What technologies do I need for a successful inside sales team?

I have to agree with the previous answers.

Make sure you have a first rate CRM (I too prefer Salesforce) for keeping track of all those great customers and prospects. Train sales reps in its use since every company implements slightly differently. If there's resistance, find out why.

Work with a good lead generation tool that's fully integrated with the crm. Add the ability to scan a business card as a way of entering a new client.

Have easy access to the product database if it's not contained in your crm. I dealt with custom designed products so there was no 'product' listing in the crm. It's great to be able to send sample designs similar to what prospects are seeking to assure or clarify details early on in the conversation. It also improves company and rep credibility.

Another point which may or may not be appropriate for your business but if it is encourage attendance at after hours networking events. It's always good for the customer to see the face on the other end of the phone in an informal setting.

Have a good way of listening to the social media networking sites and get that information into your crm data. Better to be prepared when following up with a customer than to wonder why a once good customer won't return your call.

And lastly, make sure your inside sales staff has the support and encouragement they need. Senior officers need to be available to answer questions one-on-one, regularly. Product training is essential. The more independent and empowered the rep, the more productive they will be.

Technologies RareAgent uses internally and recommends to our client base include:

1) Salesforce - CRM to keep track of leads, contacts, accounts, strategic partners, opportunities, marketing campaigns, projects, customer support and more.

2) Incite2 - Reskins Salesforce, allowing sales to efficiently and effectively research, engage and record all interactions and provide dashboards and reports on calls, conversations, emails, vmails, opportunities, allowing each sales individual to track progress of self and against peers. Great ability to send management via email a PDF summary of lead status and opportunity status, along with the ability to drill down from dashboards into specific tasks, like conversations and opportunities.

3) NurtureHQ or Marketo, marketing platform to track and nurture buyers through use of campaigns along with giving sales the ability to engage at the correct time based with a buyer based on buyer's digital fingerprint (lead score and activity patterns)

4)JING - allows you to capture what's on sales screen and add voice. We use to practice and record our call scripts,along with helping IT understand a support issue we may be having. In addition we create personalized messages to illustrate a point and send to a buyer. JING creates a URL that you click to view and listen to message.

5) Listening tools for pre-call research, Gist, Workstreamer, InsideView, Hoovers, Google News, LinkedIn, Twetememe, Brupt.

6) GotoMeeting - to host meetings, webinars and demos.

Hi Alison,

I’m sure you’re going to get lots of advice about the Hardware/Software to use for your Inside Sales initiative - just don’t lose sight of the fact that fundamentally it’s all about the quality of the ‘Humanware’ you deploy to begin with.

While most everyone can use a telephone - not everyone is cut out to work in a Call Center environment. And while someone may have “The Right Stuff” to be a great Customer Service & Support CSR – it doesn’t necessarily follow that the same individual is also a good fit for the more demanding & sales-oriented requirements of an Inside Sales position.

Top Performing Inside Sales Operations drive their Revenue & Performance through Superior Hiring Tactics. Hiring the wrong Agent to begin with is the Root Cause of most Inside Sales Performance Issues. It’s also a significant drain on your Budget & Bottom Line - and on your Sales Results. Every failed hire represents wasted dollars down the drain. Not to mention the Lowered Productivity, Poor Morale & Higher Absences associated with a Poor Job Fit.

Typically there are 3 grades of Agents found in an Inside Sales Call Center: (Above Average), (Average), and (Below Average).

(Above Average) Agents seem to have “The Right Stuff” that pushes them to succeed & a natural compatibility with the duties of the position. They work hard - exceed expectations - do more than asked - achieve high-quality consistent results - can always be counted upon - need little direction & work extremely well with everyone.

(Average) Agents perform their duties adequately enough “to get by” - but no better. They are the partially competent. Generally they’re strong from a Skills standpoint but missing a key ingredient or two from a Job Fit standpoint.

(Below Average) Agents are the people who just don’t fit somehow. Sometimes they’re good people in the wrong jobs. They need extra coaching & supervision just to achieve average results. Often they cause unnecessary conflict. (Below Average) Agents have the Highest Levels of Absenteeism, Lowest Levels of Productivity & Sales, Poorest Performance & Customer Satisfaction Ratings, and generally have a Negative Impact on Team Morale. They represent the real problems in a Call Center workforce. While (Average) & (Below Average) Agents may seem fully qualified at the Interview Stage – they’re a Poor Job Fit – the cost of hiring them is enormous – with little value add to an organization.

SPAS Call Center Agent Pre-Employment Screening Software is easy-to-deploy, very cost-effective and highly-predictive of an individual's suitability for a particular Call Center job.

SPAS Call Center Pre-Employment Screening Software is a Proven Technology that meets and exceeds all Government Employment Standards Requirements as a Hiring Tool in the USA/Canada/UK/Australia/New Zealand/South Africa and everywhere else in the world where the ‘Language of Work’ is English.

SPAS screens out the Job Candidates who will burn out fast because they aren't suited for the work - and identifies the people with the Personality/Job-Fit, Soft Skills, Motivation, and Work Ethic to be Top Inside Sales Agents. With SPAS as part of your Hiring Process you will be able to select new Inside Sales Agents who will fit your specific employment needs better - and stay on the job longer - leading to an Inside Sales Agent Workgroup that has more experience and is more productive.

SPAS Software is sold on an Unlimited Usage License basis - there are No "per Test" Fees - "Annual Renewal" Fees or any other User Fees. Technical Support for the SPAS Software is free & unlimited as well.

You can find out about a Free Trial of SPAS Call Center Agent Pre-Employment Screening Software at: http://www.telesoftsystems.ca/64201.html

Hi Alison,

The success of any solutions you may implement are directly related to the adoption and level of utilization within your team.

That being said, having a CRM is the first step. Salesforce.com is the most widely used and easy to implement for your team. We use it internally and the majority of our clients do as well. Salesforce has many additional applications in the AppExchange that can increase performance of your campaigns and integrate into Salesforce easily.

It's important to first configure it properly and establish the workflow for your users, i.e., data entry standards, lead delivery, tracking, pipeline management. Without doing that, any technology could potentially add too many cycles and/or have inconsistent usage which would impact overall effectiveness and reporting.

As far as other solutions you could use, it would depend on the needs of your team and the overall selling landscape you are working with. A couple of our other partners in addition to Salesforce are Jigsaw (a Salesforce company) and Inside View, both of those we would recommend to work with.

Alison -

You have already received some very comprehensive replies, I agree with most of the advice you received and add two more points:

Salesforce.com is excellent, I have deployed it for several customers, but the industry secret is it isn't a good fit for everyone. If you have a large number of end-customers (30,000+) and due to your specific line of business require lots of customization to the platform and store large amounts of data it may not be a good fit. In fact, Salesforce.com has an initial survey you can complete as part of their sales process that indicates if your business is a good fit. Take the results of their analysis to heart as I have worked with companies that went ahead anyway with Salesforce.com and spent over $400,000 in implementation costs and licensing and now need a new solution that works for their business. Consider Microsoft CRM and SugarCRM as alternatives. Having said that, this particular customer is the exception rather than the rule. Most do very well with Salesforce.com and leveraging the AppExchange can become a gold mine of data and functionality.

Whatever product you choose make sure you can integrate it well with your IT infrastructure, or you will have a great inside sales tool but a poor business IT solution. Eventually the needs of the business will trump the selection of the sales force if they can't work well together. Luckily, Salesforce.com plays well with many other platforms.

Good luck with your process - you are asking all the right questions.

I would recommend implementing a crm would do great changes like focusing on leads, status, how often you keep in touch with customer etc
if you need any help in building/ customizing crm contact me- christina.mckay@gmx.com