Discover the 7 Pillars of a proven, practical training process to create Amazing Team Leaders Who Coach, Nurture and Lead Winning Teams.

1. THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE
FOR CREATING
AMAZING TEAM LEADERS
Who Coach, Nurture and Lead Winning Teams
M A R C C A R R I E R E
M A N A G I N G D I R E C T O R
M A R K E T I N G T A C T I C S P T Y L T D
Developed by:

2. THE BIGGEST CHALLENGE
The biggest challenge faced in Call Center Operations is getting optimum
performance from team members and reducing turnover. The most common complaint
revolves around call center teams constantly failing to meet their monthly targets and
KPIs, which puts tremendous financial pressure on the business.
The average day of people responsible for running call centers is consumed with
trying to drive better outcomes from their team members, recruiting and training, and
they're frustrated and stressed that they can’t get to their real work!
And, most feel their Team Leaders just don’t have the necessary skills to manage and
lead their teams to become more productive and profitable.
CREATING AMAZING TEAM LEADERS
Team Leaders are the backbone of any call center, yet typically what happens is one of
the better (or best) team members is made a team leader and thrown into the breach
with little or no understanding of their role, much less comprehensive training or on-
going support.

3. As a result, all too often we turn a terrific team member into a stressed, under
achieving Team Leader and get frustrated with the results. And, usually lose a really
good telemarketer in the process too!
The accompanying guide outlines the 7 Pillars for creating amazing team leaders who
coach, nurture and lead winning teams that continuously meet (or even exceed) their
targets and KPIs every month.
DEVELOPED IN THE TRENCHES
Managing their time effectively to get all tasks completed
Monitoring and Scoring team members’ calls to identify call handling deficiencies
Providing timely, nurturing and Corrective Feedback when needed
Conducting effective On-the-job Coaching to increase staff productivity, and
Creating and sustaining a Team Environment that is fun and supportive.
After 31 years of success running marketing departments and call centers around the
world, consulting with businesses and coaching Call Center Managers and Team
Leaders, as well as having owned a call center myself, I'm well aware of the difficulties
faced in creating amazing Team Leaders.
When it comes to finding and creating amazing Team Leaders, I’ve done a lot of things
right and, believe me, I’ve done a lot of things wrong!
After doing this over the years, I’ve figured out that getting Call Centers to
CONSISTENTLY reach their targets doesn’t need to be a frustrating or disappointing
experience!
The KEY to consistent team performance are effective Team Leaders armed with the
necessary leadership and coaching skills to quickly reduce the time it takes to make
team members productive.
Amazing Team Leaders are CREATED, NOT BORN!
To create truly amazing Team Leaders you need to develop an effective training
process, so they clearly understand their role and acquire the practical skills needed
to lead their teams to consistently achieve their targets and KPIs.
What practical skills are we talking about?

4. PILLAR 1
Getting The Right Person
All Team Leaders ARE NOT the same and there are common traits, characteristics
and practices that set successful Team Leaders apart.
The key to selecting the right person as a Team Leader is being aware of the traits,
characteristics and practices of successful Team Leaders, so you can look for them
in prospective candidates when recruiting from outside or promoting from within.
Obviously, you want the right person from the start; even if you need to help them
learn some of the skills they'll need to be successful, because it’s always easier and
quicker coaching someone who has the right basic traits and characteristics to
begin with!
To help my clients and members of my exclusive 7 Pillars Mastermind Group, I
developed the Amazing Team Leader Scoring Model outlining the key criteria (with
definitions) found in successful Team Leaders who effectively coach, nurture and
lead winning teams.
My Scoring Model is based on the Lominger Standard 67 Competencies and Definitions of Great
Leaders, from which I selected 43 criteria relating specifically to amazing Team Leaders.
And, added a scoring element for each criteria making it easier to identify those competencies
Team Leaders excel in and other competencies that can be worked on with some coaching to
improve!

5. I’ve also included a shortened list of the top 15 Traits and Characteristics one can
use when considering recruiting a new team leader externally or promoting from
within.
And, just so we’re clear – this Scoring Model isn't intended to be the sole criteria
for measuring a Team Leader’s overall competency to effectively lead a Call
Center team, but as a handy resource for the Management Team to identify areas
of high competency and areas that can be improved on with additional training
and coaching.
Here are 30 of the most common traits, characteristics and practices successful
Team Leaders display to get you started:
Action Oriented Developing Team Members Approach-ability
Interpersonal Skills Directing Team Members Delegation
Leadership Courage Effective Team Builder Listening
Customer Focus Command Skills Ethics and Values
Managing and Measuring Functional/Technical Skills Compassion
Motivating Team Members Conflict Management Composure
Fairness to Team Members Timely Decision Making Patience
Caring About Team Members Integrity and Trust Perseverance
Confronting Team Members Informing Work Humour
Effectively Cope with Change Managing Diversity Time Management
I highly recommend that you review the Lominger Standard 67 Competencies and
Definitions of Great Leaders before you create your own scoring model to review
all the competencies listed there and select those that apply to your particular
situation.
Simply do a Google search and you’ll find it easily! And when you do, here are a
few tips to keep in mind - similarly to how I set up my scoring model, create your
scoring model using Excel and be sure to give each competency a ‘Value’.
In my model I’ve given each competency a value of 10, which many of my clients
and people in my Mastermind change depending on how they ‘weight’ the
competencies they feel most important for their situation.

6. If you decide to give different competencies of higher or lower Values, simply
change the weight values in each criteria to what you require.
And, you should also sum the total scores for each competency and create a
percentage figure of the score as a percentage of the overall sum of the weighted
values you attributed to each competency.
This way you’ll see each Team Leader's level of competency as a percentage of
the overall weighted value, which is automatically calculated below the Team
Leader's score, as shown here:
ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES
One of the biggest concerns most Team Leaders have is not fully understanding
their role and being unsure of all their responsibilities. This can cause a lot of
unnecessary confusion and anxiety within the team and between Team Leaders
and their Call Center Manager.
Having managed call centers and consulted with small to large businesses around
the world for 31 years, (and especially having owned a call center myself), I can’t
tell you how many times I’ve seen all the finger pointing and arguments between
Call Center Managers and Team Leaders claiming it was the other person’s
responsibility when something got missed or things went pear shaped.
Usually the problem came down to a misunderstanding between the Call Center
Manager and Team Leader (usually a new one) because there wasn’t a clear
understanding between them of each of their responsibilities.
And, to complicate things further, there are some shared responsibilities that
they both need to be clear about, so there isn’t any confusion about who is
supposed to do what, and when.

7. Tasks the Call Center Manager is solely responsible for that they do not need
to inform Team Leader about
Tasks the Call Center Manager is responsible for and informs/shares
information with the Team Leader
Tasks the Team Leader is responsible for that they inform the Call Center
Manager about
Tasks the Team Leader is solely responsible for that they do not need to inform
the Call Center Manager about
The good news is that this can be easily fixed by using a Responsibilities
Allocation Matrix.
It’s a great tool and simple for teams to use to make sure everyone understands
what they are solely responsible for and which areas they have a shared
responsibility.
The first thing you need to do when you create this matrix is list all the
Administrative, Supervision & Development and Human Resources tasks from
both the Call Center Manager and Team Leader job descriptions that you want to
include in the matrix, and have your Team Leaders add tasks they want to be sure
are covered.
Once the list has been collated, create a quadrant for each of the 4 Allocations of
the matrix. Then discuss each task and agree with your Team Leaders which area
on the matrix it should be put.
These 4 allocation areas are:
Once all the tasks have been allocated, create a document and share it with the
senior executive responsible for the call centre for their comments and approval.
After it’s been approved, share it with all existing Team Leaders, especially with
new Team Leaders during their Induction.

8. Plan and implement staffing schedules
Communicate and distribute company policies, procedures and product
information
Provide satisfactory resolutions to customer issues escalated from team
members
Respond to emails and internal communications
Administer scheduling and Reward/Recognition Programs
Attend weekly/daily meetings with Call Center Manager
Be available for staff that experience work issues and/or personal problems
providing appropriate counselling, direction and resolution
Address disciplinary and/or performance problems according to company
policy
Prepare warnings and communicate effectively with team members on
warnings and make appropriate decisions relative to corrective action
Assist with recruitment and training of new staff
The number one reason most Team Leaders give for not providing on-the-job
coaching or training is they just don’t have the time with all the different
Administration, Human Resources and Supervision tasks they have to do every
day.
And, some have a point when you look at all the things they do each day and every
week. If this is the case in your center, you should have a look at which tasks can
be handled by an administrator or someone in HR, rather than a Team Leader.
After all, their primary focus should be on reaching their team’s goals each week,
right? So, you need to make sure they have the time and energy to provide really
effective coaching.
Now when you look at a list of typical tasks Team Leaders are faced with each day
and week, their time and energy levels are at a premium!
General Administrative & Human Resources
PILLAR 2
Effective Time Management

9. Conduct Daily Shift Meeting
Monitor KPIs and prepare daily, weekly and monthly Performance Reports for
review
Supervise team members so calls are made/answered in a timely, efficient and
knowledgeable manner
Ensure team members have the resources to perform their jobs
Maintain a high-quality work environment so team members are motivated to
perform at their highest level
Identifying Team Members that need training/coaching
Conduct Training/briefing on product(s) and enhancements, policies and
procedures
Write and administer Performance Reviews with statistical and performance
feedback to each team member
Conduct Call Monitoring & Scoring of under performing team members to
identify coaching/training needs
Coaching / training of team members to ensure that they achieve or exceed
company expectations for quality, sales and service
Team Supervision & Development
If your Team Leaders aren’t overburdened with too many tasks to deal with, then
you’re really dealing with an excuse, and that’s an easy fix!
When you drill down with these Team Leaders their problem with coaching and
training usually comes back to a couple simple challenges they face:
Firstly, they don’t really know what problems their team members are having
with the call process on their calls because they don’t spend enough time
listening to team members’ calls. So, how can they understand what areas their
team member need coaching and training with?
Secondly, many Team Leaders haven’t been coached or trained on how to score
calls, give nurturing and corrective feedback or develop coaching plans to fix the
problems.
It’s essential that you train them on these critical areas and ensure they
effectively manage their time.
So they have the skills for call monitoring, providing corrective feedback and on-
the-job coaching to more quickly turn under performers into consistently
productive team members.

10. When you talk with sales under performers in your call center and ask them
where they need the most help, pretty much all of them will tell you they need
help in closing the sale.
And, when you listen to a few of their calls you find they’re losing people way
back in the beginning of the call… usually, not long after hello, and team members
are oblivious to it!
You hear them rushing through calls, jumping all over the place and not even
finding out if there is anything about what they’re selling that actually interests
the prospect.
Team members need an easy-to-understand Call Structure that sets out all the
key steps, in the proper sequence, that they need follow to achieve positive
outcomes whether handling customer service calls booking appointments or
making sales.
An effective Call Structure crystallizes the steps when handling or making a call,
and when done correctly is easy to learn and really easy to coach!
PILLAR 3
Coachable Call Structure
To make sure they're using their time effectively, have them complete a weekly
schedule, every week, and give you a copy,
Review the schedule each week to make sure they’re particularly focused on the
coaching and training tasks you want, and make any necessary amendments if
needed, and their "No Time" excuse goes away!
You also want to keep them accountable, so periodically check in with them
throughout the week to make sure they’re doing their coaching tasks when
scheduled!
When you add all these essential ingredients together, your Team Leaders will
now have the time to help their team members perform better because Team
Members are finally getting the coaching they need!

11. Just imagine how more quickly you’d improve the overall performance of your
Call Center if you had a call structure for your team to follow, a structure Team
Leaders could use to coach team members to follow.
In fact, before you create any Call Guide or Script, you should create a Coachable
Call Structure first and following its structure when creating your Call Guide or
Script.
And, regardless of where you recruited a new Team Leader from they need a
simple and easy-to-understand call structure they can coach, so everyone is on
the same page. This is especially true when recruiting from outside, so they can
quickly learn and coach your particular call structure.
But often equally true when promoting from within. Because although those you
promoted may have been a really good performer themselves, many don’t really
know what they did that made them good, or easily explain how they were
successful - it just came naturally!
That’s so true in a lot of cases, isn’t it? And, if that’s so, how can they coach what
they can’t really explain themselves?
Here’s an example of a Coachable Sales Call Structure I created for one of my
clients who is a major player in the travel industry in Australia selling cruises,
escorted tours and other travel related products turning over $150M in phone
sales annually.
They use this particular call structure for both inbound and outbound calls; and
with a few tweaks it can easily be used for customer service calls too.
Coachable Call Structure - Sales

12. They’ve been using this Sales Call Structure for years and their Team Leaders
continuously coach this to every new hire and under performer!
It’s based on an old face-to-face sales training technique called The Buying Line,
which I deconstructed, rebuilt and named The Calling Line. Pretty imaginative
name, isn’t it?
Seriously though, it’s the best call structure I’ve found, and can be modified or
customized for any call, whether it’s an inbound or outbound sales call or
customer service call.
It’s an awesome tool I’ve coached to my own team members, Team Leaders and
clients for years!
We cover the Coachable Call Structure in my 7 Pillars Mastermind Group and
mentor each group member on how to develop and coach their own call structure
for their operation to crystallize the steps when making or handling a call.
And, when done right, is easy to learn and really easy to coach!
Just imagine how more quickly you’d improve your overall Call Center's
performance if you had a call structure your Team Leaders could use to coach all
their team members to follow!
To show you how this works in a practical sense, I’ll use an inbound sales call as
an example.
The first step is the INTRODUCTION and this refers to the opening when the call
is answered by a team member. This is where they start building rapport by using
the tone of their voice and script copy to best position the company, and the
team member as a helpful and pleasant person eager and willing to serve.
Coachable Call Structure - Customer Service

13. For example: Hello and thank you for calling Company Name, this is Joan. How may I
help you today?
After exchanging pleasantries and actively listening to what the caller has to say
about the reason for their call, the next step is the INTENT STATEMENT, where
the team member says something after along the lines of:
Thanks for your call Mrs. Caller, I’d be happy to help you with that and I’ll make sure
you get exactly what you want.
This step positions the team member as someone willing to help the caller, which
further adds to building rapport, and naturally leads to the TRANSITION TO
DISCOVERY, where they ask for permission to learn more about what the caller
is looking for, by saying something like:
We have a lot of different options and some special pricing on that, so to make sure I
totally understand what you want, may I ask you a few questions?
This further builds rapport by showing genuine interest in what the caller wants,
and also gains permission to ask questions that may lead to Upgrade, Add On or
Cross Sale opportunities.
After getting permission to ask questions, team members move into the
DISCOVERY part of the call, asking relevant questions to zero in on specifically
what the caller wants.
And, based on the answers to their Discovery Questions, team members can
DRILL DOWN on those answers to learn why these things are important to the
caller.
This is especially important in the PRESENTATION part of the call because with
this intelligence team members can make their presentation more personal and
set up trial closes.
Here’s an example of what I mean:

14. Team Member: So, it needs to be in that particular color… if you don’t mind me
asking, why is that?
Caller: Well, that’s the best color that goes with my outfit, and it would look
absolutely stunning at this work function I need to go to.
Team Member: Oh, I totally get it… and a work function sounds like fun, when is it?
And, they file this intelligence to use later in their presentation.
Now I should point out that many team members just go from INTRODUCTION
to PRESENTATION and miss out on these steps in between.
And, because they haven’t had an opportunity to build enough rapport or get a
really clear understanding of what the caller wants, they can’t present the
product in a way that really speaks to what the caller wants the product to do for
them!
Missing out on these steps is the biggest reason why most sales are lost and why
team members think they need help with their closing skills.
The truth is it’s got nothing to do with improving their closing skills. They simply
missed these critical steps and because of that they aren’t properly prepared and
haven't earned the right to ask for the sale!
If team members have all the information learnt from their Discovery questions
and Drilled Down to find out why the answers are important to the caller, they
can present the product in a way that really connects with the caller, and easily
transition into CLOSING with TRIAL CLOSES like:
Team Member: Well, we do have that in royal blue. That’s the color you wanted to
make your outfit stunning, isn’t it?
And, once they get a “Yes” the team member simply moves into the CLOSING step
by saying: We have that in stock for $X right now, and can have it delivered to you by
X date, does that work for you?

15. If so, they continue with: Great, which credit card would you like to use?
When you do a really good DISCOVERY and DRILL DOWN you can deliver a
great PRESENTATION that speaks to exactly what a caller wants, and you
don’t get a lot of objections.
If you do, typically those objections really revolve around certain conditions, not
objections, which can likely be handled with some negotiation.
PILLAR 4
Call Monitoring and Calibrated Scoring
To be effective coaches, Team Leaders need to have a clear understanding of the
challenges team members are facing when making or handling calls.
The best way to understand where coaching is needed is to listen to team
members' calls and score each area of the call structure in those calls.
Once you’ve created a Coachable Call Structure for team members to follow, it’s
much easier for Team Leaders to know what to look for, how to score each
section of a call and identify positive and corrective feedback opportunities to
share about the calls they listen to.
To make this happens create a Call Scoring and Feedback tool like the one below
that I use to help my call center clients and members of my 7 Pillars Mastermind
Group customize their own Call Monitoring and Scoring Form.
You want to make sure your Team Leaders score each area of the call structure
to easily identify what was great about the call and what areas they need to
coach their team member on.
So, when you create this tool, be make sure it identifies all the soft and hard
skills team members need to cover, as outlined in your Call Structure and give
score values for each area.

16. And, have the form automatically calculate an overall Call Score, and display
whether the call was awesome, adequate or if training is urgently required.
This way Team Leaders only need to tick the score in each form area, which
automatically totals the result for the whole call.
The key is to make the tool as comprehensive and easy to use as possible;
otherwise, Team Leaders will find Call Monitoring and Scoring a chore and find
ways not to do it regularly!
To ensure Scoring Guidelines are calibrated correctly, get all your Team Leaders
into a room, listen to a few recorded calls together and have each of them
independently score each call.
Then compare and discuss their scores to ensure everyone understands the
appropriate scoring levels for each call component of your Call Structure to make
sure they aren't too strict or forgiving in the scores they give.
This way team members will generally have the same scores for the different
parts of your call structure and makes sure Team Leaders understand what you
think is appropriate scoring to get consistency in scoring, especially when team
members are moved to different teams.

18. PILLAR 5
Corrective and Nurturing Feedback
One of the most important activities Team Leaders need to do is provide
constructive and corrective feedback to their team members.
Providing positive and corrective call performance feedback is critical when
coaching team members to ensure they are protecting your brand, are well
trained, friendly, helpful, giving accurate information, and following call handling
processes effectively.
Team Leaders need to be trained in providing nurturing and corrective feedback
on calls they've scored to make sure team members really understand where they
need to improve and are open to being coached.
Done correctly team members will really listen, take feedback on board and act
on it! If it’s done poorly, you can end up creating resentment and closed minds.
Unfortunately, most team leaders haven’t been trained in how to provide
feedback in way that is positive, nurturing and leaves team members wanting
more.
Aside from providing corrective feedback, Team Leaders should also be coached
to identify what was also great about the call they scored.
That way when providing feedback, along with call deficiencies, they can
highlight positive aspects of a call to reinforce those actions with team members,
so they will occur again.
Providing feedback in this way will be seen by team members as an instructive
and motivational experience they can look forward to!
The most effective way to provide feedback is by having Team Leaders listening
and scoring a recorded call, so they can go back over the recording to pick up on
points of the call that they want to talk about with your team member.

19. To save them time during their feedback session it’s a good idea to note the time
stamp on the recording when they’re making notes, so they can quickly go back to
that part of the call with their team member.
If there aren’t any recorded calls to score, Team Leaders can still follow this
process by silent monitoring and scoring a call from their desk.
They just need to be sure not to sit next to the team member whose call they’re
scoring because this would likely make the team member nervous and your Team
Leader won’t get to listen to how they typically handle their calls.
Once they’ve scored the call, they should take a few minutes to plan their
feedback session. Think about what they want to achieve with their feedback and
the outcomes they want from their team member after they’ve received the
feedback, and any coaching or training sessions they need to provide.
They also need to think about the person they’ll be providing feedback to and
how to communicate with them that fits that person’s particular communication
style.
Not everyone communicates and processes information the same way, so a one
size fits all mind set isn’t ideal.
Team Leaders really need to think about whom they’re providing feedback to,
how they best respond to feedback and pattern the message in a way that best
suits their style.
They should also think about providing feedback on only one or maybe two things
about the call that can be improved, because when most people get too much
feedback they can get a little confused and not concentrate on what you really
want them to focus on.
So, it’s best to focus on the first few elements of the call initially and pick up the
other elements at another coaching session.
It’s also really important to identify a couple of things about the call that the
team member did right or really well.

20. As important as it is to identify things they did wrong, you also want to catch
them doing something right that you can praise them with when you give them
feedback.
This is important because you don’t want your feedback sessions to just be about
grinding them on all the bad things they did on the call!
You want to find good points to praise them on to encourage them to repeat
those behaviors and come to look at getting feedback as a positive experience.
Once you’ve got your plan together, bring your team member in and explain that
you’ve scored a call that you’d like them to listen to as well. Give them a blank
scoring sheet to score the call themselves as you both listen to the call.
After the call has ended give them your overall thoughts on the call and
specifically mention the things about the call you felt they did really well. Then
go through each section of the scoring form and compare scores and discuss
them.
This will give you both an opportunity to see where their perception of how well
they did on each aspect of the call differs from yours, and why.
And, don’t be surprised if you find that some of their scores are lower that what
you gave them. A lot of people can be harder on themselves than they need to be,
and it’s good to let them know that you felt they did better than they thought
they had.
After you’ve compared and discussed your scores come back to the one or two
things that you want to coach them on and cover them then if time permits,
otherwise set a time for a coaching or training session to cover them.
Always finish the feedback session by reiterating those things they did really well
and let them know you have confidence in them and think they’ll make really
good improvements quickly.
You want to make sure they leave the feedback session feeling good about
themselves and looking forward to the coaching session!

21. PILLAR 6
Team Member Skills Audit
One of the easiest ways for Team Leaders to identify any skill deficiencies with
their team members is to conduct a skills audit that covers all the call handling
skills of your Coachable Call Structure, as well as Product Knowledge, Systems
Knowledge and Administration skills needed to be top performers.
Team Leaders need to be coached to do this regularly because conducting Skills
Audits is a great way to identify training and coaching priorities they need to
implement to make sure their team have the skills they need to regularly hit their
monthly targets and KPIs.
The other benefit of regularly conducting Skills Audits is that it’s much easier to
identify if there are any skills areas that a number of team members need help in,
so a decision can be made to provide individual coaching or group training to
address skills needs.
To get started, simply create a Skills Audit Form like the one below that we use in
my exclusive 7 Pillars Mastermind Group.

22. When you create your Skills Audit form, break all the skills areas into 2 areas like
we use – Call Handling Skills and Other, which identifies other skills needs like
Product Knowledge, Systems Knowledge and Administration skills.
In the Call Handling Skills section, set out each element of your Coachable Call
Structure so you can audit each element separately, and list all the team members
along the left column.
Then simply go along the row for each team member and either place a tick in the
cell under the skill area if you’re comfortable they're competent in that area, or
place an X in the row, if not.
It’s important not to over think whether they are competent in any area - trust
your gut instinct! If you hesitate in ticking off that skill area its usually because
there generally is something that made you hesitate. What was it?
Remember, even top performers can improve on something!
And, if you place an X against any skill area, be sure to add a note to the cell to
remind you of what you feel needs to be addressed.
It might only take a little feedback to get a team member back on track which can
be done quickly, or require some on-the-job coaching or specialized training if it
involves Product Knowledge, working with your Systems or Administration
processes.
If a few team members need the same type of training or coaching you’ll be able to
quickly see that by highlighting all the Xs and looking at the Team Members
Needing Training or Coaching and the Percentage Needing Training or Coaching rows.
And, based on the number of team members that need help, you can decide how
best to handle that with either one-on-one coaching or group training.
Skills Audits should be conducted at least every quarter and include audits in any
reviews and feedback sessions with team members.

23. When new team members join the team, give them a month to settle in before
conducting a Skills Audit on them, unless they’ve been moved from another team.
In those cases, be sure to get their last audit from their previous team leader.
After each Skills Audit the Team Leader and Call Center Manager should meet to
discuss those areas team members need coaching or training in and how best to
deliver it.
If many team members need help in any specific area it may be better to have a
group training session, that’s where keeping notes on each audit section can come
in handy!
Team Leaders should also bring a copy of their latest Team Skills Audit to any
Performance Review they have with their manager to show they’re on top of the
team's coaching needs and discuss any coaching or training plans to fill skills gaps.
Wouldn’t it be wonderful to know your Team Leaders have a clear understanding
of all the coaching and training needs for each of their team members?
PILLAR 7
Team Coaching Plans
One of the biggest challenges Team Leaders face when developing Coaching
Plans for team members is figuring out where to start, and where to get the
best expertise for areas they aren’t necessarily strong in themselves.
It can be challenging figuring out the fastest and most effective ways to get
team members up to speed on all the critical areas of call handling, systems and
processes, as well as product knowledge, can’t it?

24. Simply create a plan like the one below that I use with my clients and 7 Pillars
Mastermind Group that outlines which skills areas need work, what coaching is
required, when it’s delivered and who delivers it.
This pulls everything together for Team Leaders into a coaching road map they
can follow to focus on the areas of improvement needed for each of their team
members.
When creating a Coaching Plan like this one, just under the team member’s
name you’ll see where to put each of the areas of your Coachable Call Structure
and below that include rows for other areas like Product, Systems and Admin.
In each of the rows underneath the Skills Need column put a brief description of
what skill need is required relative to each of the areas on the left. This is
where making notes in your Skills Audits for each team member comes in handy.
If the team member doesn’t need any coaching or training in any particular area
simply put “No Action Required” and highlight the rest of the row to the right.
If coaching or training is needed for any skills areas, under the Training Type
column indicate which type of training delivery is required - either Classroom
or On-the-job Coaching.
Depending on the skills area you might decide that classroom room training
might be the best way to handle this area, particularly if you have a few team
members that need help in developing the same skill.

25. Or, you may find other team leaders have people who need the same help, so it
would be more efficient to have a group session for this area.
Under the Delivered By column simply indicate who would be the best person to
conduct the coaching or training.
If the training would be best delivered one-on-one by the Team Leader, they would
put their name there, or in the case of a group training session, they’d either put
the training team down or a subject master who will conduct the training session.
Next, fill in the dates and times for any one-on-one coaching or classroom training
sessions. Be sure to add comments on each skills area for any preparation needed
before training or coaching sessions, and any follow up that needs to done after
the sessions have been completed.
Coaching plans should be created by Team Leaders immediately after they’ve
completed a Skills Audit for each of their team members and include these in any
reviews and feedback sessions they have with team members.
Team Leaders should also bring a copy of their coaching plans to any of their
Performance Reviews with their manager to demonstrate they're on top of their
team’s coaching needs and to discuss any challenges delivering any coaching or
training.
Team Coaching Plans keep Team Leaders focused on addressing all the areas each
of their team members need improvement. Of course, some team members are
really, really good performers who won’t need a lot of coaching or training, but
they can still improve in some areas, can’t they?
You’ll be amazed at how many really good team members want their Team Leader
to score some of their calls and work with them, because they’re feeling they may
be falling off a little.
So, coaching plans don’t only need to be put together for just under performers to
get their performance to at least minimally accepted levels.

26. How Much Improvement Do You Need?
I know what I’ve shared with you in this guide may seem like a lot of work for
some at first, but believe me, once you and your Team Leaders get used to
applying the 7 Pillars, it becomes really easy to do!
And, your Team Leaders (not to mention Team Members) will appreciate all the
help and attention, won’t they?
Now, when you think about all the time and effort required applying the 7
Pillars, we’re not really talking about that much time are we? Especially, when
you consider the pay off!
To put this into context, let me ask you... I’m sure you’ve heard about the
old 80/20 Rule, where 80% of your production comes from only 20% of your
staff, right?
Now, what if by applying these 7 Pillars, you could raise that 20% of top
performers by just another 5%, what would that do for consistently reaching
your monthly targets?
What if only after a few months, you raised the number of productive team
members to 30%? Think about what that would mean for you.
And, what if after 6 months you were getting 40% of your team members to be
productive, how much more revenue and profit would you be delivering each
month?
With a higher percentage of staff being much more productive, you’d easily hit
your targets and KPIs, and wouldn’t have to replace as many Team Leaders and
Team Members, and those savings go straight to the bottom line!
You owe it to yourself, your company and the team to develop amazing Team
Leaders, who effectively coach, nurture and lead winning teams that
CONSISTENTLY reach (or exceed) their targets and KPIs every month!
By spending the time and effort developing a proven Team Leader training
process you’ll realize the pay off sooner than you can imagine!

27. Want Some Help?
For some, pulling everything together in this guide is daunting, and I totally get
there are people out there that need help.
They don't have the skills to do this, but they could fix this problem if they had
the guidance needed to develop their own proven training program that creates
amazing Team Leaders.
I’m really good at developing great training structures and tools that make
things easier for call center teams and save them a lot of time and effort.
I've been doing this for so long and have the runs on the board, so I know these
structures and tools are proven, not just theory!
And, I love teaching people the tools they need to do their job much more
effectively, and coaching them on how to use them to become successful.
So, I created the 7 Pillars Mastermind Group for creating amazing team leaders
who coach, nurture and lead winning teams.
Where I coach and guide you through all the tools you’ll need to create a
practical, proven training program you can customize to create Team Leaders
whose teams consistently reach (or even exceed) their monthly goals.
There are easy-to-use Resource Tools and Online Mentoring Sessions to drive
better engagement, skills retention and utilization without you having to take
extend periods away from your Call Center.
After you’ve created your own structured training program, imagine how
confident you’ll be training your Team Leaders with all the skills needed to turn
low performing teams into high achievers that hit (or even exceed) their targets
every month!
How stress free would your life be and how relieved will you feel when you're
regularly hitting your monthly targets - wouldn’t that be great?
To learn more about this exclusive Mastermind Group, simply click here!

28. ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Starting in his early twenties as a direct sales person, Marc
began specializing in lead generation, appointment setting and
outbound telesales. With the help of mentors and his natural
ability, he quickly became recognized as a direct marketing and
marketing strategy expert.
Using his expertise throughout his 35 year career, Marc has
grown with a diverse range of companies, owning his own call
center and launching a revolutionary lead generation platform.
In the course of his career he has provided consulting services to
a wide variety of small to large companies in Australia, Canada,
Fiji, México, The Bahamas, United Kingdom and United States.
A highly experienced marketing executive, creative direct
marketer and call center consultant, Marc has been published in
marketing magazines, direct marketing handbooks and spoken at
conferences and seminars throughout the world.
Call Center teams and team members under his management
have received 3 Silver and 3 Gold ‘Ardy’ awards.
More recently, Marc established an exclusive Mastermind Group
that helps people customize a proven Call Center training
program that ceates amazing Team Leaders.
C O N N E C T W I T H M A R C B Y E M A I L -
M C A R R I E R E @ M A R K E T I N G T A C T I C S . N E T . A U
Marc Carriere