“The secret of change is to focus all of your energy not on fighting the old but building the new.”

Lori Harmon at XANT NEXT2020

Sales will never be the same. This may sound extreme on the surface – but in reality, sales will never return to the way it was before the COVID-19 pandemic, and this is a good thing. Many of the needed sales process changes were forced upon us as we adjusted to selling from home. And now we will keep the best of those changes going forward. Those who cling to the old ways will be left behind.

A quick characterization of these changes is “digital transformation”. In place of in-person meetings–video meetings. In place of fully synchronous communication–asynchronous communication. In place of “management by walking around”–digital tools, instrumentation, and metrics.

The digital transformation that many in sales half-heartedly embraced is now mandatory.

CRM–not optional. Remote presentations–not optional. Screen sharing, email, documentation, call recordings, sales engagement cadences–all not optional.  Technologies many “senior” salespeople viewed as tools for their younger counterparts are now required to succeed: LinkedIn Sales Navigator, ZoomInfo, XANT Playbooks, Chorus, Vidyard, Sendoso, Outreach… these are no longer novelties, but necessities for doing business in a digitally revolutionized world.

And these changes are not temporary.  Bob Summers, Managing Partner of Vertical Relevance, points out that although some may be ready to get back to face-to-face meetings, customers may not be. He estimates financial services business development professionals will not be able to get face to face with their customers well into 2021, indicating that building new remote selling habits and adopting new technologies and processes will be required. “Companies must adapt to a digital-first mindset from both a product development and an organizational perspective. Helping companies get there is a core part of what Vertical Relevance helps large-scale sales organizations achieve.”

Inside Sales Teams are Already Digital

We’ve known digital transformation was coming for a long time; many have already transformed their sales development and inside sales teams. These teams are younger, digitally native, and open to change. If you examine a typical inside team, you will see clear aspects of the future. A good sales development rep pivots effortlessly between email, LinkedIn, XANT, Vidyard… She leverages technology for remote and asynchronous interactions at unprecedented speed. She’s often more comfortable in WhatsApp than she is on the phone – which works because so are her target customers.

B2B Customers are Already Digital

As of 2020, 50% of the global workforce is now of the millennial age or younger. This includes of course B2B buyers. These B2B buyers can complete 62% of their buying process without ever talking to a salesperson (Forrester Research). They have access to unprecedented amounts of information about products, vendors, competitors, and peers. More and more, they are not interested  in in-person lunches and in-person meetings. They know what they know, they know what they need to find out, and they would like a salesperson to help them learn in an efficient manner. For today’s buyers, a link to an online resource is perfectly adequate–when they need a voiceover they ask for it. A quick text exchange to answer a question is respectful and efficient. Of course, the buyer will need to rally their own buying committee and orchestrate larger conversations to make big purchases, but these are meetings that can be done just as easily over a video conference.

For Enterprise Sales, Digital Transformation is Here

Very few of us have gone so far as to suppose our seasoned enterprise reps want or need new digital tools to get their jobs done. Often our reps have been on their own–lone wolves more or less–executing a personal playbook they have perfected over years or decades of experience. They have their own personal formula for success. Management might wonder, but rarely question, how they organize their time or plan their work. The field rep shows up on forecast calls, QBRs, and enters minimal details about deals into CRM so they can get paid. Very little else about their job is standardized or automated. They may use a personal cell phone to follow up on customers and prospects. They may travel to pay a visit to a prospect for a formal or informal meeting. They may ask for help from one of the company’s expert resources in a meeting they organized. Highly visible in-person meetings punctuate this cadence, where the rep’s manager, selling team, and often C-level executives show up on-site to meet with the deal’s exec sponsor and key influencers. These meetings are important on both sides of the deal as they focus on energy and commitment and force preparation and progress toward alignment.

All these efforts culminate in a  “gut feel”  forecast that gets reported on the weekly calls.

All this has changed with the disruption that is COVID-19–all field reps are now inside reps. As Justin Edwards points out, now “100% of meetings are online instead of face-to-face.” All communication is digital.

Reps and managers have two choices:

1. Wait for things to get back to Those making this choice might be working on projects around the house, catching up on Netflix, and waiting to “be able to do their job.”
2. Work in the new normal. These people are creating workarounds. They are busier than ever. They are learning new tools and processes. They are leveraging digital and asynchronous communication. They are re-thinking how they interact with their own team and with their customers.

The professionals in camp #2 will have an advantage on the other side of this pandemic. They will have advanced their own “digital transformation” and become that much more in tune with how buyers want to buy. Those in camp #1 will be left behind.

According to Sales Futurist, Justin Michael, “The role definitions are blending, even going away. Field reps now inside can gain a unique competitive advantage by learning to adapt and power-use their existing and future tech stacks. Once technology avoidant, the modernized field becomes one with the stack almost like a Jarvis Iron Man Suit.”

And Sally Duby, Bridge Group Chief Sales Officer, “Companies that had a great tech stack and were using modern tools and technology before the pandemic are ahead of the curve and should come out of this stronger than the ones scrambling now to get it together. The companies that were already measuring, tracking, and reporting their metrics are also ahead of the curve.”

The Future of Sales

The future version of sales, “the new normal,” will have five characteristics that distinguish it from its predecessor versions:

• Digital
• Fast
• Self-guided Buying
• Content-rich
• Instrumented

1. Digital

Winning by Design, a thought-leading consultancy based out of Silicon Valley, recently studied sales performance data from over 500 SaaS companies and focused specifically on successful SMB reps transitioning to Enterprise.

These reps did between 25-50% of their meetings remotely, even at $500,000 and above contract values. They leveraged the tools they learned in SMB for prospecting (LinkedIn, ZoomInfo, XANT, etc), as well as Zoom / GoToMeeting / Google Hangouts for remote meetings. They developed specific techniques for replicating an in-person meeting online, including:

• Preparation beforehand (average of 2-8 hours preparing for each meeting)
• Clear agenda
• Engagement of everyone during the call (they assigned someone on their side to actively work the chat window during the meeting)
• Timely notes and follow-ups afterward

In addition to hosting digital, synchronous meetings, these reps were more likely to use asynchronous communication techniques, such as email and pre-recorded video. For instance, best practice when emailing a proposal was to send it with a video-recorded walk-through overlaid (recorded on a platform like Vidyard), which then not only ensures everyone the proposal is forwarded to sees and hears the rationale behind the proposal, but it also allows the seller to track opens, clicks and forwards to see how engaged the buyer is.

Source: Winning By Design, The impact of remote selling on Enterprise Sales

“Today’s buyers want to buy impact right now, not 12-18 months from now,” notes Jacco van der Kooij, co-CEO of Winning by Design. “Therefore, the speed of the sale is not determined by the speed at which a seller sells, but rather by the speed at which a buyer buys. Digital Selling is an answer to Digital Buying and it happens at a faster speed.”

2. Fast

One of the main characteristics of a modern seller is speed. Part of this is because the modern seller is always on. Time to respond to an email? Minutes or hours (never days). From the buyer’s millennial mindset, a perfect answer a few days from now is not nearly as valuable as a pretty good answer a few minutes from now.

Among other things, the pandemic has increased the importance of sales speed. In Aligning Strategy and Sales (Harvard Business Review Press), Frank Cespedes points out that in most companies the selling cycle is the biggest driver of cash out and cash in. Accounts payable accrue during selling, and accounts receivable are mainly determined by what’s sold at what price and how fast. Consider the impact on your business, now and after the crisis, of shortening selling cycles and accelerating time- to-cash by a week or more.

Iterations, responsiveness, and multi-modality characterize the modern buyer and now the modern seller. It’s easy to find examples of conversations that start on LinkedIn messenger, the transition to email, and then transition to text. Some interactions are text, some are video, some are phone. But the common denominator is that the seller is willing and able to set a pace that keeps the buyer moving forward in the process and leaning in. Winning By Design defines 3 “speeds:”

• Speed 1: In-person (take time to schedule, travel takes time,)
• Speed 2: Remote synchronous (saves the travel time)
• Speed 3: Remote asynchronous (saves scheduling time and increases ‘touches’)

3. Self-guided Buying

One of the major shifts of the past decade is the balance of power between buyer and seller. B2B buyers say they can complete 62% of their selection criteria, including developing a shortlist of potential vendors, without ever speaking with a sales rep. In that environment, what value does the sales rep add?

Yes… that is the question. “What value does the sales rep add? We have to have a clear answer to that question every time we engage,” said Katie Azuma, global VP of Business Development for Infor. Since buyers are largely self-sufficient on the basics, reps need to bring value beyond the basics–consultative skills the buyer can only get from an experienced and studied ‘expert.’

4. Content Rich

Sometimes not all the necessary knowledge and skills are in the rep’s head. In that case, she can always broker expertise, but she needs to know how and where to find it so she can curate the right information and get it to her customer in a timely way that supports their self-guided buying journey.

According to a group of senior executives assembled at XANT NEXT2020, the problem is not a lack of information–the problem now is too much information. “I know the data is out there,” said Jacquie White, SVP Customer Success at DXC, “I just need someone to tell me what to pay attention to. When I engage with a rep, I need them to add value and save me time.”

Modern reps are buying concierges. Precisely because buyers now have access to so much information about product and price, research indicates they place a higher value on the salesperson who can usefully curate that information to their business context. (Frank Cespedes and Jared Hamilton, “Selling to Consumers Who Do Their Homework Online,” HBR.org March 16, 2016; Frank V. Cespedes and Tiffani Bova, “What Salespeople Need to Know About the New B2B Landscape,” HBR.org August 5, 2015)

5. Instrumented

Remember how we said above that field reps have traditionally been lone wolves, checking in only periodically to report on results? That is rapidly changing. As modern reps engage in modern sales processes (right now 100% online), data is available as never before about what reps are doing when and with whom. It’s as if we’ve outfitted each rep with a fitness tracker. The good sales organizations treat this the same way you would treat data for an elite athlete. What are they doing that’s working? What are they doing that’s not working? Elite athletes and coaches alike depend on data to get better every day and every week. With today’s digital selling process, we can do the same thing.

Welcome to the New World of Selling

Let’s face it, we are never going back.

What B2B seller, after spending 90-180 days fine-tuning their sell-from- home motion, now wants to get on planes again and spend 14 days waiting for the travel day then 48 hours to travel to and from a corporate headquarters for a single meeting?

What B2B buyer wants to agree to in-person meetings when we just proved to ourselves that we can get it all done over video conference?

“Sellers are realizing how much more productive it can be to sell virtually because they are traveling less and can make more sales calls. Companies are realizing how productive and cost-effective it is to have sellers traveling less and working remotely. Most importantly, buyers are seeing the advantage of video meetings instead of in-office visits from vendors. And in today’s circumstances, buyers are more likely to be available to meet. Even when we return to our offices, virtual sales will still be easier and more cost-effective for buyers, who won’t have vendors coming by their offices, getting badged in, and taking additional time to network after the sales call.”

Lori Harmon, SVP Virtual Sales, NetApp

Within the new reality of sales, we can be:

• More digital
• Faster
• More self-guided
• More content-rich
• More instrumented

We can do this and we will do this. Or at least the winning teams will do this. Now is the time to get all systems and processes built and tested so that we come out of COVID-19 lockdown ready to put distance between us and our competitors who do not use this time to re-tool.

Sales is never going back, and that is a good thing. Let’s be on the right side of change–the promoters and catalysts, not the resisters. The future belongs to the bold. Comments and suggestions welcome as always.

Rock on!

-Dave Boyce & Chris Harrington

Resources:

XANT Playbooks Winning by Design

• Research
• Webinar on Remote Selling

Justin Michael Webinar on Building Pipeline

Justin Edwards, 3 Things COVID-19 Forced That Are Here to Stay XANT Labs, The Definitive Guide to Sales Cadence

Frank V. Cespedes and Jared Hamilton, “Selling to Consumers Who Do Their Homework Online,” HBR.org March 16, 2016

Frank V. Cespedes and Tiffani Bova, “What Salespeople Need to Know About the New B2B Landscape,” HBR.org August 5, 2015

Lori Harmon, “Our Finest Hour: How to Create a Virtual Sales Revenue Engine in a COVID-19 World and Beyond,” NetApp Blog, May 4, 2020

As digital sales transformations become mainstream, leaders begin to switch their attention from Why to How to lead a successful Change initiative.  Given 9 out of every 10 Change initiatives fail, how do you ensure yours is successful?

Your Change Directive

Historically, the consensus was that the biggest organizational headwind to accomplish change was “resistance to change”. We see something different.

We see the greatest barrier to change as inertia: as opposed to actively resisting change, employees tend to simply remain unchanged. Without the right external forces and internal motivators, people will continue to do what’s comfortable.

Your Change directive is to motivate people to move in a new direction and to maintain momentum without reverting to old habits.

Three Keys to Change

Drawing on thousands of customer engagements, along with input from global change management experts, here are three things you should include in your Change initiative:

1) Offer a compelling vision of the future, call out what’s at stake, and what’s in it for them.
2) Clearly define what you’ll measure, how, and in what timeframe
3) Build a coalition of advocates

Compelling Vision

Change initiatives force teams into unfamiliar territory. To navigate it, you’ll need a North Star.

Make a bold and believable case for Change by first answering these four questions:

1. Why shouldn’t teams be satisfied with the status quo?

* People don’t often recognize the pain, dissatisfaction or friction in their current state until they compare it against what could be.

2. What is the visionary outcome of this change?

* For example: it will enable us to enter new markets; it will enable each of us a clear path to success against quota: it will transform our customers’ experience.

3. Why is this new approach — with all its attendant disruptions to process, measurement, and technology — necessary?

4. What will the team get at the end of it?

No amount of vision or hard work will compel your people to move beyond inertia if they don’t clearly understand why they are engaged in this change and can imagine what success looks like.

Articulate the distance between “what is” vs. “what could be” for each team, make it attainable for them, recognize success along the way, and tie these changes to the strategy and values of the company you work in.

Measurement

Teams expect consistency. This is especially true when you take a wrecking ball to their ways of doing business.

What you measure, how they’ll respond, and the factors that influence success, must be defined, clearly and frequently articulated, and come to represent who we are, not just what we do.

Break it down into three categories:

1. Impact
2. Reaction
3. Benefit realization

IMPACT

• What will stay the same? What do they need to start doing? What do they need to stop doing?
• Set expectations for each of those behaviors and how you intend to measure them.
• Monitor the speed of adoption, the level of utilization and the level of proficiency.
• Course-correct frequently and in small increments.
• Create continuous training in small, frequent increments, so that everyone can easily refresh their knowledge.
• Ensure you build the right support systems or other infrastructure to enable them to succeed.
• Agree to a communications cadence and stick to it!!
• Ensure your compensation structures are aligned with the new environment – ideally, you can build incentives to achieve your aims; at the very least make sure your comp structure doesn’t incent behavior contrary to the new environment.

REACTION

• Each stakeholder will be impacted differently and will respond differently.
• Understand your stakeholders’ different perspectives and respond to them.
• Evaluate potential emotional reactions from each stakeholder persona. And build a plan to address them.

BENEFIT REALIZATION

• Reiterate your vision of success.
• Help your people to imagine what that looks like personally, for them.
• Communicate that this change is an opportunity for each of them to add a valuable skill to their resume, and to enhance their work experience.
• Celebrate success every step of the way.
• Empower them to act as change agents, don’t just have them wait for directions from above.
• Be clear about the consequences for not getting on board with this change.

Build a Coalition of Advocates

• You need broad support from people who can help you see this through.
• Find sponsors who will advocate for Change.
• This is a coalition of leaders and influencers who will buy into your bold vision, will help you promote it throughout the organization, and will hold teams accountable to the measures of success.
• It will include a mix of executives, front line managers, even power users.
• Include your customers!
• Adopting new technology and new processes will impact the way you engage with them.
• Where possible, interview them. Get validation from them.
• Imagine how big of an impact a handful of customer champions could have on your internal momentum.
• Then, define what each advocate group is expected to do and communicate regularly.
• You own the execution. That means you hold the people accountable who hold the rest of the organization accountable.

Momentum Beyond Change

Change initiatives, like your digital sales transformation, can be a defining moment for you and for your business.

If you’ve already started a Change initiative but have encountered obstacles, go back to the basics – the why, and the how and reorient your efforts to get back on track. You will course correct this multiple times as you drive your initiative forwards.

Successful change initiatives, whether they are those which you implement internally, or whether you are driving these as part of your sales process, rely on continuous iteration, and a fanatical attention to keeping the initiative fresh and relevant.

To make your change initiative a standout success, report on progress regularly, capture champion stories, continuously reinforce the vision and maintain momentum beyond change.

For additional insight into a New Formula for Change by Change Management expert Raul Cevallos, click here

Working remote has been an interesting change for me as an inside sales leader who, for the last decade, has been running insides sales teams that sell digitally to now selling with a 100% remote sales team. I have to admit, I miss the personal interaction of being in the office with my co-workers and the mind share that happens working side by side every day. One of the biggest challenges I did not anticipate was; how do you train a new hire who is 100% remote? Like many companies out there, we had three new hires right around the time COVID-19 had forced everyone to work from home.

I had to work quickly and adjust not only for our inside sales team but also for these brand-new employees, who had committed this time in their career to XANT. Though there have been some bumps in the road, here are some of the things I have learned over the last four weeks:

Listen to Calls

Listening to live calls and past recorded calls is a must for both your senior account executives (AEs) as well as your newest AEs! New AEs need to not only know the value prop and message of the product you are asking them to sell, they also need to hear and understand the customers current state and some of the challenges your product can help solve.

Listening to calls alone will not be enough to ramp quickly. Post call sales training will allow you to dissect these calls and will help internalize correct processes. These calls will also highlight many of things they may have missed working on their own. A pro-tip is to create a basic rubric for them to score each call as they review. This will help everyone to gauge progress and understanding.

Virtual Role Play

During this work from home period, one of the activities I miss the most is live role playing with my sales team. In the past, our new employees would team up with another AE for daily role-playing sessions from discovery to demo to overcoming objections. A role play partner provides a great opportunity for reps to coach each other, as well as helps them to build camaraderie and more quickly integrate into the team culture.

Working from home should not detract from this practice. In fact, working from home is the perfect place to hone these skills as digital seller execute their discovery calls and most demos remotely. Roleplaying will also sharpen their virtual conferencing skills. Teaming up new hires with a seasoned partner really makes this type of training work and will speed up the time for a new hire to fully ramp.

Over Communicate

When your sales team is in an office together, you can identify all of the non-verbal communication skills to quickly gauge if your new hires are sinking or swimming. Not having in person interaction requires some over communication so you don’t assume everything is running smoothly when it most likely is not.

A key part of over communication is to hold morning and evening check-ins with your new hires to map out the plan for the day, talk through any questions or challenges they may have and measure their progress. Using video for these check-ins is a great way to have a more personal connection to your team members.

I asked my team what they have missed the most about being in the office and many responded that they missed the ease of mind sharing and being able to mimic what they see working for others. To help overcome this, we use a team chat channel (Teams or Slack) where our team can post questions, successes, and challenges for the group to respond to. We also will spend time at the end of the day on a Zoom meeting, sharing successes of the day both with work and non-work-related topics. These types of regular touch points help to keep the culture of the group healthy and engaged.

The final point on this topic I would like to recommend is to make sure your new hire has a “Bat” phone when they have questions. Showing urgency to their needs and questions helps to ease frustration and can mirror the in-office experience where they can just walk up to someone and get an answer. Don’t miss this key ingredient, it is a massive difference maker.  If you find they are pestering you that could mean. either you are doing a poor job of communicating or you have hired the wrong individual.

Metrics

Many of the questions a new hire will have for the first 30 days are, how am I doing, what should I be working on right now, and am I going to be successful here? Metrics and benchmarks will help to answer those questions for you as well as your new employees. Every morning, have your new hire develop a plan for the day, identifying what they want to accomplish and have them be specific for you to review and sign off.

A simple plan may look something like this:

• Role play first call discovery with Mike from 9:00 – 10:00
• Review two discovery calls
• Prospect for two hours
  • Enroll 20 new contacts into a cadence
  • Send 20 emails
  • Make 40 cold calls

At the end of the day, review with them what actually happened. Were they able to complete all of their daily tasks, if not, what stopped them and how can we adjust for tomorrow?

If you are in Sales, you want and expect to me measured. Defining the correct benchmarks and metrics will provide the necessary feedback to ensure they are on track and will ultimately ramp on time.

The keys to successfully on-boarding and training a new employee are consistent role-plays, call reviews, and training, as well as keeping an open channel of communication to replicate the in-office experience. Finally, provide a plan to help measure progress and success beyond just a revenue target so both parties can quickly gauge where weaknesses may reside and identify a solution.

Author
Daren Reschke
Head of Emerging Enterprise Sales | XANT

RELATED: What Is Inside Sales? — Our Definition of Inside Sales

In this article:

1. Variety of Business Tactics
2. Quality and Quantity
3. Sales Cycle and Conversion
4. Qualifications and Skill Sets
5. Costing
6. Tools Used for Outside vs Inside Sales
7. Inside vs Outside Sales Team Structure
8. Overall Difference Between Outside and Inside Sales

What Is Outside Sales and How Is It Different from Inside Sales? | Differences Between Inside vs Outside Sales

Inside Sales Definition: Inside sales are sales made from working behind a desk, or “remotely.” It is also known as “remote sales,” as sales reps who practice this communicate with their clients virtually (i.e. through phone or email).

Outside Sales Definition: Outside sales are sales made outside the office. Sales reps who practice this meet up with their clients in person to present and close the deal.

1. Variety of Business Tactics

When you compare inside vs outside sales, you’ll see that each uses business tactics that align with the nature of their work.

Sales reps for outside sales use displays, presentations, and sample products whenever they interact with prospects and clients face to face. These are very effective, as it’s easier for people to process visual references compared to text-based presentations.

This preference for visually-oriented presentations gives outside sales reps an advantage. Since they meet with their clients in person, they can use these kinds of tactics to grab their prospects’ attention and persuade them.

Although inside sales reps engage their prospects and clients remotely, their methods are also catching up with outside sales. Meeting with people through web conferences, for example, closes the distance between all parties.

Through this and online meetings with screen sharing, sales reps can present their offers without meeting prospects and clients in person. Other tactics useful for outside sales are telesales, hosted Customer Relationship Management (CRM), and social media.

Though sales reps employ different business tactics, they all share one goal. All these should lead to closed deals and revenue for the company.

2. Quality and Quantity

Quality and quantity in sales

When it comes to quantity and quality, what are the arguments for each in the inside vs outside sales debate?

Sales reps for inside sales typically have more time to sell, as they stay in the office for most of the day.

They can contact and sell to more people each day, as they don’t have to travel to reach those they’re targeting. This also allows them to target a specific number of people to sell to each day.

While deals closed through inside sales are usually not what you would call “big-ticket,” it doesn’t mean you’ll only yield low-quality customers. What often happens is, the orders that inside sales reps receive are smaller in quantity compared to the ones produced by outside sales reps.

There is a reason why outside sales reps need to meet with their prospects and clients in person. It’s because, typically, what they sell are high-quality, complex products and services that come at steep prices.

They need to properly explain their offers so their target market will understand their need for them.

Due to the travel time they consume, and considering that they’re expected to connect with a specific target market, outside sales reps may sell to fewer customers.

Basically put, you can distinguish between inside sales vs outside sales as follows:

• Inside Sales — Reaches more people, but the revenue from each client may be smaller
• Outside Sales — Reaches less people, but the revenue from each client is generally higher

3. Sales Cycle and Conversion

You’ll also see differences when you compare the sales cycle and conversion of inside and outside sales.

Naturally, inside sales have a shorter sales cycle. This is because of the limited personal interaction between the sales rep and the customer.

On the other hand, field representatives for outside sales will often have longer sales cycles. They also do more legwork.

For instance, if they’re selling in a physical retail store, they need to manage inventory, set up displays, and visit the store regularly.

Sales reps for outside sales are more likely to build stronger relationships with their clients because of the amount of personal interaction they have.

When it comes to converting prospects, field reps have the upper hand. They’re able to convert prospects into clients more often than inside sales reps do.

Yet inside sales is seeing faster growth than outside sales due to its convenience.

4. Qualifications and Skill Sets

Learning about the skills needed for great sales reps

Considering the nature of their work, there are certain qualifications and skill sets that sales reps must possess. Much like how inside and outside sales are different, their sales reps also require different skills.

An inside sales representative must:

• Be Articulate — They must be able to express themselves well. Inside sales reps sell from behind the phone or computer screen, so they should be engaging and persuasive enough to get people to buy from them. They should be able to explain their products and services in an understandable and relatable way.
• Be Collaborative — Inside sales reps work in the office, so they interact with their colleagues every day. They should have a collaborative attitude to be able to work well with the rest of the sales team.
• Have Administrative Skills — Selling isn’t the only thing that inside sales reps do. They also attend to everyday administrative tasks in the office, so they need to balance both sides of the job.

An outside sales representative must:

• Be Able to Work Independently — Outside sales reps are also called “field reps” as they’re the ones who meet with clients to present and close deals. To maximize their time, they should be able to work independently and manage their own schedule and client appointments.
• Be Able to Adapt Well — They meet new people and visit new places often, so outside sales reps must be able to adjust easily to these new environments. Having this quality makes it easier for them to do their job better.
• Always Look Their Best — Compared to inside sales, working in outside sales means reps should be more attentive to how they present themselves. They should always look and be at their best whenever they face prospects and clients.

RELATED: How to Create a Cultural Transformation for Your Inside Sales Team 

5. Cost

It’s also worth considering the cost differences between the two, and how each can affect company expenses.

Outside sales is often more costly. This is because field reps have higher entry-level salaries compared to inside sales reps.

They also require additional work allowances to cover their travel and client meeting costs. Paying field reps through commission also makes it a bit more difficult for the company to settle on a set revenue and overhead costs.

Inside sales reps, on the other hand, have a more stable salary range as they have fixed schedules and working hours in the office.

Inside sales also works with cost-efficient platforms, which lessen acquisition expenses. These include the commonly-used CRM databases, web conference platforms, and analytics software.

6. Tools Used for Outside vs Inside Sales

Another thing that differs between inside sales and outside sales are the tools that they use to accomplish their tasks. After all, these two sales have different goals and therefore, needs different tools from one another.

What tools are Inside Sales using?

Since inside sales do most of their jobs remotely, they need to have tools that are able to accommodate that. Inside sales professionals need tools that will help them communicate better with their potential customers.

An inside sales representative doesn’t have the luxury of face-to-face communication in its sales process. Thus, they need tools that will help them improve their communication effectiveness and help them manage customer relationships.

This is where a good CRM comes in.

When it comes to lead generation or sales prospecting, an inside sales agent can be more productive with the help of CRM. It helps automate email marketing, cold calling, and more.

Since CRMs can speed up and increase the rate with which an inside salesperson can connect to a customer, this tool goes well with inside sales strategy.

What is Outside Sales using if not mainly CRM?

On that note, if CRM is the main tool that inside sales use, what does outside sales use then? After all, a field sales representative will hardly have access to software while on the road.

Although most sales technology is catering to inside sales, there are some that outside sales can use. For example, a sales mapping tool might prove useful for managing a sales territory for each rep.

Otherwise, normal equipment like a laptop, your phone, and so on are the usual tools that an outside sales professional uses.

Also, outside sales still has a use for CRM. However, it might not be as extensive as inside salespeople.

7. Inside vs Outside Sales Team Structure

When it comes to creating a sales team, your sales activities and sales position should be determined by whether you’re an outside or inside sales team. Luckily, they aren’t too different and complicated when arranging the sales organizations’ charts.

Inside Sales Team Structure

For the inside sales team, the volume of sales leads and the fast rate with which they are contacted requires the supervision of more staff. Due to this fact, there is more of a need for sales leaders to monitor certain areas of the sales funnel.

One, there is more of a need for professionals who can monitor the weaknesses of sales activities by inside sales reps. Once they see which are the weaker parts of the sales process, they make use of the information to train sales reps for better results.

Two, there is also the need for managers that can help sales reps with issues that crop up during the sales process. Since there is a high volume of leads and prospects, this is an important job for an inside sales team.

Outside Sales Team Structure

On the other hand, the outside sales team structure doesn’t require a lot of staff members. Instead, there is a need for sales reps to be more independent.

Compared to the inside sales team, an outside sales team structure comprises a lot of the usual. A sales manager, account manager, and sales reps.

Of course, for the outside sales team, there is the need for a trainer to keep the outside sales reps up-to-date on everything. From new product initiatives to additional information on the territory, they help train the sales reps overall.

8. Overall Difference Between Outside and Inside Sales

Outside sales and inside sales both have significant differences sales managers must take note of.

They are best used depending on your sales goals and business alignments. This makes their sales strategies more effective.

Aside from that, they both differ in terms of prospecting volume and value. Also, they differ in the sales cycle and conversion length.

Even the skillsets, costs, tools, technology, and team structure differs between two seemingly similar sales approach.

As different as inside and outside sales may be, you can still find ways to incorporate both strategies in your business. It doesn’t always have to be inside vs outside sales — you can create your own strategy to get the best of both worlds.

For instance, your field reps don’t always have to spend the whole day away from the office. They can make calls and set appointments from the office, then travel to the clients’ location to present and close the deal.

This will help you assess if inside and outside sales working together is practical for your sales team and overall business.

Which side are you on the inside vs outside sales debate? How does it help your business? Share your experiences with us in the comments section below!

Up Next:

• 7 Ways to Boost Sales Effectiveness
• Sales Best Practices Every Sales Professional Should Know
• 5 Best Practices to Deal with Phone Anxiety as a Sales Rep

Editor’s Note: This post was originally published on May 2, 2019, and has been updated for quality and relevancy.

RELATED: Salesperson Skills Of Top Performers

In this article:

1. What Is Client Relations?
2. Why Names Start Customer Relationships with a Bang
3. Add This Technique to Your Sales Skills and Kill It at Customer Relations
4. This Easy Memorization Trick Will Ensure Mastery of the Art of Remembering Names
5. Names, Personalized Aspects, and Client Relations for Closers

Remembering Names for Better Client Relations

What Is Client Relations?

Handling client relations for better sales

It is the process wherein a rep or a client relationship manager nurtures a connection with a prospect with the intention of turning them into long-time customers or partners.

Why Names Start Customer Relationships with a Bang

Dale Carnegie wrote, “A person’s name is to that person, the sweetest, most important sound in any language.”

This insight is what many customer relationship managers and customer service representatives learn at day one on the job. They perfect the art of remembering names as a basic interpersonal skill and sales best practice for setting client relations off to a good start.

Try this experiment next time you go into a diner. Call the waitress using the name in her tag and see if they’ll smile instantly.

We all want to feel special by having someone acknowledge our individual traits, and our first individual traits are our names. Nobody wants to be known purely as “service representatives” or “human resources manager” because we are not just our jobs or our business relationships.

Remembering your prospect’s names communicates that you don’t just see them as sales metrics and goals but as persons. It shows you respect them at a fundamental level.

Add This Technique to Your Sales Skills and Kill It at Customer Relations

Your account managers and sales reps each do around 11 to 12 sales calls per hour, 90 to 100 calls per day, and 450 to 500 calls per week. Remembering the names of each person they call requires memory approaching superhuman ability.

So how do we do this important client relations and business relationship management feat?

Identifying “one unique aspect” to help each employee remember their prospects, clients and co-workers a little better is part of the culture at XANT.

For example, my one unique aspect that I’m known for is that I am the only person at XANT that, until the age of 20, could fit through a plastic coat hanger without it breaking. (By the way, it’s actually not as difficult as it sounds.)

This “unique aspect” memory technique enables sales reps at XANT to remember a simple aspect about their prospect with the goal of developing a quicker bond and stronger relationship. Imagine the power that could be gained if you applied this idea to your client relations – how much easier would it be to personalize that business connection?

A productive sales team contacts large numbers of prospects per day – depending on your industry. With contacts potentially ranging very high, it’s impossible to remember each conversation individually, let alone something that makes that prospect unique.

Some reps will take the time to, after each conversation, copy down the entire conversation to try to remedy this problem. This is selling the human brain short.

Instead, take advantage of your ability to remember one very unique aspect of that conversation. Imagine how much more productive your client relations could be!

The next time you have a conversation with that prospect, you could refer back to that unique aspect and the conversation instantly gains a personalized tone.

An example of a finding one unique aspect of your prospects could be as simple as your prospect mentioning that they will be out of the office next week because they broke their foot and will be going into corrective surgery. Making note of their appointment and sincerely asking them about their recovery the next time you have a conversation will instantly create a personalized business relationship.

RELATED: How To Pitch Anything And Close More Deals

This Easy Memorization Trick Will Ensure Mastery of the Art of Remembering Names

The trouble with names is they are abstract ideas. This quality makes names easy to forget since they are intangible.

Aside from recalling a person’s unique aspect, you can also use the power of associations to better remember their names.

What you can do is to play association games in your name and link a person’s name to something silly.

Take the name “Mark Halperson” for example. You can imagine Mark Halperson holding a marker and marking half a person.

The next time you meet Mark Halperson, your brain will play the funny scenario of Mark running around with markers and highlighting people diagonally or vertically in a bid to “mark half a person.”

If you think doing this is an off-putting experience, I’d like you to know memory championship winners use this memorization technique called mnemonics on a regular basis to remember stuff. It will serve you well in your daily life and in your work, whatever industry you may be in, not just in sales.

Names, Personalized Aspects, and Client Relations for Closers

So remember, the goal of these exercises is to remember the name and a personalized aspect of your prospect that allows you to develop a business bond with them quicker. Not only does this make your business relationship stronger, but it tells your prospect that their business is important enough to you that you remembered something personal about them.

That personalized connection may be the difference between closing a prospect when the seas get rough and losing the deal.

Do you struggle with remembering names when you get in touch with clients? What techniques do you do to remember your clients’ names? Give us your answers in the comments section below.

Up Next:

• Inside Vs Outside Sales: What’s The Difference Between The Two
• The Top 5 Voicemail Mistakes for Inside Sales Reps to Avoid
• 6 Effective Time Management Strategies From Sales Experts

Editor’s Note: This post was originally published in May 2012. It has been updated for quality and relevancy.

RELATED: 7 Advantages Of Using CRM Software

In this article:

1. What Is Bitrix24?
2. Features and Benefits of Bitrix24
   1. Packed With Features to Help Small and Medium Business
   2. Provides Tools that Make Time and Task Management More Efficient
   3. Hands-On Task Supervision and Monitoring
   4. Provides Support for E-Commerce
   5. Offers Various Methods of Access
   6. Quick Integration With Other Third-Party Software
   7. Easier Communication Through Central Inter-Company Messaging Features
3. Bitrix24 Pricing
4. Bitrix24 Reviews

Bitrix24 Overview, Features, and Reviews

What Is Bitrix24?

Bitrix24 is a highly secure Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software for both small and medium-sized businesses.

CRM Software Definition: A Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software is an online platform that integrates all business activities into one ecosystem. It helps business owners automate tasks and monitor their sales pipeline.

It offers a multitude of different functionalities that can cater to every business need.

Bitrix24 is designed to boost collaboration and communication among employees. It also brings efficient data management through its cloud storage services.

By automating sales and marketing processes, Bitrix24 users can also enjoy advanced task management and improved teamwork.

Features and Benefits of Bitrix24

1. Packed With Features to Help Small and Medium Business

With the Bitrix24 CRM tools, small and medium businesses can get a panoramic view of the company, anytime and anywhere.

• Business Process Automation — Bitrix24 CRM platform can help you get rid of repetitive tasks through business process automation. Your teams can optimize business processes better, from employee onboarding to creating accounts payable invoices.
• Includes Tools Designed to Improve Sales Prospecting and Achieve Better Marketing Campaigns — The Bitrix24 CRM software offers tools that can create reports, sales analyses, and target audience segmentation.
• Intuitive Software — The software’s intuitive interface enables your sales managers to monitor the company’s sales funnel.
  • The interface lets you create unlimited pipelines. It also lets you create multiple sales funnels to cater for your products and services.
  • Apart from that, sales managers can also check on the progress of each sales officer easily.
  • The interface allows quick creation of funnel stages. Different employees can be assigned a separate color for better monitoring of progress.
• Unique CRM Dashboard Design — Through its unique CRM Dashboard design, your managers can quickly take a snapshot of how many deals a team has won. This helps them spot a team performer faster and reward him or her accordingly.
  • Through the dashboard, your finance team can see which clients have not yet been invoiced. It also lets your sales team set sales targets either as number of deals, or as sales volumes.
• Free Web Form Builder — Bitrix24 CRM tools also have a free web form builder. This can be used to create different forms and templates. Such forms can be embedded into websites and Bitrix24-hosted public pages.
• Provides Direct Access to Social Media Pages — This lets your employees engage with clients on different websites through Bitrix24.

2. Provides Tools that Make Time and Task Management More Efficient

Another feature that sets Bitrix24 apart from other software is its efficient project management tools.

It has a wide array of organizational features that can enhance your team’s efficiency.

• Project Groups — The software allows you to create separate groups for each of your projects. Each group can store all files, discussions, and tasks per project. You can customize the access parameters for each group so only authorized employees can access sensitive data.
• Project Timeline Tools
  • Calendars and Gantt Charts — The software’s platform also allows its users to organize project timelines through creating calendars and Gantt Chart.
  • Task Dependency Analysis — Helps sales managers establish logical relationships between tasks. Sales managers can also have an easier time monitoring each sales agent’s progress.
  • Customizable Tools — The platform enables users to customize checklists, notifications, and reminders. It also has a customizable task planner, which lets different teams delegate and customize fields in each task. These can help different teams rate different tasks easily and share templates.

Gantt Chart Definition: A Gantt Chart is a type of chart that shows the tasks, respective status per task, and the responsible persons. This helps sales managers monitor deadlines and identify potential delays.

3. Hands-On Task Supervision and Monitoring

One useful feature of Bitrix24 for sales managers is its task supervision deck. These can help supervisors rate employees’ efficiency while monitoring task reports.

• Email Integration for Task Assignments — The platform also lets your supervisors list tasks from emails. It also lets business owners spot recurring tasks to reduce turnaround time.
• More Efficient Task Assignment and Monitoring — Additionally, the software can also let your managers assign the counters and roles per project in one ecosystem. This lets managers have a more holistic view on the status of each employee’s tasks.
• Kanban View — The “Kanban View” in the software’s platform is also available for tasks and projects. This lets business owners manage employee workload, to avoid tasks being overdue. It also lets supervisors allocate how much time should be spent on individual tasks.

Kanban View Definition: A Kanban view or board can visually depict tasks by showing a team’s workflow and the team’s current progress. This helps sales managers monitor all work items and limit work-in-progress items.

4. Provides Support for E-Commerce

Using Bitrix24 CRM software for e-commerce

Bitrix24’s flexible e-commerce software tools can also help you boost your business’ sales achievements.

These features can help you manage your inventory, sales, and payment processing.

• Easier Calculation — The tools can help you automate processing and storing sales invoice as well. As a result, you can calculate for discounts, variable prices, and shipping costs easily.
• Assists in Website Creation and Monitoring — The platform lets you use your own domain name and customize your own website templates. It can also help you copy web pages and take advantage of Google Analytics and Google Maps.
• Stores Sales History — By storing your sales history, the software can speed up releasing sales and other financial reports.

5. Offers Various Methods of Access

Bitrix24 can be accessed either through cloud or on-premise with a unique source code access. The pricing is different depending on the type of access.

You can also install this software in your own company’s server and customize it.

Bitrix24 also comes with its own mobile and desktop apps, which are available for iOS and Android devices.

6. Quick Integration With Other Third-Party Software

Bitrix24 also allows users to link it with other software, such as Slack, Skype, Google Drive, and Office 365. You can also integrate your platform to other online marketplaces.

Through REST API in Bitrix24, you can create your own apps as well. Both API and REST API are available in the cloud and on-premise editions.

7. Easier Communication Through Central Inter-Company Messaging Features

Bitrix24’s messaging features are also noteworthy for its users. It allows inter-company messaging through different channels and mobile messengers.

• Project Channels — Through the platform, employees can assign a respective channel for each project. The interface also allows users to transfer conversations from one channel to another.
• Work Hour Limits — It also allows supervisors to create work-hour limits.
• Automated Greetings and Replies — Teams can also develop automated greetings and replies. These can be used to engage with clients from different social media platforms.

RELATED: 9 Best Sales Software Systems For Your Business

Bitrix24 Pricing

As discussed on the official website, the pricing is different for cloud and on-premise access, respectively.

Different rates apply for small and medium-sized companies that need CRM and professional task management.

A higher fee may be asked from companies that require cutting edge project management and advanced automation tools.

Bitrix24’s pricing plans are as follows:

Cloud Plans

• Free — For those just starting out, Bitrix24 offers a free trial. This gives access to a total of 12 users and an online storage capacity of 5GB.
• CRM+– $69/month
• Standard — $99/month
• Professional — $199/month

On-Premise Plans

• Bitrix24.CRM (12 users) — $1,490
• Business (ranges from 50-500 users) — $2,990-S14,990
• Enterprise (options include 1000, 5000, and unlimited users) — $24,990-$59,990

For more information on what each plan includes, check out the pricing matrix on the official website.

Bitrix24 Reviews

The following reviews are from different Bitrix24 platform users. These are from Capterra, a leading software review website in the U.S.

Bitrix24 is truly a state-of-the-art online tool. It enables business owners like you to boost the productivity of everyone aboard.

Bitrix24 pricing may depend on your business needs. You can assess which package is the most helpful for your business.

Have you tried Bitrix24? Share your experiences in the comments section below!

Up Next:

• Lead Management Software Review
• Must Have Sales Management Software
• Inside Vs Outside Sales: What’s The Difference Between The Two

• Quality and extent of feedback from peers
• Depth of experience and thought leadership in the inside sales community
• Review and final selections approved by AA-ISP Awards Committee

When we found out that three people from the XANT community were selected for this is prestigious award, we were as excited as they were. XANT had two customers recognized and one of our own internal leaders.

Alli Gentile currently serves as Vice President of National Sales at Pearson Education. Her career started in fundraising, and after transitioning to sales, she has become an inspiring leader for Pearson. She is constantly making a meaningful impact by helping teams focus as well as identifying and surpassing obstacles.

Trey McCall is Head of Commercial Sales at MobileIron. Trey is a data-driven sales strategy genius. He’s always able to move the needle for the team and has a proven ability to build and scale high-performing sales teams.

Joe Williams joined XANT in 2015 with more than 23 years of enterprise sales leadership experience. As the Senior Vice President of North America Enterprise Sales, Joe’s strategic leadership skills have brought remarkable growth for XANT.

Join us in congratulating these three, along with the other Top Sales Leaders from 2019!

AA-ISP is the worldwide association dedicated to the advancement of the inside sales profession. The association provides a place for like-minded professionals to learn best practices in the structure, people, and processes of sales. It’s an organization focused on growing the inside sales industry and their careers.

“Our recent research shows the inside sales profession is on an upward trajectory,” said Dave Elkington, CEO, XANT, according to a company press release.

“According to The State of Sales report, which we created in 2017 in partnership with AA-ISP, inside sales professionals now represent nearly half of the entire sales workforce in the United States, and their numbers are growing. We expect this trend to continue, as sales leaders believe that in a truly effective sales organization, there should be an equal split between inside sales and outside sales professionals.”

In addition to confirming the growth of the inside sales industry, the report showed the time spent selling remotely by field sales reps increased 89 percent (24 percent to 45 percent) from 2013 to 2017. Sales leaders report their motivation for creating inside sales teams is “increased productivity.”

“Sales is still not taught in the curriculum of most universities, so it’s up to us and companies like XANT to help educate the next generation on the benefits of inside sales professionals,” said Bob Perkins, founder & chairman, AA-ISP.

“Combine the research from AA-ISP with XANT Labs’ best practices, and you have a powerful guide for sales strategies that are proven to work in today’s shifting markets.”

XANT was AA-ISP’s Acceleration Service Provider of the Year in 2016. As part of the renewed partnership, the company will be a marquee sponsor for the organization’s Leadership Summit. This is the largest gathering of inside sales leaders, to be held April 3-5 in Chicago.

But responding to inside sales leads (or marketing generated leads) and if necessary following up with prospects is both an art and a science. Inbound leads are closer to a sale in the buyer’s journey, thus are very valuable to a company.

Inbound Selling

Inbound sellers is when a rep reaches out to someone who knows your company with a certain sequence of sales activities.

Outbound Selling

An outbound cadence, is when a rep reaches out to someone who doesn’t know your company via email, phone or other methods of communication.

Both inbound and outbound reps will have to follow a certain lead response process which is specific to their position and to the business model they are in. We call this sequence of activities a ‘sales cadence.’

When sales cadences are executed correctly, they can nearly double contact rates for sales professionals. But what is the correct sequence for inbound and outbound reps?

XANT has the data to show the right way to respond to inbound leads. We’ve studied over 14,000+ cadences, made up of 144,000+ total activities, across nearly 9,000 companies, to show the best sales activity sequences that work with both sales models.

How Many Times Should You Call?

Sales reps are naturally optimistic– and so they should be, as their profession entails dealing with rejection on a daily basis. But when it comes to self-reporting activities, this can backfire. When asked how many times they attempt to contact a lead, sales reps say they do about 15.04 contact attempts (TOPO research).

Looking at XANT data, the reality paints a different picture– this number is  only 4.05. There is clearly a disconnect between what people say they do, versus what they actually do.

So, what is the optimal amount of touches?

Data shows that for inbound cadences you can do up to ten total attempts with the sweet spot at six attempts and for an outbound cadence you should do up to six total attempts with the sweet spot being at three attempts. Going past these numbers is not necessary bad, it’s is just less effective.

Sales Communication Media

Should you call, or should you email? Sales communication media is the channel you are choosing for contacting your prospect. There are certain media patterns that you can use, by combining communication channels, which yield amazing results.

You can get very creative with media, as there are six communication channels you can use: email, phone calls, voicemail, texting, social media and direct mail.

Most sales professionals these days are in love with email, because it’s more convenient. But the truth is, while picking up the phone is awkward, it’s also more productive.

When we looked at most optimal cadences, for inbound the most successful cadence was Call – Voicemail – Email repeated between 6-10 touches. Unfortunately this combination was only used 4.7% of the time.

Also, using multiple communication methods is always more effective than using just one.

How Long Should You Persist?

There’s something to be said about sales reps that know when to quit– and when to do so gracefully. This reminds me of a quip I heard about salespeople recently, where a young door-to-door salesman was selling, off all things– burial plots. Upon the prospect responding that he already has a plot in another cemetery, the salesman decides to cut his losses and responds: “I hope you’ll be very happy there…”

And while there is no one-size fits all for every industry and product, research shows there is a certain number of attempts which is ideal to maximize chances of contacting a prospect– without annoying them to death.

For inbound leads, reps should have cadences that last up to ten days while outbound target accounts should last up to twelve days. Like attempts, it is not necessarily bad to go past these date ranges, it is just less effective.

Should I Give Prospects a Breather Between Attempts?

And while research shows you need to make at least six attempts to make sure you get a chance to talk to a prospect, you can’t call them every single day. That’s a sure-fire way to get on somebody’s ignore list.

Reps should space their contact attempts up to two days, to make sure their prospects get to breathe in between conversations– but don’t forget who they are talking to.

Content – What Do I Say In My Sales Messages?

Content is the messaging used with your sales activities– for the purpose of our research, we considered only emails, voicemails, texts, videos, and direct mailers to initiate contact or educate the buyer.

The typical prospecting email is 362 words and nearly half of voicemails were over 30 seconds.

This is really interesting, because when analyzing best practices across both inbound and outbound, emails with less than 300 words did perform better than emails with over 300 words and voicemails under 30 seconds is more optimal than over 30 seconds.

If you’re looking for more tips on how to perfect your strategy on responding to inbound leads, we’ve got you covered. Watch the webinar “10 Secrets For Responding to Inbound Leads”– it’s free and you can register online!