The Intro
Welcome to your one-stop shop for everything outside sales. This is the first piece of our new series tying together everything there is to know about the industry, what it is, how it’s changing, and why it’s coming back. Before we dive too deep into anything, I wanted to cover the bare bones of what outside sales (aka field sales or face-to-face sales) means to your company’s operations and bottom line.
Out∙side Sales [out-sīd seɪls]
Noun
- The sale of products or services by sales personnel who go out into the field to engage with prospective and current customers face-to-face.
- A method used to establish stronger relationships with desired customer accounts.
Today, we have two primary methods of selling. Inside sales, which over the last decade has increased in the share of sales roles as it presents a cheaper and quicker alternative to reaching out to prospects. Whether it be cold-calling or online outreach, inside sales has transformed an industry to conform to societal patterns of people less likely to engage in person to person interactions.
Outside sales, on the other hand, stays true to the value of relationships. Companies with a tendency to retain customers for longer periods of time might want to incorporate face-to-face visits regularly. This side of sales opens doors to more referrals because there is a face attached to each service or product, and by extension, a better relationship should form. The outside model allows salespeople to fully understand a business and its needs through a thorough examination of the given location, products, and people. Furthermore, by laying out a sales schedule, a rep can note key dates to speak and visit with potential clients. This deeper understanding of your customers often results in longer-term partnerships, rather than simply a sale. Moreover, face-to-face sales meetings allow salespeople to demo their products or services in a more desirable way.
Face-to-Face Sales: How It’s Done
Companies who rely on outside sales teams usually expect to hit a certain amount of touch points with customers and prospects per day. At each touch point, they may be providing different insights or deliverables depending on their positioning in the sales pipeline. As you may already tell, the logistics of managing a sales team can be very complex. An outside sales process must rely on a trustworthy organization method to cooperate with varying schedules, customer locations, and sales reps. Many companies rely on Excel spreadsheets to track their reps, which tends to be less efficient overall and does not capitalize on maximizing revenue per day. Recently, we’ve seen a large shift towards new CRM (Customer Relationship Management) tools that fill in gaps that have never before been automated. We’ll dive into industry trends later in the series.
Ultimately, outside sales is great because customers do not have the quick ability to hang up on you. The first thing to understand when visiting is that these individuals will be dedicating time and effort out of their day. Outside sales reps must have the keen ability to be timely, engaging, and passionate when making trips.
Look out for part 2 of the series where we dive into the return of outside sales and why it’s made such a large comeback in the industry.
