What are the Keys to Developing an Inside Sales Strategy?

When you are trying to identify an inside sales strategy there are a number of things you have to consider. We are going to touch on some of those today and try to help you develop a quality, high conversion inside sales strategy.

One thing you need to ask yourself as you work on your inside sales strategy is why do your clients buy from you? What makes you better than your competition? Answers to these types of difficult questions can really help you determine the path and focus of your overall sales strategy.

As you look at your customers, how do you determine and communicate the abilities of your organization as it relates to the needs of your customers. Know what you are good at and how you can differentiate from your competitors is not enough. You must be able to articulate these differences to your customers in a way that helps them to realize you can fill gaps that your competitors cannot.

Either you provide a different service or you provide it better. In some way you have to help a potential customer see how they will be better with you.

How do you do that? Assuming you understand your abilities, the next thing you must do is determine your customer’s needs. You do this by asking probing questions and listening. Ask questions that typically lead to follow up questions, sometimes yes/no questions might be alright but you really need to probe to find the real needs, pressure and pain points of your customer before you can start to sell.

Don’t just go in and immediately start your sales pitch. First, make sure you know what your customer needs. Your best chance for success is if you can determine those pain points we mentioned above. Once you determine those you can supply the solutions that will help you close the deal.

These are some high level over items in an overall inside sales strategy but this is not enough if you want a productive sales staff.

The only thing that grows your sales staff is active training and experience.

Active training can be best accomplished in groups using group discussion. You must make all your sales people participate, even if that means going around the table one by one. This helps to reduce stress long term in your sale people as they get used to expressing and defending their options in front of the group.

The next thing all sales groups should do role play in front of the group. Each sales person should take turns as both the customer and salesperson practicing sales techniques in front of the entire group. The group should be supportive; the goal here is not to embarrass anyone but to help overcome their fear and practice critical thinking in front of a group which helps replicate speaking with someone you don’t know.

Over time the group will come up with different sales techniques and introduce potential customer objections perhaps no one thought of that you will need to develop answers for. This will grow you overall sales strategy and better equip your sales people to think on their feet.

 

“Pretend that every single person you meet has a sign around his or her neck that says, ‘Make me feel important.’ Not only will you succeed in sales, you will succeed in life.” – Mary Kay Ash