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Welcome to the "Ask An Expert" section of the AA-ISP. We understand that inside sales is a growing industry and that we often learn by "trial and error" or "as we go". Sometimes there is no clear answer to some of the challenges we face. Ask An Expert can help inside sales reps or leaders gain feedback from our industry experts on various challenges that we face. Please complete the information in the form provided and we will respond to your question promptly.

Note: To view all Expert responses simply double click on the question.

We are located in Nashua, NH and want to start an inside sales function with limited funds. Consultants are not in the budget! We have SAP business one with a CRM but we think we may be better off with other software that is more focused toward inside sales. Any one have any experience with our current CRM? Any suggestions, being able to build in work flow I believe would save us time and I want to be able to "trickle" e-mails.

There are numerous CRM packages and other e-marketing solutions on the market today that do a great job for lead nurturing.. I would suggest you visit the AA-ISP Service Provider Directory and make contact with some of the providers to see how they can offer your company a solution. I do not have experience with SAP, but perhaps some of the other expert-panelists will comment on your need.

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Question from: Private to Non-Members

I'm looking for some statistics that I can reference for a sales presentation I am putting together. Specifically I am looking for the following info. can someone point me in the right direction to sources that I can reference without having to pay for an entire study? Thanks. 1) industry averages for cold call success rate 2) the number of cold calls it takes to get a meeting. 3) What forms of communication that executives respond to

Is there any information available that shows the trending of Inside Sales jobs vs. Outside sales jobs, i.e. is there a steeper increase of inside jobs vs. outside? Also, documentation showing what the projections are for the number insides sales jobs growth as well as earnings (sellers compensation) for insides sales for the next 5-10 years.

I have a friend who asked me this question: One area I could use help with is in role playing objection-handling...since I work on my own (she's a sales team of one and works from home), I don't have "teammates" to practice with. Are you aware of any ways for me to connect with others to do some role-playing? Help please!

I need a great format for a sales meeting agenda that generates dialogue and cross talk on opportunities. Help!

Looking for some advice on starting a mentoring program for Sr. Inside Sales Reps to help new, developing Reps. Any insight you could provide would be very helpful. Thanks!

Team - What are the different kinds of incentive or bonus plans you use? I.e., how do you pay them out? Quarterly, montly, etc. Also, how do you structure them to be most effective? We've been using a quarterly plan that pays 60% on individual achievement and 40% on team achievement.

All opinions welcome please. Our company purchases HQL (highly qualified leads) In the past few months these leads are going downhill fast, they do not meet the agreement or filters. We are in dispute and butting heads. We pay an average of $100 for each lead, when I speak personally with the leads and get an entirely different view for instance "we are not looking to purchase and XXXX company mislead you" I will ask for an email confirming - and I present to the vendor they "blah blah blah ..pay us the money" I would appreciate any response.

Also for many days in May I was not receiving daily leads - I contacted my rep and they did not return calls, I sent read request emails and finally heard back claiming they were sent. It turns out that XXX company starting running massive campaigns and were on 4 national spam lists. They invoiced us for all leads - yet still have not delivered. Who is at fault here? The vendor's VP Sales points the finger at us and says it is our spam filter and we are to 'blame' -- yet the reps clearly dropped the ball. They could have offered to deliver thru FTP which they brought up after the fact (over and over and over again) Are we at fault?

Given the nature of a sales support role (hunter, risk adverse individuals), what percent of compensation should be at risk and what are the best compensation methods to incent incremental performance for this group (B2B environment).

I'm curious to know how other inside sales teams handle incoming call backs from customers. Does each Rep have their own individual, direct phone number/line? And is it an 800# or a local #? If local, are their customers from outside the local calling number? Thanks!

Has anyone ever commissioned on just team goals and not individuals? Meaning higher salaries but contributing to a pot of team commissions then distributed out to individuals at the end of a quarter? I think as companies move to more models that are for the good of the customer and team and the experience needs to be less for a sales rep that paying high commission and working in a territorial model is becoming less the norm, meaning the norm seems to be contributing to the companies goals, having more national and flexible sales talent, and then compensating as a team. Thoughts?

Can you please share any insight, experience, or research on advantages vs. disadvantages of an unscripted (vs. scripted) approach to Inside Sales?

What is the appropriate number and length of marketing messages that marketers should expect can be discussed on one Inside Sales telephone interaction?

I am curious if anyone has used team- pay performance for commisions only and if so how it was well implemented and how the breakdowns of received commission in the bucket were established per levels of the team.

For a business development/lead gen team, what is the average # of calls/day that should be required? What about live "Connects" or "conversations"?

I'm preparing the business requirements document that our IT staff will need to begin the research and selection process for our CRM tools, call center applications, and phone system enhancements. Does anyone have a time tested BRD or RFP template that captures the basic essence. This would be for outbound calling ISR's in a high technology sales development function.

We are preparing our Inside Sales force to, upon evaluation and qualification of an opportunity, either hand it off to the field territory manager or a channel partner. Does anyone have a score card or criteria check list to help facilitate that decision tree? It is not always black and white nor can it be solved just by a dollar amount.

I am starting an inside sales team for a SaaS based product and would like to see sample reports of how you measure success of a campaign. Does anyone have campaign results or the buckets you use to measure sucess for your inside sales team beyond just sales dollars?

Currently, our company has one (1) Inside Sales Rep who works remotely out of her home covering her territory. She lives two (2) hours away from our Corporate headquarters where our Inside Sales force works, and her manager works, so, she can easily drive to our Corporate office for training, important meetings, etc. We are looking to expand our remote Inside Sales program to offering positions in other states working from their homes, and/or from our manufacturing sites, etc. Do you have information on market trends for use of remote Inside Sales reps? What are other companies doing in regards to using remote Inside Sales reps? Are there legal restrictions you are aware of? Human Resource restrictions? I'd appreciate any information you have that you can share. Thanks.

What are some best practices or case studies on having an Inside Sales rep working with an Outside Sales partner? When I originally put together our Inside Sales team they worked independently with their own accounts and budgets. This was very successful. Now the CEO wants to team an Inside Sales rep with an Outside Rep to help the field rep meet budget and expand the territory.

Does anybody have any tips for asking for referrals? From both a new and a renewal business perspective, and from both losses and wins.

What are the key metrics that I should be tracking on an inside sales dashboard?

What are general guidelines for defining A vs. B vs. C leads?

Are most Inside Sales positions salary or hourly based? Is there regulation regarding how these positions are compensated?

The current Inside Sales function at my company is currently an Order Entry Desk. I have been asked to turn the function into a profit center and create a true Inside Sales Team. I have read several of the white papers, but would like to know if you have any suggestions on how to compensate these new roles (use of spifs maybe?) and also how to transition the current order entry role into a inside sales role and not lose the existing relationships between the outside rep and the order entry rep. Thanks

Hello everyone, I am looking for a more solid one on one form. The form I use now is pretty generic and so are the ones I've see available for free or pay, online. My form now has areas for reps with respect to: performance, rep generated discussion, state of pipeline, and to do's/timelines. I am looking for something, preferably in digital format, which is a bit more intuitive and will help me to stay on top of the important task of following up on my commitments to my reps, yet is easy to hold them accountable for managing to the document as well. Thanks for any ideas/help! Adam

We have a territory of outside field reps requesting a new ISR for their region. What is a suggested process for deciding whether or not to make such a change. I would also be interested in suggestions of how to implement such change should we move forward with reassigning.

I have been given the green light to expand my inside sales team. What should I consider when developing the expansion plan?

I'm looking for productivity benchmarks or industry standards for an Inside Sales group direct selling an SaaS product. What is a standard connect rate, a standard conversion rate (# of connects that agree to a web presentation) and win rate (# of presentations that result in wins). I'm also interested in average # of presentations per day and per week. FYI -- target accounts are SMB and avg deal size is under 10k. Thanks in advance for your assistance!

I am looking for articles, White Papers, or reports about companies that outsource their Inside Sales. Ideal content would be statistics, success stories, information on trends etc. Thanks in advance

I have had a number of individuals recently ask me about organizations and technologies to help improve productivity, particularly in the area of CRM tools and add-on’s. I was hoping some of the Expert Panelists would have some thoughts they would be willing to share. Thanks.

I would like a recommendation on a Sales Assessment Tool. I would like one that is good for both Inside and Outside reps. Thank You

Looking for some advice on scripts. Due to the nature of our business, it's important the team knows all of the 'ins and outs' of latest compliance codes and trends. Does anyone have a tool that they use to have that info physically at hand (not electronically)?

During our Summit it was highly recommended that 'levels' be created within an Inside Sales Team to create a career path. Do you have any white papers or information that may help me get started?

What are the key components of a training designed for a Supervisor of Inside Sales? Thanks

I am currently working on a research project for the Rochester Institute of Technology. One of the questions we want to answer is: "What percentage of sales do companies spend on sales and marketing, both separately and in the aggregate" If you answer the question your companies will NOT be individually identified. Thank you, David

Hi, I'm a new member and wanted to see what kind of trends are you seeing in the industry right now? Thanks.

I would like to begin internet Live Chat with customers. Do you have any vendors you can recommend? I am looking for something easy to get up and running, with little time and money. Any recommendations and best practices would be helpful? Thank you!

Is 10% of base pay a good percentage for variable pay?

We sell all of our products through distribution, so we do not get the end user's PO in hand. I am trying to come up with some compensation metrics that are measurable and challenging. Does anyone have any advice for me?

Could you please suggest some resources that could provide inside sales rep versus hiring a rep agency to manage a geographic area? I am working on a proposal that will help expand our Inside sales department and need some information on pro's and con's of rep agencies and inside sales representatives.

I have several new reps starting soon and I want to get them calling as soon as possible, do you have any suggestions and/or reference materials? Thanks

Our Inside sales teams are staring to work more with our field sales teams and they are getting resistance from some of the field reps and managers. Do you have any advice on how this can be overcome?

How is an "Inside Sales Strategy" defined? What are the essential components of an Inside Sales Strategy?

What is the right ratio between inside sales compensation and quota? In other words, if a rep wants to make $100k per year, what should their annual quota be? Thank you.

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