Inside Sales the team inside the company an added value for your customers.
The synthetic meaning of the inside sales is: a sales practice conducted remotely
Where the processes of contact qualification, relationship cultivation and lead conversion are carried out remotely. It contrasts with outside sales which is mainly based on an in-person relationship.
In a previous article we have specified that it is not telemarketing which is a different type of sale. But of the creation of a team of internal consultants who knows in detail: the company, the products / services, the customer’s needs.
The database made up of already customers and prospects is a real asset for companies.
Cultivating the relationship with this database is not easy and the inside sales is the dedicated team that, proactively, relates to potential / existing customers by phone or using digital tools, thus creating new sales opportunities and increasing customer satisfaction .
But inside sales can become the booster to optimize lead generation campaigns for a company, as it is strategically inserted into the customer acquisition flow.
The opportunities of Inside Sales
A team that can be placed in different phases of the customer acquisition process
The main characteristics of the inside sales.
- working remotely we have more daily contacts with customers and prospects
- response times for customers are faster
- we have greater specialization of internal sellers with respect to sectors and products offered by the company
- a team with greater flexibility
The internal team increases the efficiency of the sales force when it is built on the right market segments, inserted in the appropriate process steps for customer acquisition or as an engine for upselling And cross selling .
How to structure the internal sales system
There are different implementation models, with respect to the needs.
• Compared to the type of customer, for example, for small and medium-sized companies, which have low needs and complexity of the product / service l‘inside sales can directly manage theentire sales process , in order to move the outside sales force to other types of customers who have more complex needs and need a face to face relationship or on strategic customers.
• Inside sales can be integrated within the funnel of acquisition of prospect , in the qualification phase of the contact or at the beginning of the sales process, when the brand and the service are presented. It can also introduce field sales, in order to prepare the prospect for the visit of the area agent and, on the other hand, to communicate the characteristics and needs of the potential customer to the agent.
• Can also be inserted into the post purchase phase , to repeat purchases or to propose upsells or cross sells, for those solutions that do not require in-person evaluations. In this way, field sales can be directed towards products and services that require a physical presence.
• Inside sales can become essential to reach non-strategic customers who are in remote areas , in order to optimize the strength in the field for geographic areas of interest.
• Can also be included in the service after-sales customer support , especially for non-strategic customers, this action allows customers with the lowest spending profile to be retained in the long term. Furthermore, by creating more opportunities for dialogue with the consumer, feedback and information can be collected to improve certain aspects of the company.
Inside Sales: why implement it in the company
For the B2B sector, field sales are very effective
But they can be inefficient in terms of time and costs with an impact on the average customer acquisition cost of the entire company structure.
Using a remote sales model that supports the traditional channel or as the main channel, brings several advantages to the company in terms of the number of closing contracts and reduction of business costs. But it also gives the possibility to build a monitorable and scientific sales process.
Thanks to new digital technologies, companies can follow and get to know the customer throughout the purchase process. In this way, a clear, defined and above all replicable sales process can be created.
Videoconferences, telephone calls and emails give us the possibility to carry in a “remote” context the activities and logics carried out by the classic commercial channel in person. Companies with fully digital businesses are proof of this.
But above all, the Inside sales team integrates more easily with marketing techniques, taking the company to a more advanced stage in that search for integration between Sales and Marketing.
Integrating these new figures into your company can be difficult. Maia Management CDOs can support you in the implementation of the inside sales strategy.
