Forget about experience, age, background, what industry your candidates come from and how many degrees they have. The SEE Factor is primarily what you should be looking for.

Sincerity: Effective selling is “relationship selling.” It is selling something you believe in. It is selling with conviction and purpose. It is selling sincerely. You need earnest people who care about the customer and understand that what they sell will enhance the customer’s quality of life. Sincerity needs to be a non-negotiable attribute requirement for any new-hire candidate you are considering.

Empathy: Empathetic people relate well to most other people. They like to work with them and they love to help them. Frontline people with this quality can relate to your customers, build rapport quickly and find common ground. They make great first impressions and customers instantly like them.

Ego: Your team also needs people with strong egos. An individual with a strong ego (as opposed to a false sense of superiority) is someone that wants to be the best and succeed day in and day out, someone that does not settle for mediocrity, wants to maximize every opportunity and does not crumble as a result of customer rejection.

Make no mistake these are the qualities of a top performer – the qualities of your next superstar. They are not common, and not easy to find, but they do exist. Now that you know what attributes to look for, all you have to do is make a personal commitment to sculpt your team one strong performer at a time.

Our goal is simple: build rewarding relationships and deliver results. But the relationships we strengthen are not just those with our clients; we also foster relationships between our clients and their customers.

While coaching the frontline of a client, I was recently approached by a customer who had repeatedly experienced difficulty in receiving reward program credits. He expressed frustration with the company and mentioned he would be using a competitor for his next purchase. Because we were between manager shifts, I acquired his contact information and assured him that the problem would not only be addressed, but resolved, quickly. Prior to his leaving, we spoke briefly about his patronage as the backbone of our client’s success.

The management team immediately contacted the customer and he was 100% satisfied with the resolution. In fact, the customer was so delighted with the way the dispute was handled, he wrote a letter to the organization expressing his renewed faith in the company and his restored confidence that outstanding customer service still exists in America.

The impact you have on your customers revolves around how you make them feel during their limited interactions with you. If you want to positively impact your customers and in the process, move your bottom-line, you need to move your customers through an emotional connection. This is done by the actions of your frontline.

By actively listening to the customer, displaying understanding, sincerity and enthusiasm about his problem, and being responsive to his needs this company was able to not only prevent the loss of a valuable customer, but create a potential customer for life.

- Tom Diaz, Senior Performance Manager, Frontline Performance Group

When you are booking a hotel over the Internet, can you “feel” the difference between one five-star hotel in New York City and another? Of course not. This changes however, if you are on the phone and you have an enthusiastic and motivated salesperson on the other end of the line, describing the property’s distinct benefits. In those moments, that representative is the hotel. It is in those situations that a company becomes “relational” versus “transactional,” producing a huge flashpoint of advantage.

Need proof? Consider these revealing responses from a study performed by T. Scott Gross & BIGresearch that included over 9,000 customers in the retail arena. The participants were asked, “What is the most important thing you look for in a shopping experience?”

• 41.4% of participants wanted knowledgeable and helpful salespeople
• 27.0% of participants wanted courteous, caring and friendly staff
• 18.3% of participants wanted low prices and product information
• 8.8% of participants wanted merchandise that is easy to find
• 4.5% of participants wanted a fast check out

As you can see, 72.9% of what people are looking for is impacted by your frontline!

To be truly successful, you must understand and appreciate the role of your frontline as the vehicle that can transform your bottom-line.

Orlando, Florida (February 12, 2010) – Frontline Performance Group today announced it has signed a partnership agreement with Integrated Supply Network, Inc., a master wholesale distributor, supply chain service provider and the nation’s largest independent tool and equipment specialist.

Under this agreement, FPG will assist Integrated Supply Network in developing the service and sales effectiveness of its Lakeland, Florida based mobile division call center. Frontline Performance Group’s focus will be centered on improving the division’s financial performance through inbound and outbound service and sales strategy development, and the reengineering of ISN’s sales management program.

“Today’s market demands that companies become more efficient at achieving revenue and profit gains through existing service and sales personnel, while providing superior customer service. Through the implementation of our sales performance system we can help ISN meet these demands by building a holistic culture of performance that will significantly drive their profitability and growth. We look forward to expanding into yet another exciting market segment, adding significant value to ISN and helping them achieve further differentiation as a market leader in the tool and equipment industry,” said Chris Brown, senior vice president of Frontline Performance Group.

For more information on Integrated Supply Network please visit www.isnweb.com.

Most companies have four to six customer touch points and related sales opportunities.

If you map out all of your customer contact points, you will find that many of them present substantial revenue opportunities, and all of them provide significant service improvement opportunities.

Look at each of your customer contact points and figure out what influence your frontline can have through them.