Merry Christmas Everyone!

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The Sales King's Troups

LOL!!! I could not resist sharing this...

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Happy Halloween

Get Inspired Answer Center America

ABC - Always Be Closing

My Favorite Movie Scene
Of All Time!!!!

ABC - Always Be Closing

Jack Daly

Welcome to ACA

New Video for ACA

Cubs Tour

This was by far one of the coolest tours I have ever been on. They do these tours every year and would suggest it to anyone who loves the game. GO CUBS!!!!

- Michael C. McMillan

From Sales Life Style

Answer Center America Receives ATSI Award of Distinction

June 19, 2009

Pittsburgh, PA

At the annual ATSI (Association of TeleServices International) award banquet ACA (Answer Center America, Inc. was awarded the coveted Call Center Award of Distinction. The award accepted by Michael C. McMillan (Director Sales & Marketing) & Trey Bynum (General Manager) marks another milestone for ACA's dedication to high quality support to its clients.

"The founding beliefs of Answer Center America was to provide customized quality focused solutions to our client's that will in turn help grow our company through our loyal clientele. This Award is a symbol that what ACA set out to do, has come to fruition"

- Michael C. McMillan

Answer Center America looking toward the future is excited about the new service offerings and opportunities it can now offer it's client's and employees.

*For additional information on ACA's service offerings please contact the sales department at (800) 270-7030 24/7/365.

Media Contact:

Michael C. McMillan

Director Sales & Marketing

(800) 270-7030 ext. 369

mikemcmillan@goacanow.com

Meeting & Learning from Tom Hopkins

Sales Training is by far one of the best things any sales person can do for them self. Today I had the hnr and pleasure to see another amazing sales trainer, Tom Hopkins. His method of training is very unique and I know will yet again help me grow my teams sales knowledge and ability to close deals and improve the quality of the deals sold.

From Sales Life Style

So Much To Do; So Little Time

Wake up, check email, take a shower, iron my shirt, get dressed, pack lunch, make a quick egg for breakfast, then leave for work. That is my routine ever single morning without fail. Break my routine and it is possible to ruin my entire day. Today though I have broken my routine myself, as I felt it necessary to write this article at the top of the day.

This morning I received word that one of the most kind hearted, giving people I have met in a long time, Leslie Dennis with AnswerNet, passed away yesterday. Leslie was the personal assistant to the companies CEO, Gary Pudles, but more importantly the "Den Mother" of all of AnswerNet. See when you were traveling for an AnswerNet event or planning something with Gary, you did all of that with Leslie. Because of this I had the opportunity to interact with Leslie on quite a few occasions. She was one of those very few people from moment one you knew you wanted to get to know more about, and spend more time with.

This morning made me truly realize just how little time we all have here on earth. In addition it made me realize personally how important the impression we make on others really is. The reason I say that is that in sales the everything is about the impression that others get of us as people. If they feel you are a friend you have almost a 99% shot of doing business with that person. But, if they feel you are some quick talking typical sales guy, yeah not that great of a shot.

Leslie by far was a person you could meet and never forget. From the warm greeting you always got, to her very helpful attitude when things went wrong. These qualities are things all of us need to look inward and see if we have. As these qualities are what makes these people into ever lasting memories that are cherished for a lifetime.

For all of you who may have known Leslie or would simply would like to give an offering in the memory of a great lady below is the information where the family has asked for people to donate rather than flowers and gifts.

Donations in Leslie Dennis's honor be made to either:

March of Dimes:

https://www.marchofdimes.com/howtohelp/donation_in_memory.asp,
or
AnswerNet Cares, c/o Leslie Dennis Fund
2325 Maryland Road, Suite 210
Willow Grove, PA 19090

This article is dedicated to Leslie Dennis, the person who taught me that it is not how much money you make, or what you have. But, rather how you treat people and help them when they need help. Thank you for this Leslie, as knowing you really did make me a better person.

- Michael C. McMillan

From Sales Life Style

Updated ACA Online Video

Old Gregg (Full)

By far the funniest thing!!!!

1st Quarter In The Books, The Record Books That Is!

Today officially starts the beginning of the 2nd quarter and the close of the 1st quarter for ACA.  This is a monumental day for ACA and our team as we are about to close our single largest sales month in ACA history.  We owe much of our teams success directly back to 1 man who literally changed the face of the ACA sales force forever, Jack Daly. 

I had the pleasure of meeting Jack at the ATSI Owners Forum, a annual industry conference for call center owners.  Jack helped make me understand that my position of Director of Sales was not to be the top sales person at my organization, but to mentor my sales people to become as good r better than I am.  This understanding led me to re-evaluate the way my team was structured and it's scalability.  Once I saw just how correct Jack was I immediately made the change from player coach to simply coach.  Needless to say this change was shocking to my upper management team as I alone pulled in 50% of the net sales of the company.  But, the decision was made and I was given these simple encouraging words, "Don't F Up!"  LOL!!!

To sum everything up for all my number driven fans out there let me leave you with this.  I entered this quarter with out me selling and with 3 new green sales guys, for a total of 5 sales people.  From this team I was able to increase out quarterly net sales by 60% in 1 quarter.  Now I am not saying this did not come with out some sleepless nights but was it worth it in the end?  Hell Yeah!!!  The structure of my team now allows for the continued scalability needed to hit ACA's corporate growth goals for many years to come.

So on behalf of the Entire Team at Answer Center America, Inc. Thank you Jack Daly!  You wrapped up your presentation saying you simply want to make a difference at a business.  I hope this blog posting shows you that you succeeded at ACA!!!

xoxo

Michael "Sales King!" McMillan

From Sales Life Style

Very Cool New Web Tool

Have you heard the about one of the newest domain extensions, ".TEL"?  

If not then you are truelly missing out on something simply amazing.  .tel is what the telephone book was to the 19th century.  It is a 1 stop shop to find out anything on a person through one link easily accessed through your cell phone or internet browser.  Check out http://painternetmarketing.com/blog/why-you-should-get-a-dot-tel-domain to learn more about it.

If you want to see a sample visit my new .TEL site at http://salesking.tel on your cell or on your browser.

xoxo

Michael "Sales King!" McMillan

From Sales Life Style

Happy St. Patty's Day!!!

May a tanker truck full of green beer careen off the road, roll over in your yard, and spill all of its contents into your swimming pool...

xoxo

Michael "Sales King!" McMillan

Happy St. Patty's Day Everyone!!!

From Sales Life Style

Our Puppy Playing

Daisy's First Day Home

Here are a few photos on our new addition to our family.  I will make sure to get more video's and photos up as we take them.

Stop Gov. Quinn's IL Income Tax Increase!!

Everyone this is not me asking for your help, this is something all of need to just act on now!

Today on the news I heard about Gov. Quinn attempting to put through a massive Income Tax Increase. If this passes it is estimated that 50,000 - 100,000 jobs will go away in the private sector. All of us already know to many people out of work. Don't let our Governor make more. Sign the petition at the link below and make a call. Please share this with everyone you know, it is SO IMPORTANT we act now to stop this!!!

http://www.ntui.org/NTUI/NTUI_Quinn_Flyer.pdf

From Sales Life Style

Call Center Metrics Can Boost Quality and Save Money

Summary: There are productivity, quality, and customer satisfaction metrics which can be measured to enhance quality and increase a company bottom line. GoACAnow.com offers call center solutions that can manage inbound or outbound business calls professionally.
________________________________________________________________________

Call center metrics are key performance indicators, and they should focus on business goals and call center solutions. If metrics are analyzed and lined up with strategies, they can boost quality and save an organization money. Metrics monitor a call center’s performance by gathering and analyzing information; there are productivity metrics, quality metrics, and customer satisfaction metrics.

Inbound productivity metrics include the number of calls handled, and their timing. Also included are the number of emails handled, and the average time to respond to emails. Inbound productivity metrics comprise the percentage of calls and transactions resolved in the first contact. Outbound productivity metrics include the number of outbound calls and their timing. Productivity metrics for orders and quotes include the number of quotes and proposals, prices of quotes, and dollar amount of items sold. They also identify the number of leads and cross-sell/up-sell opportunities.

Quality metrics involve the accuracy of orders and quotes. They quantify product knowledge, technical knowledge, and communication and problem solving skills. Satisfaction metrics are figured from real time surveys of customers, field sales staff, and partners/distributors.

Analyzing these metrics can show if goals are being met, and if call center solutions are needed. The results will show specific areas that need improvement, and the quality of the call center will improve if new plans are put into practice. Cost analysis including measuring cost per call can save money and increase revenues by implementing improvements where needed.

Answer Center America, Inc. offers high quality call center solutions with their state of the art technology, and professional staffing. GoACAnow.com operates efficiently by analyzing metrics, and can increase a business’ bottom line.



Bio: Grace Enderlein is a freelance writer and editor. “Call Center Metrics Can Boost Quality and Save Money” outlines what metrics measure, and how they can increase quality and save money for call center solutions.

From Sales Life Style

Biggest Loser Tryouts

The weather is snowy and freezing cold. This is what I walked into at 4am to head to NBC tower to stand outside for 5 hours for my 2 minutes to beg for attention to get a spot of Biggest Loser. Now I must admit it was a very interesting day. I got the opportunity to meet Jerry, Stella, &Bernie all previous contenders on the Biggest Loser. Of course this was a big highlight of my day, but Jerry really motivated me to stay in that line. He explained how just 22 weeks prior it was him in the same line doing the same thing. So I think to myself, if a 60 year old man can do this I better be able to at 26. LOL!!!

The entire time waiting concluded with 12 of us sitting at a table and told get our attention in the next 2 minutes by responding to the topic we provide. All I can say is thank you Mom for raising a sales person!!! My background made this a walk in the park for me and my wife. But, I must admit I really felt bad for a few of the other people at my table as they really had no chance, and really need that show.

My wife Steph and I are still praying for a call back in the next 2 days, if not we will not give up and get our video out ASAP! Please prey for us as both of us really need this opportunity as we both really want kids.

From Sales Life Style

Bio: Michael McMillan is the director of Sales & Marketing for Answer Center America, Inc. “Biggest Loser Tryouts” is a review of my trip to NBC tower for the Biggest Loser open casting call. For more information on ACA's services please visit http://www.goacanow.com.

Answer Center America, Inc. Webmercial

ACA's First Ever Webmercial. Take a look at what ACA can do for your business.

I am Famous!!! LOL

Okay maybe not famous but at least I got myself on a web video. Check it out.

Qtr. 1, Day 1 of 3 ACA Sales Summit

Good Evening Everyone!!!

Well this evening marks the beginning of one of my favorite events in sales, our summit.  Now just to catch all of you up the ACA Sales Summit simply put is a training & creative planning retreat.  This is when I get to sit down with my entire sales force outside of the stress full environment of our office and get them ready for an amazing 1st Quarter.  The entire event last 2 full days with Friday being the first as we leave at noonish from the office and then go out to dinner and talk sales all night. Saturday is our training focused day where we start at 8am and go till 7pm and do nothing but review the basics of what we do.  Finally Sunday we talk strategy and pull out our creative homework we assigned before the summit to share with the team.  

This summit program started 2 years ago and has been such a success that for 2009 we are now moving it from an annual event to a quarterly event.  This is when sales gets focused in on just what we need to do and how we are going to get there.  We create strategy to kill our competition in focused markets or industries and improve on current working strategies already in place.  Basically is similar to sharpening your knife before you butcher an animal.  It makes the whole process that much more enjoyable and smooth.

I know there is not much to talk about as far as content today but I promised this 3 day blog will be well worth the read.  So check it out each day as I will make entries each day of the summit and a finial entry Sunday night to wrap up the entire event.  And, since we are taping the whole thing I may even share a small video and pictures with all of you.  

ENJOY!!!

From Sales Life Style

Bio: Michael McMillan is the director of Sales & Marketing for Answer Center America, Inc. “Qtr. 1, Day 1, Sales Summit 2009” IS part 1 of 4 reviewing the ACA Qtr. 1 Sales Summit. For more information on ACA's services please visit http://www.goacanow.com

Outsourcing "Self" Questions

Below are my top 10 questions I like to supply businesses looking to utilize a commercial call center like Answer Center America, Inc. I do this before they get too far in the outsourcing process and find out they do not even want what they think they want. This is as important as an outsourced solution is not for everyone (I do not really believe that, FYI...LOL!) but some say that. 

So please take a moment print out these questions and get them answered. Even if you are not looking to outsource now these are great questions to ask yourself so you can take a different look at your company's way of doing business.

Mike’s Top 10 “SELF” Outsourcing Questions
1. What is my primary goal in working with a commercial call center?

2. What is my preliminary time line for rolling out the services I am immediately interested in?

3. How am I currently performing the task I am now looking to outsource?

4. What is the real DOLLAR amount each call is worth to me and my team?

5. What is my preliminary monthly, quarterly, and annual budget for these services?

6. How much percent am I willing to exceed my budget and be comfortable?

7. What services do I want but do not necessarily need at launch?

8. How soon after l launch do I want to add the additional services?

9. What type of reporting will I require to monitor the call centers performance and monitor my success?

10. How interactive do I want my experience to be with my call center provider?

From Sales Life Style

Bio: Michael McMillan is the Director of Sales & Marketing for Answer Center America, Inc. “Outsourcing "Self" Questions” helps business owners with how to outsource parts of their business. For more information on ACA's services please visit http://www.goacanow.com.

Learning Never Stops

Tonight I had the great honor and privilege of attending my first ever Toastmasters Meeting.

For those of you not familiar with the organization may I strongly suggest visiting http://www.toastmasters.org to learn more about them and find a local meeting to attend.

I have heard of the Toastmasters for many years but never really took the time to really look into what this organization had to offer me as a sales person, and more so as a leader of my sales team. Toastmasters quite possibly may be one of the single most important goals I am so happy I am accomplishing in 2009 for myself, and almost more importantly for my team and all of my readers. The knowledge I have gained in my first ever meeting alone has made me completely rethink the way in which I perform presentations. I now understand to present correctly it takes a ton of preparation, research, and most importantly PRACTICE!

Now I know many of you are going to say, "Mike I give presentations and run meetings all the time why do I need this silly club?" My answer to you is simple, you may be running these meetings, or giving presentations but, are you performing at the absolute performance? That answer would be no buckaroo!

We have all heard the sayings a million times, guess what here is 1,000,001:

Tiger Woods did not just wake up one day and become the best golfer in the world, he practices, got constructive criticism, and had coaches teach him how to be the best.

Olympic Athletes do not just send in a resume saying they would like to compete in the Olympics. They have to train for years to hone their skills to perfection for the very slim possibility they MAY get picked to compete.

These sayings are things we say but very rarely act on. My primary goal for my self this year was simple, "Become a Better Follower, So I Can Become a Better Leader!" Yeah sounds weird right, that is what I thought when I first wrote it. But, then after reviewing my goals over and over again in December I realized it made perfect sense. I have to first learn how to follow (TRAIN) before I can lead. So this year I am getting myself in front of the experts and begging for teaching and guidance so that I can then become the best leader for my sales force.

In closing always remember if you are a person you thinks you know everything about everything, you are never going to succeed in life. The faster you can come to understand that with continual education comes the success you seek, the faster you will find the happiness you seek.

From Sales Life Style

Bio: Michael McMillan is the director of Sales & Marketing for Answer Center America, Inc. “Learning Never Stops” talks about how the learning process must never end if a person is to be successful. For more information on ACA's services please visit http://www.goacanow.com.

Amazing People

I just completed possibly the best and most amazing training in my life.  Meeting both Jack Daly & Cameron Herold.  I will write much more about all I learned once I can process all of it and get my notes better organized but I had to share right away with all of you just how amazing this training was as it has really helped me refocus and change the way I perform.  Thank you Jack & Cameron!!

From Amazing People I Have Met

From Amazing People I Have Met

Business in 2009

I thought it very important to share a reply to a question I received to everyone. I was asked why I felt that '09 would be a good sales year even though the economy is down. Here was my reply...

The economy is just in a new state. This is when companies that have planned for this down turn are going to take off, and those who did not will go away. For instance my company has been planning for this depression for over 2 years. This is because we didn’t listen to the talking heads and just saw what was going on. This planning allowed us to position our self very well. We now are able to tap a wealth of talent in the job market right now, and go after businesses we knew would be able to get through this bad economy as well as supply us vast amount of business.

Now is when people need to get back to basics and start understanding to be a success you have to work HARD, REALLY HARD! The age of entitlement is gone and the faster people understand this, the faster the economy will turn around.

My secret is simple:

• There is no such thing as quick money!
• The fact you can show up entitles you to NOTHING!

Most Importantly… 

• If you do not put company first, you will never be successful!
  

To Succeed or Not Succeed

Today I had a sales guy calling me asking me my opinion on how I felt my sales force would do during this depression. I quickly responded, "unlike other industries our team saw this coming for a long time and has positioned our self to not only succeed but clean up." Of course the next question was how do I plan on doing so well in this horrible economy. My response possibly less than what he wanted was, "EXTREMELY HARD WORK!"

I started this entry out with this quick review of this interview because I wanted to comment to the world want it is going to take to get through this depression and come out on top.

To succeed in this bad economy takes a level of work that is so foreign to people in my age group they see it as fiction. The problem with this is that this is the time we need to get back to basics and understand an 8 hour work day is not possible any more. To not only survive but be a winner we need to do everything that is possible to do what is necessary for our businesses success.

If you want to really see the level of dedication it will take, go see you Grandparents, or even better your Great Grandparents if they are still around and ask them what their work ethic was. What you will hear is the same like when you were a child. It will more than likely sound something like my Grandfather told me:

"Boy, my work ethic was simple, I went to work, I never called off 1 day, I worked till the work was done, and I will never stop working till my heart gives out or my boss kicks me out."

That is Dedication! 

That is a Statement of a Winner! 

Are you willing to have that same dedication to your business? If not I can guarantee you with almost no uncertainty you will more than likely fail in this economy and be one of the many losers out there. So starting now stops playing around on the internet and gets your nose into your work and do whatever is necessary to not only fit the status quo, but to be a winner!


Bio: Michael McMillan is the director of Sales & Marketing for Answer Center America, Inc. “To Succeed or Not Succeed” gives a peak into what an employee will need to do in 2009 to not only survive but be a winner. For more information on ACA's services please visit http://www.goacanow.com

From Sales Life Style

New Video Hobby

So today I finally figured out how to use iMovie on my Mac and decided to make a little video.  Take a look at this and let me know what you all think.