I worked at IBM for many years. I retired from the NFL and was hired, and was placed in the inside sales group. The group was young and was to be tested to see if viable. 20 new hires and a few brave IBMers showed up and dialed the phone.
Now blue suits are extinct and the inside sales team has grown to over 1000 people trained by industry group and trained to add value to prospects and customers. IBM found success. You can too.
Use your inside sales people to create demand. The inside sales team is not used if used only support and order taking. Train insides sales to service customers and to ask ” what other projects can we help you with, Sir? ” If the inside hire does not want to sell or prospect find another.
This is surprising how easy this is. And is surprising that it is not being done. The inside salesperson can be given tools to manage key accounts and tools to help distribute and track sales leads. Tools will gather sales and contact data and drive strategy. A top down view into this sales, support, contact data can set training, can build best practices and can take your company to higher profits.
