Last May, it became obvious to executives at Med-XS Solutions Inc. that their existing customer support center just wasn't cutting it as a sales generator. What the medical equipment management service provider based in Mentor, Ohio, needed was a full-fledged call center, in addition to its customer service center, to drive sales.

In place since July, it seems to be doing just that. The four-person center hires one new rep a month; reps have handled 7,000 calls since its start, fielding inbound and outbound contacts that have led to 300 substantial leads. "We felt that to ask [customer service reps] to do a lot of administrative work was not the best use of their time," says Michael Gonzalez, Med-XS Solutions' marketing manager.
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Others agree. A survey conducted late last year of 1,624 customers worldwide by The Forum Corporation found that 73 percent of respondents were interested in learning about new products through call centers or customer service reps—resulting in a sale in four out of every 10 attempts.

At Fairmont Hotels, based in Toronto, a global sales center serves as a dedicated business qualifier of calls from meeting planners, driving sales additionally through cross-selling during inbound and outbound calls. Over the past few years, since the center was created, it has become increasingly sophisticated, now querying callers about annual events, trends in their meeting planning, special needs, and other areas that could be opportunities for more sales on Fairmont's part. Call center reps dig deeper and then farm out leads, says Judith LaBrie, director of group and tours, global sales solutions. The center was credited with booking 45,000 rooms in 2004.

That type of hard sell is only likely to continue via call centers in the future, say experts like Matt McConnell, chairman of Knowlagent Inc., a performance improvement company based in Atlanta. "It's not as easy to win new customers as it used to be," McConnell says. "There are more products chasing fewer dollars through fewer channels." Call center employees traditionally have been order takers, he adds, but are now "moving up the chain toward solution selling."

—Betsy Cummings