Inside Sales Top Challenges: New Research

The Great Misconception About Inside Sales That’s Hurting Your Results

The Path to Profitable Sales in Turbulent Times | The Sales Insider

How to Tell If Inside Sales is Right for Your Organization

How to Tell If Inside Sales is Right for Your Organization - Sales Leadership Blog

2015 is the Year of B2B Inside Sales

2015 is the Year of B2B Inside Sales | OpenView Labs

5 Reasons You Should Rethink Inside Sales

5 Reasons You Should Rethink Inside Sales

The Rush to Get Inside 

Jonathan Farrington is a globally recognized business coach, mentor, author, consultant and sales thought leader, who has guided hundreds of companies and more than one hundred thousand frontline salespeople and sales leaders towards optimum performance levels. He is the Senior Partner at Jonathan Farrington & Associates , Chairman of The JF Corporation and CEO of Top Sales Associates , based in London & Paris. You can also catch his popular, award-winning blog here—The JF Blogit .

As 2011 meandered to an uneventful close, with no sign of a significant upturn in global economic conditions, we reflected on a year of flat-line results, during which 54% of frontline sales professionals missed quota. (Source: Chally) Amidst all this depressing analysis of data, I was asked to predict out into 2012 (Listen to Jonathan's recorded interview with Dan McDade, in which he discusses the future of professional selling), and a small part of what I said was this …

“Next year, I anticipate we will see a reduction in external sales positions of around 20%: 10% will be lost for good, and the other 10% will move inside. I believe that this pattern will continue for the next three years, until we are left with less than 10% of the total sales population working externally.

The reasons for this are obvious: Advances in technology mean that we can communicate just as easily from our desks, using video conferencing etc. Why do we need an expensive outside sales force, with all of the huge financial investment that is required, when the task can be handled far more efficiently—and more profitably?”

You see, for years, an inside sales position has been considered as the bottom rung on the sales ladder—their immediate ambition to gain promotion to an outside sales job, with a car and an expense account: An obvious sign to their family and friends that they were “making it” in sales. Not anymore.

Today’s breed of inside sales professional is bright, qualified, and well rewarded. Inside sales is now a career, not a mere stepping stone. Their commercial bandwidth is much, much wider, and their skill-sets are at the very least, the equivalent of their “outdoor” colleagues.

10 Reasons Why Inside Sales Will Displace Field Sales Teams by 2015 

Josiane Feigon is President of TeleSmart Communications and author of the business bestseller, Smart Selling on the Phone and Online. To read an excerpt from her latest book, Smart Sales Manager, click here. To listen to a webinar on this topic, click here. 

Today’s “new normal” sales landscape has sales leaders scratching their heads, wondering about the best way to structure their sales organizations. Should they keep their expensive sales duo: inside sales AND field sales? Or just go with inside sales? Good question. Step into my time machine. When you step out in the year 2015, and the landscape may look quite different.

The following trends indicate that field sales teams are becoming extinct. Here’s why:

Inside sales teams continue to grow at 15% each year. The hybrid salesperson will emerge, and they will be technically, culturally, socially, and skillfully diverse and astute.   The average cost of an outside B2B sales call is $215-$400 per call. An inside call, on the other hand, averages only $25-$75.   It is expected that 85% of buyer-seller interactions will happen online through social media and video. Customers will not need a field salesperson to come on-site for a long lunch followed by a golf game.   Today, we have 20 million salespeople. But that number is predicted to be reduced to 8 million by the year 2020. Why? Mainly because the customer won’t need to engage early in the sales cycle: 57% of the buying process is completed before connecting with a salesperson.

The Trend That is Changing Sales - Harvard Business Review 

My latest Harvard Business Review article titled The Trend That is Changing Sales was based upon in-depth research with over one-hundred vice presidents of sales at leading high technology companies and business services providers. Please click here if you would like to receive the full 29 page report on the latest sales organization strategies and key sales performance metrics.

Over the past several decades the structure of sales organizations have remained largely the same. They have been primarily based on outside field salespeople who make face-to-face sales calls with prospective customers and current clients. In turn, the field salespeople would be supported by inside sales representatives who helped them complete their daily tasks. 

Today, the traditional sales organization structure is undergoing a significant change. Many sales organizations are transitioning from a field sales model to an inside sales model, where the inside salespeople work independently from the field and are directly responsible for closing business. In order to understand the magnitude of this trend, in-depth interviews and extensive surveys were conducted with over one-hundred vice presidents of sales at leading high technology companies and business services providers. The resulting researchprovided detailed insights about the evolution of sales organizations along with the following key finding:

Over the past two years, forty-six percent of study participants reported a shift from a field sales model to an inside sales model. Twenty-one percent reported a shift from inside sales to a field sales model. More than twice as many study participants reported moving to an inside sales model.

There are three key factors that determine when a sales organization will utilize a field or inside sales model. They are the sales organization’s stage of development, the complexity of the products that are sold, and to a lesser extent, the sales leader’s perception of inside and outside sales model effectiveness.

Sales Organization Development Stage

How To Align Your Inside And Outside Sales Force 

Posted on June 7th, 2011 by Wim in Sales management

There is an old military piece of wisdom that says an army is only as good as its logistics department. While I’m not really a big fan of military metaphors in business , there is some truth in this one. A field sales force is only as good as its supporting structure, therefore it’s crucial to align your inside and outside sales teams.

Mutual understanding 

It all starts with a better understanding of each other’s job and daily activities.To get everyone on the same page it’s important to introduce colleagues to each other and let them get acquainted with what the other person is doing for them and the company in general. Stimulate two-way communication and uniformity in the message your sales team is sending to the customers. This also means that the company’s philosophy and core values need to be known by every member of the company.

Feedback 

Sometimes insides sales people can feel like they’re stuck in their own little world. That’s why it’s crucial to get them involved in the whole sales process, not only the prospecting or proposal writing stage. The solution is simple really. Ask your field sales reps to thank their inside colleagues for the appointments and give some feedback to the person who made the appointment, regardless of the outcome.

Training 

Disparition des ventes hors: Inside Sales Remplacement Modèle Old-School | L'initié des ventes

The Demise of Outside Sales: Inside Sales Replacing Old-School Model 

Posted on June 3, 2013 by Brittany Griffin

This graph shows the increase of inside sale reps between 2010 and 2020. The years 2014 and beyond are projected and are highlighted in a different color.

MDeverywhere ’s sales reps use to spend their days driving from meeting to meeting trying to talk to busy medical professionals.

Restricted by geography and drive time, they often attended only a handful of appointments each week.

“Our sales reps spent more time driving from Point A to Point B than in meetings, which is where we needed them,” says Elin McNally , marketing director of the expert medical billing service company based in Waltham, Mass.“The overhead was high and the loss of time was unacceptable.”

MDeverywhere decided it needed to improve its sales process. So in 2007, the company switched to a high-velocity inside sales model.

What were the results?

Almost immediately, MDeverywhere’s appointments tripled, and it experienced a similar increase in closed deals. Geographic restrictions vanished, territories expanded, and the new inside sales team saw its opportunities explode.

“It was a logical transition,” McNally says. “Technology has significantly improved, making it possible to do almost everything remotely. Online resources like Skype, JoinMe, GotoMeeting and WebEx made virtual meetings more convenient and started to make face-to-face sales obsolete.  Plus, prospects felt a virtual meeting was less invasive, so they were more open to spend time with us ‘online’ to hear our message.”

How big is this trend?

InsideSales.com Research: Inside Sales Growing 300% Faster than Traditional Field Sales | The Sales Insider

Inside Sales Growing 300% Faster Than Traditional Field Sales 

Posted on November 6, 2013 by Brittany Griffin

InsideSales.com conducted research revealing that inside sales is growing 300 percent faster than outside sales , with 42,400 non-retail inside sales jobs being created per year.

“A new sales model is emerging. It’s not an evolution, it’s a revolution,” InsideSales.com CEO and Founder David Elkington said. “Organizations like ADP, IBM, HP and Google are shifting resources from expensive field sales models and deploying massive inside sales departments. This shows that the inside sales industry is ready to explode.”

The 2013 Inside Sales Market Size Survey , conducted by the InsideSales.comResearch and Analytics Division , found that outside sales reps are also spending more time selling remotely, with an average of 41 percent of their time spent conducting sales on the phone and Internet.

“Inside sales is fast, cost-effective and tailored to the needs of today’s hyper-educated buyers. Travel expenses are minimized, and inside sales reps are achieving a higher percentage of quota than outside sales reps,” InsideSales.com President and Founder Ken Krogue said. “Inside sales also offers buyers increased flexibility. They can watch a half-hour demo from their own office rather than setting aside half a day to meet with a salesperson.”

La Vente en face à face est presque obsolète | Inc.com

La Vente en face à face est presque obsolète 

PAR Geoffrey James 

Le nouveau représentant commercial est "branché"  plutôt que laborieux de client à client.

Traditionnellement, la vente business-to-business implique des conversations en face-à-face. Toutefois, le guerrier de la route devient de plus en plus rare dans le monde des affaires, selon une étude réalisée par le Dr James Oldroyd , haut chercheur du monde dans les mathématiques de la vente.

Sa recherche a récemment révélé que l'embauche des entreprises pour des postes de vente «extérieurs» avait plafonné à un taux de croissance annuel maigre de 0,5 pour cent. En revanche, l'embauche des entreprises pour des postes de vente "Inside" se développait 15 fois plus vite!

Même les vendeurs qui  satisfont  les clients en face à face le font beaucoup moins fréquemment que dans le passé. L'étude de Oldroyd a révélé que plus des deux cinquièmes de toutes les conversations des clients menées par les vendeurs "extérieures" sont faites par téléphone.

L'abandon de la vente en face-à-face est le moteur de nombreuses grandes entreprises à embaucher et à cultiver des personnes qui peuvent devenir experts en la matière et de communiquer avec les clients avec une combinaison d'e-mail, téléphone, SMS, réseaux sociaux, et les conférences Web.

Curieusement, le monde de la formation à la vente ne semble pas avoir rattrapé avec cette tendance. Probablement 90 pour cent des cours de formation à la vente disponibles supposent qu'il y aura des réunions en face-à-face. L'autre 10 pour cent couvre cold calling.

Chaque jour, je reçois des courriels de propriétaires d'entreprises et les vendeurs qui ont du mal à s'adapter à cette nouvelle façon de vendre. Le problème, c'est qu'ils ont essayer d'utiliser  des concepts de vente et de compétences qui deviennent rapidement obsolètes.

Si vous lisez régulièrement des ventes Source, vous avez probablement remarqué que je poste rarement sur les situations de vente qui dépendent d'une réunion en face-à-face (par exemple, «avoir une grande poignée de main» ou «Dress for Success"). Maintenant vous savez pourquoi.

Au cours des prochains mois, je vais mettre davantage l'accent sur ​​les idées et les techniques qui sont particulièrement appropriés pour ce nouveau type d'environnement de vente. Donc, si votre travail implique la vente, vous voudrez peut-être vous inscrire à mon flux Twitter ou ma newsletter gratuite .

Read more at  : Vente en face à face est presque obsolète | Inc.com

The Rise of Inside Sales - Radius

The Rise of Inside Sales 

26 juillet 2013 10:54 par Darren Waddell

In 2008, the convergence of the decade’s most important trends fueled a sales movement that’s been slowly redefining the way businesses organize their sales operations. The popularity and importance of social media was rising as rapidly as the economy was declining. The combination of events shifted the course of the sales profession in a new direction, and as the economy recovers and job growth increases, the prevalence of inside sales will only grow more prominent.

When the recession set in, businesses shifted focus from growth to survival.When you’re faced with massive budget cuts, perks like first class business travel and $100 meal stipends go out the door very quickly. Field sales reps that depended on face to face communication with prospective customers were grounded to offices, and they had to learn an entirely new set of skills to survive. It’s estimated that in the middle of the recession, 14 out of 15 salespeople in the U.S. were inside reps.

Online collaboration software, such as the ones that Webex and Cisco offer, enabled completely online transactions. However, a virtual sales call is very different from a face to face pitch; you can’t communicate body language and facial expressions. You have to know the intricacies of your product very well, and you have to know the industry in which you contend even better. A sales rep that can sell a brick for $1,000 isn’t as valuable as a sales rep that can sell your specific product.

The role of the salesperson used to be the gatekeeper of information. Now, purchase decision making is much more available to consumers than it used to be. Today’s salespeople need to differentiate themselves, and to so, they need to arm themselves with data and insights that help them develop relationships with their prospects.

Where virtual calls make communication between salespeople and customers more difficult, social media eases the communication strain. While you can’t communicate your personality as easily on a virtual call as in person, you can build a visible personality on social media. You can communicate your expertise through your Twitter feed. You can position yourself as a thought leader with your LinkedIn profile.

As more buyers turn to social media for solutions and expertise, the value of inside sales reps with strong social media skills replaces the value of field sales reps with strong social skills.

Efficiency v. Engagement 

Low Efficiency & Low Engagement 

2013 AA-ISP Leadership Summit Recap

Recap of several presentations given during the April 2013 AA-ISP (American Association of Inside Sales Professionals) Leadership Summit. Summary slides curated by Paul Leto of F5 and Mark Ippolito of Lenati.

2013 AA-ISP Leadership Summit Recap from Heinz Marketing Inc