The more your MSP business grows and increases its qualified leads, the more important it is to have someone dedicated to inside sales.
Think about when would be the best time to hire an inside salesperson for your MSP, and then think about what type of person would be best suited for that role. Remember, combining inside and outside sales is not the answer to your sales problems.
Here are a few things to consider about inside sales before getting started.
Do you need inside sales?
It depends on where you are as a company. If you’re a small company with limited resources, you may want to start with maximizing your warm lead sources first to see how that goes. Another question you should ask yourself is, “Can I manage my database without inside sales?” If so, you may not be at the point where hiring an inside salesperson makes sense. However, you will want to add inside sales to your business over time. For instance, once you turn up the dial on your marketing efforts, an inside sales team will be necessary to follow up on the influx of leads you receive.
Hire the right people
Success becomes a lot easier with the right people. Who you hire for your inside sales team is as crucial as your inside sales process — experience in inside sales matters. Call reluctance is the number one obstacle. If you can find someone ready to pick up the phone and call, you will be successful. Something else to consider when hiring inside salespeople is whether the individual you are interviewing for inside sales is auditioning for outside sales instead. While they are both sales positions, they require different skill sets. Finally, put the inside sales candidate on the phone to review performance. Is the person comfortable? Are there any red flags? Can the candidate handle rejection? Does this individual have a positive attitude? Use your best judgment when monitoring the candidate’s calls.
Combining inside and outside sales is not a solution
Your inside salesperson should be trying to set up meetings between you and prospects to discuss how to look at technology differently. Avoid hiring a salesperson to do both inside and outside sales. Usually, a business owner will hire an inside salesperson first. Once that person understands the process and has a functioning sales engine, the owner hires an outside salesperson. When you hire an outside salesperson without any leads, there’s time in the day for that person to make calls — but that doesn’t last very long. I have not seen someone succeed in both roles in the long term.
Getting started with inside sales can be intimidating. However, once you get going, you will reap the rewards. You may not necessarily see the results you are looking for right away since many of your leads are probably cold if you start from scratch, but with time, the number of quality leads will increase.
