Inside Sales White Papers

How to Craft a Value Proposition your Buyers Can not Refuse
By: Marge Bieler, Founder and CEO RareAgent
On: 08/16/10

The single biggest obstacle preventing salespeople from getting in front of decision makers is a weak value proposition. If you want to set up a meeting with todays crazy-busy decision makers, you have to punch it up.

Get some great tips to help your value propositions in in this informative article from Jill Konrath, author of SNAP Selling and Selling to Big Companies

Overview - 2010 Telemarketing/Inside Sales Performance Optimization Study
By: Jim Dickie, Managing Partner & Barry Trailer, Co- Founder - CSO Insights
On: 08/03/10

This document provides an overview of the report compiled by CSO Insights and presents what they view as the top ten Telemarketing/Inside Sales metrics. Criteria is either because of their change in size over the past two years, the discrepancy between telemarketing/inside sales and field sales, or changes they feel are trending in an important direction. The attached describes the overall survey details, present charts, key findings, and observations on these top ten trends, including the Going Forward Recommendations.

The full, detailed report, complete with metric charts on all 97 metrics, is available for purchase directly from CSO Insights. Regularly $1495 but AA-ISP Members receive a 50% discount. Get the complete report for $750 by Clicking Here

Developing Top Performing Outsourcing Programs
By: The American Association of Inside Sales Professionals
On: 08/03/10

Do you work with outsourcing services companies? Does your Organization have Outsourcing relationships? Have you or are you considering Outsourcing? If so you may benefit from the AA-ISP white paper - "Developing Top Performing Outsourcing Programs".

Lead Response Management M.I.T. Study
By: Dave Elkington, CEO, & Ken Krogue, President, InsideSales.com
On: 06/29/10

This behavioral study revealed when sales representatives had success around calling web-generated leads. To find these facts, we looked at leads that were captured through a web form, and attempted or called at least one time. The report summarizes the findings related to speed and timing when responding to web-generated leads.

2010 Inside Sales Metrics & Compensation Report Overview
By: Trish Bertuzzi, Founder and Chief Strategist, The Bridge Group
On: 06/27/10

In Q1 2010, The Bridge Group, Inc. surveyed over 115 North American technology companies on their Inside Sales implementations. The focus areas were: metrics & compensation.

Three functional components of Inside Sales were explored: Lead Generation, Inside Sales and Inside Sales in a SaaS model. Participants were able to take multiple surveys based on their implementations.

This particular report delivers the results for Inside Sales which was defined as:
- The Rep owns the entire sales cycle from inception through close
- A revenue number based on an individual or team quota

This report will help provide guidance as you build out your strategy and/or allow you to make changes that will bring you into alignment with industry standards.

Why Sales Needs Fewer Leads
By: Dan McDade, President and CEO, PointClear
On: 06/23/10

It is true—sales reps do not need more marketing leads. They need fewer leads—or more accurately, fewer raw, unfiltered, unqualified marketing leads. In order for this to happen, marketing needs to create a lead list of better qualified, high-potential opportunities that sales can close quickly and easily. Hear proven methodologies to make this happen.

Ensure Demand Gen Success: Define Your Ideal Customer
By: Jigsaw - www.jigsaw.com
On: 06/02/10

One of the great myths in marketing and sales is that generating lots of leads or awareness for a product automatically translates into lots of new business. Quantity does not equal quality. If you don’t have a clear definition of who your ideal customer is, you will not find them. And all your sales efforts have been wasted.

Our Guide and Worksheet takes you through the steps needed to identify your ideal customer, target your sales message and generate the types of leads that want to buy what you offer. Your sales calls and appointments will be more successful because you will know:

- Who is your ideal customer?
- Why do they buy from you?
- What is their buying process?
- What are the objections they bring up in the sales process?

Down Load Guide and Worksheet Now

New Smart Selling Ebook Pairs Next-Gen Tools with Sales Skills
By: Josiane Feigon, President - TeleSmart Communications & Nancy Nardin, Founder - Smart Selling Tools
On: 05/21/10

Attention inside sales and sales managers — it’s about time you made your way out of the confusing sales tool glut and picked the essential tools you need to survive and thrive in today’s new economy.

Two smart-selling women and Sales 2.0 pioneers like to shop! We scoured the market and picked the essential “must-have” tools specifically for inside sales. Then we wrapped them around 10 essential sales skills to show how using sales tools throughout the sales cycle can shave valuable minutes off your call time and enhance productivity.

From the best-selling author of Smart Selling on the Phone and Online, and the CEO of Smart Selling Tools- the highly anticipated ebook is available to AA-ISP members for free.

E-Book - Increase Sales Productivity in 2010: Sales tools and the path to productivity gains
By: Nancy Nardin, Founder & President of Smart Selling Tools
On: 05/19/10

I sought out to write about the different paths to productivity gains. Training sales reps and providing more knowledge is one path. Hiring more sales reps is another. Creating new products is a third. The 4th path is the road most traveled. It’s simply to “demand more”. Make more calls, go on more appointments, send more proposals, SELL MORE.

It’s difficult to simply “do more” when there are only 24 hours in a day and presumably, sales reps only work during 8-12 of them. We need to provide reps with tools that will help them meet or exceed our demands. Managers can’t expect different outcomes i.e. more sales, if they don’t change something. It’s not good enough to simply apply more pressure.

The book focuses on the 4th path – the “demand more” approach and identifies the tools needed to make it worth.

It’s my hope that this e-book helps sales managers get real about what’s needed to increase productivity.

To view and download Click Here

5 Steps to a Successful B2B Social Media Strategy
By: Matt Heinz, Founder, Heinz Marketing
On: 05/18/10

Learn practical ideas to help you leverage all of the social media options that are available today.

It is Not Just About Leads - Sell More by Speaking Your Customers Language
By: Jigsaw, Learn More at www.jigsaw.com
On: 05/03/10

How often does your sales team complain about the leads? Many times the lead is not the problem, rather, it’s the story sales is telling, that limits sales growth. Are you speaking your customers’ language?

No Deals to 10 Deals a week: By speaking the customer’s language, your sales team talks to more people and wins more business. Learn how one company transformed their sales pipeline by:

• Telling a clear and compelling story
• Connecting with customers and prospects hearts and heads
•Testing and refining the “magic words”

Also included is a step-by-step checklist to help you create or improve your sales story.

Why Traditional CRM is Not Enough
By: Ken Murray, Co-founder -VanillaSoft
On: 02/23/10

A white paper on the changing dynamics of Inside Sales.

CRM software has passed the stage of being considered innovative and has become a default tool in many sales departments. CRM has proven very effective for many sales activities, but to kick an Inside Sales effort into high gear Best-In-Class organizations are now deploying tools that do more than store and report on data - they change behavior and drive productivity.

This White Paper examines these changing dynamics.

Teleprospecting and Inside Sales: To Outsource or Not to Outsource?
By: Marge Bieler, Founder and CEO RareAgent
On: 02/06/10

Outsourcing is nothing new. In the mid-1980s, many forward-thinking companies took advantage of outsourcers for their prospecting needs. But today, as salespeople have continued to be laid-off and leads have continued to dwindle, even more companies have turned to outsourcers to keep their pipelines full. Until enough sales close to justify taking on the expense of full-time employees, outsourcing can be a very cost-effective solution. But is it the right solution for your organization?

Includes comments from interviews with leading Inside Sales Expert Trish Bertuzzi, and the Author of "Sales 2.0", Anneke Seley.

Q4 2009 Inside Sales Compensation Report
By: Anneke Seley, CEO and Founder Phone Works, llc
On: 01/25/10

2009 was an unprecedented year for the US economy. Succeeding, growing, maintaining customers and employees, and selling products and services in a recession proved to be difficult challenges for all types of corporations across all industries. As our customers set out to develop their 2010 plans, we wondered what their sales organizations had experienced in 2009. What is on the minds of top sales leaders? Do they have the right strategies in place? Do they have the right talent? Were reps achieving their goals?

As we do every year in the fourth quarter, Phone Works conducted an online compensation survey of inside sales professionals working primarily in business-to-business (B2B) technology companies.

To view the report Click here

Inside Sales Enablement Report from Aberdeen Group
By: Aberdeen Group
On: 01/17/10

Top-performing sales organizations are meeting the challenges of increasing the quality and flow of leads presented to their “closers,” as well improving their overall revenue and sales effectiveness, by deploying well-supported and carefully structured inside sales teams to handle the top layers of the corporate sales funnel. With the ultimate goals of beating quota and improving their selling batting average, Best-in-Class companies are going far beyond the simple act of employing low-value staff to “dial for dollars” into aging, purchased contact lists, and instead showing demonstrable return on their extensive investments in advanced processes and enabling inside sales technologies.

Five Compelling Facts from the Research, Providing Actionable Benefits for Readers:
1. Best-in-Class companies have sales teams with an average of 87% achievement of the overall sales team quota 3. Best-in-Class companies experienced an average 7% year-over-year improvement of their lead conversion rate
4. Best-in-Class companies experienced an average 6% year-over-year improvement of their lead conversion rate
5. 45% of Best-in-Class companies increased their average selling price or contract size on a year-over-year basis

To access your copy: Click Here

Sales 2.0 Tools: Impact on Sales & Marketing Productivity
By: Trish Bertuzzi, President of The Bridge Group
On: 12/17/09

This report is based on surveys of over 90 B2B Executives on adoption, effectiveness & impact of Sales 2.0 tools. We focused on 4 core areas including: CRM; Sales & prospect data sources; Lead tracking & marketing automation; Sales enablement & productivity

Talent Audit
By: The HR Chally Group www.chally.com
On: 10/26/09

This white paper discusses the HR Chally Groups predictive assessment methodologies and tools to help assess, manage and develop present and future employees.

AA-ISP 2009 Leadership Summit Presentations
By: American Association of Inside Sales Professionals
On: 08/26/09

Visit the 2009 Leadership Summit 2009 Recap to view and download presentations from both the General Sessions and Breakout Sessions.

Note: LS 09 Presentations are not accessible via this page. Please visit the LS 09 Recap page to view all the available presentations.

Leadership Summit 2010 is coming in May. More details to follow soon.

2009 Lead Generation and Compensation Metrics Report
By: Trish Bertuzzi, President of The Bridge Group
On: 07/04/09

This in depth report covers 5 Topics at the heart of all Inside Sales organizations including:
Group Reporting Structure; Rep Activity Metrics; Inside Sales Revenue Contribution; Inside Sales Rep Compensation; Management Compensation

2009 Inside Sales Compensation & Metrics Report for Technology Companies
By: Trish Bertuzzi, President of The Bridge Group
On: 06/25/09

This detailed report combines input from over 125 Inside Sales Organizations. Topics include:
Group Reporting Structure; Rep Activity Metrics; Revenue Contribution; Inside Sales Rep Compensation; Management Compensation

Six Steps to Starting a New Inside Sales Team
By: The American Association of Inside Sales Professionals
On: 06/25/09

Have you been charged with starting a new team from scratch? Not sure where to start? This white paper provides an outline of six key areas to consider when starting a new inside sales team.

Conducting Sales Planning Sessions - Process and Procedures
By: The American Association of Inside Sales Professionals
On: 06/24/09

Complete details for conducting effective sales planning sessions. Planning work sheets included.

Outbound Sales Call Plan - Preparation and Success Factors
By: The American Association of Inside Sales Professionals
On: 04/13/09

This white paper provides a detailed outline for properly preparing for a sales call. Includes Planning Worksheet.

Worldwide Inside Sales Deployment
By: The American Association of Inside Sales Professionals
On: 03/25/09

Are you considering taking your inside sales organization outside of the U.S.? Read "Worldwide Inside Sales Deployment" to give you a template for success.

Combining Field and Inside Sales Rewards and Recognition - A Template
By: The American Association of Inside Sales Professionals
On: 03/25/09

A consistent, meaningful and repeatable rewards and recognition program can have a dramatic effect on employee morale, motivation and sales results. Review this white paper to provide you with a working example and template for success.

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