Inside sales is already thriving in pandemic and will continue to empower the sales process of businesses in the coming years. It’s basically when a team sells certain products or services while working remotely. Therefore, inside sales teams relies highly on communication modes such as emails, calls and texts.
This era is dominated by Millenials while Gen Z following behind closely. So, inside sales can prove to be a highly beneficial strategy for your business as it not only helps you save time but also reduces expenses.
Nowadays, customers prefer to connect via calls or messages than meeting up in person. So, inside sales strategy works out best in the current time where we’re all working from home.
In fact, 37% of high-growth companies use inside sales as their primary sales strategy, compared to 27% for field sales, 23% for internet sales and 8% for channel sales.
Interesting, right? More and more companies are now adopting inside sales and we’re here to share our observation on how it will continue to grow.
What is Inside Sales?
Basically, inside sales is a process of capturing, converting, and nurturing leads remotely and without visiting the customer’s place for a face-to-face meeting. It has created a revolution in creating a business that is entirely remote and doesn’t require any fieldwork. That is the reason why inside sales reps are growing three times more than outside sales reps.
Indeed, inside sales is one of the most popular sales models in the industry as the customers now prefer to purchase remotely. You can easily handle high-ticket sales from remote locations, making it the most preferred strategy for companies.
Now that you know how inside sales impact a business, we have compiled a list of reasons why inside sales will continue to grow and help more businesses scale their revenue.
Seamless team collaboration
When you’re working at an office or on a field trip, it gets difficult to manage your communication with other teammates. Inside sales teams are pro at communicating without even meeting other team members; by using digital communication methods, they are able to solve queries faster.
In fact, if your inside sales team use sales software, they can easily collaborate on shared projects, share customer information and assign leads with just a few clicks.
For example, if a customer contacts you with a query, you can connect with other team members in a group chat, mention the specific person and get it resolved on the spot. This approach makes your entire sales process transparent and accessible to each team member.
Digitized sales (CRM)
“Those who master the virtual channel will outperform those who don’t.” – Tim Pollard, CEO Oratium
A digitized sales process for every inside sales team is highly beneficial. A cloud-based platform for managing entire inside sales can help eliminate the manual paperwork and results in better engagement with customers.
With advanced CRM software, you can easily automate your entire sales process and spend more time on nurturing and delighting your customers.
Moreover, a digitized sales process using a cloud-based sales CRM enables you to create centralized customer data for easy access, getting notifications in real-time whenever there’s any progress on a deal, and helps you send automated series of emails to nurture your customers.
Offering valuable content
Now that we’ve taken the business to a digital platform, you have an opportunity to create content that will engage with your customers and visitors. Whether it’s your website or your social media platforms, you can keep sharing valuable content to connect with the targeted audience.
Inside sales enables you to try out various online platforms where your target customers may be present. You can study the behavior and preferences of your leads to understand their needs to deliver better.
For example, if your audience uses Twitter, you need to create content that is powered with your company’s value in just a few words, as Twitter has a character limit. So, it’s the one or two sentences that’ll make a difference when you’re trying to sell to the Twitter audience.
Hassle-free contact management
When you have to work remotely, it’s essential to stay on track with all the contact information and data. However, manually entering and changing the contact information may lead to a fragmented process and loss of crucial information.
So, with a centralized database, you never have to worry about losing any of your contact information. Moreover, you can add and create new contacts from anywhere and at any time using cloud-based software to manage your data. This ensures that every client’s information is stored securely and is accessible by any of your team members.
Increases efficiency
Working remotely certainly has its own perks. And being super-efficient at work is one of them. Inside sales increases the overall productivity of a team as they’re working from their comfort zone.
Moreover, outside sales reps spend the majority of their time on the field, which consumes a lot of their time resulting in decreased efficiency. Hence, inside sales is ideal for capturing more leads, engaging with them consistently and closing the deal to gain a long-lasting customer.
Only 33% of inside sales rep spends time in selling actively, so that offers more time to focus on streamlining the sales process to close deals faster.
It’s cost-effective
Every company has a budget that they always adhere to, and inside sales force helps you cut down on many costs. In fact, inside sales reps makes considerably a greater number of calls compared to an outside sales rep who also spends very much time in traveling.
When you’re using inside sales reps, the costs associated with selling and customer acquisition can drop from 40% to 50%.
The study reflects how much you can efficiently save on the costs when working with an inside sales strategy for your business.
Improved engagement
With the rise in remote sales, inside sales reps can connect with their prospects by sending nurturing emails and texts. An inside sales rep has more time to send personalized emails and texts to their leads and customers to increase engagement.
Moreover, you can also send regular newsletters, product updates or invites to a new product or webinars to increase the customer engagement for your business and build lasting relationships.
When you are constantly in touch with your prospects, it makes your brand more visible and increases the chances of converting them into customers. So, you can utilize these online platforms to grow the engagement rate which can directly affect your sales.
Quick response rate
Gone are the days where buyers would wait for hours just to connect with a sales rep. Now, millennials want quick replies and faster solutions to their problems. Digital buyers want to know every detail about the product they’re interested in, and inside sales makes it happen for them!
With the evolution in technology, now companies have started using tools such as Chatbots and live chat software on their websites. These tools enable them to connect with customers in real-time to reduce the bounce rate and increase customer satisfaction.
For example, if a prospect reaches out to you with frequently asked questions, you can direct them to the chatbot that can automatically share the pre-determined replies. Or, when a customer needs a specific answer, they can directly connect with you in real-time and get response immediately.
Track performance
When you’re entirely working online, it’s easy to track your performance and sales with reports that provides helpful insights. You can easily track their productivity by using smart HR software. By tracking your performance, you can work on implementing better strategies and deliver an enhanced customer experience.
You can check how much time your inside sales reps are spending on cold-calling or closing deals, and how many of them are converted into customers. Moreover, sales reports help you analyze the sales trends so you can map out a better sales strategy for your business.
Flexibility in work
When your inside sales reps are working remotely, they have the flexibility to manage their office tasks and other commitments. Since we all have a plethora of things that we need to look after on daily basis, working from office or during a field trip may take away the time from your reps.
In fact, that’s one of the reasons why many sales reps start switching to a different company as they aren’t satisfied or the workload is too much. Inside sales provides a benefit of being flexible at work and at the same time fulfill their other personal commitments.
This results in a motivated team that’s ready to tackle all the tasks and challenges that may come their way.
Conclusion
Inside sales can transform your entire business and take it to the next level. With so many digital resources like project management tools, intuitive CRM, accounting software, e-signing tool, live chat etc. you can take your workflow to next level.
This is the time where you can utilize the benefits of inside sales for your business and build a team that is more cost-effective, productive and has digital access.
