8 Reasons Inside Sales is on Fire Right Now

8 Reasons Inside Sales is on Fire Right Now:from (title unknown) by Kyle Porter

Yesterday was a major win for the inside sales industry. Last night, the company InsideSales.com announced a series B capital raise of $35 million.

It’s validation of a paradigm shift: Inside Sales is on fire. 

Ken Krogue, co-founder of InsideSales.com defines inside sales as:

Professional sales done remotely. It is multi-call, strategic, professional, higher ticket sales items, and mostly business to business (B2B)

He describes it’s uprising as occurring after the market crash of 2008 when companies scaled back travel and high cost positions.
And the trend is not stopping anytime soon. Here are the 6 reasons inside sales is on fire right now:

1. It costs less money.
2. Reps can engage with more buyers.
3. Buyers are more willing to accept online interaction over face-to-face.
4. The buyer is engaging deeper in the sales cycle on their own without the need of the rep.
5. Software is becoming more reliable and user friendly making high touch less important.
6. Product prices are going down and offerings are trending toward SaaS based subscriptions
7. New tools and technologies are available (web conferencing, data sources, webinars, website & content marketing, email marketing, and social networking
8. A new generation of sales professionals has emerged, savvy in these new tools and technologies and unbiased by the “way it used to be done”.

According to the research of Dr. James Oldroyd:

Corporate hiring of outside sales reps has, in recent years, leveled off at a .5% annual growth, while hiring of inside sales reps has been growing at lively 7.5% annual clip. By the end of 2012, nearly 800,000 more companies will host inside sales teams.

Heck if you pick up the phone and call an “outside sales” rep, you’ll likely find them at the computer.
But with inside sales, it’s harder to connect with buyers and easier for them to say no. Inside sales reps have more reason than anyone to research and understand their prospects so they can lead into a call warmly.
What about you? Is your company investing in inside sales?