On the other hand, in Japan, where the industry is still in its infancy, it is difficult to secure personnel for inside sales . Are you worried that mid-career recruitment and new training are not going well?
Here are some specific methods to help you train your inside sales reps .
table of contents
Increasing demand for inside sales
○Benefits of inside sales
How to develop inside sales talent
Thorough information sharing and division of labor
Setting KPIs and checking progress
Cross-checking between staff members
Careful management
Changing mindset during business negotiations
Absorb know-how from existing customers' staff
Use of a call recording system
Inside sales staff training and call center systems
High compatibility with CRM and SFA
Does it have an easy-to-use UI?
Is small-scale deployment possible?
summary
Increasing demand for inside sales
Inside sales, which is commonplace in the US and Europe, is likely to expand in Japan in the future because it has the following advantages:
○Benefits of inside sales
- The "travel time" and "travel expenses" required for field sales will be reduced, allowing for more flexible human resources
. - This is a job that allows you to effectively utilize ICT tools such as MA, CRM, access analysis, SFA, and call center systems, and you can work efficiently, which is expected to reduce sales costs
. - Since team play is emphasized over mongolia b2b leads individual play, team strength can be improved. - Because it is an in-house job, it is easy to collect and spread the know-how
of members who are producing high results .
In the United States, where inside sales originated, about 30% of companies with sales of over 500 million yen use inside sales. Furthermore, it has been reported that when analyzing companies that conduct face-to-face sales and remote sales in the United States and Europe as a whole, inside sales account for 47.2%. In other words, inside sales contributes to about half of sales results . Considering that Western business trends tend to penetrate Japan with a delay of several years, it is expected that inside sales will spread rapidly in Japan over the next few years.
However, as of 2019, field sales are still the mainstream. As a result, there is a shortage of people with experience in inside sales, and it is difficult to secure talent. Companies should also consider ways to develop inside sales talent in-house, rather than relying on mid-career recruitment.
How to develop inside sales talent
Inside sales has not yet fully taken root in Japan, and there are few organizations with a track record of implementing it. This means that even if you want to hire inside sales personnel mid-career, there may be very few talent available in the market.
If mid-career recruitment is difficult, the only way to secure inside sales personnel is through training. However, in the current situation where inside sales know-how is not widespread, it seems that many companies are proceeding with human resource training by trial and error. Here are some points to keep in mind when training inside sales personnel.
Thorough information sharing and division of labor
It is important that all inside sales staff understand the overall picture of the sales process and clarify the roles of each staff member . By thoroughly dividing up the work, it becomes easier to develop human resources in each process.
Setting KPIs and checking progress
Set evaluation indicators not only for the number of appointments, but also for the number of phone calls, effective conversations, appointments, number of confirmed deals, and number of contracts . It is also necessary to share the progress of KPIs between departments. By promoting the setting of KPIs and checking progress, members of each department will be able to act with an awareness of overall optimization .
Cross-checking between staff members
The inside sales team (lead sales, closing sales, etc.) should check the details of each other's sales negotiations and point out how to proceed with hearings and orders. This will deepen the understanding of work other than your own and increase the sense of cooperation between the staff (this also applies when the field sales staff is in charge of closing).
Careful management
It is a good idea to keep staff motivated and share a sense of purpose, for example by holding individual interviews on a weekly basis .
Changing mindset during business negotiations
Don't rely too much on "telesales techniques," and be aware of "how to get customers to talk ." The telesales techniques mentioned here are "stories that capture the listener's interest, presenting words with a strong impact," and "push out benefits one after another." These are by no means "bad," but it may be better to think of them as unsuitable for inside sales.
In inside sales, having the customer talk longer than you helps you gain a deeper understanding of the problem and builds trust. It is important to start with a listening session and explain and introduce the product or service at the end, and to conduct the conversation from the other person's perspective .