With the modern business landscape evolving at unprecedented rates, and business structures and workflows being more detailed than ever before, it’s difficult not to notice the surge of new professionals and titles entering the market.
Over the years, titles such as “happiness officer,” “e-commerce platform manager,” and “internet sales associate” have sprung into existence, thanks to rapid innovation across all industries. As the scope of operations in the average workplace expands, new titles are also being created every year to solidify and actualize the presence of new roles.
If you’ve been working on ushering your business into a new age of optimization and growth, then you’ve probably taken notice of the different professionals that you’ve had to look out for during your hiring sprees. Among the different kinds of available professionals, however, there’s one that’s bound to pique your interest the most sooner or later: Inside sales representatives.
The rise of inside sales
Amid all the different developments that have taken place and the various sectors that have thrived in recent years, inside sales have become more prominent than ever.
Compared to standard outside sales in the United States, the sector in question has grown 15 times faster than its outside counterparts, thanks to a full shift to aggressive sales work. With more decision-makers and business owners becoming more conscious of the value that comes with pursuing inside sales, it’s clear that the same approach is vital for success.
Thanks to the distinct level of attention that a growing number of businesses have been paying to the process itself, the need for such a strategy will grow even more over time. Regardless of what industry you may be in, your business’s size, or what your short- and long-term goals are, honing your inside sales skills is essential if you want to scale and grow at tremendous rates!
What is an inside sales representative, in the first place?
With all this talk about inside sales and how vital it is nowadays, the chances are that you’re also wondering about what the professionals that specialize in it can do for your business in the first place.
The best way to define these professionals is that they’re the kind of salesperson who works inside an office and does not visit prospects in person. They help keep the ball moving so that your products and services get traction. Compared to their telesales predecessors, these professionals are capable of doing so much more, thanks to technological advancements that allow them to work via:
- Social media
- Video call platforms
- Other online communication services
A growing level of demand for such professionals
At this rate, it would be an understatement to say that there’s little doubt surrounding the fact that inside sales representatives are highly sought-after nowadays.
With 10 inside sales representatives being hired for every single outside sales rep being brought in, more than 800,000 new jobs are being created in the same market year-in, year-out. Over time, your business is bound to join this pool of job-creating companies once your plans and goals are put into play and begin to show that they’re within reach.
Thanks to the fact that most professionals—such as those you can find on CrewBloom—come equipped with the training, acumen, and ingenuity necessary for conversions and sales, the demand for qualified reps isn’t going to stop soon. For businesses looking to convert and close deals for big-ticket items, in particular, inside sales professionals are absolutely essential to spark significant progress and process improvement.
What are inside sales representatives supposed to do?
The most vital reason you should consider investing in or hiring inside sales representatives for your company is that they help mobilize your company’s customer acquisition and revenue growth efforts.
When this professional starts working for your company, you’ll have the necessary sales support for actionable results. You will have someone that will make as many necessary calls as possible per day to achieve sales goals. Throughout these calls, an inside sales professional will seek to close sales with qualified prospects of all kinds to significantly increase your conversion rates.
Beyond the standard call-pitch-convince-convert cycle, however, such representatives also help improve a company’s ability to reach its goals for sales and customer acquisition work with these responsibilities:
- Sourcing new sales opportunities via inbound leads and outbound cold calls and emails
- Researching accounts to identify key players and generate interest
- Maintaining a constantly expanding database of prospects within one’s assigned territory
- Partnering with other channels to build a pipeline and close deals
- Performing online demos to prospects
- Routing qualified opportunities to sales executives for further development and closure
So, what skills do you need to watch out for when hiring an inside sales representative?
With hundreds of thousands of available inside sales representatives available in the market today, it’s important to ensure that you’re getting the cream of the crop so that you have more successful efforts. Fortunately, sifting through the pool of options that you can choose from won’t be too difficult because we’ve put together this checklist of vital and valuable skills to watch out for:
-
Communication skills
Considering they will spend the majority of their working hours talking with potential customers and getting them to convert, it’s clear that communication skills are a MUST.
When you get to pick candidates that possess an innate and refined ability to communicate effectively, it becomes a whole lot easier to ensure that you have more success in your outreach efforts. Having inside sales professionals that can talk well enough to sell more has become especially important in recent years. This is because of how communication itself now plays a key role in conversions and customer satisfaction!
-
Research skills
Part of an inside sales representative’s set of responsibilities entails building a pool of potential candidates and customers. This means that they have to possess the right research skills to maximize their efforts. As a matter of fact, many representatives have taken it upon themselves to improve their research to the point where the most successful professionals follow pre-call research protocols to increase their chances of success!
-
Time management skills
With most inside sales representatives needing to deal with a mounting number of tasks during each day they spend at work, it’s important that they apply the greatest level of time management possible for the best results. If you get a representative that knows how to handle their allotted time well, you won’t need to worry about missing the mark on your conversion goals because they will have the necessary foresight to optimize their efforts!
Conclusion
Investing in inside sales representatives is one of the best things you can do for your business to succeed, grow, and thrive. Through the help of these well-trained professionals, you’ll be able to achieve top-quality results and close the gap between your business and its sales forecasts in no time!
At CrewBloom, we provide the best-outsourced sales teams in the Philippines for businesses all over the United States. If you’re certain about taking your outbound marketing to the next level, get in touch with us today to learn more about how we can help!
