The classified ad that changed my life, Karine Lours, ex-Teleperformance

It's hard to imagine that your professional life, and later your private life, could be based on a small advertisement, a queue in which you have to jump over the ‘competitors’ to get your chance. In the South-West of France, this happened to Karine Lours at Teleperformance.

When did you start working for Teleperformance and what positions did you hold?
Karine Lours: I joined Teleperformance in 1992, in Toulouse, as a temporary telephone operator. I went on to work as a supervisor, production manager, sales manager, site manager, operations manager and regional manager.

How were you recruited and in what context?
I'm from Toulouse and was studying LEA, which, to be honest, didn't inspire me very much when I came across the recruitment advert published by Teleperformance. I applied in Rodez, with the naivety that characterised me at the time. Being in Aveyron suited me. I was recruiting for a press group that wanted to sell subscriptions and deliver newspapers. There were about twenty people in the queue and I was placed around twelfth.

So what happened?
I can admit it now, I pretended I don't know what false motive I had to win a few places, because I was very keen to be given a chance! That was back in 1992. Surprisingly, I've come back: for the last five years I've been working for the same press group, and for the last two years in Aveyron. Have I come full circle? In any case, during this first experience of telephone sales, I discovered AIDA, how to deal with objections and my passion for sales, especially telephone sales. From the very first days on the job, my results were among the best, so I progressed quite quickly. That's what a professional career is all about!

Where have you worked?
I worked for TP Sud-Ouest, TP Midi-Pyrénées, TP Midi-Aquitaine, TP France Grand Sud region, mainly in Toulouse, but also in Bordeaux, and in Montpellier, which I opened in 2002, pregnant with my 1st child.

What led you or made you decide to agree to testify and have a portrait of yourself written along these lines?
The main reason for this interview is my passion for this incredible company: something that's never been seen before, something that can't be beaten anywhere else. It's a great school for life.

The second is to pay tribute to and thank Daniel Julien, Christophe Allard, Patrick Dubreil who opened the door for me, Stéphane Thounens to whom I opened the door, Brigitte Daubry, so exemplary, Jean-François Guillot, Peter Fergus O'Brien. I remember one day Patrick Dubreil called me for some reason. I hadn't said ten words, three sentences, when he interrupted me and said: ‘Is something wrong, Karine? It was the case, he had sensed this, in a few moments. I can't help thinking that this company grew and flourished thanks to the coming together of so many incredibly gifted personalities.

Lastly, I would like to see this profession and this industry more highly valued and recognised. I've been working in the industry for thirty years, and it has exploded in terms of usage and sectors, but we still only hear about malicious or disturbing calls. It's true that certain practices don't help to restore the reputation of telephone advisers, customer advisers, telemarketers and customer relationship managers, but that's so marginal compared with the rest. It's an incredibly rich profession, and I'm still benefiting today from the fundamental skills I've discovered and mastered thanks to this profession and the way it was practised in the company. Day after day, hour after hour.

What have you learnt in the company about: human relations, the use of technology, rigour in monitoring operations, tracking performance and margins, giving feedback to customers and your N+1?
At SFR, we used to be told: you can tell a TP or ex-TP by the fact that he always turns up with a calculator. The first thing they teach you at TP is the number of calls per hour and how to calculate margins: that leaves a mark! And when it comes to apprenticeships, I learnt a lot. With one of my first partners, Alexandra Gouzil from Bordeaux, we were invited to the certification test for the position of supervisor in 1994. The examiners were Patrick Dubreil and Stéphane Thounens. Suffice to say that we had a vested interest in passing our test... !

Two other memories come to mind that I'd like to mention: they may help to better understand my admiration for these leaders. It was 2001, in Toulouse. The AZF accident had just occurred, just a few days after the Twin Towers disaster on 11 September in New York. Unimaginable fear gripped everyone, but at the same time there was the need to manage the teams. Let's get in, let's get out, let's seal ourselves in, that's what we were thinking about. The place was a mess. I only received one call after the explosion, from Christophe Allard. This initial support, which was extremely reassuring, helped me to make the right decisions with regard to the teams. We even thought later that our platforms could be useful for handling emergency calls. The second was in 2010: operations were becoming increasingly complex to produce. The market was getting tighter, and a difficult internal merger was underway. The group was already international and huge, but Daniel Julien, the Chairman, joined us to support us in a fairly strategic client meeting at SFR. I was delighted to discover that he spoke the same language as us, only better!

If you had to pick out three key moments in your career with the company, what would they be?
I'd mention three encounters: the one when I was recruited, the second when I met Stéphane Thounens. And finally the adventure and the fantastic partnership developed with and for SFR, from 1998 to 2014 in Toulouse. I also met my husband on this occasion, one of the best production managers I've ever met and an excellent father. Without him, my career path would not have been as easy.

Telemarketing, phoning and customer service are demanding jobs. What have you learnt?
When we joined TP at the time, we sometimes had very little in the way of baggage, apart from our personality and our values. I think that's where I learnt how to structure a sales pitch, deal with objections, use tools such as knowledge bases and listening grids, and define and implement action plans. And armed with all this, I often smile when people say to me: ‘You can't do that over the phone! Finally, I've learnt to hear, almost at every meeting with colleagues: ‘What's your margin?

What do you still put into practice today that you learnt at TP?
Listening, caring and ... perseverance!

Karine Lours is now Business Director for the La Dépêche du Midi group. 
Valérie Callen is Managing Director of the Axa Agents Network. 
Patrick Dubreil has managed CCA International and was Chairman of the SP2C. 
Stéphane Thounens has turned his hand to kitchen plans...

Interview by Manuel Jacquinet

You can find the other articles in the ‘rue Firmin-Gillot’ section here.