“Inside sales” might sound like a new term, but you’re probably familiar with it already. To define this, inside sales means selling products remotely using the phone, email, video calls and other remote channels. It’s a tailored approach that responds to qualified leads or researches potential clients ahead of making contact, and it’s especially effective in B2B sales.
Inside Sales vs Outside Sales
Outside sales representatives spend a lot of time travelling to visit customers and very little time selling. This approach is helpful for relationship-building. It’s also useful when customers need to see and touch a product. And it can be worthwhile when in-person meetings result in large sales. But customers are increasingly becoming comfortable with inside sales and find it convenient too.
Sometimes, it isn’t an either-or and you’ll combine outside sales with inside sales. For example, your sales representatives attend a trade show. That’s outside sales. They’re likely to return to the office with more expressions of interest than actual sales, but that’s still a win. With contact already made, it’s an easy matter to mail leads and set up calls or virtual meetings. These inside sales activities ultimately finalise deals.
You may have other lead generation strategies that don’t require in-person outreach. In this case, your selling process is pure inside sales.
The Benefits of Inside Sales
Since inside sales representatives don’t have to spend time travelling between clients, they have greater reach – even international reach – and they can handle more interactions per day. This makes inside sales an efficient sales strategy.
Efficiency not only saves costs, builds capacity and boosts profits, the time savings that go with it mean that you can close deals faster. Your customers aren’t kept waiting till the next visit to proceed with the process. You may even increase sales because there’s less time for customers’ interest to cool down.
Steps to Successful Inside Sales
Understand Your Customers and Competitors
Before you begin selling, you need to know who would buy your product, why they’d do so, and what they would want it to do for them. You can be sure that they’ll check out your competitors. Know why your product is a better solution than theirs and find ways to express this when interacting with customers. For example, if you’re offering a solution with unique features and benefits, your customers will need to know what they are.
Tailoring the information you offer to specific market segments is an effective strategy. Always remember that your customers want products that will work for them. Offering extraneous information that isn’t applicable to them only muddies the waters and makes selling harder.
Use Your Research to Create Context and Build Rapport
Inside sales is not the same as cold calling. Lead generation is the first step. It should already tell you a few things about a possible customer so that you can offer a tailored approach. In B2B settings, you can do a little extra research to find out about leads, qualifying them based on their business’s context.
Begin your pitch with a value statement that’s been carefully developed based on your research. It should be brief and to the point yet link what you can do to a challenge your customer is facing. State how you can help and what results your customer can expect.
Customers want to be understood, not just face a barrage of sales talk, so after your introduction, find out more about them. For example, you might ask them what goals they are working toward in a specific area where your product may be of help.
Position your Product Within the Customer’s Context
Once you have insight into your customer’s situation, you can offer information they can relate to. Use gain-framed messaging. It’s simply a matter of acknowledging options, while stating the gain you can offer. If you can present compellingly frame gains, your customer will be more likely to see your product in a favourable light. Keep the conversation going and gauge what your customer is thinking by asking them if they have any questions they’d like to ask you.
Build Trust
In most instances, especially in B2B outreach, sales are seldom made based on a single call. Your customer may want to see a demo, for example, or you may have offered to send more detailed information. Know what evidence they might want to see and be ready to suggest the next step. Be sure to deliver on your promises. Involve other teams as needed and follow up.
Overcome Objections
When following up with a customer, you may find that they have objections to making a purchase. It will be important to acknowledge these instead of directly contradicting the customer. For instance, you might say that you agree that a customer’s concern is a valid one, asking them to expand on it so that you can search for the underlying reason behind it.
If you’re sufficiently well-prepared, you should know how to address the objection. After doing so, ask your customer whether your response addresses the issue they raised. If they raise another element, validate your customer by acknowledging it before expanding on your solution. Once again, ask how the client feels after hearing your response. Repeat this process until your customer is satisfied or asks for an action that would satisfy them. Once objections are overcome, it’s easy to close the deal.
Is Inside Sales the Same as Telemarketing?
We’ve already noted that inside sales is not the same as cold calling, but is it just a “dressed up” version of telemarketing? While you are likely to use voice calls in inside sales, it requires much more advanced skills than telemarketing typically does.
- Telemarketers generally work according to a tight script. Inside sales, on the other hand, may use a prepared introduction, but follow through by initiating a consultative process.
- Inside sales strives to build relationships in which the customer’s perspective guides the process. Telemarketers try to guide the customer towards a quick decision.
- Inside sales offers tailored content that may include customised solutions. Telemarketing tries to sell generic products using generic content.
Can You Outsource Inside Sales?
Inside sales requires an in-depth understanding of a business, its customers, products, and strategies. It also requires speaking, listening, and improvisation skills. Very few call centres are able to offer effective inside sales. RSVP can. Here’s why.
First, there’s the degree to which we immerse ourselves in learning everything there is to know about your business and the in-depth training we provide to our agents.
Second, there are our agents. Every one of them has superb communication skills and knows how to build rapport with an audience. The secret? We employ real actors. Their art requires them to communicate, gauge audience responses, empathise, and improvise within the framework of set scenarios. It’s practically a verbatim list of the skills required for inside sales.
You (and your customers) get operatives who know how to “step into the role,” and since understanding context is part of acting, they’ll immerse themselves in the personas you need to achieve inside sales.
Of course, you’d like some details. Perhaps you’d like to know more about how we use technology to help us, how we’ll adapt to your needs, and you may have a few concerns about our ability to handle inside sales. We’d love to talk, find out more about your business, and help you find the solutions you need to achieve effective outbound sales. Contact us today and let’s work together. Building relationships is our business.