TO PHONE OR NOT TO PHONE

FIVE PART SERIES ON SELECTING, SUPPORTING AND EXECUTING INSIDE SALES

Over the next five weeks we will look at the different ways and reasons that companies are moving part or all of their outside sales to inside sales and what they need to know in order to get there. PART ONE: TO PHONE OR NOT TO PHONE looks at the two most common reasons that many companies are migrating as quickly as they can dial it in from outside sales to inside sales.

PART TWO: EXPLOITING THE DIGITAL LANDSCAPE
We will cover what a company must know about inside sales before moving their sales experience inside. Which digital programs will best support your unique brand and model? What other less obvious ancillary digital applications must be integrated into the overall process? How does your Internet experience support your online and over the phone sales? What is Telefluence and why should you know about it?

PART THREE: INSIDE SALES VERSUS INSIDE SALES
Companies struggle to determine how much of the inside sales they should take responsibility for and how much they need to pass off. How does marketing work in this new digital landscape with inside sales? What type of inside sales will best work for you? What are the challenges in hiring, training and converting to inside sales?

PART FOUR: GOOD MATH – BAD MATH
This is a bottom line look at each component, how long it will take to get your program up and running, and what kind of “other” costs you can expect. How to build out a realistic ROI? What is an inside O.R. and why should that matter to you? How to count your beans and have enough left over to run the show? Creating a budget with milestones and timelines that make sense and when you can expect to see your money start returning!

PART FIVE: BUILDING YOUR OWN INSIDE SALES PROGRAM
Companies are stacking inside sales components one on top of another like a Lego Log fort but is that really what you need or should do? How do I build an inside sales force and what should I expect and when should I expect it? Should I outsource? What are the pitfalls to inside sales? How is the inside sales culture different and what will that mean to me and my employees? What should I outsource? How do I use online meetings, social media, email programs and digital appliances to support, analyze and compliment my sales program? How do I insure I capture the knowledge I build into this program and maintain it for the company’s security?

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PART ONE: TO PHONE OR NOT TO PHONE

Today many companies are looking at their sales approach and trying to figure out how they can move their outside sales inside. Plagued by rising costs, inefficient use of time from outside salespeople and increased competition companies understand they are faced with the imminent need to construct an intelligently balanced, hybrid, inside sales experience and the race is on to build the best mousetrap. But before we look at the actual construction of these unique, growing in popularity, cultures, let’s understand why they are a matter of absolute necessity in most cases.

Cost and Reach

An average outside salesperson spends less than 40% of their week in front of buyers. Most outside salespeople have support staffs which set appointments, send out sales and marketing materials and develop written communication and more in some cases. On top of the redundant attendant costs for each outside salesperson, the average outside salesperson is not trained and is therefore unproductive using the phone for cold calls and lead generation. Even when they are available for the phone and are even somewhat productive, it isn’t like the other 60% of their time can simply be spent on the phone. With 40% of their time in front of buyers they spend another 10% of their time preparing for each call and drive time, to and from each call typically consumes another 20-25% of their week. When you add up all the numbers there is little time for them to be on the phone. Even if you consider how much more work can be done in the car today, that work can only be done if you are trained and structured to conduct business the moment you get in a car. Imagine the time it would take to program in all the calls you would have to make to generate new business while in traffic (hands-free).

When you consider the costs for an average outside sales force equal to the same results needed from an equally constructed inside sales force – your cost factor is somewhere around 2.5 to 1 dollars outside costs to inside costs. And this is an average – if you use the services of a company like The Bosson Group for the construction of the inside model , the end result will be much more efficient and professional , with a cost factor of 4 to 1 dollars outside to inside sales.

Costs for the outside salesperson compared to the equally successful hybrid inside position today simply make outside sales an untenable alternative.  Compared to a decade ago when better than 75% of the Fortune1000 Companies supported expensive outside sales forces to today when less than 10% of those same companies maintain an outside presence or have severely restricted their outside sales programs. More companies today are opting for cleverly constructed inside sales teams that can make good use of social media, email programs and the myriad of other tools so readily available in our digital landscape.

But the more important issue in choosing between inside and outside model is not the cost. Hard to believe, right? The real issue today for any company making this decision is the company’s sales reach. Today we have shrunken the world to make global sales not only possible but necessary. Emerging markets overseas (please don’t even get me started on China) are becoming realistic targets for most company offers. If you had to put feet on the street in order to sell to a global market you better expect to stretch out your ROI significantly. Don’t take my word for it, do the math yourself.

So for the practical reasons of cost and reach today’s leaders are forced to reconsider their sales model and strongly consider a 100% inside sales practice. Constructing a sales cycle that excludes outside salespeople means companies have to be more aware of which digital tools will best augment their sales program. They need to understand sales as a more abstract structure and how to build their inside sales force to convey that same sense of personalization over the phone. For most companies converting outside sales to inside sales in any variation on the theme requires the assistance of professionals like the team at The Bosson Group.

The company looking at the various social medias, SEO and YouTube will have to know which elements work for them by answering the bigger questions of the “why” and “how” for each process. Then each environment will have to further understand why each digital element from their website to their email campaign is important to the way they influence and impact the buyer. Where one company may find their reach is effective by exploiting Facebook another may find that they can make a more beneficial impact using YouTube. Having access to many different and often “no” or “low cost” marketing elements is only useful if you know how they will integrate into your system and ultimately improve your chances of getting to the “yes”. In the end it’s all about constructing a process that is cost effective, pliable, powerful and deliberate… with good math to back it.  

 Frank Bosson
CEO, The Bosson Group
209 642 2821
frankb@thebossongroup.com
www.thebossongroup.com
www.alphabyters.com