Outside sales reps should be on high alert right about now. There’s a good chance their jobs could be on the decline.

Ever since inside sales sprung up out of nowhere and started getting better sales technology, more and more organizations have proptortized investing in this model over traditional field sales. 

But is this really a good idea? According to data from Harvard Business Review, the average outside sales rep brings in approximately $2.7 million a year in business deals, compared to just under $1 million for an inside sales representative. If outside sales are still so profitable, why are so many leaders cutting these programs? 

The reason inside sales is so promising is that it can accomplish what outside sales does at a larger scale, in less time, and at a lower cost to boot! Don’t believe us? Some experts say the revenue gap between the two is quickly narrowing and inside sales is projected to overtake outside sales by 2025. If you thought inside sales vs. outside sales was a silly debate, we have some impressive data that just might change your mind. 

Read ahead to learn the outside and inside sales definition, the main differences between them and five big ways remote selling is superior to outside sales.

What is outside sales?

Outside sales is the traditional sales model we’ve known and loved for literally centuries: a salesperson meets a prospect face to face at their company headquarters, a convention, a trade show, or anywhere out in the world to sell their product, provide a demonstration or presentation, answer questions, or just nurture the relationship for the future. 

Outside sales representatives rarely work in an office environment, although the extent of their travels varies widely. They may focus on a territory or region or they may travel across a state, around the country, or even internationally. 

What is inside sales?

In the inside sales model, reps never meet their prospects or customers in person; instead, they sell remotely using the internet. Inside sales representatives will find, identify, contact, hold presentations and demos, sell to and nurture their clients and customers—all online from their company’s office space. 

A few of the SDR tools in an inside sales rep’s kit include social media platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram, a variety of sales software like Salesforce, chat boxes, email marketing and even the good old telephone. Inside sales is a relatively new model that really took off in the 2010s, and some of today’s fastest-growing companies are pouring the lion’s share of their sales budget into this model.

Now because reps are relying on online tools to make connections, it does add a challenge when building relationships—but this is when social selling comes into play. Social selling is when you take time to develop a relationship online with your prospects and customers, and it’s a huge part of executing as an inside sales representative. As you can imagine, it may take months of producing and sharing relevant content before your relationship with a B2B buyer is ready for those valuable one-on-one conversations or pitches.

Inside sales vs outside sales reps: the main difference?

The main thing that sets inside sales representatives apart from field reps is how they communicate with prospects and close the deal. 

Outside reps communicate face to face and need to have exceptional presentation, oratory, and interpersonal skills. There’s no room to fake confidence as an outside representative; you have to be able to hold the attention of dozens or even hundreds of prospects at meetings, trade shows, conferences, and events. You have to be engaging, entertaining, a storyteller, sometimes a comedian, and good at thinking on your feet when speaking to a diverse audience.

Meanwhile, inside sales representatives are masters of online communication, marketing, prospecting, cold calling, and selling. They need to have excellent writing skills, since content creation is an integral part of their job. Inside salespeople also need to train with an ever-growing array of sales technology; it’s not uncommon for one rep to use 15-20 tools to store their client data, send campaigns, qualify leads and create content.

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5 reasons inside sales will overtake outside sales

1. Inside sales is accessible to everyone

Any sales organization today, no matter how small, can start with inside sales. It’s affordable to set up an office, get a computer, subscribe to some of the top software like Salesforce or MailChimp, get on LinkedIn to look for leads and begin sending outreach messages or calls. 

Outside sales can’t always fit within budgets, especially for startups still courting investors. If you’ve ever taken a vacation, you know how quickly hotel, plane tickets, meals, and gas can add up. And then there’s event costs: reserving a booth space, printing those shiny new flyers, and ordering boxes of pens and frisbees with your company’s logo. A single event can run an organization tens of thousands of dollars! 

Plus, not every sales rep has the confidence to go door to door or face to face and sell a product or service. This is especially true of juniors who are just getting started in their careers. Inside sales can be a great introductory sales model for new SDRs to grow their confidence when speaking to prospects.

  2. Inside sales reps can make unlimited connections

Inside sales representatives can send sales pitches to hundreds or thousands of contacts in a single day. An outside sales rep just can’t match these numbers; you can only be in one physical place at once (if you’ve found a way to overcome this limitation, please let us know), and you can only travel to so many events per month. 

Inside sales also have the advantage of having B2B buyers come to them. Since most decision-makers turn to the internet to find the products or services that will solve their company’s issues, many reps gain inbound leads through their personal social media or lead capture forms on their website. All they have to do is qualify them through research (which is taken care of by software now) and move them down their pipeline.

3. B2B decision makers prefer to speak to inside sales representatives

According to Salesloft, 75% of B2B buyers prefer not to meet face to face. Yikes! That doesn’t bode well for outside reps, but it’s wonderful for inside reps, who can simply shoot off a quick message or call and keep busy professionals happy. 

Inside sales tactics are also a lot more convenient. Answering a message or call takes no more than a couple of minutes, while setting up a live presentation or demo requires a decision-maker to block off an hour or two in advance. This flexibility of inside sales might help explain why inside sales are growing 15x faster than outside sales!

4. You don’t need to meet in person to build a strong relationship

People have been saying for years that face-to-face communication is stronger than virtual. And while it’s true that your Tinder chat should probably transition to an in-person date at some point if you want to build a healthy relationship, this isn’t always true of professional connections. Salespeople can truly build healthy, authentic, deep and long-lasting relationships with top decision-makers without ever meeting up IRL.

What is inside sales again? It’s selling remotely. And with social selling and more hyper-personalization in sales messages, it is possible to build a relationship that’s on par with that of a field rep.

What’s more, inside sales opens up doors to people that you may have never had access to before. With social media, you can create content that resonates, inspires, or begins conversations with decision-makers and their peers. You can ease your way into communities online, get noticed and enter into any social circle to get more sales and stay on their radar for years to come.

5. Inside sales is cheaper than outside sales

Compared to outside sales, inside sales is a lot more affordable. PointClear found that an inside sales call costs $50 while an outside sales call costs $308. Let’s say your reps are making 100+ calls per week; the difference would be between spending $5,000 and $30,000 on sales calls!

Since this sales model is still relatively new, reps are still learning and experimenting with an increasing number of strategies to find, identify, contact, nurture and close deals with prospects online. Still, inside sales reduces the cost of sales by 40-90% compared to field sales.

Key takeaways

  • Inside vs outside sales: Outside sales is selling face-to face, while inside sales means you sell online using cloud and sales technology. 

 

  • What makes inside sales better? Executing inside sales tactics is significantly more affordable than field sales, and representatives have the opportunity to pitch to and nurture unlimited prospects and customers at once.

 

  • Tools that will help your inside sales strategy: Prospecting is the first step in any strategy. Use an email and phone number finder extension like Lusha when prospecting on LinkedIn or in your Gmail account. You’ll receive accurate contact information so you can reach B2B decision-makers quickly.

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    This information should not be mistaken for legal advice. Please ensure that you are prospecting and selling in compliance with all applicable laws.

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