Top 4 Professional Skills Mastered When Working in B2B Inside Sales
Beginning a career in B2B inside sales is a great way to build job experience and fine-tune your professional skills. If you are a recent graduate with a background in sales or marketing and are looking to get your foot in the door of the business world, inside sales may be the career for you.
Both young and experienced sales professionals must have the drive to learn, grow, and perform in order to succeed in inside sales. AG provides new hires with extensive training and support throughout their transition into the inside sales role. We give our reps the tools and support they need to succeed. With experience, the sales reps also gain valuable skills specific to the inside sales world.
Here are the top 4 professional skills that B2B inside sales will help you master.
1. Autonomy: An inside sales rep position requires employees to complete many different tasks and assignments by specific deadlines. They are responsible for upholding client obligations as well. At AG, reps are expected to complete 100 activities per day, which includes a combination of phone conversations, voice messages, and email efforts. In addition, reps are expected to attain a certain lead volume each month. Successful inside sales rep must be able to stay organized in order to manage all job responsibilities in a timely manner. With autonomy, they have the freedom to make choices within the inside sales role about different approaches to these responsibilities, such as specific messaging, social selling, and more. Creative inside sales reps can bring their ideas to managers. Because they have the inside knowledge of what is working and what is not working for their client, they may suggest new messaging in hopes to provide actionable value to customers.
2. Independence: Whereas autonomy is the freedom to make choices within the inside sales role, independence is the ability the act on that autonomy and carry out those tasks without the reliance of others. Inside sales reps must know how to work well in teams, but they must also have the ability to work independently. After meeting with managers and directors to ascertain goals for the month, inside sales reps will be expected to achieve them and complete additional tasks on their own. The best inside sales managers will not micromanage, and instead will focus on intrinsically motivating reps to work smarter, not harder. Inside sales is not the profession for those who need be closely monitored. B2B inside sales reps are trusted to complete the tasks set in front of them and to continuously innovate their approach to selling. With great freedom comes great responsibility, however. Only inside sales reps who are motivated to work independently and direct themselves will succeed in the profession.
3. Flexibility: The role of an inside sales rep also requires flexibility. Depending on your specific client or the types of accounts you’re calling into, you have to consider that every company operates differently. Your job responsibilities may adjust based on your project, and this requires you to be open to change. If you aren't seeing results when you prospect a company, you may need to change your messaging, your channels, or your approach. For example, many inside sales reps at AG will change their work hours to accommodate their prospects’ timezones.
4. Communication: Through teleprospecting and email marketing efforts, inside sales reps are able to mold their written and verbal communications skills, which are often labeled as “soft skills.” Many hiring managers believe that millennials lack these soft skills because they grew up around screens. Inside sales reps form these skills and inevitably strong inside sales reps become great communicators. As aforementioned, a sales rep at AG is expected to complete 100 activities a day. These activities are a combination of phone calls and emails. On top of that, our reps will also attend and participate in weekly client meetings where they discuss their progress as well as any challenges they may be facing while prospecting leads. These activities give reps the opportunity to develop their interpersonal skills by gaining feedback from sales managers on their messaging and by constant experience in the field.
There are many benefits to starting a career in B2B inside sales. Inside sales reps are tough-skinned and independent. They are committed to finding the right fits for their product or service. Whether you’re starting a career in inside sales, hiring a new inside sales rep, boosting an existing inside sales team, or considering outsourcing your inside sales team, know that these professional skills learned through teleprospecting will help inside sales reps increase their qualified opportunities and also succeed in their sales career.