3 Tips & Strategies to Improve the Inside Sales Rep Experience

Are you stuck looking for ways to improve your inside sales experience? Or are you browsing for better methods for hitting your quotas?

We know the feeling.

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Improving your inside sales experience can be a tricky business, but one that has to be achieved.

If not, you're looking at sales teams that fail to hit quotas, a company that doesn't reach its revenue goals, and we all know the trajectory from that point on a lot of wasted resources and failed attempts to keep up with its competition.

But it doesn't have to be this way.

In this article, we'll show you how to tackle the challenges that come with the inside sales experience and take the effectiveness of your inside sales reps to the next level.

Sound like something you might be interested in?

Let's jump in.

What is Inside Sales Experience?

An inside sales rep works remotely to guide potential customers through the sales funnel, from lead to customer, providing them with comprehensive support to find a product or service that can solve their problem.

The typical job description of an inside salesperson includes:

• Understanding customers' issues and spotting sales opportunities.
• Communicating with customers via mail or phone calls.
• Staying updated with the latest product and service information.
• Researching prospective leads to drive sales.
• Meeting quarterly quotas.

While the points in the job description give an overview of the daily activities of your sales rep, you can break it down to get a better understanding of what the inside sales experience entails:

• The constant pressure to deliver on quotas and meet bottom lines.
• Managing up to what seems like a million calls and contacts every day.
• Consistently coming up with new ways to get customers to return calls.
• Thorough knowledge of product features to respond to inquiries effectively.

Your inside sales reps experience is significantly tied to your team's productivity and achieving your sales goals.

Employees are 5-times more likely to stay at a company that engages them and acknowledges their excellent work. Improving your sales team's experience can help you reduce employee acquisition which costs far more than retention.

Implementing inside sales into your sales strategy can help you reduce expenses by 40-90%.

Imagine what you can do with that extra money!

By improving your inside sales experience, you can:

1. Cut costs resulting in more leeway on your budget to assign finances towards other prospects
2. Have better conversations with customers that lead to more conversions
3. Become flexible enough to scale according to the number of leads without negatively impacting the customer experience.

Let's get into inside sales skills that matter.

Inside Sales Skills Requirements

If your company is hiring for an inside sales role or evaluating the current expertise of your members to look for areas to improve, these are the skills you should be on the lookout for.

Like any other job, it takes a particular set of skills to be a great inside sales rep.

Effective Communication

A significant factor in inside sales is talking with customers on the phone, via mail, or through a video conference. From prospecting to closing the deal, communicating shows the client that you understand their pain points and can support them with helpful solutions.

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Effective communication is about more than knowing what to say. It covers:

• Actively listening to leads.
• Building rapport.
• Comfortably answering potential customers' inquiries.

While sales scripts or guides for answering calls and responding to questions are beneficial, you cannot find all the answers in a book.

It is essential to have the ability to mirror the prospective customer's tone accordingly and recommend the right product features that can solve the customer's problems instead of throwing all the information about what your product can do in their face.

Besides the company's website and other online presence like social media, an inside sales rep can be the first line of person-to-person interaction between the company and the customer. Hence, communication plays a crucial role in how customers perceive your brand.

An In-depth Understanding of the Business's Product or Service

Let's paint a scenario.

A customer refers a friend to one of your company's products to help solve an issue they face.

This friend is also considering your competition, but because they were referred to your company, they give you a chance to convince them why your product is the best option for them.

The conversation begins with a member of your inside sales team. After asking a question regarding their problem and looking forward to a persuasive answer, your team member stutters, scrambling to find the correct information.

Now the potential customer has lost confidence in your product without even using it, and you have lost out on an opportunity that would have brought you closer to your bottom line.

An inside sales rep must have a comprehensive understanding of the product's features. It helps them counter objections easily and allows them to conduct themselves with the confidence only thorough knowledge of the product can bring.

Because if you don't understand what you are selling, it can be tough to pitch it to others.

Time Management

Time management lets you do more with less.

Being in sales involves handling a lot of tasks at once. If you are not prospecting, you are building a pitch for a new client. Or you are entering data, answering calls, sending emails, doing research, or dealing with a seemingly endless number of clients every time, all at once.

It's a lot!

While more customers can translate to more money, dealing with several customers ineffectively will negatively impact your quotas, especially when some customers pull out of deals because they felt they weren't given priority or did not promptly attend to them.

Knowing how to manage time enables your inside sales rep to allocate time to prospects, deal with more clients to drive more sales, and improve productivity without falling into the multitasking rabbit hole.

That's why modern sales tools can come in so handy. For example, sales personnel claim that CRM shortens the sales cycle and improves productivity by 14.6%.

CRM Know-how

For inside sales reps, CRMs save the world, literally.

It is in the name: customer relationship management!

CRMs help you manage everything related to your customer relationship, from recording their contact information to having a secure and accessible database that you can refer to whenever you need information on your leads.

A CRM like Ringy gives your inside sales reps superpowers as your team gets comfortable with implementing it in day-to-day processes.

A good CRM can be like a sharp sword. In the hands of a skilled swordsman, this weapon can work wonders, but only if they have taken the time to integrate and master it.

The same thing goes for a CRM. To unlock its power and boost your team's efficiency, you need to know how to use it, and the results will undoubtedly follow.

Following Up With Prospects

Following up on your potential customers plays a significant role in convincing them to buy your products.

But following up can be a gray area of sales where inside sales reps risk feeling like they're pushing too hard.

Here are two statistics they should keep in mind: 66% of prospects say “No” four times before they agree to the deal. But on the other hand, 48% of sales reps never make a single follow-up attempt.

That means that almost half of your sales team leaves two-thirds of their sales opportunities on the table!

But when you think about it, this statistic might be very encouraging.

Because if your sales reps are hitting their quotas even though they're only working with one-third of possible opportunities, what might happen to their sales numbers if they start consistently following up with their leads?

Closing a Deal

Let's not lose track of the primary goal.

From actively listening to your prospects and communicating effectively to managing your time and following up on leads with a CRM, all the skills led us here.

Closing the deal!

But let's not kid ourselves – closing the deal is no walk in the park. In fact, 30% of salespeople say it's the most challenging part of their job.

But that only means companies have to be on the lookout for ways to make it easier.

Engaging on social media is one way to go. 70% of sales reps who use social media networking in their sales process outperform peers who don't, exceeding their sales quota 23% more often.

Then there are certain pitfalls sales reps would do well to avoid. For example, sales reps who mention the word ‘discount' on a sales call see a 17% drop in closing rates.

Ufff. That one's gotta hurt.

And after all of that, most prospects will make their decisions based on several factors including:

1. How well the product solves their pain point
2. How well the sales reps handled their objections,
3. If they're aware of the loss of opportunities that comes with not buying the product

After that, all the sales reps have to do is pull the trigger and ask for a sale.

Maintaining a Good Post-Deal Relationship

One important skill that most inside sales reps miss is the one that matters after you close the deal.

Maintaining a good relationship with customers is crucial for the long-term success of a business. After all, studies show that acquiring a new customer can cost up to five times more than retaining an old one. Better yet, if a company increases its customer retention rate by as little as 5%, it can increase its profits by 95%.

That's why sales reps need to remember that a closed deal is not a single victory. It's the first step on a journey that has the potential to bring continuous benefits to both the sales rep and the customer.

With that in mind, there are certain tactics sales reps should keep in mind.

One of the strategies inside sales reps can adopt is creating a customer feedback loop to ensure they always know what the customer is feeling and thinking, giving them a chance to better tailor their pitches moving forward.

Another option is to send them company newsletters or personalized emails. Sales reps should consider creating a customer communication calendar to ensure they never forget to get in touch with a loyal customer.

Furthermore, 81% of customers say that trust is an important factor when it comes to their buying decisions. But trust isn't something that can be built overnight.

Inside sales reps have to be careful to always follow through on their promises and never give the customer the feeling that they've been deceived.

Challenges with Inside Sales Role

Improving your inside sales experience involves identifying and addressing the challenging aspects of the role.

These challenges include:

• Lack of engagement with decision-makers
• A process that does not work for you
• Failure to do enough research
• Differentiating the quality of leads
• Maintaining motivation while working remotely

So let's find out how your company can overcome these challenges.

Lack of Engagement With the Decision Makers

Securing prospects can get you one step closer to closing the deal, but in the end, the final say goes to the decision-makers.

Failing to engage these crucial players in discussions related to the deal can slow down the closing process or bring it entirely to a halt.

What a bummer!

With proper research, you can identify the key decision-makers and ensure you're talking to the right person at any given moment. Asking your prospects to explain who has the authority to make decisions is a good way to keep yourself from wasting time trying to convince the wrong person.

After proper research, you can try approaching decision-makers at networking events or conferences. Once you have built a good rapport, you can schedule a call where you can take the conversation further toward closing the deal.

A Process That Does Not Work for You

Without a clearly defined way to lead your prospect from being a lead to a paying customer, your team's hard work is only taking you a step closer to burnout, with fewer results to show for it.

For example, 93% of B2B buying processes begin with an online search. Does your sales strategy reflect this fact and attract the best possible leads to your company?

From prospecting to closing the deal, ensure that you align each stage of your sales process with clear actions that your inside sales rep should take to increase the efficiency of the process.

And while you're at it, ensure your inside sales rep has bought into the process, because no matter how well designed it is, it won't matter if your inside sales rep is afraid to implement it because they fear it might cost them the sale.

Evaluate your sales process for areas you can make changes, adjusting it according to both customer feedback and the feedback of your reps.

If you want to take a closer look at creating an optimum sales process, check out our article, “The Ultimate Guide to Building a Sales Process Using Sales Software.”

Differentiating the Quality of Leads

Not all leads are equal. 50% of sales leads are not a good fit for what you sell.

And 67% of all lost sales come from sales reps not properly qualifying potential customers.

Hence, spending the same amount of time on all leads will harm your productivity rather than improve it. If you don't sort out high-quality leads with more chances to become prospects, you'll waste time with dead ends.

Good synergy with the marketing team is important to get the right quality of leads and avoid obstacles to closing deals.

How can you improve your relationship with marketing?

Set up regular meetings between your team and theirs to get a foundational understanding of what high-quality leads mean.

Keeping Motivation up While Working Remotely

Remote work comes with its benefits, everyone has to recognize that, but it also comes with its fair share of challenges.

The lack of a working environment can limit the working structure of employees as well as hamper team collaboration and communication between employees and management.

Studies have shown that 19% of remote employees feel isolated from their peers and 17% list communication issues as their biggest challenge.

So sales managers have to respond accordingly.

They should create an environment where team members remain connected, whether by holding regular Zoom meetings or simply creating Slack channels where team members can collaborate or merely share tips and jokes.

Furthermore, this challenge is genuinely one that demands patience and understanding. Both sales reps and prospects are under a great deal of stress, meaning the atmosphere they're working in mustn't worsen.

3 Practical Tips to Improve Your Inside Sales Experience

So you want to increase your bottom line and hit more quotas?

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Well, if that's the case, then you'll have to follow three simple tips to stay on top of your game:

• Uses a sales CRM software
• Hold regular team training events
• Track your performance

But since these tips might be a bit more complicated than that, we've decided to offer you a closer look.

Use a Sales CRM Software

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CRM gives your inside sales rep wings!

Trust the 92% of businesses that say using a CRM helped them achieve their income goals.

CRMs provide several features that allow you streamline your sales processes, build a better teamwork environment that encourages feedback, and improve your experience.

For example, take Ringy.

From fostering effective communication between your reps and clients to its seamless integration into your workflow to develop a better process to close more sales, you feel your inside sales experience gets a significant lift.

Hold Regular Team Training

Training facilitates stronger team bonds and improves the overall skills of your sales team.

Building coaching lessons around understanding the company's product, communicating effectively, and practicing pitches will improve your inside sales experience as your reps will appreciate the value of such training. Take it from the 94% of employees who say they would stay at a company longer if it invested in their learning and development.

Another thing that team training improves is employee engagement.

Engaged employees devote more energy to achieving company goals, with less likelihood of leaving the business.

Gallup carried out a meta-analysis to report trends on how active teams outperform less engaged ones for more team training and employee engagement benefits. According to the insights, more active groups:

• Drove profits higher by 23%
• Increase productivity by 14-18%
• Experienced higher customer loyalty by 10%
• Had a reduced employee turnover rate by 18-43%

Having your team tackle training problems together, applying pitch ideas to possible client use cases, and evaluating their skills enables them to work on their weak points and generally improve their productivity.

You can also chip in virtual fun sessions to refresh the team and foster a relaxing experience to take everyone off the usual edge of hitting quotas.

Track Your Performance

You should set goals for your team, but if the performance of your inside sales team isn't measurable, what's the point?

Setting goals gives your inside sales team something to work towards, increasing collaboration and output as a team. On the same playing field, tracking your performance enables you to give constructive feedback to help your team grow faster.

Positive criticism with good accountability helps team members increase their skills considerably with an environment of openness and trust, improving your inside sales experience entirely.

Inside Sales Rep FAQs

“How Can I Improve My Inside Sales Rep Skills?”

Firstly, find out what skills you need to improve upon, acknowledge your solid points and double down on areas you may be lacking. You can enhance your skills by:

1. Attending sales seminars
2. Researching more about your product and typical customer use cases
3. Practicing your sales pitch for constructive feedback

“What Is the Difference Between Outside and Inside Sales?”

Let's settle this face-off with a table.

Up Your Inside Sales Rep Game

The challenges inside sales teams face are no joke.

For a team to be successful, the company needs to provide it with the right combination of tools and resources that can give inside sales reps a chance of reaching their goals.

These could include:

• Using a CRM
• Organizing team training, and
• Tracking sales performance

By streamlining your business process with a CRM, improving your employee performance and lowering employee turnover rate with team training, and tracking their performance to find potential areas of improvement, companies give themselves a chance to outshine their competition and future-proof their business.

So if you're looking to take the next step, check out this blog about 6 Pro Tips to Exceed Your Sales Goals or contact Ringy to request a demo today!