Inside sales is the process of working with prospective customers remotely with the help of calls, emails, or other digital channels. The inside sales individual work alongside other team members in an office environment and are different from the outside sales team. Organizations hire inside sales managers due to several benefits: faster response, reduced cost, increased teamwork, etc. It is studied that, with the help of inside sales, a company can reduce the response time of different clients and decrease 40-90% cost of the sales while increasing overall revenue.
What is an inside sales manager ?
A sales manager hires, trains, and manages the inside sales team, which consists of individuals working via phone calls or emails to contact prospective customers. They set various targets and ensure that the team they are responsible for achieves the desired goal. They work in many different industries and fields to increase the sales of a particular organization they work for.
What work does an inside sales manager do ?
There are many tasks that a sales manager has to look after, but their primary role is to monitor the day-to-day operations of companies inside the sales department. In addition, they train various employees and ensure that they complete the number of tasks assigned to them per day. Apart from all this, they set goals, track sales, produce sales reports, set budgets, and note down the entire forecasting analytics of the sales department.
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Inside sales manager job duties include
- Recruiting new members for the inside sales and training them.
- Supervising the entire department and making sure they comply with the standards and procedure.
- Educating the staff on the commonly asked questions by customers so that they can communicate effectively.
- Maintaining records about the leads as well as sales accurately.
Job brief for an inside sales manager
A company appoints a sales manager to look after the inside sales operations and ensure that the operations are running smoothly. An inside sales manager should motivate the staff, develop each individual as a professional and help them achieve targets and meet deadlines. Many job descriptions and inside sales templates typically list all these responsibilities when hiring a sales manager. Besides handling the department, they should use the marketing tools to determine customer behaviour, and market trends and analyse the competition.
To be successful, they have to have good leadership qualities to lead the team and make sure that other employees comply with the standards and policies of the company.
Responsibilities of an inside sales manager
- Should have excellent knowledge to be able to recommend improvements to the current sales practices and procedures.
- Responsible for solving customer queries and resolving their issues.
- Should be able to evaluate the existing sales practice to determine whether they are adequate for the company’s sales or not.
- Should be able to effectively judge the performance of the sales team members and improve their performance.
- Should make accurate reports and submit them to the company, which will help them make wise decisions regarding profitability.
- Should collaborate with the marketing department to get new leads for your team.
- Here are a few sales manager responsibilities an individual needs to adhere to.
Requirements for an inside sales manager
- Should have a bachelor’s degree in marketing, business administration, business management, or other related fields.
- Experience as an inside sales manager.
- Should be proficient in MS excel and customer relationship management software.
- Accreditations, like Accredited inside sales manager (AISM) and Certified inside sales professional (CISP), are advantageous.
- Understanding of the sales administration process.
- Should possess a problem-solving attitude.
The average salary of an inside sales manager
- Entry-Level (0-2 years of experience): Approximately S$45,000 - S$65,000 per annum.
- Mid-Level (3-5 years of experience): Approximately S$65,000 - S$100,000 per annum.
- Senior-Level (5+ years of experience): Approximately S$100,000 - S$150,000 per annum.
| Industry | Average Annual Salary |
|---|---|
| Information Technology | S$80,000 |
| Financial Services | S$75,000 |
| Manufacturing | S$70,000 |
| Retail | S$65,000 |
| Company | Average Annual Salary |
|---|---|
| DBS Bank | S$150,000 |
| Singtel | S$140,000 |
| Standard Chartered Bank | S$130,000 |
| Accenture | S$120,000 |
Key skills of an inside sales manager job
- Should possess excellent leadership skills.
- Strong analytical skills to detect various issues.
- Problem-solving skills and should be able to detect problems and provide economical solutions.
- Should possess strong organizational skills.
- Communication skills.
- Should possess exceptional customer service skills.
- Negotiation and customer understanding skills.
Why pursue a career as an inside sales manager
Advantage of location
When you work as an inside sales manager, you will not have to travel to different locations to meet the prospective customer. With the help of phones, emails, videos, etc., one can pitch their sales to the customers effectively. It not only opens doors to contact more customers but will provide more flexibility for sales; you can contact people globally and manage your sales worldwide.
Increased experience and better understanding
As a sales manager, you will have to work with many different teams and benefit hugely from them. You will be exposed to different projects, products and will gain a lot of experience from these diverse teams. Furthermore, it will give more exposure to an individual and help them gain experience as a salesperson. In addition, by meeting different types of prospective customers, one will understand how to deal with them.
Promotions
Sales managers are driven and are high-performance individuals. As a result, they have a lot of opportunities for promotions and career progression. In many cases, your progression will be measured based on your networking skills, ability to communicate and handle various clients. Still, inside sales will only consider your performance when talking about promotions. You will not have to depend on others; only your skills will be taken into account, and as per your position, your salary will benefit too.
How can an individual become an inside sales manager –
Get your bachelor’s degree
The first and foremost step is to get a degree in marketing, Business administration or management, or other related fields. Recent surveys show that 69.3% of the managers have a bachelor’s degree, while 509% have a master’s degree. Even though it is possible to become one without a higher school degree, one must complete their entire education needed for this post and gain a competitive advantage over others.
Gain experience
After you have completed your education, search for related sales or sales representative jobs. If you get experience in any of these fields, this will help you gain experience as an inside sales manager. Many companies prefer hiring managers with experience as this posts deals with the management of the entire sales team.
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Additional certification
To set your career rock-solid in this stream, get an additional certification if possible. The most common certification in this field is the Certified Inside Sales Professional, designed for early and mid-career professionals. It will take about 12 weeks to earn this certificate, but this will improve your skills and qualification and add legitimacy to it compared to others. Not many people opt for certification; hence this will add a star to your individuality as a sales manager. These few steps will help you become an inside sales manager; as marketing increases as times pass by, this job’s scope will experience the hype. Many industries adopt inside sales as this lowers the cost of marketing and promotes sales within the company. The company and an individual who applies for this job will also benefit due to increased exposure and management of various departments.
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