ask the expert

Serve Legal empowers young people to help keep their communities safe

Committed to help support youth employment in challenging times, Sussex Chamber member Serve Legal has hundreds of new job opportunities for young people across the UK and Ireland.

Ed Heaver

Director Serve Legal

Online retail sales boomed during the Covid-19 pandemic and lockdowns, but age checks for young customers buying restricted goods like alcohol and tobacco have failed to keep pace. According to Serve Legal’s latest data, home delivery doorstep ID checks fell from 72% in March 2020 to 59% in February 2021, exposing retailers to considerable risk of noncompliance with trading standards and the law.

Helping retailers monitor their behaviour around underage sales and trade responsibly are Serve Legal’s community of 2000 young auditors who make over 100,000 purchases of restricted goods each year. Under retailers’ Think 21 or Think 25 policies, young people should be asked for proof of age, but many are not. They record every purchase experience, their findings reported back to retailers each month. Auditor observations provide valuable data to help retailers improve practices to ensure they are trading responsibly.

As online sales continue to grow apace in 2021, Serve Legal is increasing the scale of its operations, recruiting 500 new auditors in the coming months. Tasked with monitoring online retailer and delivery company performance around age checks, the company’s newly-expanded workforce will also support retailers around pressing issues like problem gambling and underage knife sales, and with changes to the law around food allergen information and lottery player age, it’s important work.

Young people joining the company find its auditor roles interesting, varied and flexible, and a positive way to support their local community. Often they are motivated by the desire to do work that benefits wider society. Audit work is local or home-based and fits around studies, commitments and other parttime work. Many auditors use the skills and experience they gain with Serve Legal to enhance their employability and career progression, some moving into management positions within the company. In a recent survey, nine in ten auditors said they developed skills at Serve Legal to help their employability.

Serve Legal is proud of the role it plays in keeping potentially dangerous goods out of the hands of children. It is equally proud of its commitment to supporting young people in the early stages of their careers.

Serve Legal is the UK and Ireland’s leading provider of compliance auditing services and is an accredited Youth-Friendly Employer.

Using the phone to sell through Covid-19 and beyond

Gary Morgan

The Telephone Communication Expert Gary Morgan Coaching

I read a statistic recently that said if businesses picked up the phone rather than emailing, they would convert 15 times more sales leads. In today’s challenging times more and more businesses are turning to the phone to generate much needed revenue. If you want to either get ahead or keep ahead of your competitors, then your business needs people who have effective telephone techniques.

Effective use of the phone

If you or your team do not have effective phone skills, then it’s vital that they are obtained. Individuals who are successful on the phone do not just happen by chance; they happen as a result of receiving the right kind of training and coaching. Effective use of the phone during Covid-19 and beyond will enable your business to increase sales and improve client retention.

What stops people making phone calls?

Below are just some of the many reasons I have heard over the years:

Fear of failure

A bad experience

Appearing pushy or desperate

Rejection

I’ve never spoken to them before

Bad telephone salespeople

Another reason people hate making calls is because they have been on the receiving end of BAD SALESPEOPLE! We’ve all heard them:

Pushy / Rude / Dishonest / Annoying /

False …and often afterwards you remember them as all of the above.

Elements of a good sales call

Let’s look at seven key elements that make a great phone call.

First impressions count, ask, “Is this a good time?” The first 12 seconds are critical to getting your message across Get curious, ask open questions such as who/what/why/when/how? Be enthusiastic, especially when talking about your products and services. Your tone is more important than the words you use, research shows 70% of the impact of your message is down to your tone alone Use features and benefits based on the needs established during the fact finding When it comes to discussing costs speak in a deliberate and assertive manner Close – Ask for the business, remember, if you don’t ask they won’t make a positive decision …and then explain what will happen next

In addition, you’ll also need to have good listening and communication skills. Just one last thing to remember:

“If you don’t use the power of the phone in your business to take care of your existing customers or win new ones, your competition will.”

If you or your sales team are struggling to make effective sales calls then call me Gary Morgan on 020 8337 5937