Title: "Mastering Inside Sales: Strategies for Success in the Digital Age"

In today's ever-evolving business landscape, Inside Sales has emerged as a game-changing approach to selling products and services. This dynamic method, characterized by remote interactions through digital channels, offers cost efficiency, scalability, and a broader reach. In our comprehensive article, we delve into the evolution of Inside Sales, its significance in modern business, and provide a set of actionable strategies for achieving Inside Sales excellence.

Key Points:

Understanding Inside Sales: Explore the evolution from traditional outside sales to remote Inside Sales, highlighting the key differences.

Why Inside Sales Matters: Discover the financial benefits, scalability, broader audience reach, data-driven insights, remote work compatibility, customer-centricity, and technological dependence that make Inside Sales crucial.

How to Get Inside Sales Right: Learn essential steps, such as defining your ideal customer profile, building a high-quality sales team, leveraging technology, adopting a multichannel approach, personalizing outreach, providing value, implementing sales playbooks, measuring performance, fostering collaboration, adapting to change, and prioritizing customer experience.

Navigation Junkie

The open road

This mornings post is a little quirky.  I’m hoping some runner’s, cyclist’s and traveling sales people out there can relate.  I am a “Navigation Junkie”!  I love the unknown, discovering a new route, driving to a new location, running a race and not knowing the route.  The freedom of just going and taking in everything your surroundings have to offer.  This morning I did a 6 mile solo run.  I was on my own, which meant I could listen to my music, make up a new route, talk to myself, sing out loud, etc… Really challenge myself, because I had to make sure I was back home by a certain time and not run too far over 6 miles.  I nailed it! My Garmin hit 6 miles right in front of my driveway, 3 min. prior to my goal time of 6:00am.  Mission accomplished!When I was a kid the best birthday present I ever got was my silver huffy 10 speed bike with red curly handle bars.  My birthday’s in June, so the summer of ’82 was when I really jumped on the navigation love band wagon.  I spent so many summer mornings waking up early, before everyone else, hopping on my bike and riding for hours through rural CNY without a care in the world.  Watching the sun rise, riding old railroad trails, stopping and eating crab apples, clearing my crazy “tween” mind.  It was just fun for me.  When I put it in perspective, not much has changed throughout my life in terms of what makes me happy.  My self-proclaimed theme song, “The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner”, by Iron Maiden; based on the 1959 short story written by Alan Sillitoe.  I love when that song comes up on my iPod shuffle.  It just puts me in a meditative trance.  

Even right out of college, choosing a profession, I immediately gravitated towards a career in outside sales.  The thought of having a large geography, cold calling, and traveling throughout Upstate NY and New England was fascinating to me.  The thrill of working hard to schedule an appointment with a target account in Northern Maine, navigating my way through the ADK, Green and White Mountains then driving up along Rte. 1 in Maine to my destination was magical.  Making stops along the way, gaining new business, meeting new people, taking in the beautiful scenery.  Staying in little towns always with my running sneakers packed and going for a beautiful morning run.  It’s as thrilling to me now as it was all those years ago when I first started out.  I may drive my kids a little crazy, because I refuse to walk, bike or drive the same old way to daily destinations.  If you think there’s only one route to the library or grocery store from our house, think again.  I know just about every side road there is in Delmar NY.  

You can be a “Navigation Junkie” without it messing up your schedule.  We’re all pressed for time.  Finding new ways to get  to your destination just makes life more exciting.  Appreciate your surroundings for what they are.  Seeing a beautiful house, garden, shop etc… that was never on your radar before. It doesn’t take away from having control over your destination, it just changes it up a bit so it will never get boring.  You’re in control of the curve ball.  If you find yourself in a running or biking rut, just head out without a set plan and run or ride!  Literally, stop and smell the flowers, take pictures, clear your head.  Focus on the beauty of your surroundings, not how your legs feel, your pace, etc…  It’s always helped me get out of a rut.  Hopefully it will help you too.  This is not for everyone.  I have a running friend who can never explore the open road with me.  If she doesn’t know the route, she freaks out!  That’s ok, to each their own. 

Are you a navigation junkie?  If you’re not, do you think you could be?  Does the thought of changing it up a bit appeal or not appeal to you?  I would love to know your thoughts.  Please share….

Sales based organizations typically choose between pursuing an inside sales model or an outside sales model. Inside sales implies that salespeople report daily to the office and make sales inquiries over the phone, via web based virtual demos, or through another remote strategy. Outside sales include field reps who travel for face to face meetings with clients and other services that benefit from a physically present representative. Today, inside sales organizations are more prolific, and are growing more rapidly than outside sales organizations. However the two are inherently different in the kind of sales they bring in. This is something to consider before deciding which model to follow. Should you choose one, or incorporate smaller teams of both styles into your sales organization? It all depends on your business and your product.