What is inside sales?
Inside Sales Inside sales has become the preferred sales method for sales representatives in B2B, SaaS and a variety of B2C industries. It’s the process in which an agent goes in the endeavor of prospecting, following up and converting leads into customers.
Inside sales is typically composed of two divisions:
- Sales Development – Sales development focuses on inbound sales like warm leads from potential clients who have performed an action on the website — downloaded content, requested a demo, utilised live chat, or attended a webinar.
- Business Development – In this context, business development consists of cold calling. These outbound sales reps focus on higher-end commercial and enterprise opportunities. Once a lead is qualified, it is sent to an Account Executive.
Instead of a sales representative having a face-to-face conversation with a decision-maker, it’s done over the phone, email, SMS, or via internet (social media platforms, chats, etc.).
Effective and efficient
The beauty of inside sales is that it’s effective and efficient.
It’s effective because sales representatives take their time with each customer. They don’t follow a strict script, meaning that a sale depends on the ability of the inside sales representative.
With this approach, a sales rep is able to guide the potential customer through all the key benefits of the product or service. Inside sales is often relationship-based, requiring lead nurturing processes to build a human relationships with customers and to receive honest insights and feedback.
Not Telemarketing
Don’t get the two confused; inside sales is different from telemarketing! Telemarketing typically consists of following a defined script, handling the highest amount of calls in the least time possible, and single-call closes.
On the other hand, inside sales is simply professional sales done remotely and often consists of a more complicated sales process frequently requiring lead nurturing over time.
Additionally, inside sales teams leverage innovative technologies for dialing, email and engagement tracking, predictive lead sorting and scoring, sales forecasting, pipeline management, hiring, motivation and more.
Customers prefer the Inside Sales Method
According to a survey by SalesBenchMarkIndex, nearly 75% of customers prefer engaging virtually over face-to-face, with
59.9% of customers wanting to be engaged over the phone, and 12.2% of customers preferring online.
From a B2B perspective, customers also have the opportunity to connect with a sales representative in a more beneficial way to their business. Inside sales easily facilitates honest conversation about expectancies, insights, feedbacks, and pain points with the sales agent.
How Pipes Helps Sales Teams
Help set your sales team up for success is equipping them with the right tools.
According to a Linkedin Sales Report, top salespeople cite sales technology as key to their success.
Pipes is a TCPA-compliant lead engagement platform that automates the process of contacting customers, allowing your sales team to focus on closing those sales!
Pipes is so easy to configure, that you’ll have it up and running in minutes.
Pipes takes the strengths of Predictive Dialers but with more powerful features. Its machine learning capabilities mean optimal dialing patterns while at the same time validating your leads, meaning that you can start receiving high-quality sales opportunities and not busy tones.
Another great feature that makes Pipes stand out is the ability to test new scripts and voice talents quickly. This allows the marketing or other internal departments to run new tests and split-test in order to improve conversion rates.
Detailed reporting can be configured to display the analytics that decision makers need, from the no-frills essentials to detailed reporting depending on your individual needs.
A good inside sales team can make a difference to your business if they have the right tools. Take your team’s productivity to the next level with Pipes!
