CFO & Salesforce + Conga Consultant
Inside sales is the foundation of a successful sales team. That was true 30 years ago, and it’s even more so in 2023. Buyers expect speed. They need guidance during uncertain times or when things change so rapidly. They want honest, human, and live interaction.
Inside sales allows you to deliver human-to-human interactions and scale up quickly. And at the risk of sounding cliché, it’s also a great way to grow your organization and your people. The technology available today provides data and insights that boost the productivity and effectiveness of an inside sales team.
Salesforce’s support for inside sales can feed into everything you do. Don’t just talk about it, live it every single day. These tips and guidance can help you build and strengthen your company by realistically growing your revenue through fundamental sales practices.
Build Your Inside Sales Team
It doesn’t matter if the team is inbound or outbound. It doesn’t matter if you call it inside sales, business development, or something else. Teams that advance leads by swiftly meeting customers on their preferred channels get results. Let’s call this “Sales Engagement.”
Buyers don’t have the time or patience for sales reps who push products without first understanding their needs. By the time they become a lead, the person has likely browsed your website, skimmed an e-book (or three), and perused third-party content about your solutions. Inside sales people do the early work of researching and making initial contact to set the rest of your sales process up for success.
When should you build an inside sales team?
It’s never too early for an inside sales team. As soon as you have identified your product market fit, inside sales reps can generate demand for your product or service at a low cost. Build your inbound sales teams early after launch to handle leads, qualify the opportunities, and quickly hand off those selling opportunities to the correct team. A few years later, build your outbound sales team to address the enterprise market and find prospects within businesses that aren’t coming through inbound leads
How should you structure the sales team?
There are many ways to model your inside sales teams, depending on your goals. Here are a few models that work:
General Sales Model
Some sales teams operate as generalists rather than focusing on a specific industry or product. Territories are aligned by geography. If you go this route, you give reps a holistic view across all buyers’ needs so they can recommend solutions that might be a better fit. Using this model allows for rapid outreach.
Specialized Sales Model
You can also align specialized sales teams to the context of the customers you’re pursuing. For instance, have some sales reps specialize in industries (financial services, healthcare and life sciences, and retail and consumer goods) that align to your biggest target audiences and, internal operational units.
Segmented Sales Model
Other inside sales teams focus on specific products. This allows for more in-depth knowledge. The potential downside of this model is that it can sometimes impact speed. For example, if an event or an e-book focused on one new product generates thousands of leads, it can overwhelm that segment’s team.
The Salesforce Model
Salesforce has 1,000+ inside sales reps round the world working in the specialized and generalized models. Sometimes sales teams join through acquisition and can be set up differently.
Within those two models, inside sales roles are broken down into two tracks: sales development reps (SDRs) and business development reps (BDRs). Both focus on converting leads to build a pipeline for account executives (AEs), who are responsible for closing deals.
Sales Development Reps (SDRs)
Salespeople who help inbound leads by reaching out to potential customers already in contact.
SDRs handle inbound leads. These leads can come from webinar or event registrations, chat requests, e-book downloads, or contact forms. Rapid outreach is key for inbound leads, so SDR teams should not be segmented by product, region, or industry. Instead, assign leads in a round-robin fashion, so they can reach out quickly.
Business Development Reps (BDRs)
Salespeople who help outbound leads by following up with those who may have a need for Salesforce but haven’t yet made contact.
BDRs focus on outbound leads… BDRs use cold calls and emails to contact leads, whom they find mainly on LinkedIn and ZoomInfo. The emails are targeted, cold messages sent to potential customers, showing an understanding of their business. Some BDRs act as generalists while others specialize.
Account Executives (AEs)
More experienced salespeople who work with leads after an SDR or BDR qualifies them.
Once you start to reach some scale, you typically want to break apart
inbound and outbound sales, because it’s a different motion.
At first, you may be able to have both inbound and outbound functions within one role, but once you start to reach some scale, you typically want to specialize the roles around the inbound and outbound motions. This will allow you to both maximize output by focusing on the most important variable such as speed to lead for the inbound motion and high activity outbound motion.
2) Structure to Help Sales Reps Succeed
SDRs should move fast. Start mornings by reaching out to the newest assigned inbound leads – people who contact you first. Research shows that firms that contact a lead within an hour of receiving a query are seven times more likely to qualify that lead versus if they contact that lead in the following hour.
In their conversations, SDRs listen to prospects and ask questions about their business needs and who’s empowered to make decisions. Their goal is to see if the lead is likely to buy. Then, the SDR introduces the prospects to an account executive (AE) who can move them further along in the sales process. AEs are responsible for helping those prospects evaluate their needs and share how you can meet those needs.
After contacting their newest leads, SDRs shift to leads they weren’t able to reach previously with the goal of converting three to four leads into new opportunities.
SDRs try to qualify a business by looking for a
compelling reason that a prospective customer might be
searching for or looking at marketing content.
Success in Business Development
Eventually, successful SDRs to be BDRs should be promoted. Good BDRs are expert prospectors who use digital channels to find new leads. Over time they develop a knack for handling objections and reading prospects’ tone. Not only do they understand how to sell, but they can also navigate large companies. They understand who the decision-makers are, how to speak their language, and how to engage with them.
Categorize BDRs into Three Groups
Growth Company BDRs
They’re responsible for finding companies with fewer than 250 employees.
New Company BDRs
These are hunters targeting bigger companies that aren’t customers yet. Their goal is to acquire new customers.
Explorer BDRs
These BDRs prospect within a pool of existing customers. Their goal is to introduce those customers to products they’re not using at the moment.
Day to Day Routines for Inside Sales
BDRs start their days by reviewing their task lists, which are automatically created using Salesforce. They should make 45 to 50 cold calls per day and prioritize companies best suited for your solutions.
In assessing fit, BDRs consider both the company and the person. In terms of the company, they ask themselves: Is this company in an industry where your business has been successful in the past? Is the company using similar products or services? Have they received funding or announced growth plans? If yes, this company might be a good fit.
BDRs also look at the person, aiming to call someone who is a director level or above. But they do sometimes call folks with less seniority to gain an understanding of the company’s needs. BDRs also check which contacts have used your industries products or services at previous jobs, as this could make them a good champion for your solutions.
A BDR’s goal is to book meetings for the AEs they support. They listen closely for opportunities to upsell and then pass that information on to an AE.
What Makes Inside Sales Reps Successful?
Here’ how to identify top performers within your inside selling organization… Two words: quantity and quality. The best sales reps have a balance of both.
Quantity Inside Sales w/ Salesforce
SDRs use 5 touches to nurture a lead. That means the rep contacts a lead five times before moving on unless the lead books a meeting or asks to opt out. BDRs use seven touches, because it’s harder to connect with a cold lead. It’s not easy to keep going after leaving an unanswered voicemail or repeatedly hearing no, but reps tenacious reps believe in the value of what they’re selling.
Timing is also key. Busy executives tend to be in meetings all day. Reps should try to time phone calls either for first thing in the morning or as the lead is wrapping up for the day.
Quantity Inside Sales w/ Salesforce
Successful reps have plenty of leads in their pipeline, but quantity isn’t enough. They also have to focus on quality prospecting. According to research, 64% of customers expect tailored engagement based on past interactions. Furthermore, 52% of customers say companies are generally impersonal. Generic calls and mass emails won’t convert.
Curiosity helps reps deliver quality conversations. Reps should research each company and person so they can personalize messages and qualify leads. Is that contact still in that role at the company? Are they the right contact for this outreach? If not, adjust accordingly. Reps can also leave themselves voicemails as practice. Would they call themselves back? If there’s nothing compelling in the voicemail, rework it. Use these practice voicemails to coach reps on creating urgency.
The key to success in prospecting is striking
a balance between quantity and quality.
3) Salesforce Helps Inside Sales People Thrive
Most sales reps spend only a third of their time actually selling, according to our research. Instead, they waste too much time managing email and logging activities. With the right technology like Salesforce, sales doesn’t have to be a slog. Use Sales Engagement, a salesforce solution that automates sales teams’ record-keeping and streamlines the entire selling process. It’s designed to provide a single platform to manage customer interactions, sales steps, and more. And Sales Engagement is generally available to most companies using Salesforce as an add-on to Sales Cloud.
Power through huge amounts of data on companies and industries to hold the right conversations with the right people. Sales reps need sales tools that prioritize workflows and follow best practices at scale. With Sales Engagement, teams can maximize productivity and tie sales efforts to revenue. Arm your teams with this technology to solve their challenges in three key areas: automation, productivity, and intelligence.
Automation
The best inside sales teams use a process that’s easy to repeat and proven to be successful. Salesforce applies that playbook to each opportunity so that reps always know when to call, follow up, or wait. This sales cadence is repeatable, testable, customizable and scalable.
If you hire new sales reps each year, it takes each salesperson roughly three months to ramp up and contribute at 100%. Tools with features like call scripts, email templates, and to-do lists help reduce this learning curve so reps get up to speed faster. Once they’re ramped up, reps can focus on relationship building instead of busywork.
If you have a new rep joining the company, you have a preconfigured,
automated set of email and call steps they can start using immediately.
Most sales reps communicate through email and phone. Automate as much of that as you can by using email integration and VOIP technology. Before Sales Engagement from Salesforce was introduced, reps would have track each communication themselves. For instance, they might write “LVM” after leaving a voicemail. Now, Sales Engagement keeps the process organized by tracking each email or phone call automatically. The tool also reminds reps to continue in the Sales Cadence, providing greater accountability.
A few of the features inside sales teams rely on most for automation:
• Email integration means reps can work productively whether they’re working in Salesforce directly or in their inboxes. Automated email activity capture logs and updates records with every interaction.
• Automated activity logging, like call tracking, frees up our reps from manual data entry while giving managers visibility into what’s going on within each interaction, prospect, and team.
• Sales Dialer is a way to make phone calls directly from Salesforce rather than switching to a physical phone. It automatically logs calls and assigns the call a local area code so the lead is more likely to answer. It also includes prerecorded voicemails, call monitoring, and more. Lightning Dialer is an additional product available in Sales Cloud.
Productive Inside Sales
The fewer applications reps use, the fewer clicks and steps they need to complete, and the less time they spend on administrative tasks that don’t move the needle. When everything happens in one system, reps don’t need to switch screens or waste time with manual data entry. When they’re not thinking about logging call activity or planning the next step, they have more time to plan for meaningful conversations that drive revenue.
The Work Queue in Sales Engagement takes the guesswork out of the sales process by generating an ordered task list for each rep. This tells them which activities they should be focusing on next, and with whom. The tool not only arranges reps’ workflows to maximize revenue, it also simplifies access to the information they need for a successful sales call.
As far as screen real estate goes, the Lightning Console brings the Work Queue and every other piece of prospect information (like marketing engagement and previous emails) together in one place. salesforce admins work with sales teams to make sure the reps have everything they need to qualify a lead on one screen.
Inside Sales Intelligence w/ Salesforce
Artificial intelligence (AI) helps sales teams work smarter. Research shows that high-performing sales teams are 3.1 times more likely to use AI than underperforming peers.
Here are 2 key ways to use AI and machine learning for virtual selling with Salesforce:
• Einstein Lead Scoring analyzes all of the factors on a lead record, such as the contact’s job title and company size, to score each lead. It predicts which leads are most likely to convert and displays the factors behind the scores. The leads in the Work Queue are also prioritized based on these scores. This ensures that reps always know who the most valuable leads are – so they can contact them first.
• Einstein Conversation Insights uses natural language processing to home in on key call moments in reps’ conversations with prospects, such as mentions of competitors or specific products. Managers use these highlighted moments to understand where reps are succeeding or where they may need additional coaching.
Data collected from reps’ activities and prospect conversions tells you which prospects you should talk to and the best times to contact them. Using reports and dashboards, sales leaders have greater visibility into team performance, lead qualities, conversion behavior, opportunity health, and other critical metrics. These insights can help leaders make staffing decisions; uplevel their coaching, onboarding, and training; and plan out their organization’s sales strategies.
4) Give Inside Sales Reps a Path to Success
You’ve built your inside sales team and set them up with the right tools, but the job doesn’t end there. Reps need thorough hands-on training and coaching, so they can perform at the highest level. After all, sales isn’t just repeating a series of steps. It’s also about human connections and personalized interactions. Inside sales managers should continuously optimize teams for productivity and growth. This starts with onboarding.
Rapid Onboard for Inside Sales People
New SDRs and BDRs start their roles should spend 3 intense days in training to learn about the different buyers and the selling systems used in your organization. This emphasizes a consulting mentality rather than pushing products or services. Reps also should conduct mock calls with senior reps assessing their approach. Wrap it up with an objection handling battle where reps try to overcome common sales objectives in front of a group, and a Q&A session with leadership.
Afterward, both SDRs and BDRs can practice call shadowing, listening in on calls with more experienced team members. This practice helps them see how their teammates handle objections or pivot conversations. The sooner reps understand your sales organizations and its processes, the sooner they can start building a quality pipeline. Many sales processes are now automated, so they don’t need to memorize steps or processes. Instead, they go right to the next step, so they always know what to do and when to do it.
Teams and sales reps feed off of each other’s energy and each other’s successes.
Always try to find ways to encourage and replicate that environment.
Measure Performance of Inside Sales
Performance metrics help sales leaders see where the team excels or needs additional attention. Tracking these numbers helps leaders tailor their coaching to each individual’s needs or provide feedback to the whole team when you discover a knowledge gap. These metrics also help reps understand expectations and how managers will assess their performance. Revisit KPI targets yearly, and the KPIs below illustrate how to assess performance.
For new reps, these KPIs can be daunting at first. Ease them into it. Reps are responsible for a third of the target in their first month and two-thirds the second month. By the third month, they should be fully ramped up.
SDRs have five main key performance indicators (KPIs):
Meanwhile, BDRs have four main KPIs:
Tracking the inputs (dials and connects) and outputs (pipegen and ACV) closely
helps to diagnose hot spots or where you need to focus on coaching.
Inside Sales Coaching
Coaching helps to retain and advance sales reps. Managers used to train sales teams on processes like logging calls and when to follow-up. Now that those processes are automated, they can shift their coaching focus to more nuanced skills, like handling objections and reading prospects’ tone. A manager might ask a rep to do more mock calls, or they might monitor calls silently to check for improvement.
When a rep falls short of goals, ask questions to understand why. How are they prospecting? Are they personalizing the outreach? Are there external factors outside their control? The answers to these questions can help you course-correct and coach as needed so that your teams work at peak productivity. Coaching and training is also an ideal time to highlight when a rep is excelling and celebrating those wins. During coaching sessions, managers can identify moments of excellence and share that skill or moment with the rest of the team as a best practice
Inside Sales Path to Promotion
Build a career path for your sales teams. Train SDRs to qualify and develop trust with customers, and if they’re successful, move them into the BDR role after 12–18 months. As BDRs, they master the art of prospecting so that, after another 12–18 months, they become AEs.
With this approach, you will spend far less time and effort on external hiring and onboarding. Plus, reps seeing their potential for growth within your company helps to retain top sales talent. By mapping out a step-by-step sales career path within your company, you can create a self-generating talent pool to fill high level roles. In short, build a pipeline of revenue and a pipeline of people.
Next Steps to Build a Pipeline of Revenue & Sales People
As customers grow more connected, inside sales teams remain essential for winning and keeping new business. When the inside sales reps have the right tools, they can deliver a seamless experience and sell.
1) Consider what sales team model will work best for you.
2) Stress the importance of quality and quantity prospecting.
3) Power your Sales Engagement team with the right technology.
4) Measure performance to pinpoint areas of excellence and improvement.