Real Numbers

Join us for an insightful live webinar, "Lessons from the Past: Shaping the Future of Capacity Planning with Ric Kosiba," hosted by WFM Labs on Thursday, May 2nd at 10:00 AM ET.? #CapacityPlanning #Algorithms

Our first sale (Part 21d of a series about fun projects) While our friends at Avis and Cendant (Michele Borboa, Duke Witte, Kristofer Juett, Rebecca Riggin, Brian Burke) ?were helping us by kicking the tires of our contact center planning system, we were still on the conference circuit trying to find some more customers. We came back from an ICMI conference with a stack of business cards.?Our process was simple.?I would take said cards and call and call, hoping to set up a meeting. ?I was a ridiculously awkward inside sales person, but for the most part the people I contacted were very polite to me.?Until I called a business analyst I met from Hertz. He went off on me on how I was harassing him (I probably was) and how unprofessional I was (very likely) and that he was getting many of these calls from all the other vendors, too.?Given how much I hated doing these calls, I was a bit crushed. But then I got a little angry.?He had given me his card, albeit for a gift drawing. And didn’t he know I had a job to do, too? So I got my back up and called the 800 number for Hertz and asked the nice Hertz center agent who her biggest boss was, the person who was in charge of the call centers.?And she told me!?He was Wayne Bowman and she said he was a very nice man, and she even gave me his office number.?Wow! I took a deep breath and called this super important higher-up.?But, of course, I got his secretary.?I wish I remembered her name (we ended up having great chats) but I gave her my pitch (“I just started a company that helps people plan better”)…?And she says, “wow, that is really interesting, and I think Wayne would be happy to talk to you!” I was floored, and soon found I was on the phone with Mr. Bowman himself!?And he *was* interested, and could I set up a longer meeting with him for next Tuesday???Oh my, my day really improved. There was a hiccup, though.?That Monday, as I was leaving for the office, my wife reminded me that tomorrow was our son’s first day of kindergarten, and I couldn’t miss it.?Uh oh. I called Wayne right away and apologized profusely.?I’d have to push the meeting (never a good idea, BTW).?He just laughed and told me that he couldn’t do it that Wednesday, because he was taking his grandson to his first day of kindergarten! Don't miss those days, he said. Thursday, it was. It turned out to be a very quick purchase.?Wayne and Mark Nelson liked the software, and they were the right folks to talk to! A side note:?For those who don’t know, sales is a very difficult job.?From the outside, we see people with unlimited potential to make money.?The top sales guy really makes out.?And we think they have it easy, they get to travel around and go to fancy dinners.?Its not like that at all.?And inside sales—cold calling—is the hardest.?Nothing but respect for these folks! #ContactCenterPlanning #WFM #WorkforceManagement #WorkforcePlanning #CallCenter #ContactCenter #RealNumbers

Hey all—for those of you going to THE SOCIETY OF WORKFORCE PLANNING PROFESSIONALS, LLC (SWPP) next week in Nashville, we are really looking forward to seeing you!?This year I’m giving two chats, and I’m going back to discussing contact center strategic planning, a topic near and dear to my heart! On Monday, we are discussing Ten Great Tips and Tricks for Improving your Capacity Plans, and Tuesday, The Components of a Great Capacity Planning Process.?I’d love it if you would stop by to add your insights to both of these sessions.?Either way, please introduce yourself, you can’t have too many friends! If you haven’t signed up for the SWPP conference next week in Nashville, I highly recommend going. On a side note, I asked Vicki Herrell a bit ago if it was OK to post some old SWPP articles written for her WFM-focused quarterly newsletter, On Target.?I think I have well over 80 of them, all on the topic of contact center analytics and strategic planning.?I will post these at this new LinkedIn page for Real Numbers after the conference next week. -Ric Kosiba