What Makes an Inside Sales Effort Succeed?

Why do some projects start out with high hopes and fail? Why do others succeed? In bringing inside sales into a business to business organization there are issues that must be resolved before the project can go forward.  If they are not, the project is doomed.  Money, time and effort will be expended without the results that management wants. Some people tend to focus solely on the interpersonal efforts needed to sell over the telephone, others concentrate on the mechanic of the project. In reality, both are required for a successful effort.

Today, we'll look at some of the  factors that are important to consider when deciding to implement an inside sales strategy.

Have a set of specific objectives

Make sure you know exactly what you want to accomplish. Too many people decide to add inside sales to their business mix and then tell their customer service people to "call and see if you can get them to reorder". Your objective should be well thought out, measurable and specific. Break every thing out. Visualize what you want the results to look like and work back from there. Is this a prospect effort or repeat customer sales? How many orders will you expect - hourly, daily, weekly? What dollar amount? How many dials per day? How many contacts? What products should be suggested? How much of each do you want to sell? Without doing this type of thought process up-front, you will be running a muddled mess within 6 months.

Determine your target audience

Who will you call? When deciding on your objective, give some thought as to who you will want to call? If your objective is to start a customer sales unit, decide who your priorities will be. Your customer list can be broken out into different segments. You will probably want to do this by dollar volume. You can also segment by product-line. If you sell a product that requires a lot of ongoing knowledge, you may find it easier to segment by product line. Your sales staff will then become experts in specific lines. Personally, I prefer to do it by dollar volume, only because you do not want to have more than one Inside Sales Rep calling on an account. If you decide to segment by product, you might want to create a segment specifically for multi-product customers. If you have decided to begin a prospecting effort, you'll want to do some homework first. Begin by analyzing your current customer base. Look at all the common denominators. Use this information to create a profile of your average customer.

Decide on List Sources

Where will you get your lists? This is an easy one if you are calling existing customers. However, if you've decided to add inside sales for prospecting purposes, you'll need a source of names to call. After you've decided who you wish to call, decide how you'll get lists of enough names to make your prospecting worthwhile. There are various list brokers you can buy lists from as well as online options. You can also use directories from your local chamber of commerce or business organizations, depending on the scope of your project. However, before doing so, make sure that you have decided on your criteria for prospects. You can waste a lot of time calling people who have no need for your products or services. Take a look at your "best" customers. What type of companies are they, what size? Attempting to replicate these customers is your best form of prospecting.