Get your FREE 30-day trial.
Please complete all fields.
The way successful companies sell has changed. Much of the time, your prospects just don’t need an in-person meeting to reach a sales decision. Thanks to email, phone calls, and web conferencing technology, there’s little that can’t be communicated remotely.
Switching to a remote, or inside sales, model offers companies the opportunity to lower overhead and scale faster. While field sales will likely never go away, if your company is looking to achieve explosive growth, an inside sales model could be the ticket.
Another reason that companies are seeing success with an inside sales model is because customers themselves are changing. According to Sales Benchmark Index, 75% of your buyers actually prefer not to meet in person. This change in attitude is perhaps fueled by the fact that prospects are doing a much better job of educating themselves about offerings by downloading e-books, reading blogs, and investigating online reviews.
With the right sales enablement and marketing automation tools, inside sales reps can quickly identify where they are in the sales cycle based on their content downloads. And reps can do a better job of converting these more educated prospects (sometimes called pro-sumers) as a result.
In addition to the reality that your customers prefer the inside sales model, it’s also better for your bottom line. An inside sales model virtually eliminates travel expenses. And with the money saved, companies are providing remote reps with tools that empower them talk to far more sales-ready prospects in a single day and have more successful conversations. According to the Bridge Group, the average inside sales rep’s quota was nearly $1 million in 2013. Best of all, the inside sales model affords companies the opportunity to scale quickly.
Here are three ways that the inside sales model can help your company grow fast by closing more deals than ever before:
A common mistake that many companies make is hiring seasoned field sales reps and expecting fast growth. In reality, veteran field reps are harder to recruit, demand higher salaries and require more ramp-up time than typical inside sales reps. All of these factors stand in the way of fast growth. Instead, hire a proven inside sales manager. A great inside sales manager can help recruit the right inside sales talent and quickly ensure that they will get the coaching they need to succeed.
Salesforce already does a fantastic job of giving managers pipeline visibility. But the best inside sales managers go the extra mile to track activities like call metrics and their impact on outcomes. They also can use call recordings to help coach reps to success. A good sales manager knows how many prospects reps are dialing, how many leads are converting into opportunities, and whether reps are closing enough revenue to hit their quotas. It’s not only vital to track these KPIs, it’s important to track them in real time. The best sales managers also give reps the best tools to get the job done.
Your customers are more educated about your offerings than ever and more sales-ready as a result. However, the stakes have never been higher, since your prospects are also likely well-versed in your competitors’ offerings. Many of the fastest growing companies are providing their inside sales reps with tools that help meet demands of today’s pro-sumers. The right set of tools not only helps your reps dial more of the right prospects in a day, they can also power smarter conversations.
For instance, many of the most successful sales reps are using tools that provide data during phone calls about prospects from sources like Salesforce, social media, marketing automation platforms, and more. These tools can power smarter conversations by offering reps a contextual view of prospects’ buying history, content downloads, search history and more. Working remotely, your team can connect with more prospects, have smarter sales conversations, and shorten sales cycles.
Fast growth doesn’t just hinge on the right salespeople and tools. It also requires the right sales process. The perfect sales process will differ depending on your industry, customer base, and a host of other factors. But no matter what you sell, you can quickly begin optimizing your sales process by simply tracking sales metrics and generating reports.
The more visibility you can acquire into your sales team’s activities, the easier it is to know how many reps you should hire, how many calls they should make and how much revenue they should be closing to hit your goals. There are several apps in the AppExchange that help automate inside sales reporting. Benchmarking success will help your business grow quickly. Once you develop best practices for your sales organization, you can scale on a massive level.
About the author
Howard Brown is the CEO and Founder of RingDNA. The company maximizes inside sales performance by helping inside sales teams qualify, connect with and convert more customers. Learn more at RingDNA.com and on Twitter via @howardbrown.
Learn additional tips on how to set your business up for growth and manage it along the way.
