What is Inside Sales? & How it Works

There’s more than one way to make it in sales. Gone are the days when you have to meet with prospects in person to seal a deal. Modern technology enables today’s sales pros to work remotely, ditching the demand to travel. Inside sales reps build customer relationships virtually.

If you’re interested in pursuing a career in inside sales, you’re in the right place to learn. Let’s get started.

What you’ll learn:

What is inside sales?

Inside sales is the process of selling an organization’s products or services remotely using digital communication tools such as video conferencing, phone calls, emails, chat, social media, or other online channels. Inside sales may also be referred to as “virtual sales” or “remote sales.”

It’s called inside sales because the sales rep is indoors at a company’s location or a home office. Companies in the business to business (B2B), technology, and software as a service (SaaS) industries typically rely on inside sales teams, since products and services can be presented and demonstrated on a screen.

Inside sales is not telemarketing. Unlike an inside sales rep, a telemarketer contacts prospects at random, reads from a script, and has limited knowledge of the product being sold.

Inside sales vs. outside sales

Outside sales refers to selling a product or service in person. The outside sales rep travels to the customer or prospect and meets them at a company’s office, a restaurant, an industry event, or another location. An outside sales approach is commonly used in industries that require the customer to physically hold or interact with the product being sold. For example, having a customer try a piece of machinery or feel the texture of fabrics.

Examples of inside sales:

• Calling a prospect on the phone
• Having a video conference meeting with a customer
• Sending an email to a customer with a product demo video

Examples of outside sales:

• Meeting a prospect at an industry networking get-together
• Flying to a customer’s company headquarters for an in-person demo
• Taking prospects out to dinner and a show

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Benefits of inside sales

The main advantage of having an inside sales team versus an outside sales team is that they do not travel to meet with customers. This means big savings in cost and time. An inside seller needs minimal equipment to do their job. It’s usually a computer, internet connection, and a phone. No expensive travel and transportation costs, such as flights, hotels, and entertainment. Companies that have a work-from-home sales structure may save on office space.

The sales cycle is the collection of sequential stages sales reps follow when converting a prospect into a customer. In my experience, the inside sales cycle tends to be shorter because the product or service being sold is usually less complex.

For example, an outside sales team selling solar panels must navigate the intricacies of permits and installation, leading to a longer sales cycle. In contrast, a company selling solar panel replacement parts depends on an inside sales team for the quick sale of the parts needed.

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Roles and responsibilities of inside sales

An inside sales rep oversees the entire sales cycle, from finding leads to closing deals. The role involves doing inbound and outbound sales. Inbound sales is when a potential customer hears about your product or service and reaches out to you to learn more. For outbound sales, a sales rep reaches out to a potential customer.

Some of the responsibilities of an inside sales rep may include:

• Lead qualification: Responding to inbound leads that may come to the company via an existing customer’s referral or an online search. The rep also generates their own outbound leads by researching companies and creating a target prospects list. Potential prospects are contacted by phone, email, or social media to gauge interest in your product and service and to schedule a virtual sales meeting.
• Social selling: Social selling is favored by inside sales reps because it’s a digital channel where they can interact with prospects on social media platforms to generate leads and build relationships.
• Cold calling and emailing: The cold prospecting method is when a rep contacts a potential customer who has not previously expressed interest in the company’s product or service.
• Virtual product demos: An inside sales rep presents a demo of their product or service to a prospective customer to show how it works and its uses and benefits. Product demos may be pre-recorded videos or conducted live on a video conference.
• Deal closure: Signing the sales contract and documents with a customer or prospect is done digitally and usually with e-signatures.

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Key inside sales skills you need to know

One of the biggest challenges for an inside sales rep is trying to build relationships with customers or prospects without face-to-face interactions. Conversations lack the context of nonverbal behavior and body language such as a handshake or head nod, which can give a rep an understanding of how the customer is reacting to their sales pitch. To develop rapport, sellers should work on their active listening skills, such as paying attention to tone of voice or asking open-ended questions.

Here are some other skills you need for inside sales:

• Prospecting: Be able to research potential customers and reach out to them on their preferred channels.
• Communication skills: Since you are talking with customers on the phone or on a video calls, you must be able to communicate effectively to get your points across.
• Negotiation skills: You need to be able to handle potential objections that are part of any deal.

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Modernizing tools and technologies is a top tactic that sales leaders are using to drive growth, according to the Salesforce State of Sales report. Inside sales tools can help you automate and organize your sales processes so you can be more efficient and productive.

Here are a few tools to consider:

• Customer relationship management (CRM) system: A CRM manages all your interactions with customers and prospects. The system unifies your customer data in one place and tracks progress across the sales cycle. You can easily see when you last called a prospect or a customer’s buying history. Inside sales reps often work alone in a home office, and a CRM is a useful way to share information with your sales team while maintaining visibility into other reps’ activities. Consider getting a CRM with a built-in Configure, Price, Quote (CPQ) capability. The function automatically generates accurate quotes for orders using a customizable template. You can set it up for discounts, product bundles, or other pricing needs. A proposal document can be created from the CPQ process.
• Video conferencing platform: It’s worth investing in a quality camera and microphone since you’ll be on a lot of video conferences and want your voice and image to look and sound professional. Test out your equipment with a friend and look at your camera angle, lighting, background, and voice clarity. Select a platform that syncs your voice and video calls with your CRM and automatically transcribes the calls. Then, play your calls back to review how you sound. Listen for volume, tone, and clarity, and work on areas for improvement.
• Collaboration tools: Bring conversations together in the flow of work. A collaboration tool helps you work across teams to speed up processes and get results. For example, it allows you to share information such as proposal files or news of a closed deal in real time and improves productivity by eliminating a lot of back and forth.
• Generative AI tool: Automatically generate sales emails, prospect proposals, or social media posts with generative AI. You’ll save time on writing individual drafts when you have AI baked into your CRM. It lets you personalize communications every time in just a few clicks.

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Close inside sales deals anywhere and everywhere

Innovative tools and technologies have elevated inside sales reps’ ability to build better customer relationships that were once only possible with in-person interactions. By learning the right skills to sell virtually and having the essential hardware and software to support your sales efforts, you can excel at inside sales without ever leaving your desk.