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Top 7 Operational Best Practices for Effective Inside Sales
by: qedbaton on
Date: Wed, 23 Jun 2010 Time: 12:25 PM
After spending over 4 years driving the Sales & Marketing functions at QEDbaton, I recently moved into Operations at the start of this financial year. The move has been an invigorating experience till now. Last week during a routine weekly review with the Service Delivery teams, we evolved a framework to ensure that we are delivering effective services to our customers. Some of the best practices that emerged were
1. Database Availability
The heart of an Inside Sales program is a clean updated database. Without one, expecting an Inside Sales rep to make targets is next to impossible. All the metrics on which a rep is to be gauged should revolve around the size of the database a rep has to target.
2. Measuring RPC Connects
The common mistake most managers make is to gauge the performance of an individual on the results they deliver. While delivering results are important, one needs to understand first if the right amount of effort is being put in by an individual. Within Inside Sales, RPC connects is the right measure of the effort an individual is putting in. Setting RPC connect targets and measuring an individual on RPC connects will help in understanding if there is a shortfall in effort being put in.
3. Measuring Meetings Generated
Most managers do not measure Meetings generated by an individual because the deliverable to a client is a meeting completed (realized) and all reps are incentivized on the number of meetings completed. However, Meetings generated is the true indicator of the pipeline of an Inside sales rep and measuring this metric helps in predicting how many meetings will the rep deliver at the end of the month. Ideally, an Inside Sales rep should be generating N + 2 (N being Completed target) meetings a month.
4. One on Ones
It is imperative that every Inside Sales manager hold a formal one on one with all team members at the start of a week. The objective of the one on one should be to cover
Performance Review (RPC Connects/ Meetings Generated/ Meetings Completed)
Challenges Faced (Database/ Training/ Collateral Support)
Comfort Levels (Personal & Professional)
5. RPC Connect Analysis
An RPC Connect Analysis should be carried out by managers every week to understand the direction in which the effort is being channelized. The things that should be analyzed include
Remarks Capture: Is a very good indication of an individual’s understanding of his/her campaign and a reflection of the quality of conversations he/ she is having with prospect. A AOI (Areas of Improvement) plan with actionable’s should be handed to the rep based on the analysis.
Missed Opportunities: While going through the remarks capture, there might be instances where a rep has responded incorrectly/ differently to how he/she should have. This might have in most situations determined the outcome of the call. These cases become an excellent training ground for all team members to improve their call handling skills
6. Training & Self Development
Training & Self Development is a continuous process and managers need to motivate teams to indulge themselves in understanding domains/ markets/ technologies & organizations. Bi-weekly information sharing sessions between team members and across teams goes a long way in ensuring that all reps are well updated with what is happening within their target markets and outside.
7. Using Social Media Channels
Social Media has emerged as a strong channel to identify, connect, engage & nurture prospects and opportunities and the ability of an Inside Sales rep to leverage these channels goes a long way in improving individual knowledge levels and reducing the overall time to lead.
Apart from this, using Mondays to analyze reports and reiterate performance vis-à-vis goals to all teams goes a long way in ensuring that every team & their members know where they stand.
About the Author
Abhijit Gangoli is the Head of Operations at QEDbaton
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