Optimized call guide, training and call timing: +33% sales per hour
Commentary byLiftArchiveOur analysis, not theirsA new call guide, extra product training and calling at the best hours raised one vendor's sales per hour by 33%, from 0.09 to 0.12, for The Globe and Mail.
MECLABS Institute ran the project, and it was published as a MarketingSherpa case study.
These changes shipped together, so the result can't be credited to the call guide alone.
- Sales per hour: +33% for one vendor over four months, from 0.09 to 0.12.
- Total calls: cut in half, so the gain came from better calls, not more of them.
- Bundled result: guide, training and call timing all changed together, so no single change gets the credit.
Control
Telesales vendors used their original call scripts and called throughout the day. Agents had little product training.
Variant
Agents used a new call guide with bulleted benefits, a cleaner offer layout and an opening question. They also got more product training, and calling was cut in half and focused on the hours when most sales happen.
Why it likely won
Our reading of the result, not the practitioner's claim.
- Calling at the hours when most sales happened likely removed many low-value calls.
- A clearer, bulleted guide helped new agents explain the offer quickly in a channel with high staff turnover.
- More product knowledge let agents talk about the paper's sections and stories, not just the discount.
Caveats: Several changes shipped at once, including halving call volume and shifting call times. The figure is a before/after comparison for one vendor over four months, not a split test.
Who ran it
MECLABS Institute ran this test and published the results (MarketingSherpa case study). The numbers are theirs; the summary and commentary on this page are ours.
Read the original case study on MECLABS Institute →
How to run this test on your site
- Hypothesis
- If we give sales agents a clearer call guide and product training, and call only in peak hours, then sales per hour will rise because agents have better conversations with the right people at the right time.
- Primary metric
- Sales per hour
- Guardrails
- Total sales volume
- Cost per acquisition
- Subscriber retention past break-even
- Who should test it
- Subscription or lead-gen businesses using phone sales teams or outsourced call centers. To learn what each part adds, test the changes one at a time. If your total sales volume can't drop, watch it closely.
Questions
How do you increase telesales sales per hour?
The Globe and Mail combined a clearer call guide, more product training and calling at peak hours.
Sales per hour rose 33% even though call volume was halved.
Does the layout of a call script matter?
In this project, yes. Bullets, colour and font size helped agents find key points quickly while on a call.
Is calling less a good idea?
It can be, if most sales come in a few hours.
Focusing on those hours cut costs here while raising sales per hour.