Sean Lund-Brown

Part of choosing the right resources is knowing what they have to offer before you commit. A sales leader or business owner has a lot of different resources to pick and choose from, but one often goes overlooked: outsourcing. Outsourcing is one of the most viable, proven solutions for businesses that need a little assistance without hiring in-house staff. That is, however, as long as you’re hiring the right people for the job.

Most businesses find themselves in need of someone to staff the front lines on a full-time basis, which is how most receptionists are hired. However, what if your business is only open a few days a week, or what if you have someone you can rely on part of the time and just need a little more support? It could be a good time to invest in a part-time receptionist—but at what cost?

Sometimes, you just need a little help. After all, you're only one person and if you're trying to run a business, you've got a lot on your plate. Fortunately, you can rely on the likes of a personal assistant to handle a variety of tasks and take many of the tedious details off of that aforementioned plate. In trying to figure out how much you'll spend on a personal assistant, there are a lot of variables that you have to consider.

Press releases make statements about your company. Find out how different approaches allow you to establish a company image with the public in any situation.

Receptionists are a great asset. Of course, like anything, you have to make sure that they’re working efficiently to deliver the solutions that you need. A receptionist can answer a lot of phone calls in a day—some field hundreds of calls. Others may only take a dozen or so. Ultimately, it depends on the type of receptionist that you have, the type of calls involved, and so forth.

Get the word out about your business with local, print, digital and media buying techniques.

You could spend a fortune creating your own training programs, but then you’d also have to invest the time in keeping them going and delivering the training. And even then, you’re not guaranteeing that your people are getting the best possible resources for their needs. Fortunately, there are online training courses in all shapes and sizes that will help you give your team the best professional etiquette for the phone and any other type of communication they encounter.

Boosting your sales funnel helps you convert your leads. You can find helpful tools to attract customers, no matter what your budget is.

Conversation intelligence is one of the latest tools for valuable customer insight. You can use it to improve effectiveness on your sales and support teams.

Despite all the changes in technology and business over the years, phone etiquette is still at the top of the list for most consumers when it comes to ranking a brand’s customer service and reputation. If you aren’t answering the phones in the right way, you’re going to create doubt with customers, encourage them to find answers (and products or services) elsewhere, and leave a bad impression all around.