Inside Sales for Small and Medium Enterprises

Quality Must Keep Up with Quantity

For the December 2009 benchmark report, Inside Sales Enablement: "Let Them Drink Coffee!", Aberdeen surveyed more than 450 executives from a variety of businesses such as insurance, wholesale/distribution and manufacturing. Fifty-six percent (56%) of respondents represented Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs, with revenue below $1 Billion) - 86% of these SMEs indicated that they currently have an Inside Sales function in place, compared to 95% of larger companies. Survey results reflect that while inside sales reps in SMEs make more phone dials on average and have a greater lead pass-through rate than inside sales reps at larger companies (with revenue greater than $1 Billion), the quantity of their calls and the percent of leads they pass over to outside (field) sales does not necessarily result in higher quality output that support their counterparts in field sales to close more business. This Sector Insight focuses on research results specific to inside sales organizations; it will look into the strategies, capabilities and technologies that are key to successfully establishing and managing an inside sales function in SMEs.

Featured Insight of the Day

Having a full time, experienced inside sales manager on board is one of the differentiating factors between SMEs and larger organizations. See figure 2: Effective Training, Managing and Monitoring Provides Competitive Advantage.

How Demand Metric Can Help

If you are looking to mature in this area and ramp up your sales team, check out the following templates:

Inside Sales Manager Job Description

Sales Person Skills Assessment

Performance Review Appraisal Template

Staff Objectives Template

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