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Job Summary

• The incumbent to this position has the chief responsibility and targets for leading and managing the end-to-end Tele Sales of the various digital products offered by ABSA, from generating leads to qualifying leads (prospects) to lead conversion
• Responsible to lead the Tele Sales team, which will act as an engine for converting leads into customers across various banking & fintech products offered by the bank.
• Responsible to provide top-quality tele-support to our new and existing customers while ushering them into new markets, products, or operations, helping to ensure customer satisfaction and strengthen merchant relationships.
• Responsible to drive and manage the Tele Sales model of the ABSA’s digital transformation team and take responsibility of managing the team handling outbound and inbound calls from various leads derived from Digital and marketing campaigns.
• Responsible to train Tele Sales staff, plan and discuss marketing & sales strategies and oversee the daily workflow and scheduling of telemarketing staff along with development of scripts for use by Tele Sales team.
• Measure team performance; communicate goals and quotas to team; and encourage and motivate Tele Sales as they work toward reaching their goals.

Job Description

Generation and conversion of “Lead” to “Prospects” to “Bank’s Customer”

• Take full ownership and P&L responsibility of the Tele Sales function in the Digital Business vertical. This entails financial responsibility for the achieving targets (for leads, prospects, and customers)
• Primary responsibility of converting “Lead” (Generation > Qualification) to “Prospects” (Interaction > Conversion) to “Bank’s Customer”
• Collaborate with marketing and product teams to establish sales goals and to develop scripts for use by Tele Sales team
• Follow up on the leads and convert them to sales and closely track for closure of deals
• Develop company systems for customer interaction and response and control the implementation process.
• Oversee system maintenance and upgrade implementation. Maintains and improves call center operations by monitoring system performance and identifying and resolving problems
• Designing business MIS to and executing processes to improve efficiencies
• Compile and present weekly and monthly sales reports
• Assessing & monitoring the online sales funnels and actively converting the leads to Bank’s customers across various products & services offered by the bank
• Track and document the call outcomes and follow up till call disposition
• Actively engage and work closely with the front-line sales teams to meet customer demands
• Ensure complete knowledge on the product & service offerings
• Handhold the customers during their onboarding journey to make it a smooth transition

Cross-Sell and Up-Sell to Customers through Sales and Advisory

• Stive to provide top-quality advisory and tele-support to our new and existing customers while ushering them into new markets, products, or operations and thereby cross-selling and upselling them products
• Create a “service driven sales” culture through tele-support with customer empathy. Make customer believe “ABSA is always there for them” and follow-up on customer commitments
• Analyze prospects’ business requirements and work closely with the relevant internal stakeholders to help customize specific products to meet their needs.
• Provide the Product team with customers’ feedback to help identify potential new features
• Having complete and end-to-end detailed knowledge for all the bank’s products & services
• Ensure customers are digitally active throughout their lifecycle and ensure optimum usage of all the subscribed products & services
• Chalk out innovative ways to reach out to clients via automated campaigns to ensure digital adoption is high at all the times and as per the set targets
• Build and maintain strong, long-lasting personalized relationships with the customers
• Analyse customers’ requirements and work closely with the relevant internal stakeholders to help customize specific products to meet their needs.
• Understand customers’ needs & suggest upgrades or features to meet their requirements.
• Work closely with the B2B Sales teams for cross leads in case of corporate tie-ups and with B2C Sales team for tactical leads generation and conversion

Tele Sales Performance Evaluation for Best-in-Class Customer Experience

• Monitor and review phone calls to ensure quality service and compliance with applicable policies and best practices. Conduct performance evaluations that are timely & constructive.
• Always have a “Customer” first attitude and ensure all customer queries / calls are attended to on priority, to drive the “Service driven Sales” concept
• Planning and detailing each operation required for consistent service promise results
• Quality control—continuous checking and evaluation of Tele Sales fulfilment processes, operations, and service. Drive Quality Assurance at the core of Tele Sales processes
• Responsible for the performance management of fulfilment. Motivated by the desire to improve profit margins and secure customer loyalty through assurance on tele-calls.
• Always be available on call for the customers as & when required and go above & beyond the customer expectations
• Act on customer feedback and internal stakeholders’ feedback to constantly improve the product proposition.
• Participate in internal brain-storming sessions for development of new products and services or amendment to existing services
• Regular internal follow-ups for open customer issues and ensure that customer’s TAT is not impacted by providing alternative or workaround solutions to get the work done.

Control and Governance

• Ensure that all activities and duties are carried out in full compliance with regulatory requirements, Enterprise-Wide Risk Management Framework and internal Absa and Policy Standards. Understand and manage risks and risk events (incidents) relevant to the role.
• On a monthly basis review all reported incidents or risk events together with supporting investigating documents. Identify high-risk areas and create mechanisms to address risks in future.
• Ensure that adequate controls are in place and drive a culture of proactive compliance in the function.
• Determine action plans to effectively reduce and manage risk issues related to Absa Internal Audit findings, Management Assurance findings, Compliance issues, SOX requirements and operational risk.
• Ensure that there are zero findings on internal, external, or regulatory audits

Stakeholder Management

• Take inputs, feedback, and proposals from different team to upsell and right-sell products via digital customer lifecycle management, tele-sales agents and/or directly as & when required
• Build and maintain strong relationships with the business & support teams for driving the sales driven customer obsession agenda within the Bank
• Proactively develop relationships with key external stakeholders and vendors and key clients and external regulatory bodies
• Build and maintain strong stakeholder relationships by working closely with key internal support and control stakeholders (Branches, Product Teams, Sales Team, Business Intelligence, Marketing, Risk, Compliance and Legal) to communicate the customer voice
• Regularly communicate the sales growth vision & direction to all team (Tele Sales Agents) and other stakeholders

Role / Person

Specification

Education and Experience Required

• Graduate with more than 5 years of prior experience in a similar role
• Experience of leading and administering outbound call center technologies
• Experience in dealing with customers to ensure high-quality interaction and query handling
• Experience with telemarketing, advanced managerial skills, and the ability to multitask.
• Experience in handling a Tele Sales team in an established / start-up environment is a plus
• Knowledge of Tele Sales Platform, Integration Services, Software Applications and Reporting Services is a plus

Knowledge & Skills:

• Strong ability to make prompt and clear decisions
• Strong ability to take responsibility for actions, projects & people
• Strong ability to take initiative, act confidently, works independently
• Ability to keep up to date with competitor info
• Advanced relevant business and technology knowledge
• Excellent managerial and leadership skills
• Strong ability to maintain customer relationships, resolve customer complaints and grievances.
• Ability to deal with unclear requests and high volume of requests
• Ability to work under time and target pressure
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills.
• Ability to write and present reports
• Strong digital acumen
• Excellent communication skills with fluency in English, French and Creole is a definite plus
• Strong knowledge on MS Excel

Competencies:

• Honesty and Integrity
• Passion for customer success and deep interest in understanding client needs
• Entrepreneurial mind-set and ability to deliver in high pace environment
• Dynamic personality
• Entrepreneurial and commercial thinking
• Persuading and influencing
• Creative and innovative mindset
• Excellent team player
• Strong interpersonal skills

Mental & Environmental Demands

Special work requirements

Must be able to handle pressures and setbacks and high levels of stress

High degree of collaboration

Able to manage cross-functional, inter-departmental teams to achieve project objectives successfully

Open Culture

Work in partnership with external networks such as third-party vendors, start-ups for digital business expansion

Customer Obsession

Use digital solutions to provide superlative customer experience

Deep sense of Ownership

Take full accountability of digital business with high degree of commitment

Education

Higher Diplomas: Business, Commerce and Management Studies (Required)