Diagnosis

The agent rushes through inbound enquiry calls, uses technical jargon, asks few open questions, and pushes quickly for a diary appointment without genuinely qualifying the customer's interest or situation.

Session objective

The objective of the session is to help the team recognise that speed on the inbound call creates wasted appointments rather than saving time. Help the agents see that genuine curiosity, plain language, and open questions on the call are what determine whether a visit is worth making for both sides. Get the coachees to commit to slowing down, listening, and doing the qualifying work on the call so that the appointments they attend are ones they can sell at.

Session tactics

Play a recorded call where the agent is visibly rushing through diary dates and pushing the customer toward an appointment without asking meaningful questions. When the team's reaction turns toward complaints about being busy, bring that busyness to the floor and ask how many of the appointments they currently attend actually result in a sale — let the group surface the realisation that unqualified visits waste more time than a longer call would. When the call contains technical jargon followed by a promise to explain it later, play the fool as facilitator: say you didn't understand the terms, invite the agent to explain them in plain language, then ask why that plain version wouldn't be used with the customer. Ask the group what questions they could have asked the customer on this call — collect their ideas and frame curiosity as both practical and enjoyable. Close by anchoring the shift: the goal is to leave each call knowing whether the visit is worth the customer's time and worth the agent's drive.

Behaviour observations

• The agent rushes through available diary times and moves to close an appointment before the customer has been meaningfully heard.
• The agent uses technical abbreviations and jargon, then deflects the customer's confusion by promising to explain everything at the visit.
• The agent talks over the customer's questions rather than pausing to explore them.
• The agent asks very few open questions and learns little about the customer's situation or level of genuine interest during the call.

Experiments

• On the next inbound enquiry call, the agent will ask at least two open questions — including what made the customer interested — before any mention of a diary date or appointment.
• The agent will avoid technical abbreviations and jargon on calls and instead use the plain, human explanation they would give to someone who has never heard the terms before.
• Before offering appointment times, the agent will take a deliberate pause and check whether enough is known about the customer to make the visit worthwhile for both parties.