Buyers are increasingly making large purchasing decisions digitally with limited or no face to face involvement. Innovative organizations are rapidly scaling inside sales teams in order to drive effectiveness and efficiency.
The business world is rapidly changing. The days of staffing Inside Sales with low skill and low cost resources is over. Pointing Inside Sales at small accounts and unsophisticated buyers is a thing of the past. The smart sales leader understands the importance of deploying skilled resources that aligns to the experience the buyer desires.
Top 5 reasons companies are migrating to Inside Sales include:
- Buyers more readily accept the remote selling process
- Increasing pressure on business performance and profitability
- Leverage technology advancements
- On-board new salespeople faster and more easily share best practices
- Enable the organization to scale faster
Determine whether to invest in inside sales by following these three steps.
Step 1 – Segmentation and Planning:
The first step in determining Inside Sales is segmentation and planning. A deep understanding of your markets, accounts and buyers is a requirement. It is important to divide the market into segments that can be served by Inside Sales representatives. This will require deep market, competitive, customer and prospect research.
Next is account segmentation. This will determine which accounts generate the most amount of revenue through internal efforts. The balance of accounts remain with the field sales or other.
The next focus is on buyer segmentation and user segmentation. The outcome desired is to understand how both buyers and users make purchase decisions.
The last step in the planning process is Revenue and Budget Planning. This requires one to define where Inside Sales will generate revenue from and how resources will be allocated.
Step 2 – Organizational Design
If you currently have an Inside Sales team, a Gap Analysis is recommended to determine where you stand related to standard operating procedures, best practices and emerging best practices.
Those thinking about setting up this for the first time need to go straight to organizational structure. This is where you start to leverage the segmentation and planning work to determine the optimal organizational model.
Step 3 – Intelligence:
With the foundation laid and the right team assembled it is time to focus on Intelligence. Having the right technology stack will assist in optimizing team performance. This includes:
- prospecting and lead management,
- automation platform,
- content management,
- collaboration,
- engagement,
- prospecting data and analytics.
How ProAptivity can help with your Internal Sales
ProAptivity are an independent CRM solutions provider. We focus on the implementation, training, and support of highly customised CRM software solutions. Our CRM software supported by our sales training provide customers with the tools needed to deliver successful sales process management.
Fundamentally, we help organisations embed CRM best practice throughout their organisation. This helps organisations become more competitive, customer focused and ultimately more profitable.
If you need help in understanding why my business needs CRM, maybe some of our eBooks could help! Alternatively visit Maximizer CRM for more information. Contact us today in Belfast on 028 9099 6388 or at our Bedford office on 01234 214004. Alternatively email us on info@proaptivity.com. Contact us today for a free CRM consultation that will assess if your business is CRM ready.
Source: Sales Benchmark Index
