What is Inside Sales? — Our Definition of Inside Sales
The most pragmatic definition of Inside Sales is simple:
Inside Sales is “remote sales,” most lately called “virtual sales,” or professional sales done remotely. Where Outside Sales or traditional Field Sales is done face-to-face.
Taken in this context, the majority of all sales is done remotely, and the numbers are growing. A recent study done by SKKU and MIT, in conjunction with infoUSA, found that over the next three years, Inside Sales is growing at a fifteen times higher rate (7.5% versus .5% annually) over Outside Sales, to the tune of 800,000 new jobs.
More evidence: if you don’t believe it, grab a list of 10 traditional or “Outside Sales” people and call them. 7 out of 10 will be sitting in front of their computer, working in their cubicle, office, or home office—just like the Inside Sales people.
The term “Inside Sales” originally came about in the late 1980s as an attempt to differentiate “Telemarketing” (or “Telesales in the UK) from the more complex, “high-touch,” phone-based business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) selling practices.
Telemarketing is often believed to have begun in the 1950s by DialAmerica Marketing, Inc., reported to be the first company dedicated to telephone sales and services. By the 1970s telemarketing was a common phrase used to describe the process of selling over the telephone. It often included both outbound and inbound, but later became much more synonymous with the types of outbound calling we’re all familiar with—large-scale “blasts” to lists of names to try and drum up quick sales, usually while the family is sitting around the dinner table.
By the late 1990s/early 2000s, Inside Sales was the term used to differentiate the practice from Outside Sales—the traditional face-to-face sales model where salespeople went to the client’s location of business to engage in the sales process.
Companies found the new channel of Inside Sales to be undeniably effective, but often didn’t know what to do to solve the conflict between the younger, disruptive, more technically savvy upstarts who sold over the phone, and their more senior counterparts who wielded incredible political power in their organizations as the entrenched source of revenue for nearly a century.
For years Inside Sales has been relegated to generating leads for the more senior Outside Sales reps or merely closing the smaller accounts. This is now no longer the case. Many companies are already using a hybrid form of Inside Sales, with reps calling from their company’s home office, then traveling occasionally to client locations and merely calling it “sales.”
By Marc Benioff’s own admission in his book “Behind the Cloud, salesforce.com “grew their company for the first five or six years with a telesales or Inside Sales model.” They added Outside Sales or Field Sales to go upmarket when they wanted to sell to Enterprise-class companies, but the company still does a majority of their sales work remotely.
Another way of defining “Inside Sales” is to also state what it is not.
Inside Sales is not Telemarketing.
Let me repeat: Inside Sales is NOT Telemarketing. Telemarketing is a scripted, single-call-close, almost always targeting a small-ticket, business to consumer (B2C) model.
Inside Sales is not scripted. It requires multiple calls or “touches” to create a sales close, involves medium or large ticket goods and services, and targets business-to-business (B2B) or high-end business-to-consumer( B2C) transactions.
Inside Sales is professional sales done remotely. It is not the mindless “phone drone” that calls at dinner time and won’t hang up until you have said “no” seven times.
Inside Sales is also not Customer Service. Though Inside Sales frequently involves an element of inbound call handling like a customer service department, in its pure form it is not customer service.
Some companies erroneously describe their inbound call centers as “inside sales,” but this does not fall within the boundaries of our definition unless the agents’ primary function is selling.
Inside Sales is professional sales done remotely . . . it is remote sales.
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Pretty cool… Great post!
To continue with the “Lead Generation” theme: (Nice blog spot here by the way)
I don’t know if the rest of you agree but, the obvious difference between a lead generation program and an appointment setting campaign is that a lead generation program stops one step short of setting a qualified appointment. Some clients, involved in a complex sale that requires a vast knowledge of the industry or strong knowledge capital, prefer us to qualify the lead and then hand it over to the client to have an in-depth business discussion and qualify the lead more thoroughly before they actually set a qualified appointment.
What you have to do is Select Target Campaigns: Some of our clients (Tech Company Lead Generation) request that we focus our cold calling to set qualified appointments on a short list of select targets. The Select Target campaign involves calling multiple times collecting information and escalating the qualification process until we set a qualified appointment. For enterprise targets involving a complex sale we can contact multiple decision makers and influencers to schedule a qualified appointment with each executive. All B2B appointment setting campaigns are customized to meet your needs.
The Bottom Line. Would sales increase if your salespeople and agents spent more time with qualified prospects and less time trying to find them? Appointment setting isn’t just a necessity – it’s an essential resource to help capture market share, build your business and achieve your revenue goals.
Here is what we offer, what do you people think in here about this?
* Decision Maker appointments
* You receive every email and communication with prospects (audio recordings)
* (No Shows for you = 0%)
* We have lists of over 25,000 potential prospects in the U.S.
* We can use your CRM list if requested
* Unlike most Lead Gen firms, you can directly call our Bus. Dev. people anytime
* Your account status is done DAILY by Phone not email like our competition
* Fast turnaround of your project
* Cost savings and revenue increase
* Significant improvement in the quality and productivity of your business
* RESULTS
Honestly, every post that you see on the web describes the next BIG methodology when it comes to B2B Lead Generation. At my company Partner Source, which is located in Minneapolis, Minnesota, we approach the Lead Generation subject with science, as it is our business.
You have to have values that you stand by as an organization, Partner Source Values: Our principles define us. We stand for: Qualified appointments, results, performance and quality above all else. Outstanding Client Service is our dedication to responsiveness, consistent and effective communication with no surprises, and always meeting deadlines. Absolute honesty and integrity. Continuous Self-Improvement – the spirit of mastery. Making a difference with each person, every minute, every call, every day. We are dedicated to our client’s total satisfaction.
Glenn Wright
Partner Source Minnesota (B2B Lead Generation)
WOW..I’m in Inside sales and this Definition is exactly right.
Thanks
@http://www.thepartnersource.com
– Ken
I wasn’t sure if you were trying to add to the definition of inside sales, or pitching your companies services….
Ken – conclusive summary. Thanks! My favorite line: “Inside Sales is professional sales done remotely.”
In fact, many companies have responded to economic pressures to cut costs and increase productivity by re-strategizing around an inside sales business model. While this shift might implicate a potential loss of outside sales touch, video conferencing technology enables today’s effective enterprise to transform its inside sales force into a virtual outside sales organization. They’re able to put the human back in the selling equation… without the price tag.
nice post, and interesting little history lesson on telemarketing.
Lead generation is one of the most important if not the most important marketing tools in the insurance and real estate industries!
Ken – Perfect differentiation between telemarketing & Inside Sales. Best line to sum up : Inside Sales is professional sales done remotely . . . it is remote sales
I agree with Eric Hickman. Generating quality leads is still an all important way to get sales and long-term business clients.
People often complain that they are managing their sales from one crm program and their time management from a different application. Now Clarizen and Salesforce have a data integration system http://www.clarizen.com/ProjectSoftware/Integrations/Salesforce.aspx that allows your online crm program to “talk” to your online project management software. And it integrates with Microsoft too.
Thanks for a well written article, just what I was looking for. Will be back for more