Inside Sales is growing at a rapid pace.

This is simply true. In fact, it is growing 15 times quicker than Outside Sales

And you can easily understand why. 

Costs are lower (although many people exaggerate the cost savings), you can fully exploit all of modern technologies at hand and you can increase the number of customer contact points as well as the total number of customers per Sales Rep. 

But Why exactly is it growing? What are the indications to understand for your industry that Inside Sales is growing and that you should be moving towards it, too?

Might you even be missing out on a major trend? 

Indication #1 Everyone is doing it

Take a step back and think about your company and the way it is structured. 

If it was a new business and you would open it today, how would you structure your Sales department? 

My educated guess would be that you would take advantage of Inside Sales much more than you are right now. 

Why do I believe so you ask? 

Well – all new companies that are remotely successful set up their Salesforce like this. 

Modern companies never have opened any outside sales offices, they actually sell from giant sales hubs. I live in Europe, and most of Amazon, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, etc. Sales are conducted from Dublin or other places in Ireland (well, taxes…). 

But not only new companies are doing it. According to G Chapman (Check out his great article here) roundabout 50% of all companies that have existed in the 90s have moved or are going to move to Inside Sales. Even more think about it. 

So to be clear – if you are not even thinking about it, you are clearly missing out about a trend that is global and affects every company.

Indication #2 It is better

Or to say at least: Adding Inside Sales to your department or company is better. 

Your Inside Sales Representatives can have more appointments (and they do), more points of contact and more number of people they can reach out to than their respective Outside Sales colleagues. 

And they can be more dynamic, too, incorporating live tool demonstrations by bringing in a subject matter expert from the company, and being able to use several media types, like conferences, screen sharing, etc. 

I’ve been on my fair share of Outside Sales appointments – a Beamer or Whiteboard is not a standard equipment for every company, and accessing a web-based tool can be hard in remote areas where your backup solution for no wifi – using mobile internet – doesn’t work. 

The downsides are not so bad. Nonverbal communication is still conveyed quite well. Check out Chapmans amazing piece of work again to find out more about it. 

Indication #3 It is compatible with Outside Sales

Especially when it comes to selling more complex products or a broader portfolio companies can create a new dynamic by combining the work of Inside and Outside Sales.

Creating interest in products from the Inside Sales and then letting him book Outside Sales appointments can be a very efficient use of time for both. 

Another scenario is where the Outside Sales covers the big chunks of a customer set and the Inside Sales goes for branch offices and smaller chunks.

Also if there is an issue with your product, or you hit a roadblock, and the Inside Sales is leading it, you can send your Outside Sales into an F2F appointment to help and solve the issues and situation. 

Indication #4 It is Cheap

This one is pretty straightforward. No company car, no travel expenses, no business lunches, and more time for customer contact. Inside Sales brings all of this. 

But do yourself a favor and consider higher costs regarding Inside Sales. You might need more tools, you will need more office space and usually expenses for company events are higher for Inside Sales Teams than they are for Outside Sales Teams.

But all in all its simple. Having lower cost of Sales can give you a competitive advantage. 

Indication #5 You create convergence with other Business Units

Well, your Inside Sales does as the name suggests. They are Inside and they hang out with other departments like your technical consultants, your marketing or your ecommerce team. 

This will help create much more convergences between the Sales and the other departments. 

After all, the Sales is the department that is closest to the customer. 

I have encountered outrageous comments from R&D departments, claiming it’s the customers fault that they have spent half a million on our equipment. 

Well, this will help possibly help retain some financial KPIs, but the Sales can better gauge how the customer will act in future purchases (it’s not that hard, come on. They will buy from the competition).

Indication #6 It is more flexible

Inside Sales can be quite flexible. It doesn’t mean that you are chained to your chair. You might have an Inside Sales simply switching into Outside Sales when the situation requires him or her to do so. 

And then when the deal is won (ideally) he goes back to his Inside Sales work. 

This Hybrid Model is starting to really pick up pace now, and it proves successful with many of the companies that I know. 

And the best thing – practicing this will give you an employee who knows it all. A much more round and experienced Salesperson, who will respond better to a mass of different situations.

Summary

So should you also move inside? The six Indications I have stated here are the recent trends and science behind the success of Inside Sales. 

It is a global trend, it is happening now, and chances are if you are not doing it, you are falling behind the competition. 

Don’t do that. And I can only recommend to take the approach that I have stated. Go Inside by thinking of your business being Greenfield right now and how you would structure your Salesforce when building it from scratch. 

With all this information – go over your department, go over your business and think – should you go Inside? How should you go? 

Or if you have an Inside Sales department think about other things – what are you lacking of the things stated here, the advantages of Inside Sales? 

Maybe you can improve the collaboration between Outside Sales and Inside Sales, maybe you can create a Hybrid Sales Model, and maybe you can encourage your Inside Sales department to socialize more with the other departments to create those convergences. 

Whatever it might be, look for it, follow up on it, and create success. 

Best 

Philipp