Just like the humble worker bee has its specific role in making honey, the inside sales rep has his or her role in making money. Of course, the difference between a honeybee and an inside sales rep is this: the honeybee has nature and instinct on its side. Nature has perfected a system to ensure every little honeybee works the same way to achieve the same goals. People are a bit more of a wild card when it comes to how each individual will approach the same problem or process. Thanks to technology, however, things are changing.
Implementing A.I. (Artificial Instincts) through Sales Enablement
With the right queue-based sales enablement tool, it’s like you have created a hive mind or artificial instincts for your inside sales reps. All the tedious tasks, decision making, and potential for error is greatly reduced leaving each of them to make more calls more productively. An inside sales team produces more sales by working like “a collective consciousness, analogous to the behavior of social insects, in which a group of people become aware of their commonality and think and act as a community, sharing their knowledge, thoughts, and resources.” (Definition of hive mind from Dictionary.com)
The right solution can be just like a queen bee. It sends out the signals that keep the hive in balance and in line with the tasks that need to be done. Your “queen bee” solution needs to have the following capabilities to keep your reps on track and following a repeatable, prove sales process:
- Queue-based routing that automatically routes the next-best lead to call. Your inside sales reps just have to be ready to sell – the system selects the best prospect to call next thanks to the criteria set up by management.
- Progressive or preview dialing that makes calling more efficient.
- Logical branch scripting that guides each salesperson through logical, smart calls leading to repeatable, predictable results.
- Voice drop technology that leaves the perfect voicemail every time while your rep moves on to the next lead.
- Email templates that take some of the work out of the email process for your inside sales reps.
- Lead nurturing campaigns that keeps you in touch with leads who are not yet ready to buy.
When you have your group operating in a queue-based lead management platform, here are some of the improvements you can expect to see.
| List-based Platform | Queue-based Platform | |
| Speed to Lead | LOW | HIGH |
| Requires human action and decision making to initiate call attempt | Platform automates workflow that presents the next-best-call | |
| Avg 8 Hrs | Avg 1 Hr | |
| List Penetration | LOW | HIGH |
| Varies based on sales person’s individual input and effort | Platform automatically distributes leads evenly and thoroughly | |
| Avg 2 Contact Attempts | Avg >8 Contact Attempts | |
| Productivity | LOW | HIGH |
| Requires human action and decision to make progress forward | Platform automates customizable workflow that presents the next-best-call | |
| Avg 8 Calls/Hr | Avg 23 Calls/Hr | |
| Management Control | LOW | HIGH |
| Requires human action and decision making to initiate call attempt | Platform automates workflow that presents next-best-call | |
| Avg 36% Decay Rate | Avg 6% Decay Rate |
In addition to the above gains in productivity and efficiency, your team has the right tools to combat the typical issues that other inside sales teams face. Let’s take a look at some of the statistics . . . .
80% of sales calls go to voicemail and 15% of a sales rep’s time is spent just leaving voicemails. (RingLead) That’s no big deal for your busy bees. With a queue-based system that has a voice drop feature, your inside sales rep moves on to the next call while the perfect voicemail is being left for the last lead called. That means more time dedicated to live phone calls while your competitors deal with voicemail.
According to Forrester Research, “Companies that excel at lead nurturing generate 50% more sales ready leads at 33% lower cost.” Additionally, MarketingSherpa reports, “65% of B2B marketers have not established lead nurturing.” With a full-featured sales enablement tool, there’s no excuse for not establishing lead nurturing. It’s easy for you to set up, and your inside sales reps won’t have to manage lead nurturing. The system will do it for them. Your inside sales reps will have time to focus on sales-ready leads while the rest are in the nurturing process.
If your sales reps do not have a lead management system that focuses their attention on selling rather than spending time on administrative activities, then it’s time to get a new “Queen Bee” for your worker bees. An inside sales rep’s time should be spent on selling rather than on administrative tasks. VanillaSoft’s lead management software will help your sales reps become moneymakers! Sign up for your free trial today!
