The pressure to reduce costs together with the increasing acceptance of purchasers to use technology to complete a sales transaction is increasing. Online technology including Video Conferencing is breaking down the barriers of client bonding and can circumvent a physical meeting with the client. This does not necessarily apply to particular accounts where the face to face relationship is vital.
Your Organisation, can and should be using Inside Sales as a cost and time effective engagement tool with your clients, particularly in the early stages of a potential requirement. Your Inside Sales team will develop a relationship remotely and gather pertinent information to ensure that the Outside Field Sales Team are fully prepared and informed. Inside Sales can resolve or alert the field sales team of any potential issues that may potentially impair closing an opportunity successfully. Your Inside Sales team are a vital resource to enable a professional and positive experience for the client.
Additionally, in the latter stages of a sale, the Inside Sales can support Field Sales by continuing the engagement with the client. This diminishes the need for Field Sales to potentially waste time going back and forth to a client before finalising a deal. Properly executed, Inside Sales will have a seamless relationship with both the client and Field Sales; thus providing additional support and engagement.
The traditional opinion of Inside Sales is that it is just an old style Cold Calling process for gaining prospects over the telephone, but this would be wrong. The correct understanding of Inside Sales is that it offers informed and professional selling, but executed remotely or virtually. However, creating a prospect has changed, as has the means of researching opportunities. The use of Social Media in business, both for research and engagement has increased significantly, as has the use of email marketing. The use of webinars and web demonstrations is also widespread and provides additional talking points for Inside Sales to introduce and follow up.
The job of an Inside Sales person involves using an extensive range of tools to identify and create a sales opportunity. By developing a strong and lasting relationship with the client, a pipeline of business will be safeguarded. Consequently, investment in your Inside Sales operations is critical as it provides a cost effective and time efficient process for business development. Inside Sales should be an important consideration for all businesses, but is especially useful for smaller businesses that need to nurture new prospects and offer exceptional service levels in order to ensure the long standing stability of their business. In larger organisations the Inside Sales team will support and complement the Outside Field Sales Team, thus making the whole sales process more efficient, informed and secure.