Five Ways To Boost Inside Sales Satisfaction
Whatever title they go by, inside sales reps are key employees in your company’s success. Here are five ways to keep them happy and productive:
1-Listen to them. During the course of a day, inside sales reps are turning in purchase orders, scheduling deliveries, talking to vendors, cajoling the yard foreman into holding a delivery truck, and talking to your customers. Perhaps more than anyone else in your company, they know what’s going on. They are your eyes and ears into who’s buying, what’s selling, and what processes in your company are screwing everything up. Schedule time to talk to them on a regular basis and pay attention to what they have to say. It’s especially important, building materials dealer consultant Bill Lee says, because inside sales reps are motivated by recognition. They need to feel their input is valued.
2-Get them onto the job site. Time spent on the customer’s job site, where they can see how your products are used and how the customer runs his projects, will provide a real light-bulb moment. Nothing transforms a relationship between an inside sales rep and their customers more than face time. Suddenly, a voice on the phone is a dad with 4-year-old twins and a Marine tattoo. It will help solidify customer loyalty and give the sales reps ideas for upselling.
3-Train them to sell. Inside sales reps have more day-to-day contact with customers than anyone else in the company. They need to know how to look for opportunities to add value to the relationship with additional product lines and ask for the sale. Plus, in today’s economy, selling is everyone’s job. Include a time for sales techniques at every sales meeting–and make sure the inside sales reps are included in those meetings.
4-Empower them. The faster a contractor can get an estimate, a delivery time, or a product question answered, the happier he’s going to be and the more likely he is to place an order with your company. Give your inside sales reps authority to bend the rules and make decisions on their own (within reason) on such items as price adjustments, product returns, and rush deliveries. Customers may wait once for a sales rep who can track down a manager authorized to give an okay, but they won’t do it on a regular basis.
5-Recognize their contribution. Inside sales reps likely make a fraction of what the outside reps earn, yet they provide tremendous value to the company. Their efforts need to be rewarded in a tangible way. “Some don’t want a new position, but they might want to increase their responsibilities, or get an opportunity to do other things, like be on a taskforce,” says Scott Ericson, an industry consultant and former regional sales manager at Parr Lumber. “If you’re not paying them, you better go out of your way to do something else to make sure they feel valued and recognized.”
