Last month TracPoint announced the launch of its revolutionary rate plan analysis tool (RatePlan.com) along with the cell management tool MinuteGuard. The two programs provide wireless dealers with the tools to assist customers in choosing the right rate plan as well as a proactive monitoring service to keep customers on the right rate plan.
In order to better illustrate the benefits of RatePlan.com and MinuteGuard, TracPoint will present a series of articles over the next several newsletter issues that highlight the key components of these two programs. This article will focus on a dilemma faced by most wireless dealers today:

How do you engage your sales personnel in Revenue Producing Activity (RPA) rather than Non-Revenue Producing Activity (NRPA)?

Sales are not what they used to be.   There is no longer a steady flow of new customers coming into your stores looking to buy a phone for the first time.  Walk in traffic has slowed considerably leaving sales people with many hours each day of down time.   Sales people are hesistant to engage prospects because most of them already have a phone (70% of all people around your stores already have one) and find the effort a grind with not much reward.  At the same time,  these sales people are working on your dime,  and need to be productive for your business,  even when they are not making phone sales.

Dealers who train their sales personnel to focus on Revenue Producing Activity  (RPA) are the ones that are generally prospering, despite the overall slowdown of retail foot traffic. As a consequence of this slowdown, sales personnel spend less and less time interacting with potential customers – a sure sign of slowed sales growth. By using RatePlan.com, however, dealers can give their sales personnel the tools to increase walk-in traffic as well as powerful reasons to easily engage prospective customers, thus increasing RPA.

RatePlan.com provides wireless sales representatives the opportunity to engage any prospect on the top 5 carriers and:

• Help prospects & customer save money. Offer prospects a complementary rate plan analysis in the store or over the phone.
• Utilize an easy to use marketing system. Send customized e-mails and letters at the touch of a button;
• Capture critical prospect data.  Give away 30 day free trials of MinuteGuard

One of the biggest stimulators of RPA is the ability to track such activity. RatePlan.com enables the business owner to track their sales representatives and managers RPA on a daily basis. Every time a sales person enters either a customer or prospect into the rate plan analysis program, not only is critical data captured for future sales opportunities, but the activity is tracked and automatically reported to the business owner or senior sales manager via e-mail. Thus, a business owner can require a sales associate who does not, for example, sell three phones a day, to conduct a minimum of five rate plan analysis's or MinutGuard sales made. With a daily notification mechanism in place, RPA and selling behavior can be tracked much more closely and consequently modified wherever necessary.

In addition to capturing data on prospects, RatePlan.com provides sales associates with daily reminders and “To Do Lists” to encourage RPA. If, for example, there is no traffic in the store, a sales associate can log into the database and extract her prospects for follow-up calls or e-mails. The tool is especially valuable during slow times when sales personnel traditionally engage in NRPA.  Cultivating revenue producing activity (RPA) should be the cornerstone of every wireless dealer sales and marketing strategy. RatePlan.com helps participating wireless retailers facilitate RPA and gives sales personnel a great reason to interact with every wireless user and get busy!.