this practice is a long-standing one at Comcast, reviews occur much more frequently now – at least once a week – to ensure continual improvement in conversation quality.
 

So far, it appears that Comcast is on the right path. Adamy says there has been “significant improvement” across such key metrics as close rate, revenue per call, and others he tracks closely. At the same time, customer satisfaction is up.
 

“The key to this initiative was its simplicity,” Adamy observes. There wasn’t any complex product training or competitive analysis; it was simply about helping reps have better conversations with customers through commonsense methods, such as better listening and increased coaching. This simplicity has made the effort sustainable and successful.

 

About Comcast


Comcast Corporation provides entertainment, information, and communications products and services in the United States and around the world. Total revenue in 2010 was $37.9 billion. Mark Adamy, VP of sales and marketing for Comcast’s Greater Boston region, manages six different sales channels: inbound, telesales (outbound), e-sales, direct, multidwelling units (colleges, apartments, etc.), and retail.
 

The inbound sales channel, which has been affected most by the initiatives described in this article, has a sales director, 3 managers, 12 supervisors, and 100 reps in 3 different facilities. Across all sales channels, Adamy is responsible for about 225 reps.
 

Adamy has been with Comcast for five years and in the entertainment/communications industry for more than 20 years, starting as a direct-sales rep.