Excellent customer service skills (including questioning, probing, listening, establishing rapport and sales

An inbound call agent must be able to listen thoughtfully and determine the reason for the customer's call. This includes taking an order, resolving a problem with an existing order and answering questions about products or services. The agent must remain calm and helpful throughout the call, even when the caller is angry,irate and hesitant.
The outbound call agent is responsible for making sales, setting appointments or asking for donations.
This is the job commonly referred to as a telemarketer. The agent must remain polite and calm, but at the same time be persistent and ask for the sale.
Depending on the company, most call center agent jobs only require a high school education. Some jobs require experience, but a call center job is frequently a good place to start a sales career with no formal training. Both jobs require average computer skills and the ability to communicate in a stressful situation.