When starting a business, there are plenty of challenging situations businesses face. And one of them includes setting up your sales teams for success.
What type of Sales team your business needs?
- Inside Sales OR
- Outside Sales.
Well, the answer depends on the focus area of your business.
Inside Sales focuses more on high sales velocity whereas, Outside Sales focuses on clients with high ACV (annual account value).
However, despite the major differences, they’re just two sides of the same sales coin. And if you’ve got a bigger budget, opting for both is a good way forward in the right direction.
But what if you’re starting off your business on a limited budget?
Then you need to make a choice between them both. So, going forward in this post, I’ll be describing the strengths of Inside Sales & Outside Sales, and if given an option, which one of the two you should choose. Let’s get started:
What is Inside Sales?
Inside sales mean the sales that are done in the office over the sales representative desk. Here, the sales representative can use any of these (or more) communication tools to meet the required sales goal:
- Phone
- CRM platforms
- Skype, Zoom
Right after the mention of the phone as a communication tool, you would think of Inside Sales as another Telemarketing technique. But that’s completely wrong. In fact, Inside Sales is the TOP sales model to be used in B2B.
You see, telemarketing is scripted which can be done even via a computer. However, for Inside Sales, you need a skilled salesperson who can sell their products to customers over skype, email, phone & web meet.
Moreover, these skilled salesperson uses CRM platform with outbound tools to sell the targeted products & reach their sales goal.
What is Outside Sales?
Outside sales is a sales technique where the sale of products is done in face-to-face or in-person interactions. The Outside sales representative or most commonly known as the field sales officer is responsible for meeting potential customers outside the office.
In contrast to Inside Sales, Outside Sales requires a large amount of travel, self-sufficiency, and emotional intelligence. And if you need some help, include these best business apps in your smartphone.
Referred as their company’s superstars, the field sales representative deals with typically larger and more expensive accounts and products than inside sales reps do. Hence, justifying their role in the company.
Even though an outside sales representative can do most of its work via online communication tools like Skype, & Zoom, what sets them apart is their ability to be in person whenever and wherever required to complete the sale process.
Inside Sales vs Outside Sales: Cost
As I mentioned earlier, Inside sales representative uses communication tools like CRM databases, Skype, ZOOM, & analytics software which reduces the overall operating cost of a company.
With fixed working hours, the Inside sales representative receives on-time stable paychecks and on the other hand, most of the Outside sales representatives are paid on a commission basis. And in the case of salary, they receive much higher paychecks as it includes travel allowance, incidental costs. Hence, making it a costly sales technique.
Despite the major differences between the two strategies, the gap between them is fading. In fact, many companies are even moving forward in adopting a hybrid form of inside and outside sales.
Inside Sales vs Outside Sales: Quantity vs. Quality
As Outside sales involves traveling most of the time, their interaction with the potential buyers is somewhat limited.
On the other hand, inside sales representative sits behind a computer screen all the time. This gives them the ability to reach a large number of customers in a single day.
However, outside sales representatives bring high High-Ticket Sales to level the field.
Outside sales representatives meet with clients to explain the details of every complex functionality which in-return can yield big orders. Instead of quantity, their primal focus is to bring well-targeted quality customers to the company.
Inside Sales vs Outside Sales: Skills
Inside sales means you’re sitting in the office, calling customers & convincing them to buy their product. Here, you can’t show your product to the customer. So, an inside sales representative must have the skills to explain their product in such a way that potential buyers converts into a buyer.
To its exact opposite, the job of an Outside sales representative is to work independently. It means, they’ve to manage their own schedules, set timely appointments and meet with the possible clients at the scheduled time.
Not only that, an outside sales representative should always be ready to adapt to new people, environment and unprecedented conditions. Since the meeting is done face-to-face, the field representative should be on top of their game. Be in terms of appearance or confidence level.
Final Words
Whether it’s Inside Sales or Outside Sales, the final choice is yours. Both the techniques comes with its own sets of strengths and challenges. All you need to think is what your business needs. Once you’ve the focus area, implement the respective techniques to reach your sales goal.
That’s all for now. If you’ve any concerning questions regarding Inside Sales or Outside Sales model than shoot them down in the comments section given below.
