Inside Sales Lead Management Featured Article

As profit margins slim and travel becomes more expensive, many companies have shrunk their outside sales forces and attempted to fill in some of the holes with inside sales teams. A recent study found that inside sales is growing: 7.5 percent, in fact, compared to field sales at only 0.5 percent. In 2013, more than half – 53 percent -- of business-to-business sales reps sell by phone, instead of in-person meetings.

According to a recent article by customer acquisition and retention consultant Ruth Stevens, writing for Business2Community, this development has enormous implications for business-to-business marketers. It’s not even surprising, she notes, since phone-based selling is so much more efficient than face-to-face selling. The same study found that quota achievement is greater among inside sales reps – 85 percent – compared to 81 percent for field sales reps.

“Inside sales has graduated over time from the role of inbound order-taker to a full-fledged territory rep with a full sales quota, but one who can handle a lot more accounts,” wrote Stevens. “Many large enterprises have moved to a tiered selling model, where field sales cover large accounts, inside sales manages the relationship with mid-level accounts, and the smaller, less active customers are served by distributors, catalogs, or e-commerce.”

Many companies are embracing newer models, such as pairing inside sales reps with field sales reps to form teams. The inside rep might do the initial outreach and appointment setting, while the outside rep may close the final deal. The need for an inside sales rep to be part of what might once have been a field initiative is being driven, in part, by the fact that customers today do so much more research before having contact with a sales department. This has broad implications for lead development and management.

What seems apparent is that inside and outside sales are merging, and the need for integrated lead management, appointment setting and selling solutions is more critical than ever. These solutions need to be cloud-based, so they can be used collaboratively across an organization, and it should have a strong mobile component so field sales reps can use it just as effectively as inside sales reps.

The walls between inside sales and outside sales are tumbling down. While this may not seem like great news to everyone (particularly those accustomed to selling in more old-fashioned ways), it seems that customer behavior today has mandated it. Sales organizations should not only prepare for the change, they should embrace it.