How to hire the right inside sales leader for your company: Overview: Inside sales is a high stakes game

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Inside sales is the new black. Companies across all economic sectors are adopting and integrating inside sales models in record numbers. The scalability, measurability and predictability of inside sales has made it the new preferred sales channel for companies who have a mandate from stakeholders to grow sales and revenue quickly and within budget constraints.

As such, companies seek to hire inside sales leaders who can help their organization reach revenue goals set by the executive team.

This article from the president of Inside Sales Staff provides insights on what companies may want to consider as they seek to fill their inside sales leadership roles. It will explain the relationship between skillset, compensation, and job title.

Ideas about who to hire, why, and what to look for during the hiring process will be presented.

The perspectives set forth in this article are based on thirty-six years of recruiting inside sales leaders across America for a wide cross-section of industries.

Assess your inside sales initiatives

Are you just starting? Is your process mature, proven, and ready to scale? Are your numbers where you need them to be or are they stalling? What inside sales model do you have/plan to use?

How will it be configured and integrated with the other sales and marketing channels within your organization? How will/do you track, measure, and report performance? What skillset is needed to get the job done? What components of your inside sales process need optimization? Who can do the job? Why can they do it?

Hire someone with expertise in your industry (if you can)

If you can find a candidate who knows your business, and they are viable, consider that individual a front-runner for the open role. The faster you can get someone to hit the ground running the better. 

Someone with industry-specific experience will be able to install an inside sales infrastructure and process faster than someone from the outside. They will know what will work, why, how, and will likely have metrics from past roles they can lean on for insight.

The distinction between the four inside sales leadership roles: Supervisor, Manager, Director, and VP Inside Sales

To oversimplify, generally speaking, Supervisors and Managers oversee an existing team, process, and sometimes report to a higher level inside sales executive. Directors and VP’s Inside Sales are often tasked with installing, optimizing and/or scaling inside sales initiatives.

Inside Sales Supervisors and Managers generally:

  • Hire and train staff
  • Design sales tools and support materials for reps
  • Monitor metrics and rep calls
  • Manage and motivate team members
  • Develop training materials and modules

Directors / VP’s Inside Sales bring a broader range of skills and scope of thinking about inside sales and have:

  • The ability to plan, implement, optimize and grow inside sales process and infrastructure (from ground zero). This is a crucial skillset if you plan to scale.
  • Forecasting ability. This dovetails into everything: staffing, infrastructure requirements, sales revenues, and more.
  • The skill set to help your company realize it’s revenue numbers by executing a plan based on rationale and insights gleaned from company’s marketing/sales data.

About the author

Joe Culotta is President of Inside Sales Staff, the world’s leading inside sales recruiters. He is a speaker and mentor at the prestigious 1871 business incubator, a mentor at the American Society of Inside Sales Professionals, and the publisher of the Inside Sales Salary Guide and several other hiring white papers for the inside sales industry. He started his career as the Director of Inside Sales for Cellular One.

Over the past two decades, Inside Sales Staff has recruited more inside sales professionals than any other recruitment firm in the world for more than 250 organizations. Clients include Waste Management, IBM, Oracle, Bradford Exchange, Citibank, American Red Cross, American Medical Association, and others.

Inside Sales Staff

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