Should Inside Sales Reps be allowed to work from home?

Good sales organizations have a "locker room feel". While there may be exceptions, I agree with you. It is hard to maintain chemistry, a competitive environment and so forth in a sales environment if the sales reps are all at home. Also, everyone sells differently, and there is a lot of value to one sales rep hearing another that is more successful or doing something different.

Yup. Lone Ranger may be OK with cattle but seldom with B2B prospects and customers, especially in complex products and services.

OK...here I go being the black sheep of the group. I think it should depend on the size of the organization, the complexity of the offering, etc. My office is very small, and we are all very busy. Nothing changes if I work from home or at the office. My door is closed and nobody hears me. I enjoy coming in because my co-workers are wonderful people. My boss gives me the flexibility to work from home if I need to, and that mindset tells me that he trusts me and knows I work hard wherever I am. I look forward to hearing feedback on my "rebel attitude".

The success of sales reps working from home really has to do with 2 areas--the culture of the company to support that, and the level of the team that is able to self-manage and produce. 25 years of building and managing teams of both flavors gives me perspective into both sides. Solution providers where inside reps are fairly high level would be a better environment for this. B2C or very transactional, high volume B2B sales would not be the best consideration. Most inside sales reps (that fall into the traditional definition) would have a hard time being so independent. Everybody likes the idea of "working from home" but understanding what it actually requires disqualifies a lot of people. Also some people like to be part of a team and feel isolated working on their own if it isn't their work style. Much of it also has to do with their work ethic, accountability, personality type, and view of their relationship to the company.

On the company side, it requires a different management approach as well. Moving to a remote model takes onboarding higher level staff that have a track record of success and independence vs. trying to convert an existing onsite team to remote. The recruiting, hiring model, skillsets, staff management, reporting, etc. would all have to support success with remote teams.

Many large companies have implemented teleworker models very successfully, but it requires a lot of communication and transparency along the way with workers. Also knowing up front that your team isn't a place to "try it out" and see if works. Some organizations have also implemented a system where 1 or 2 days here and there their team members can work from home, more as an incentive to workers rather than a full time teleworker model. But again, all of this has to do with the team you have today and the composition of it. There also has to be a compelling reason to look at teleworker models. If you want access to higher level talent outside of your immediate area, or lowering cost around maintaining the onsite infrastructure—then that may be a consideration. But just to do it because people want to work from home may not be the best reason.

I have always supported a teleworker model but know exactly what it requires and what the profile of the person that can do this looks like. The single most important thing to know about it is that it isn't a junior level person that fits best in this but a senior level one that has a track record with it.