When it comes to sales, there are many ways to can reach out to customers and close sales. It is important to know all of these sales tactics. Most importantly you need to know how to properly combines these sales approaches to keep your business revenue coming in. Two main approaches to getting customers are inside sales and outside sales. Here will explain what those two approaches mean and how you can combine both approaches to grow your business.
What are Inside Sales?
Inside sales refer to sales that are not done face to face. These are sales that are done behind a phone, online, or through other indirect means. Generally, inside sales will allow you to contact a lot of people. However, you will not generate many sales in the process. Inside sales are really all about taking a “quantity” approach to getting sales. It’s akin to throwing a net out into the ocean and seeing what you will catch. This is approach is fine because you can still generate a positive return on investment if you have the right prospect list and good closers on the phone.
Inside Sales Example
You may be wondering what offers as an inside sale. The key here is to offer something with a lower price point that can lead to a higher ticket sale. You are pretty much-offering something that will later compliment a higher-priced product or service. For instance, let say you are a cleaning company. You can offer to power wash windows at a low price. Let’s say you rent exotic cars. You can offer a discounted price to rent an entry-level exotic car for 24 hours. These great offers should be able to close pretty easily on the phone.
What are Outside Sales?
Outside sales involve your customer sales rep meeting your client face to face and closing the deal “at the table.” With outside sales, you have a much higher closing rate than an inside sale. However, you are limited by the number of customers that you can meet on a given day. That is why outside sales are known as taking a “quality” approach to gaining sales. With the right customer service reps and the right pitch, you can get some excellent high ticket sales with the outside sales approach.
Outside Sales Example
Outside sales should be higher priced because you will be dealing one to one with the customer. When it comes to inside sales vs outside sales, the outside sale should be about 5 to 10 times higher than the initial inside sale. Going back to the inside sale example for the window power washing service. Let’s say you charged $199 for that service. You can then offer to powerwash the entire home and driveway for anywhere from $999 to $1,999. If the customer was happy with the initial job your company performed, then they will go for the outside sale upsell.
How to use Both Inside and Outside Sales
We know that both the inside and outside sales approach work. If you want to get the most out of these approaches, then you should combine both in a way that compliments each other. The first thing you should do is divide your sales force by their inherent strengths. Some members of your team will be great on the phone while others will close better in an outside sale situation. Make sure your sales team works together so the closing of an inside sale can prep the customer sales rep for the outside sale.
Second, make sure that your split test both your inside sale and your outside sales offers. You will want to find the right combination of offers that will lead to higher conversions. Going back to the cleaning company example, you may want to split test your power washing windows offer versus power washing driveway offer for your inside sale. Go with the inside offer that has a higher conversion rate.
Getting your Sales Plan Together
Using both inside sales and outside sales can really grow your business. Have a plan that uses an inside sales as a lead for your higher ticket outside sale. By having multiple sales approaches to your business, you can really watch your revenue grow.
