Inside Sales Feels Misunderstood
I’ve been living in San Francisco for over 30 years and I cringe when someone calls it “Frisco.” It’s usually people who are not from here — people who just don’t understand.
It’s the same with inside salespeople. When someone uses the “T” word—telemarketers—to describe them, they’re insulted. And rightly so! The T word reduces them to the stereotype of “smile and dial” phone jocks, which they are not.
Inside sales departments are one of the few groups who continue to innovate and test new skills, tools and processes. Just when you thought you had inside sales figured out, they go off and reinvent themselves again. Look— inside sales reps even have their own dedicated official organization: http://www.aa-isp.org/index2.php. And based on the success from last month’s Sales 2.0 conference, the sales community is ready to move to the next generation of sales alternatives.
Still, it’s easy for them to feel misunderstood, and even to be a little bit confused about their own profession.
Let’s look at 7 common general misunderstandings about inside sales:
- Best Rep becomes Best Manager? The majority of inside sales managers were once individual contributors. But the skills that got them there are not necessarily the same skills that will get them to drive revenue and lead during uncertain times. It’s time for inside sales managers to build stronger dashboards of skills. They need to be politically savvy, technically astute, sales-focused, and aware of social marketing. They need to be , team communicators and empathetic leaders.
- What’s my title? There’s an incredible abundance of titles in an inside sales organization. It’s not uncommon for lead dev, lead gen, biz dev, corporate sales, inside account exe, direct sales, telesales, and inside sales to all be lumped together in one place. To make real progress, this melting pot effect must come together on systems, tools and skills.
- What am I measured on? How can Sales 2.0 Web-based tools be measured for activity and productivity? Does one count the number of LinkedIn connections and Twitter followers to confirm productivity? Frustrated managers are wondering what happened to the days when they could pull up a call report to measure the number of outbound. New measurements for accountability must be considered now. Inside teams must still understand what they can do to be successful. Just hitting their numbers and making quota isn’t enough.
- Who do I report to? Tired of getting jerked around by the reporting structure? One week, inside sales reports to sales, another they report into operations, and another they report into marketing. This is a higher-level problem that also gets caught in compensation issues. Reporting structure must stay consistent among this group and expectations must be clear.
- Is Friday our Call Blitz Day? The best way to get a spike in activity is to design a call campaign or call blitz but it this isn’t well thought out, it can backfire. Determine the call blitz goals. Spend more time planning, researching, and organizing who to call and less time actually reaching out. Be creative on what you want to “blitz” — it can be an email writing blitz or can be a “call the power buyer blitz to get out of the No-Po zone” or can be a “clean up your tools so you look presentable blitz.” Remember, it’s not all about the phone anymore.
- What am I selling today? With more mergers and acquisitions, inside sales gets to test the audience and response to new products. Paralysis is a big problem. So the more products and services you throw at this team, the harder it becomes for them to articulate the solutions. We know how tired everyone is hearing “our broad suite of products” in their opening. Focus, Focus, Focus on single-solution selling to create value on your brand and messaging.
- What’s the objection du jour? It’s brutal out there! Inside teams are getting slammed with a tidal wave of objections on a daily basis. Not to mention the fear and panic settling in when they watch their friends and family get laid off and fear their time may be up to. Inside teams need a stress outlet. They must have more opportunities to come together to share their challenges, rant about customers, do something fun and physical that breathes new air in their daily thoughts.
TeleSmart to the rescue! During uncertain times, we never stop innovating to bring relevant and timely training for inside sales warriors. Invest in training now! According to the recent IDC report,
- Organizations that cut sales training in 2009 will suffer.
- Organizations that bolster sales training in 2009 will prosper!
Training is also a great motivator and confidence builder. For more than 15 years, TeleSmart has been delivering relevant and timely inside sales training. Get your teams certified on the TeleSmart 10 — a proven methodology, and the only one targeted directly at inside sales.
Coming soon! The only sales skills sourcebook written specifically for inside sales warriors, and it's written from where you sit: inside the cubicle. Josiane Feigon's Smart Selling on the Phone and Online, due Fall 2009 from AMACOM. While you're waiting for it to come out, download our Inside Sales Trends 2009 white paper and listen to our podcast on the topic.
Sales Shebang May Webinar Series - A fantastic line-up of women authors, speakers and all around sales gurus. Jill Konrath has masterminded this great series of webinars taking place next month, stay tuned for sign-up information.
Follow us on Twitter and Read the TeleSmart Blog
Check out some podcast interviews with some inside sales innovators and RSS feed.
|
|
|
|
Josiane's articles featured in:
|
|
