Glossary
Inside sales
Inside sales is selling remotely, by phone, email, video calls and LinkedIn, instead of meeting buyers in person. Inside reps run the whole sales cycle or one stage of it from a desk, usually at higher activity than field reps.
What Is Inside Sales?
In short Inside sales started as telephone selling and now covers every remote channel.
An inside rep might prospect with cold email in the morning, run two video demos in the afternoon and close smaller deals without traveling. SDRs and BDRs are inside sales roles that hand meetings to account executives.
It costs less per deal than field sales because there is no travel, and one rep can hold more conversations a day. It fits products that buyers are comfortable choosing over video, which includes most software and services.
Inside Sales Example
Example: a 5-rep inside sales team at a logistics software company. Each rep sends 60 personalized emails and makes 40 calls a day. Together they book about 50 demos a month, and account executives close deals averaging $15,000 a year without a site visit.
Inside Sales in Practice
Inside sales runs on activity data: emails, calls, replies, meetings booked and conversion between stages. Managers coach from those numbers, so tools that log activity without manual entry matter more here than in field sales.
FAQ
What is inside sales?
Selling remotely by phone, email, video and LinkedIn instead of in person. Salesforce defines it as the process of selling an organization's products or services remotely.
What is the difference between inside sales and outside sales?
Inside reps sell from a desk and outside reps travel to meet buyers. Inside sales costs less per meeting and handles more deals at once. Outside sales fits large or complex deals where meeting in person changes the outcome.
Do inside sales reps make cold calls?
Often, yes. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics describes inside sales representatives as working mostly in offices and often finding new clients by cold calling organizations that are not expecting the call.
Is inside sales the same as telemarketing?
They overlap but are not the same. Telemarketing is mostly scripted phone selling. Inside sales covers the whole remote cycle across phone, email and video, often including demos and closing. O*NET does list Inside Sales Representative as one sample title under telemarketers.
Is an SDR an inside sales role?
Usually, yes. An SDR books and qualifies meetings remotely, which makes it one kind of inside sales job. Inside sales is the wider category and also includes reps who close deals themselves.
Do This in Ken
Do This in Ken
Inside reps run email and LinkedIn sequences from Campaigns and answer every reply from one Inbox, so no reply gets stuck in one rep's mailbox.
- Module
- Inbox
- Open in Ken
- /features
The new Ken opens to the waiting list in batches.
Related
Sources
| Source | Checked |
|---|---|
| Salesforce: What is inside sales? | |
| US Bureau of Labor Statistics: Wholesale and Manufacturing Sales Representatives | |
| O*NET: Telemarketers (41-9041.00) |
Changelog
- Page published.