Brenda Linhares - Partner & CMO @Insight Sales
If your business is a for-profit corporation, selling is definitely a critical task on the priority list. Sales is what keeps your business running, even if you've already received investments along the way. Investment is an extra fuel to boost a business, but without an excellent sales process, this "car" will not run for a long time.
Sales professionals are relentlessly looking to close as many deals as possible. Often, that means going out to meet potential clients face-to-face. This process of leaving the office to pitch is called outside sales or field sales. When sales happen without the need for that face-to-face visit, it's what we call Inside Sales.
Being an often more economical sales method, the Inside Sales process does not require salespeople to leave the office. Instead, they do their work pretty much entirely on company premises. Many businesses dismiss the idea of inside sales as they imagine the process to be similar to telemarketing. This thought could not be more wrong. The Inside Sales process plays a key role in modern sales strategies, but it needs to be well structured to generate results. Therefore, an experienced Inside Sales consultancy firm can be the answer when implementing or evolving your process. Follow this article to understand what makes an Inside Sales consultancy firm relevant to your sales process.
What is Inside Sales?
As we have already mentioned, Inside Sales is a sales method in which salespeople execute the entire process at the company's facilities (or even remotely), with the help of sales tools that works mostly in the cloud.
In this remote sales format, inside salespeople must have extensive training and knowledge about their products and services, and they need to have the answer to any question that a potential customer might have. In addition, the processes need to be round and up-to-date so that there are no doubts during the negotiations. This in-depth knowledge helps build a stronger professional relationship with prospects who are in another location.
How does an Inside Sales consultancy work?
Inside Sales consulting firms provide a more cost-effective and efficient way to improve your sales team's performance.
Having an outside expert's opinion helps drive growth and drive desired outcomes for sales executives, salespeople, and managers.
These specialists are dealing with different companies from numerous segments, constantly keeping their knowledge updated about the changes in the market. Businesses that ignore the importance of improving and developing their internal sales team are risking missing opportunities for growth.
With expert industry knowledge, relevant experience and relevant education, sales consultants help companies strengthen the performance of their sales teams by providing innovative strategies and solutions to their challenges.
When should companies consider an Inside Sales consultancy firm?
It is common for organizations and sales teams to face many problems in their routines. Effectively identifying and distinguishing these potential threats leads to better sales performance and results.
Common challenges faced by sales teams include:
- Low generation of qualified leads
- Difficulty engaging with decision makers
- Not meeting quota
- Lack of Sales Ops professionals
- Poor team structure and sales processes
- Bad sales management
- Slow talent development
- Team without technical knowledge
These problems are not always easy to analyze and identify. Consulting services help you gain an outside perspective backed by a wealth of knowledge and experience. After all, doctors shouldn't self-diagnose when they're sick and an Inside Sales team probably won't know exactly where their performance is decaying.
Furthermore, executives and sales managers who identify their team's challenges don't always have the right answers or solutions. It's not uncommon for a sales professional to know what's wrong but not know or not have the time to fix it. Inside Sales consultants come in to facilitate and fix these bottlenecks.
The more time a sales team spends trying to identify a problem, the more time they are wasting from prospecting, making sales calls, sending emails, converting leads, and performing other necessary functions to generate revenue.
The seven main qualities of a good Inside Sales consultancy firm
A good Inside Sales consultancy firm offers exclusive services aimed at optimizing the job performed by the sales team, improving results and solving current and potential problems. By identifying sales opportunities, building and improving sales results, and acting as a supportive partner, inside sales consultants make achieving company goals more manageable and efficient.
When hiring the services of a sales consultant, it is essential to understand how they will help you achieve your goals and improve performance. Check out 7 essential demands that you should check before signing a contract with an Inside Sales consultancy firm:
1. The Consultancy firm works with lead generation
Generating leads is an essential part of improving the flow of your Sales Funnel, and if this is the bottleneck of your operation, this part of the process definitely needs to be included in the scope of the company.
2. The consulting firm helps increase conversion rates
It is essential that the consultancy firm analyze and identify current and potential challenges that are preventing the conversion rates to grow. Determining solutions and strategies to improve conversion, creating trackable metrics, and organizing it all in the pipeline is a service that needs to be included.
These processes, being fluid within the funnel, are responsible for a large part of the revenue generated. To be below your industry's conversion average rate indicates that there is a problem occurring somewhere in the lead conversion process. A sales consultant will effectively identify and correct these issues.
3. The Consultancy firm conducts training
Whether with the aim of integrating new employees, offering customized training or implementing more modern techniques, training and role playing is a fundamental part of an Inside Sales Consultancy firm tasks.
With a properly trained sales team, companies undoubtedly experience positive changes in the overall performance of employees.
4. The Consultancy firm does Coaching
Personalized advice according to the profile of each employee is very important. Observing behavior and performance, and then adjusting and clarifying sales leaders' expectations are all part of an Inside Sales consultancy firm's job.
5. The Consultancy firm helps build sales teams
Analyzing and reconfiguring the sales structure considering budgets, and determining the necessary skills and competencies of the sales team is also the role of a good consultancy firm. Building an effective and well-performing sales team requires more than finding the right people, they need to fit in with the company's culture, and generate long-term results, which is why having specialists working with this focus is essential.
6. The Consultancy firm implements new sales technologies
Determining which technology is best suited for a sales team based on individual needs, and also training and supporting the team members through this transition processes is a primary part of a modern Inside Sales consulting scope.
Technology plays a significant role in the success of an inside sales team. Determining the right technology for a company's sales department requires much more than finding the fastest and cheapest program. Sales consultants delve into each sales team's roles, processes, and requirements to determine which technology is the best fit. They also provide up-to-date information on new and emerging technologies that present a competitive advantage for your company.
7. The Consultancy firm analyze the usability of technologies
Analyzing the usability of technologies being used in a business, and whether they are effective for the sales team is an excellent way to better calculate the team's budget.
Sales consultants must identify systems that needs to be discarded to create better opportunities for improvement, and allocate the budget in a better way.
Insight Sales consulting services include all these steps and more. If you want to evolve your sales and make your Inside Sales team the greatest of all, talk to us.
