The larger your medtech or B2B company, the more complex your sales organization tends to be. New product offerings, geographic expansions, mergers and acquisitions and other events all contribute to growth and diversity across the sales force.
The list of specialized titles and sales roles quickly grows:
- Territory managers
- Field sales executives
- Account managers
- Business development representatives
- Inside sales specialists
- Solution consultants
- System engineers
- Proposal specialists
While the exact taxonomy may be clear internally, the range of titles and roles can lead to confusion, miscommunication and customer service issues with valued prospects.
That’s why a clear delineation of roles and responsibilities matters—particularly between your best sales closers and your lead generation resources.
Find the sales team structure that fits your business needs
At Volkart May, we work with dozens of leading brands and encounter numerous sales structures. What extends across all these organizations is the fact that a high-powered sales rep’s time is better spent closing a sale than finding a sale.
In other words, the role of the inside sales team (or an outsourced inside sales partner like Volkart May) should focus on cold calling, sales prospecting and “finding” qualified leads. This allows the field-based sales team (no matter what their titles) to maximize their productivity and increase your revenue by working only those opportunities pre-qualified and ready to close.
Job descriptions should reflect these varying responsibilities.
Typical inside sales rep duties include:
- Understanding the needs and requirements of your target customers
- Finding new sales opportunities through outbound cold calls and emails
- Following up with inbound leads and nurturing cooler sales leads
- Qualifying potential prospects and setting up appointments for outside sales
- Routing qualified opportunities to the appropriate field sales reps for detailed conversations and closed sales
Typical outside sales executive duties include:
- Managing a defined sales territory
- Building relationships with qualified prospects and existing customers
- Traveling or meeting one-on-one with decision-makers and buying committees
- Closing new deals to meet company sales and revenue goals
- Forecasting upcoming opportunities across the sales pipeline
Deploy sound communications and sales processes
It sounds simple, but we’ve noticed more than a few derailers.
One of the most obvious challenges are current conditions, with COVID-19 hampering the field sales team’s ability to meet prospects and customers in person, attend networking events and use traditional methods to generate new business. The shift to a work-from-home environment across many B2B and medtech sectors means these highly paid sales executives need to pivot their skills to virtual methods.
Inside sales usually works remotely, so the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted them differently. Business development reps may be struggling with greater pressure to generate leads given the disruption many businesses have seen in their sales pipelines.
Generating qualified sales leads is an ever-present source of friction between the inside sales team and the outside sales team. Unless your organization has taken time to put specific and objective definitions in place, there’s likely to be finger-pointing and issues. A lead scoring system can help resolve these situations.
Open communication among all sales team members is vital to success. Both inside and outside sales reps should share access to a CRM or ERP system that tracks all aspects of lead generation and interaction with prospects. It’s also smart to document processes and establish feedback loops so both sides can share what’s working and where improvements are needed.
Add capacity and reduce friction with outsourced inside sales
With the continuing impact of COVID-19 forcing companies to work remotely, the skills of the inside sales team remain in high demand. But, it’s not always easy to hire and train these valuable business development specialists.
Outsourcing offers a convenient and cost-effective workaround. With an outsourced inside sales model, a professional contact center like Volkart May serves as an extension of the internal team. Trained B2B and medtech callers conduct lead generation activities, qualify inquiries and nurture cooler opportunities. There’s direct interaction with your sales leaders, and seamless integration with your core sales database; customers and prospects never see the difference between your in-house team and your outsourced business development representatives.
The benefits of inside sales outsourcing include:
- Quickly adding capacity for a product launch, market expansion or seasonal demand
- Accelerating demand generation at the top of the sales funnel
- Maximizing your outside sales team’s time
- Reducing time and effort required to hire, onboard, train and manage business development reps
Curious if outsourcing your sales prospecting, lead generation or appointment-setting activities make sense for your business? Let us run the numbers and show you the ROI opportunity for your business. Contact us today.
