I heard an arresting comment at the LeadsCon conference in New York in August. The speaker claimed that inside sales has outstripped outside sales in B2B, a statistic that both surprised me and got me thinking. Turns out, the statement was based on a recent study showing that inside sales is growing 7.5%, compared to field sales at only 0.5%, and that as of 2013, 53% of the B2B sales rep population sells by phone, instead of face-to-face. It strikes me that this development bears enormous implications for B2B marketers.
On reflection, I suppose I shouldn’t have been surprised, since phone-based selling is so much more efficient than hitting the road to make face-to-face sales calls. Inside sales has graduated over time from the role of inbound order-taker to a full-fledged territory rep with a full sales quota, but one who can handle a lot more accounts.
Interestingly, inside sales reps appear to be more effective as well. The same study shows their quota achievement levels at 85%, compared to field sales, who only achieve their quotas 81% of the time.
Many large enterprises have moved to a tiered selling model, where field sales cover large accounts, inside sales manages the relationship with mid-level accounts, and the smaller, less active customers are served by distributors, catalogs, or e-commerce.
