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DISH Network, of Englewood, Colorado, recently won two Stevie Awards in the 4th annual Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service.
 Established in early 1996, DISH Network LLC is the offspring of Echostar Satellite L.L.C., a satellite TV equipment distributor founded by CEO Charlie Ergen in 1980. Initially, DISH Network relied solely on retailers to sell its product. The first Direct Sales team was developed in 2004 to take inbound calls driven by the DISH marketing team.
The group’s target had been to acquire one million subscribers in one year, but the economic downturn in 2008 meant that the company was losing more subscribers than it gained for four successive quarters.
DISH Network’s Direct Sales team, led by Kieran Callaghan, vice president of Direct Sales for DISH Network, responded by overhauling its compensation program and launching a new plan for its Sales Associates.
“DISH Network traces its roots to the infancy of the satellite television industry,” said Callaghan. “In addition, we continue to be a founder-run company. As such our culture today encourages the same entrepreneurial spirit that set the early business on a path of unprecedented growth in the paid-TV space. In 2009 DISH Network Direct Sales was encouraged to follow this same spirit of innovation and was given the opportunity to thrive in that environment by retooling our operation with everything from how we recruit and compensate our employees to how we manage sales performance and customer satisfaction.”
Calculated Risk
The new plan carried some risk as it turned all hourly sales agents into salaried employees, whose compensation would be 100 percent commission-based, but with a minimum salary that served as a safety net for those not making enough commission.
This meant that Sales Associates were not just compensated on their sales performance. They now had a compensation plan that allowed them to increase their earnings without any ceiling to the amount of commission earned. The increase in performance the plan drove yielded a decrease in cost per sale (from $50 to $37) while increasing the average payout for the Sales Associate, and boosting morale on the sales floor.
Win-Win for the Company
The plan was a success for the company, too. While the individual Sales Associates were making more money, the cost per acquisition was significantly reduced because of increased performance and efficiency. The decrease in cost per sale represented savings for DISH Network of about $5 million annually. Close ratio, the prime efficiency metric, increased by 12 points, from 18 percent to 30 percent.
Customer Satisfaction
During this same period, accuracy of order-taking improved to an all-time high, and the call-in rate of new subscribers fell consistently. Customer satisfaction surveys have also improved since the implementation of the plan, and subscriber churn has fallen to an industry low.
Best of all, the new compensation plan has enabled the Direct Sales team to achieve the highest number of direct subscriber acquisitions in company history.
High-Caliber Sales Professional
Changing the commission structure attracted high-caliber sales professionals from other industries such as insurance, mortgage and automotive. The amount of jobs available and the earnings potential also attracted the attention of local broadcasters. The 600 new Sales professionals that were added contributed significantly to the improved overall performance.
Achieving the Goal
The Sales Associate commission plan was a strategy that increased Direct Sales customer acquisition by 80 percent year-over-year. It also enabled DISH Network to meet its goal of acquiring one million subscribers in one year.
Commented Callaghan: “The strategy we executed on manifested in record results for DISH Direct Sales. We are humbled and very grateful for the consideration and recognition given to us by the Stevie Awards for our collective efforts.”
About Kieran Callaghan
In 2000, Kieran Callaghan helped launch the Pinebrook, New Jersey call center, where he began his career with DISH Network. Hired as the call center Director, he was first tasked with handling DISH Network’s substantial foreign language customer service business. In 2002 this center’s role was expanded to include Direct Sales. For five consecutive years Pinebrook was the top-ranked sales center in the organization. With the restructuring of the Direct Sales organization, Callaghan was promoted to vice president of Direct Sales. He is now implementing the best practices used in Pinebrook across the seven sales centers he currently oversees.
About DISH Network
DISH Network LLC, a subsidiary of DISH Network Corporation (NASDAQ: DISH), provides more than 14.1 million satellite TV customers, as of March 1, 2010, with high-quality programming and technology at the lowest all-digital price nationwide. Customers have access to hundreds of video and audio channels, the most HD channels, the most international channels, state-of-the-art interactive TV applications, and award-winning HD and DVR technology including 1080p Video on Demand and the ViP® 722 HD DVR—a CNET and PC Magazine “Editors’ Choice.” DISH Network Corporation is included in the Nasdaq-100 Index (NDX) and is a Fortune 250 company. Visit www.dishnetwork.com, follow on Twitter, @dishnetwork, or become a Fan on Facebook, www.facebook.com/dishnetwork. |
The Stevie Awards today named 
