What is inside sales and is it really more effective than outside sales | B2B sales
What is the difference between inside sales and outside sales? Which strategy will work best for your startup? And how to develop a cost- and time-efficient sales process? Dive into our brand new guide to inside and outside sales to find out!
What are inside sales and outside sales?
Inside sales is a sales model where a Sales representative works remotely from inside their office, meaning they use mostly online communication to contact leads and close deals.
Outside sales refer to meeting potential clients offline — in their office, at a golf club, at a conference or an expo, etc.
Inside sales have been taking over the B2B space in the last few years, especially in the Tech and SaaS industries. It’s a more cost- and time-efficient way to sell products and services, however, in many cases, outside sales are still the more effective way.
Inside sales model and team structure
The inside sales team typically includes at least a Sales Development Representative (SDR) and an Account Executive (AE). Usually, the SDR finds leads, and cold contacts and qualifies them, while the AE does the demo meetings and closes the deals.
An extended team also includes an Account Manager and a Customer Success Manager, they work with existing clients.
The inside sales model typically includes the four following steps.
✅ Finding leads and outreach — an SDR finds potential clients and contacts them. This may include automated lead generation.
✅Qualifying leads — the SDR checks if the leads match their ideal customer based on their pain points, budget, location, company size, etc. This can be done before or after the outreach.
✅Sales pitch — once the lead is qualified by the SDR, the AE takes over to present the product to the potential client and answer their questions. Usually, this includes a demo meeting.
✅Closing the deal — the AE keeps communicating with the lead after the demo meeting, offers discounts and handles their objections, and, finally, closes the deal.
Outside sales model and team structure
An outside sales team usually includes several Salespersons who work in the field and a Sales manager who manages their work.
The team might also include support staff that helps with processing orders and producing product materials.
The outside sales model implies a longer sales cycle. It usually includes:
✅lead discovery — outside sales require a longer and more thorough lead research process; the Salesperson needs to find the exact person in the company to talk to, which is usually done via LinkedIn;
✅mapping territory and scheduling appointments — since all the meetings are online it is crucial for Salespersons to create an efficient schedule to avoid spending most of the day in the car;
✅first meeting and discovering pain points — discovering the pain points that their product can solve is the first thing Sales representatives should do on an offline meeting with a prospect;
✅presentation or demo — during the second meeting, Salespeople present their product and show how it will cover the prospect’s pain points.
Are inside sales more effective than outside sales?
Inside sales allow processing larger amounts of leads due to the possibilities of automation. However, outside sales are more effective in terms of conversion.
In some industries and regions, outside sales are still the more effective strategy.
Based on our experience, we have observed that there are specific regions where inside sales may not yield optimal results. Particularly, when considering regions such as Latin America and MENA, especially, the Gulf Region, closing deals remotely proves to be quite challenging.
This, however, doesn’t mean that online communication has to be avoided completely: the initial contacting and arranging of the appointments can be done remotely.
For our clients, we’ve created combined teams several times: the SDR would generate leads remotely from their office, and the Salesperson working in the field would meet prospects offline.
This is an effective workflow for industries like Banking and Insurance. Also, works well with large conservative enterprises, — Alex Muntyan, the CEO of Kommune Agency
Inside sales without the offline component work well in the Tech and SaaS industries — meeting prospects outside of the online space might not be needed at all. However, even then you can occasionally implement outside sales strategies to give a boost to your Sales metrics. For instance, professional conferences and expos are great places to generate a lot of warm leads in one day.
Inside sales vs outside sales: which is more expensive?
Outside sales representatives usually request a 10–20% higher salary than inside sales workers. Above that, it is important to note that a salesperson that works in the field cannot physically talk to as many prospects as an AE who works online. This means that the higher salary of offline sales reps is combined with a smaller amount of processed leads but higher conversion.
When it comes to B2B sales of a startup product, it is common for the founder to handle part of the sales funnel. This way, the founder can make sure that they present their product in the best possible way and also gather feedback from their potential customers. However, because the founder’s time is very valuable, this makes the sales process very expensive — especially if the product is presented offline.
To make founder-led sales more cost-efficient, it is important to implement a thorough lead qualification process. We recommend workflows like MEDDIC, PPVVC, or, the simplest option, BANT.
The lead qualification will allow you to minimize unnecessary meetings with leads that don’t match your product. If you have a good SDR, they can do the initial qualification and make sure that the prospect struggles with the “right” pain points and has the budget for your product. This will reduce the founder’s time spent on meetings dramatically, — Alex Muntyan, the CEO of Kommune Agency.
Should you outsource inside sales?
Now, the last question is — should you outsource your inside sales to professionals? As usual, there’s no simple answer.
If your current objective is to generate traction, it is acceptable to outsource your company’s. It is advisable, however, to delegate only the top of your sales funnel, the lead generation — especially if we’re talking about startup sales. It is essential for the founder to be included in the process during the product launch because they know their product the best and need to gather market feedback.
When you are in the stage of seeking investments, it is preferable to build everything internally. This is because frequently, investors are unwilling to invest in teams lacking sales expertise. For startups in this situation, we have a special service Interim, which implies building a professional team and setting up a sales system inside the client’s company — Alex Muntyan, CEO of Kommune Agency.
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