Unlocking scalability through Inside Sales (Part 1)

Remote sales delivered by centralised outbound sales is not a new concept. Where inside sales differ from traditional outbound sales is in the specific and increasingly scientific role they play in scaling and optimising the sales process. Organisations that have achieved scale are increasingly modularising the sales process and building highly skilled, domain and function specific inside sales capabilities.

Inside sales can either be used to sell a specific offering (e.g. a specific module, upgrades, services etc), target a specific segment (e.g. SME businesses), or to breakdown the sales process by driving a specific part of the sales pipeline. Bifurcating the sales process is where I have seen most b2b SaaS companies successfully leverage inside sales, to drive scale and efficiency into its pipeline.  They do this by focusing the insides sales teams on driving the leads engine by generating qualified sales leads. According to a Harvard Business Review published study, 46% of software businesses surveyed reported a shift from a fields sales model to an inside sales driven model. Inside sales has over the last decade, become an increasingly strategic component of an efficient b2b SaaS sales structure.

Australian software companies are increasingly turning to the global market for scale, and are being forced to change their sales methodology. Taking a selection of the largest software SaaS businesses on the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX), quick analysis of their use of insides sales showed the following:Source: Capital IQ, Linkedin.com

Source: Capital IQ, Linkedin.com

The analysis indicates that:

• There is a strong correlation between Australian software firms with an inside sales team, and those that are driving outsize growth. What is not clear is whether the presence of the inside sales team is a driver of the outsize growth or a consequence of the outside growth. Irrespective however the strong correlation between driving continued exponential growth and the presence of an inside sales team is clear.
• The presence of an inside sales team isn’t clearly correlated with the size of the organisation – there are many large listed providers that don’t use an inside sales team, and similarly small providers that do use an inside sales team
• On average, Australian software businesses, even when only considering listed entities, are less likely to have an inside sales team – Australian software businesses have much to gain from investing in insides sales capabilities

In summary, as maturing software companies look to unlock continued growth, building a robust sales engine on the foundation of an Inside Sales capability it often a key enabler of scalability.  In part 2, I will explore what are the ingredients to building an effective Inside Sales team.

Cheyne Tan,
Potentia