What is Sales Strategy and Inside Sales?
To understand Sales Strategy, we need to understand the history of the term “inside sales”. The term “Inside sales” can be traced back to the late 1980s as an attempt to differentiate “telemarketing” (or from the more nuanced “high-touch,” phone-based business-to-business (B2B) selling practices.
By the late 1990s into the early 2000s, the term inside sales was used to separate the practice of outside sales – the more traditionally understood sales model, where sales men and women went the client’s actual physical location of business to engage in the sales process.
We now understand inside sales to be the act of finding, identifying and turning leads into actual paying customers. Most recently, sales strategy and inside sales has become one of the most known and popular sales models in high-value industries as buyers are more comfortable purchasing things and working with people remotely. Door-to-door sales is almost extinct. The ability to embrace the idea of inside sales has been made possible through technology.
What is the difference between Inside Sales & Telemarketing
A simple way to coming to a definition of sales strategy and inside sales, is to state clearly what it is not.
Inside sales is not telemarketing.
Telemarketing is often a single call close, with a tight script, that is often a small figure item and is routinely used through the B2C model.
Inside sales is not scripted. It takes multiple touches and phone calls, solutions selling and often targets businesses to business (B2B) and is often higher price points sales.
Embracing a Sales Strategy
The ability to embrace the idea of inside sales has been made possible through technology. Almost every sales rep now is utilizing technology to make sales happen. In the 2016 LinkedIn study called ” State of Sales in 2016″ they shared today’s top salespeople are 24 percent more likely to attribute their success to sales technology. And 82 percent of top salespeople cite sales tools as “critical” to their ability to close deals, compared with 66 percent overall.
In today’s competitive sales environment, sales teams want tools and tactics that give them an edge in closing deals. Some of the most helpful technology that Inside Salespeople are using are the following:
1. The good old telephone:
But all good salespeople know that building relationships is the key to doing well in sales. And even though times have changed, relationships are still build with two people having an actual conversation. And believe it or not, people use to do that on the good old telephone.
92% of all customer interactions happen on the phone.
If you call a lead in the first 5 minutes after they’ve submitted a web form, they’re 100x more likely to get on the phone.
2. CRM
It goes without saying that a CRM is a necessary tool for serious sales people. A CRM is a Client, Relation Management software that gives you an overview of your sales actives, your contacts and will give you the information you need to stay on top of the
The best CRM software will give you an overview of all your sales activities and help you stay on top of your pipeline. Most important, a great CRM system will arm you with the critical information and organizational tools you need to manage relationships more effectively. 70 percent of sales professionals believe that relationship-building tools have a meaningful impact on their ability to grow revenues.
3. Social Selling
There are so many tools that help us build and nurture relationships. All of these tools can help connect and prospect if salespeople use them efficiently.
Example of social selling:
– Endorsing a customer on LinkedIn
– Sharing a company’s blog post or Twitter status. Show your prospects that you are paying attention.
– Studying prospects on Twitter and LinkedIn before meetings. Knowing something about what they are doing currently.
– Join LinkedIn conversations that your prospects might be engaging in as well.
4. Productivity Apps:
There are plenty of apps that claim to help in the productivity race. Here are a few of the best:
Slack: Team Communications can be drastically different with Slack. There are options to engage in team conversations to keep up to date on day to day actions.
Nosili: One of the best apps for white noise. When doing research or CRM work, having white noise helps many salespeople to stay on task.
Focus: Nothing can get you off task sooner than having pop ups or distractions from e-mail or social media sites. Focus helps you keep your eyes on what it most important.
The art of understanding Sales Strategy and Inside sales is one worth perusing. There are plenty of places that you can learn and grow with Inside Sales best practices. You don’t have to re-invent the wheel or try to do it on your own. As you continue to learn and discover new inside sales insights, you will always be able to compare them and all them to the eternal and tried-tested and true sales practices.
If you are looking for a fresh set of eyes to help your inside sales team understand sales strategy and get ready for growth, new products or a more streamlined approach to inside sales, give us a call. We have years of helpful experience we would love to share. No one knows your business and sales team like you do, but together we can collaboratively help your team get to the next level. Connect with us at info@salesevolve.com and lets chat!