What is Inside Sales? 8 Proven Routines to Improve Your Operation
In this article, we’ll explain in detail how Inside Sales works and help you implement this sales technique in your company, maximizing the time and resources invested to create a more effective sales operation.
What is Inside Sales?
Simply put, Inside Sales is a sales process that happens remotely.
The sales team routine in this model builds a closer relationship with prospects through phone and email, as well as other virtual communication channels.
It’s important to clarify that Inside Sales and telemarketing are distinct techniques, and the only similarity between these two sales processes is remote communication.
Telemarketing typically relies on a pre-defined script to sell low-ticket items and rarely involves multiple contacts.
This technique generally doesn’t consider the specific needs of each client.
In just one contact (cold call), the deal is either closed or lost, so the agent quickly moves on to the next lead.
Meanwhile, the Inside Sales approach is complex and seeks to offer an appropriate solution to help each client in the best way possible.
We’re talking about a predominantly B2B model with higher-ticket products or services.
This sales model allows for a clear understanding of potential customer profiles, enabling precise communication with qualified leads and increasing opportunities to close deals.
Before we dive into best practices for Inside Sales, it’s helpful to highlight the main differences between Inside Sales and Outside/Field Sales.
Inside Sales vs. Field Sales
The traditional sales method anchors the operation in face-to-face activities, sending the sales team to visit clients in person.
This format, called Field Sales, requires more time from the dedicated team to travel and incurs additional costs to keep employees out of the office, like transportation, lodging (if the client’s location is distant), and meals.
On the other hand, Inside Sales wisely leverages technology to facilitate the sales process without needing to leave the office.
This approach helps increase productivity and reduce costs, as the internal team connects with potential clients through email, phone, social media, and even video conferencing.
A well-prepared salesperson can attend to more clients if they don’t have to spend time traveling.
Therefore, in various business models, this format enables more and better sales.
Can Inside Sales and In-Person Sales Be Combined?
There was once a clear separation between Inside Sales and Field Sales, but today these two models interact.
Even salespeople who visit clients to close deals use Inside Sales techniques in the initial stages of negotiation.
With the pandemic and the intensification of virtual processes, Inside Sales has gained strength and relevance in companies worldwide, surpassing in-person sales.
A Sales Enablement study by HubSpot in 2021 found that 64% of sales leaders who transitioned to remote work in 2020 met or exceeded their goals.
This is because this technique allows the sales team to plan client communication in advance, improving the approach and tailoring it to each lead’s needs.
The client also benefits, as they don’t waste time with generic approaches.
What Does an Inside Sales Analyst Do?
The Inside Sales team works in synergy with the marketing team and the commercial team that handles in-person sales.
Combining efforts from these teams, the goal is to achieve results and meet the company’s commercial goals.
An Inside Sales analyst maintains communication with prospects, with the primary task of converting leads into clients, moving from the initial contact to closing deals.
To succeed in this career, it’s important to have negotiation, research, organization skills, attention to detail, and strong communication abilities, such as empathetic listening and persuasion.
The majority of Inside Sales professionals are commission-based, encouraging them to focus on client relationships, recognizing the potential of each lead to direct efforts toward those more likely to close, thus making more sales in less time.
To clearly identify these potential clients, it’s essential for the Inside Sales analyst to be able to log detailed, valuable information about each lead.
The Inside Sales team typically uses CRM (Customer Relationship Management) software to organize data about prospects and their interactions.
What’s the Difference Between an Inside Sales Analyst and an SDR?
The difference between an SDR (Sales Development Representative) and an Inside Sales analyst is that each works in different stages of the marketing funnel.
The SDR’s role is to conduct detailed research to identify potential clients.
SDRs handle a large volume of leads generated by Inbound Marketing actions, so it’s essential to screen for the most qualified leads.
The result of this work guides the initial approach.
Later, this prospect list is passed on to Inside Sales analysts to continue the negotiation process.
Thus, the SDR serves as a bridge between the marketing team and the sales team.
This professional focuses on the pre-sales stage, making it easier for the Inside Sales analyst to receive only the most qualified leads.
Additionally, the SDR supports the sales team by providing information about potential clients, helping the salesperson take an assertive approach with each lead.
This teamwork is essential for a smooth sales funnel since many leads aren’t ready to buy yet, even if they have a compatible profile to use the product or service offered by the company.
Moving leads from the top to the middle of the funnel prematurely can create issues in the process and lead to lost future clients.
Read Also: Is Your Marketing Funnel “Clogged”? Discover the Most Common Problems_
How to Do Inside Sales?
For your company to succeed in the Inside Sales sector, it’s essential to have a team aligned with the marketing and commercial teams.
It’s also important to have smart tools to facilitate the work, such as sales calling software, CRM software, and an integrated tool to track KPIs.
Once all these points are aligned, the process can begin.
Let’s understand each stage in more detail:
1. Prospecting
The first stage of this process, prospecting clients, can have different approaches, such as Inbound, Outbound, and Account-Based.
Inbound
This approach targets warm leads who have already come to the company organically or through marketing campaigns.
Inbound Marketing focuses on educating the target audience, offering relevant content that solves problems, answers questions, and helps the client.
This content reaches the audience through paid media or other tools like blogs, podcasts, e-books, or even webinars.
This marketing strategy helps the company become a reference and be recognized as an expert in solving specific demands.
To attract Inbound leads, a series of strategies is created to encourage the lead to contact the company, directing them to the commercial team’s pipeline.
Outbound
Unlike Inbound, this technique is considered proactive prospecting, as the company seeks to contact potential clients with a need that the offered product or service can fulfill.
The first step in this type of prospecting is to thoroughly research potential clients to understand if they’ll be a perfect fit in terms of business and budget.
Once these aspects are clear, it’s time for a deeper investigation to understand the target audience’s pressing issues that need to be solved.
To create this list of leads, it’s advisable to use sales technologies like CRMs or automation software.
Read More: Inbound or Outbound: What’s the Best B2B Sales Strategy?_
Account-Based
This strategy is somewhat similar to the outbound prospecting model, as in both types of prospecting, the company seeks to contact clients directly.
What differentiates them is that in Account-Based, the company seeks to connect with specific potential clients, meaning the efforts focus on a list of companies that match the ideal client profile.
To execute this strategy, the first step is to create a target account list.
The first phase of this list includes 20-50 companies for immediate prospecting.
The second phase of this strategy is to create a list of at least 200 potential clients who will be contacted by the SDR team.
2. Qualification
Once the prospecting phase is complete, it’s time to start filtering leads by conducting a thorough investigation of each one.
This research will clarify the list and help prioritize qualified leads.
This data investigation is conducted using a series of methodologies with targeted questions, such as:
- BANT – budget, authority, needs, and timeline
- SPIN – situation, problem, implication, and need
- GPCT – goals, plans, challenges, timeline
Combining these methodologies provides an accurate result and a complete overview of each lead.
It’s essential to leave this stage with a clear idea of each potential client, deciding which ones should continue in the sales process.
3. Approach
With the refined list in hand, it’s time to take action.
After prospecting and screening, it’s time to start contacting potential clients with a personalized approach.
4. Closing
In this stage, maintaining a close relationship with each one is essential to bring them to the bottom of the funnel, that is, to the final stage of closing the deal.
Which Companies can Invest in Inside Sales?
Although this sales process is more common in B2B companies, Inside Sales can also be applied in the B2C sector.
In this case, this model works very well for more complex sales processes where it is necessary to raise customer awareness, showing the importance of the product or service.
What Benefits does the Inside Sales Strategy Bring to your Company?
Addresses more Leads in Less Time, Clearing up Opportunities in the Funnel
As the Inside Sales model saves travel time, it is possible to address more leads in less time, as well as make more frequent follow-ups, establishing a closer relationship.
According to a Salesforce survey, Inside Sales agents spend 35% of their working time selling, while field sales agents directly focus on sales for only 22% of the time.
Increases Conversion and Rapport with a Consultative Process Focused on the Prospect
This model helps to increase sales conversion and rapport through a consultative process focused on each potential client’s specificities.
Generates Greater Predictability in the Sales Funnel
Inside Sales allows predictability in the sales funnel as metrics are meticulously analyzed.
Knowing how many calls the analyst needs to make or how many demonstrations they need to offer in a day to reach the sales goal results in a calculated approach.
Precisely because it is possible to measure all numbers within this sales approach, it is easier to make adjustments and improve the process.
Provides the Potential to Scale the Operation, Reducing Costs
Inside Sales reduces costs by assessing each client’s potential before scaling the operation.
Only highly qualified leads will be approached, so time is better utilized, and the chance of closing deals is much higher.
Increases team productivity
Increases team productivity through the use of sales acceleration tools.
These tools allow the analyst to send more emails, make more calls, and consequently have more interactions with leads.
A study by Bridge Group found a direct relationship between the number of interactions an analyst has in a day and the closed deals.
The more interactions, the more deals closed.
Therefore, these acceleration tools provide a powerful advantage in the final result of this process.
Facilitates Data Control and CRM Entry
This model depends on technology, which ultimately facilitates data control and entry into the CRM.
Improves monitoring of metrics and KPIs
As it is a model where data is always recorded and closely observed, Inside Sales improves monitoring of company metrics and KPIs.
Reduces Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)
This means your company will spend less to create interactions with new leads and bring in new customers.
Compared to traditional sales methods, Inside Sales investments are lower and, in many cases, more profitable.
Increases Return on Investment (ROI)
Generally, the ROI of Inside Sales in B2B companies is R$10-11 per R$1 invested, while in B2C companies, the average is R$6.
8 Proven Routines to Improve Your Inside Sales Operation
The best way to control a remote sales process is by creating routines that ensure standard team performance.
Check out what we’ve prepared to help improve Inside Sales processes in your company:
Study the Lead Before the Approach
Understanding the potential client in depth before the first meeting favors a client-focused pitch, rather than limiting the conversation solely to the product or service offered.
This personalized approach increases the chances of closing the sale.
Update the CRM right fter Meetings
It’s also beneficial to set aside time in the schedule to update data in the CRM daily.
Documenting each step of the process is essential for maintaining organization and clarity of each funnel phase.
Hold Daily and Weekly Alignments with the Team
Keeping a remote team aligned is a key point for business success.
Therefore, it’s extremely important to have moments to discuss and talk about day-to-day happenings.
We suggest creating a daily alignment routine with brief conversations focused on planning and task execution.
It’s also helpful to adopt weekly alignments, both for the team and individual analysts, to analyze results and promote experience-sharing.
Mark Everything (yes, Everything!) on the Calendar
The routine of an Inside Sales analyst can be quite busy, as there are different operational tasks beyond lead interactions.
To keep up with everything, we suggest scheduling specific times for certain activities, such as CRM updates or prospecting.
This helps maintain discipline and organization.
Set follow-up alerts
Maintaining a close relationship, even at a distance, with potential clients is crucial to the Inside Sales process.
Scheduling an alert after meetings is a great strategy to know when to reach out to that lead again – whether to send a proposal or to move on to the next funnel stage.
Keep a Record of Sales Objections
Having a deep understanding of the most common sales objections allows the Inside Sales analyst to have precise arguments to address them.
Creating a document to record this information is essential for making life easier for analysts.
Provide Feedback to Marketing on Lead Quality and Profile
When leads come from marketing campaigns, it’s crucial to have dialogue between the sales and marketing teams.
Frequent feedback on lead quality and profile helps direct and optimize marketing actions.
The more aligned the teams are, the more accurate the results.
Document Sales Practices and Process Changes in a Playbook
Since the sales sector deals with high turnover, it’s important to have alignment among team members to maintain the quality of the sales process.
To keep the workflow organized, it’s important to create a playbook with all necessary information, such as common practices, support materials, and workflows.
This way, new employees can get up to speed with the process more easily.
But don’t forget to update the information as soon as there are process changes!
Now that you have a broad view of Inside Sales and know the next step to implement these routines in your sales process, we wish you great success in sales!
If you already have an Inside Sales team, let us know in the comments below what are the main challenges you are facing to keep the process running smoothly.
We hope this article has helped you; to receive more information like this, sign up for our newsletter here on the page!
