
What Are the Benefits of Growth Through Acquisition?
May 30, 2017
In our post “When Growth Via Acquisition Makes Sense” we looked at the six reasons to make an acquisition to grow your telephone answering service.
While sales and marketing initiatives provide consistent, controlled growth month after month, growth via acquisition also has several key benefits that shouldn’t be overlooked.
Pump up Financials Fast: An acquisition produces a major bump to your top line sales. And in a properly run answering service, this will trickle down to bottom line profits in a big way. You will see results immediately in the next month’s financials. Though the full impact won’t be felt until after a full month of serving the acquired accounts, expect the initial results fast, soon after you send your first billing.
Even greater financial results come from optimizing your acquisition in the months that follow. Don’t skip this step, as it could generate significant top line and bottom line results. Too many answering services, in a rush to move on to the next purchase, shortchange themselves by failing to fully optimize the properties they acquire.
Rally Around a Major Project: Sometimes a staff gets stuck in a rut of the day-to-day routine that does little to invigorate them. An acquisition may just be the prescription to such a malady. Nothing pulls a staff together like working toward a major common goal with a tangible end. They will work hard and achieve results fast.
Your key employees will rise to the occasion. They may enjoy the process so much, they’ll ask you to buy another answering service—and then another.
Tap Available Infrastructure: Perhaps you have a half-used facility. You have room for growth, so why not take advantage of it? Even though you only use part of your operations room, you’re paying for the whole thing, so put it to good use. The same might be said about your equipment or telephony capacity. And if you’re flush with staff, put them to work on an acquisition instead of cutting hours.
If you have unused space or scope, don’t let it sit idle, use it. An acquisition accomplishes this fast.
Realize a Greater Economy of Scale: In general, two answering services will function more efficiently together than they will apart. The combined result may see a significant labor reduction when compared to their individual parts. In fact, sometimes a larger answering service can absorb a smaller one with a negligible increase in labor. Regardless, this labor savings—the greatest expense for any answering service—will boost the bottom line significantly.
Though this economy-of-scale outcome can produce challenges or even negative results for operations numbering in the hundreds of seats, for most answering services, this proven economy of scale offers a can’t-miss benefit.
Acquiring an answering service provides many benefits, with a nice financial boost being but one advantage. Though an acquisition can push those not inclined to embrace the challenge more than they would like, it can also take an answering service to another level.
Be sure not to miss that.
Janet Livingston is the president of Call Center Sales Pro, a premier sales and marketing service provider and consultancy for the call center and telephone answering service industry. Contact Janet at contactus@callcenter-salespro.com or 800-901-7706 to arrange a private consultation about buying or selling an answering service.
Peter Lyle DeHaan is a freelance writer from Southwest Michigan.
Subscribe
Recent Posts
Use an Answering Service to Cover Sick Days

Unlike a vacation, which employees schedule in advance, no one plans a sick day—or at least most people don’t. In most cases a sick day is not a p...
What Is a Call Center?

If your business operates outside the call center industry, you may have trouble answering this question of “What is a call center?” But it’s an...
Implement an Agent Development Program

Call center agents, your public-facing staff, are key to your call center’s effectiveness and fuel the success of the overall organization. Successf...
Agent Success Starts With Great Training

In the call center arena, your frontline people are key to success. This starts on day one of their employment in their initial training. Here are som...
How Not to Sell Your Telephone Answering Service

There are some commonsense steps to take when selling your telephone answering service, just as there are when selling anything. Common key elements i...
Why You Should Consolidate Siloed Call Centers

It’s likely your hospital system has at least one call center, a centralized place that handles calls. This may be for a department, a building, the...
Use an Answering Service to Schedule Appointments

Some businesses and professionals live or die by the number of appointments they have each day. For them, an appointment is a billable moment. A full ...
Use an Answering Service to Cover Staff Meetings

It’s a dilemma. You want all of your staff to attend your staff meetings, but that leaves no one left to answer the phone when it rings. After all, ...