Great Expectations: The True Role of an Inside Salesperson

  Inside sales is a talking game, a game of listening—a conversation.  As I’ve said before in this space, it’s a contact sport:  the more “hits” the more contact, the better your chances to close deals.

            The people who say that cold calling is dead fail to realize that the initial point of new business is done over the phone.  The phone is warmer than a blind email and less obtrusive than showing up at the door unannounced.  If you can’t make headway over the phone, then you’ll never step inside the prospect’s place of work.  That’s a fact.

            The point is that inside sales teams need to be on the on the horn.  If you don’t believe that placing more calls creates opportunities then put down the phone and walk away because it’s never going to ring back.

            Making 80-100 dials a day is not asking for too much.  However, if the salesperson is expected to make the calls and send out emails and prospect then it might be time for the manager to step back and ask himself, “Are we asking too much from our sales team?  Are we providing them the tools to best utilize their time and energy and resources?”

            The goal of an inside sales team is to have meetings (ten per week per individual is considered the norm) with as many decision makers as possible.  While prospecting is an essential part of the sales process, it should not be part of the salesperson’s responsibilities.  A salesperson shouldn’t have to look for qualified leads and check them against Salesforce to see if they free to pursue.

            The answer:  hire (more) lead generators.

            Solve this problem and the inside salesperson whose only responsibility is to make contact with key decision makers can’t moan about not making the dials.

            “Yeah,” some may gripe, “but all that dialing … it’s exhausting.”

            Fine.  The next step for a manager is to implement an auto-dialing program.

            Look, ma, no fingers!

            Sales starts as a talking game.  Dialogue follows and the endgame moves closer:  deal or no deal.  To get to this point requires the desire (budget and resources, too) to remove everything else that is preventing the salesperson from taking.