A shortage of skilled workers in sales? Perhaps not everything needs to be reinvented – just redistributed differently.

What many don't know is that a good call centre isn't an external service provider that takes over tasks for you. It's part of the team – just from the outside. We can't do everything better. But we can do some things, so that others have room to breathe.

And yes, we work for energy suppliers, telecommunications providers, pharmaceutical distributors, insurance companies. But in truth, we work for people, who have an idea and fight to be heard. Sometimes literally.

I recently spoke with a managing director from the mechanical engineering sector. His people are top-notch in terms of expertise, but they're finding it increasingly difficult to systematically approach new customers. They're constantly on the road, constantly overloaded – and then you miss the moment when a conversation could arise that might eventually lead to an order.

I said to him: „Do you know what the problem is? Not your people – but that they" Too much at once should do.“

I've been in the call centre industry for over 30 years now. A lot has changed in that time: you could almost say from rotary dial phones to cloud telephony, but certainly from paper phone lists to AI-powered lead management. Yet one thing remains constant: when someone needs a human on the other end of the line – they really need them.

Perhaps now is exactly the time to more often someone to answer the phone – instead everything wanting to do it yourself.

I'm interested – how do you deal with the shortage of skilled workers in sales?