Inside sales or outside sales; right now, during the pandemic almost the majority of the salespeople are selling remotely, but as the world is healing; which feels more normal now? which model should one company default to. Two sales that are completely at odds with each other one: are focused on clients with high acquisition costs and high annual account value and the other focuses on high sales velocity. But the truth is they are two sides of the same coin you likely need both of them to run your company. In this article we are going to determine which is the best balance for your organization, let us take a look at the nitty-gritty details of what you need.
Inside sales
Or remote sales meaning; it is done entirely in the office from the sales rep’s desk. Instead of selling door-to-door and face-to-face inside sales making use of the communication tools that modern salespeople have at their disposal, phone, email, CRM platforms, and much more it is one of the topmost sales models in B2B, especially for SaaS. One of the common misconceptions that are finally starting to fade is; that it inside sales is just telemarketing, the difference here is that telemarketing is automated, it can be done by anyone even a computer but inside sales, however, needs a skilled salesperson it is done by combining CRM platform with outbound sales.
Outside Sales
The secret is in its name itself, it means the selling of products and services in person or face-to-face interaction it can also be called field sales, the outside sales rep doesn’t work in-house: instead, they meet with prospects outside the office. This usually involves a large amount of travel autonomy and emotional intelligence. This part of sales deals with large and more expensive accounts than an inside sales rep. They are often called company superstars. With today’s sales tools like Skype and Zoom, a large portion of jobs can be done from the office. What sets outside sales apart from everything else is the flexibility and willingness to be in person whenever or wherever needed to make the sale.
Inside sales versus outside sales
Traditionally companies have focused primarily on outside sales but the industry is changing. Inside sales are growing at a massive rate of 15 times faster than outside sales. Most of the teams now tend to have 50/50 for their teams, People are now becoming more comfortable in making large purchases online no matter what your product is other small or big you need to make sure that you have a team that can do both inside and outside sales.
The benefit of inside sales
Let’s take a look at a few key benefits of having an inside sales team here are some of the most impactful ones:
Faster response time to leads
The inside sales team will be able to respond to queries quickly through emails through a phone call, there is no necessity for an in-person visit a phone call video call or email is a viable communication channel, but if you are outside the sales team your representatives will need to make a trip to the customer’s location to answer queries or provide help.
Reduced cost of sales
Your sales rep can send emails and make calls at a faster rate than, if they had to give a person a visit, each contact with the new lead costs less than for an outside sales team. Research has found that inside sales can reduce the cost of sales by 40 to 90% in comparison to field sales.
Spend more time selling
Inside sales reps spend 35% of their week selling compared to 22% for outside sales representatives they don’t need to spend their time travelling that can be put to watching respecting and following up with more leads.
Easier to scale the team
It is not a secret that scaling a sales team is tricky if you want someone to switch territories or hire new reps. It is very location-specific; many sales reps can be re-elected to change territory inside the sales team as far more scalable as they require less location-specific knowledge and of customer relations.
Increase teamwork
You can structure your inside sales team in such a way that encourages collaboration, for example, you can have one team member who makes introductory calls to determine what the customer needs, and after the first call, you can have an accountant rep take over. But in the outside sales process, it relies on one person managing the whole sales process and more independently.
Benefits of outside sales
Spending personalized time with clients in person, can help in making the more invested and make you an effective outside sales representative let us look at some perks duty of outside sales models;
Develop stronger client relationships
Relationship with the client over a phone call is not easy, outside sales enable your team to build relationships with each other and tailor the sales process to their exact needs.
Higher closing ratios
An outside sale can convert 40% more prospects than inside sales reps. This does not mean that outside sales are better in every case if you are selling to a large client that face-to-face meeting can be more influential than an email or a video call. It is also easier to manage the complex sales process that can involve many decision-makers.
Commission can be motivating
We all know that outside sales operate with the commission-based payment structure, outside sales are used when you are selling to enterprise clients so the higher Commission makes sense this can be a motivating factor for your team and it ensures that the focus of the sales team is closing the deal with qualified leads.
To wrap up, during the pandemic inside sales was a go-to for most of the industries, but as time progresses most companies are learning to strike a balance between inside and outside sales, it costs less to build an inside sales team and it is more scalable. Whereas if you are dealing with enterprise clients and a long sales cycle that an outside sales team seems to be a better fit for you. Or you can outsource a sales team and hire a team that will handle everything that is based on your requirement and helps you close deals with more of your ideal customers.
