Does Inside Sales Belong In Marketing?

There is a great conversation going on in one of Forrester’s blogs concerning Inside Sales activity and whether it should belong in marketing or sales.

Raw Stylus always advocates Inside Sales should sit with marketing - but then again we are focused on high technology marketing. Secondly we are biased becauswe we have launched and overseen Inside Sales teams that deliver results.

Truth be told, we struggle to differentiate Marketing and Sales at the best of times……..BUT if you want Inside Sales to succeed here are a few of our observations. Please remember these are observations, not rules!

Typically;

• Sales folk want to close business in this quarter. Inside Sales isn’t a quarterly driven activity
• Sales folk rarely analyse why certain prospects turn out to be better customers. Inside Sales needs to analyse this stuff all the time. And react accordingly
• Sales folk look to set appointments - marketing folk focus on learning what qualifies a lead as ready for a sales call, and – if it’s not quite ready – what they can do to help the prospect get there. This isn’t a tactical difference. This is massive
• Salesfolk won’t work a list A-to-Z. They’ll cherry pick. That’s inefficient and dangerous.
• Salesfolk won’t document feedback properly. Don’t hamstring your campaigns by messing around in the dark
• Marketeers have to better understand sales. Running Inside Sales is the best way for them to achieve this. Sales folk don’t care about marketing - so don’t worry about the opposite being equally true
• The best way to optimise a marketing campaign is to integrate Inside Sales into every initiative