Inside sales is quickly becoming the best business model of choice for technology businesses around the world. Although, being an entrepreneur makes it a daunting decision to shift from your existing fully functional model to a new one, business owners are proactively adopting inside sales by virtue of its efficiency and contribution to business growth.
So, if you are in the dilemma of choosing to shift from your existing selling model and searching for reasons to adopt inside sales, then you must read further. Here are a set of questions which when answered can guide you to have a clearer picture of why you must invest in an inside sales team for your technology business.
1) Can Your IT Product Or Service Be Sold Remotely?
It is a world with over flowing technological advancements and everyone is looking out for innovation across the globe. In this scenario there is huge scope for businesses to grow overseas and in international markets.
If your unique offerings can be showcased online across multiple geographies either through emails, telephone and other internet mediums, your business is definitely fit for remote selling, also called as Inside Sales.
When I say selling remotely, it means it would:
- Enable immediate responding or instant reach out to leads generated from various geographies across multiple time zones (Read More: Why A Business Should Never Sleep)
- Enable demonstration of capabilities and features through online channels
- Ensure problem analysis and requirement gathering at the earliest
- Allow product demo/PoC execution
- Documentation such as NDA’s and MSA
- Negotiation and Closure
All of this can be done online across multiple geographies through several interactive channels like telephone, emails, chats, etc.
If the complete cycle can be executed through this methodology, then it’s a win-win deal. But many a time’s sales processes that involve larger sized deals (RFP’s), Complex Vendor Management, etc. might require a face beyond a point in the buying cycle.
To further prove the effectiveness of an Inside Sales team for technology businesses I’d like to introduce you to a few Product Jumbos such as; Oracle, Microsoft, Salesforce.com, Intuit have embraced inside sales models. Also, recent startups such as Uber, Airbnb, ezCater, TradeGecko, Zozi are exploring the power of inside sales for their business’s growth.
2) Is You’re Business Hungry For Operational Efficiency?
Agile Methodologies are implemented in the programming cycle to improve the efficiency, reduce bottlenecks and to deliver great customer experience. Thus, sales cycles should also be agile! This enables quick decision making and allows your tech team, pre-sales and sales teams to work in great synergy without hindrances.
Being an entrepreneur deprives you of the luxury of time. A small delay might lead you to lose great deal. To a large extent, sales acceleration tools such as CRM and Marketing Automation Software prove beneficial; if only they are put to use the right way.
So, how can Inside Sales help you to be agile and do close looped selling?
The answers is, Inside sales enables remote selling
- From within the organization with optimum monitoring,
- Allowing direct access of sales reps to teams and quick access to information, and
- Also ensures inter-departmental communication
If you are a business that desires to quickly market its products and services and scale the customer base, there is no better model then Inside Sales!
Inside sales approach enables agile revisions of business processes and removes much of the complexity involved in acquiring new customers making the sales cycle shorter and close-looped. Thus, building an Inside Sales team is the fastest, cheapest way to capitalize on the advantage and build a strong pipeline.
3) Is Your Existing Sales Strategy Cost And Time Efficient?
Modern day entrepreneurs cannot ignore metrics such as Cost Per Sale / Cost Per Acquisition and furthermore, take strategic decisions to bring down overall costs and improve the bottom line.
Based on the research of Pace Productivity Inc., compared to any other sales model, Inside sales representatives can spend 35% (instead of 22%) of their week with selling due to the advantage of remote selling to prospects via various channels of communication.
For any other sales model there exist many factors to the cost that involves higher salaries, other perks and allowances, incentives, etc. are the biggest concerns. In contrast, inside sales models are cost-effective as the major expenses are involved only in setting up the process, training and enabling it with efficient sales acceleration tools.
Besides, the cost incurred by an inside call, averages only $25-$75 which is way lesser than that of the expenses incurred by other sales strategies. (http://www.mayfieldplastics.com)
Well, now it is your turn to take a good decision. Take a call basing upon what you have answered. If you still can’t take a decision talk to BusinessMojos. We are here to help you!
