When you look at it from a distance; both inside sales and telemarketing may seem to be similar, but try looking at it at a micro level and the difference might take you by surprise. Call an Inside Sales rep as a telemarketer once and instantly watch his face turn red with anger, frankly I would get offended too. It is like calling the head chef of a renowned restaurant as a waiter. Both eventually work to serve food to their customers but the skills, and process is different for both.
Drawing the line between inside sales and telemarketing is actually simple, take a look at the above slide on Inside Sales Versus Telemarketing for a clearer picture.
4. Vs
Inside sales professionals not only require
vigorousbutalsocontinuoustraining.Regularcall
monitoring,livecallshadowingisrequired.
Telemarketersrequireminimal training andtheir
levelofknowledgeislimitedtotheproductthey
areselling.
Vs
TelemarketerisapersonwhomakesXnumber
ofcallsperdaytofocusondatabuildingby
asking scripted questionsandsellaproductwith
thefocusofbuildingthebrand.
OntheotherhandInsideSalesrepmakecalls
withafocusofsellingbycreatingopportunities
overacallandbuildingtrustandrelationshipwith
theprospect.
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5. Vs
The KPI fora telemarketerislimited to the
numberofcallsand the numberofpositive
responseshewasabletoachievewithinaday.
Aninsidesalesprofessionalwillbescrutinizedon
plentyofthings,tonameafew;thenumberof
appointments held, number of completed
productdemosandnumberofleadsgenerated
asperprospectcriteriawhichneedstobedefined
through BANT– Budget,Authority,Need and
Timestrategy.
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7. VsBeforemakingacall,atelemarketerhashardly
any research todosinceallheneedstoknowis
thedetailsoftheproductheisselling.
An inside sales professional,apartfrom the
subjectmatterknowledgehastoresearchabout
hisprospects,theircompanyandworkprofiles.
Theirresearchismainlytosupportandvalidate
theirvalueproposition.
Vs
The timetakentocloseadeal byatelemarketer
iswithinoneormaximum twocalls.
Aninsidesalesrepcouldeasilytakeupto2years
justtocrackadeal.Sincehisintentionistobuilda
rapport he gives ample gap between his
follow-upcalls.
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8. Vs
The targetsegment foratelemarketerisvast
since theymostlydealwith B2C productsor
services.
B2C
B2C
B2B
Aninsidesalesprofessional’stargetsegmentis
defined and limited in accordance with the
productorservice.Hemostoftenhastocontact
thetopofthehierarchyinacompany,theones
whoarethedecisionmakersofapurchase.
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