A recent webinar attendee asked the following question:
We just started an inside sales position within the last year. Do you have any recommendations on how to best utilize that position with our outside sales reps? Keep the following in mind:
- Make sure they conduct themselves with strong ethics. No tricks. And if you see tricks, don't look the other way; let the person go.
- Do whatever you can to help them get good lists and targets.
- Use direct mail and email to supplement calling activities.
- Make sure they call with some offer of value. (And make sure there is value in that value proposition.)
- Be very clear on what you need. Inside sales folks can have one background and skill set and make $10 an hour, and another will have a very different skill set and background and make $100k. If you know what you need, you can find someone who fits the bill.
- Make sure expectations are clear for what they're supposed to do, measure activity and output regularly, and coach the team to do as well as they can with the calls themselves.
- Have frequent communication between the inside and outside teams so they know what the other is doing.
- Don't drop leads. (Seems like a simple comment, but it happens all the time.)
- Once the outside business developer has the initial meeting or contact, make sure you know what the lead nurturing process is going to be if there isn't an immediate need or sale.
- Realize that if your inside sales group is one person or small, any staffing changes will drastically alter your ability to produce.
- Don't be surprised if someone does really well and leaves, or if someone doesn't do well and you have to figure out what to do with them. Finding someone who's "just right" for your firm, pay level, culture, etc. is harder than most firms think it's going to be with inside sales.
Good luck...