Inside Sales: The Unsung Heroes of Distribution
Building on the Skills of Inside Sales Staff
After conducting dozens of distributor Voice of the Customer
surveys and interviewing their key customer contacts, I have discovered one
eye-opening discovery. Customers place a high value on inside sales – perhaps
higher than most believe. I can still remember the words of a VP of Engineering
for a mid-sized OEM: “Tell your client this, despite our primary salesperson’s
personality and product knowledge, we depend on the quick answers and problem-solving
skills that come from [their inside salesperson] Scott.”
Comments like this reinforce the words of one of my
colleagues many years ago. “A good outside sales guy makes the phone ring, and
a good inside salesperson keeps it ringing.” In an age of instant
gratification, with overflowing product information on the internet, e-commerce
everywhere, and customers dealing with a fast-paced work schedule, the
necessity for a strong inside sales presence has only increased.
For clarification, many distributors confuse inside sales
with customer service. Over the years, I
have heard the terms used nearly interchangeably. This is a mistake. Both
positions are important, but realizing the difference will be critical in the
future. Let’s contrast the skill set of an experienced person in both
positions.
Customer
Service versus Inside Sales
Relative Skill
Strengths (1 low – 10 high)
Skillset |
Inside Sales |
Customer Service |
5 |
5 |
|
·
Computer (Availability) |
5 |
5 |
·
Catalog Skills (identify part number) |
5 |
2 |
·
Catalog Skills (part number from description) |
5 |
2 |
·
Product Knowledge |
5 |
2 |
·
Application Knowledge |
3 |
1 |
·
Troubleshooting skills |
3 |
1 |
Summarizing these differences, both experienced customer
service personnel and similar inside salespeople have a firm handle on the use
of the company’s ERP system. Both can enter orders, determine price, and delivery,
and other routine tasks for the customer. However, the groups begin to
differentiate as the customer issue focuses on product and technology.
The primary role of the customer service person is to
move incoming orders from emails and occasional phone calls to the
distributor’s ERP system and to answer questions based on information contained
in the system. The inside salesperson provides guidance and advice based on
knowledge of the products and services provided by the distributor. These “advice
and guidance” issues often require a judgment call based on this
understanding.
Returning to the customer service person, experts tell us
that many of their duties will soon be automated. For example, many
distributors are currently using an AI program from Conexiom which
automatically converts orders sent from the customer via email into orders in
the distributor’s computer system. Other organizations have developed systems that
automatically provide order acknowledgments, delivery times, and other basic
information back to the customer. E-commerce systems further cut into the work
done by customer service departments by providing customer-specific pricing and
availability whether the customer uses the buy button or handles the order in a
more traditional email fashion.
Looking further at the situation, distributors struggle to
find people. The automation of customer service tasks will at least, in part,
solve manpower issues. Good people are hard to find. As they say in my part of
the country, qualified candidates are as rare as hen’s teeth. If a distributor has good, dedicated people,
there is a need for change – a need for us to develop skills for the
future.
For customer service teams, we should be looking for ways
to move them to true inside sales positions. For inside salespeople, we must
create a career path that secures their future. Quality inside salespeople
appears to be a bottleneck in our industry's growth.
The sad case with inside salespeople is many distributors
are losing folks with the right inside sales skillset. In a nutshell, there are
three main drivers of this loss of human capability:
·
Status - Our industry often grants
greater status to outside sales and similar employees. Even if this is not the
case internally, most suppliers perceive it this way. Nearly all your competitors place a higher
status on outside roles than inside – and they actively attempt to poach your
team for, you guessed it, outside sales positions.
·
Compensation - The pay scale for outside
salespeople tends to be higher than those serving in an inside role. Within
many organizations, a new outside seller, especially if they hold a technical
degree, makes as much money as a senior inside salesperson with years of
experience.
·
Lifestyle – Whether right or wrong, many
see an outside role as providing more freedom and flexibility than an inside
position. There might also be a company car, and other perks tossed in as well.
A fourth important reason exists and should be
immediately addressed. Inside sales is seen by many of our employees as a
dead-end job. How do the inside sellers feel? If they do a good job for ten
years, what does it get them? Ten more years as an inside salesperson. They
receive slightly better pay, but no improvement in status.
Experience demonstrates that if an experienced inside
sales guy isn’t moved to outside sales within their current company, they become
attractive targets for the recruiters of other companies.
Harkening back to the bestseller book that I have
recommended for over two decades, First, Break All the Rules, we learn
that employees who can answer the affirmative to these questions are more
likely to stick with their employer:
·
In the last six months, has someone at work
talked about my progress?
·
Over the past year, have I had opportunities at
work to learn and grow?
It is imperative to determine ways to create additional
career paths to retain these inside salespeople. To that end, we will soon be
publishing a white paper detailing three growth slots that better employ and
build upon the existing skills of inside salespeople.
Stay tuned!
Frank Hurtte, Founding Partner of River Heights Consulting, shares his personal experiences with 28 years of "in the trenches" training and 18 years as
a consultant. He serves as a personal coach to industry leaders across many lines of distribution. He has authored 6 books (with another in the works) and has written hundreds of articles for national trade magazines, including IMARK Now Electrical Magazine.
Frank is also a sought-after copywriter of marketing materials for technology companies. His charismatic, yet laid-back, easy-to-follow manner makes him a favorite among public speakers.
Comments