Call Center/Telesales Effectiveness Insights 2005 State of the Marketplace Review

Optimizing Inside/Telesales
Effectiveness
Leveraging Web Conferencing

Jim Dickie

Barry Trailer

Partner, CSO Insights

Boulder, Colorado

Partner, CSO Insights

Corte Madera, California

Copyright 2008 CSO Insights

All Rights Reserved.

Terms & Conditions

Printed in the United States of America. Except as permitted under the United States Copyright Act of 1976,
no part of this publication may be produced or distributed in any form or by any means, or stored in a
database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the authors. For additional information,
contact CSO Insights, 4524 Northfield Court, Boulder, CO 80301, Phone: (303) 521 4410, email:
jim.dickie@csoinsights.com.
The reader understands that the information and data used in preparation of this report were as accurate as
possible at the time of preparation by the publisher. The publisher assumes no responsibility to update the
information or publication. The publisher assumes that the readers will use the information contained in this
publication for the purpose of informing themselves on the matters that form the subject of this publication. It
is sold with the understanding that neither the authors nor those individuals interviewed are engaged in
rendering legal, accounting, or other professional service. If legal or other expert advice is required, the
services of a competent professional should be sought. The publisher assumes no responsibility for any use
to which the reader puts this information.
All views expressed in this report are those of the individuals interviewed and do not necessarily reflect
those of the companies or organizations they may be affiliated with, including CSO Insights, Insight
Technology Group, or Sales Mastery. All trademarks are those of their respective companies.

Optimizing Inside/Telesales Sales Effectiveness Leveraging Web Conferencing

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
As we continue weathering the current economic storm we are seeing companies, large
and small, struggling with what to do now! CSO Insights recent Inside/Telesales Sales
Performance Optimization study found that many firms are looking to develop an inside
sales team or improve the effectiveness of their existing telesales reps in order to
achieve their organizations revenue goals.
In this white paper we will initially explore the fact that not all inside sales teams are
executing the same. Our studies found that reps working for very large companies (>$1B
in revenue) were outperforming their peers at small firms (<$10M). Deeper analysis of
the study data and benchmarking a select group of inside sales teams found that the
differences do not need to exist.
The reps at larger firms are not inherently better than reps at smaller firms, but they are
often working smarter via the use of technology and knowledge. We will show
examples of how, through the use of web conferencing tools (the adoption of which is
much higher in large companies than small), sales reps can more effectively execute
many of the key aspects of selling, and thus outsell their peers who are relying totally on
the phone and email to communicate with customers and prospects.
Questions or comments regarding the findings presented in this white paper should be
directed to Jim Dickie, (303) 521-4410, jim.dickie@csoinsights.com or Barry Trailer,
(415) 924-3500, barry.trailer@csoinsights.com.

CSO Insights - 2008

No portion of this report may be reproduced or distributed in any form
or by any means without the prior written permission of the authors.

Optimizing Inside/Telesales Sales Effectiveness Leveraging Web Conferencing

INTRODUCTION
Today, as businesses look to maximize revenues, it is not a question of what channel to
leverage, but every channel. Our annual sales performance studies show that direct
field-based sales organizations continue to carry most of the revenue generation burden.
But more and more companies are also turning to inside/telesales organizations to costeffectively carry part of the load.
In looking at the performance of companies with revenues of <$10M, we found that 38%
of those companies reported generating at least part of their revenues via
inside/telesales. Of that group, 49% reported that their inside/telesales organization
accounted for at least 25% of their total revenues and one-third of that group reported
the number was at least 50% or greater of total sales.
To better understand the role of telesales, CSO Insights recently completed a survey of
nearly 500 companies worldwide, focusing on how these firms were leveraging
inside/telesales organizations, what challenges their people faced and how they were
successfully dealing with those issues.
The initial focus of the survey and our project benchmarking was to understand why
companies, and especially small businesses, are turning more and more to telesales as
a viable approach. There are several advantages to be gained by buying and selling
over the phone. First, you have worldwide client access. We recently found an example
of a software company in Australia selling to clients in China without ever sending a field
rep out to see them.
Second, you can also have a lower cost per sales call, because as you remove the
element of travel from the selling equation, you can achieve more calls per day. The
average inside/telesales person may be able to reach out and contact 8 to 15 clients per
day while a field sale rep may only be able to manage 1 or 2 appointments.
Third, we are also seeing a lot of advantages in team selling optimization, where the
inside/telesales reps identify opportunities not just for themselves, but when they find a
deal big enough, they pass it on to a field based rep.
But there are challenges that exist, as well. How do you go about doing a
comprehensive needs analysis, how do you fully present the potential of your solutions,
how do you negotiate a deal in a timely fashion, etc., if you are just talking to someone
over the phone?
This whitepaper will explore techniques and technologies that larger companies are
using to effectively close more business via their inside/telesales group and how these
same approaches could be and should be used by smaller firms to optimize sales
performance.
INSIDE/TELESALES IS STILL SALES
Selling is selling whether you are selling face-to-face or voice-to-voice. The sales
process remains the same: you have to go through and surface the clients needs; you
CSO Insights - 2008
No portion of this report may be reproduced or distributed in any form
or by any means without the prior written permission of the authors.

Optimizing Inside/Telesales Sales Effectiveness Leveraging Web Conferencing

then have to effectively match your product offerings to those requirements. Realizing
that you are going to encounter competition, youve got to be able to explain how you
are unique from any of other offerings out in the marketplace. You also have to create a
sense of urgency to get them to act now, and of course you need to sell value so you
can avoid excessive discounting somewhere down the road.
All of these things are challenging enough when we are sitting across the desk from
someone. We can read their body language; we can try to interact with them. But how
do we do those things effectively over the phone? Going back to our recent study we
found that all firms (big or small) selling via the phone go through the same steps of
moving a prospect all the way through the sales cycle. However, in taking a close look at
how large companies and small companies handle these tasks we found a major
difference in their effectiveness.
For example, consider Figure 1. Here we compare the percentage of times an inside
sales rep is able to convert a presentation to a sale for companies with sales of <$10M
and >$1B.

Inside Sales Conversion Rates: Presentations to Sales

60%
53.1%
50%

40.6%

40%

35.9%
30.8%

30%

33.3%

Firms >$1B
Firms <$10M

20%

10%
6.3%
0%
<10%

10% - 25%

>25%

Figure 1
There is a stark different in sales performance. But what is causing it? Are the sales reps
at the bigger firms better? Are they luckier? Are they just working harder?
Doing a comparison between these two groups the data shows there is no significant
difference in the types of reps that are hired. What we are seeing is that most companies
CSO Insights - 2008
No portion of this report may be reproduced or distributed in any form
or by any means without the prior written permission of the authors.

Optimizing Inside/Telesales Sales Effectiveness Leveraging Web Conferencing

are trying today to go out and hire people who not only have experience in sales, but
have industry experience, as well.
We also dont see a big difference between large and small firms in sales process
adoption. An increasing number of both large and small companies are investing in sales
training to make sure that all their sales reps have the skills to go out and execute.
But the data does show a difference in the tools that are used to sell. So lets explore
that in more depth.
OPTIMIZING YOUR TIME ON THE PHONE
A key difference between these two groups is the fact that companies >$1B are not just
using the phone to sell, they are also using web conferencing capabilities to enhance the
way they guide a client through the sales process. In our recent survey, we found that
65% of >$1B companies are leveraging web conferencing, which is 55% higher then the
figure reported by firms with revenues of <$10M.
Going back and looking at the >$1B group, we asked those firms who track their selling
success to assess the impact that web conferencing was having on their inside sales
teams ability to conduct remote presentations and demos. We received the following
responses as shown in Figure 2.

Web-based Presentations/Demos Impact on

Inside Sales Performance
No Impact
7.0%
Some Impact
20.6%

Significant
Impact
72.4%

Figure 2
So how does web conferencing improve and/or enhance the ability of inside sales reps
to engage prospects and customers? Lets take a look at some specific examples of
what a sales rep might encounter during the sales cycle.

CSO Insights - 2008

No portion of this report may be reproduced or distributed in any form
or by any means without the prior written permission of the authors.

Optimizing Inside/Telesales Sales Effectiveness Leveraging Web Conferencing

Comprehensive Needs Analysis
One of the first things that every sales rep has to do when beginning a sales cycle is
conduct a thorough needs analysis of a prospect. For an inside sales rep this starts with
setting up a phone call and asking questions. But are they really engaging with the
customer? Is the prospect really with the sales rep? Are they tracking and understanding
the questions being asked?
CSO Insights recently benchmarked a networking services provider. One of the sales
tools that they developed was an automated needs analysis system that would guide the
rep through a series of up to 42 questions to ask the customer. By capturing the answers
to each question, the sales rep would be in a great position to come back with a
comprehensive proposal about the types of networking services to propose, how the
systems would integrate with existing solutions, how much the costs would be, etc.
As opposed to asking all 42 questions on the phone and expecting the customer to track
along with them, these reps use web conferencing tools to open up an online meeting
with the prospect. With web conferencing, the prospect is actually able to see the sales
reps desktop. The sales rep brings up the needs analysis survey tool and goes through
it question by question with the customer. So now the customer is not only hearing the
words, but seeing the questions in front of them and viewing the various options that
they have. The needs analysis becomes in interactive dialog with the rep.
Based on the fact that the system is collecting the responses, it becomes much easier to
change customer input. For example, if we go down a couple more questions and the
customer says, You know the network demand I gave you wasnt right. We probably
have a network demand of 35% versus 30%, how would that impact response time?
The sales person can easily go back to that specific question, change the answer,
recalculate the respond time figures for the prospect and then proceed through the
needs analysis.
The company found that by doing an interactive needs analysis they solved three
problems. First, they were able to get accurate information up front. When using solely
the phone approach, reps sometimes asked a question that was unclear or
misconstrued an answer, resulting in having to go back one or two more times to the
customer to clarify information. When the prospect was seeing the data entered into the
system in real time, they corrected any errors upfront.
Second, they were able to surface objections and questions more effectively. As the rep
and the prospect watched the network literally being built before their eyes, the dialogue
during the call became more engaging, as the client would see something change in the
model and ask, Why did that happen?
Third, they saw a much faster turnaround in getting the proposal out to the client. By
virtue of the fact they were able to do the needs analysis directly with the prospect, at
the end of most web conferencing calls the sales reps were able to immediately email
out the proposal package to the client, which increased their close rate by 5%.

CSO Insights - 2008

No portion of this report may be reproduced or distributed in any form
or by any means without the prior written permission of the authors.

Optimizing Inside/Telesales Sales Effectiveness Leveraging Web Conferencing

Virtual Interactive Presentation/Demo
Lets take a look at another example. In many cases during the sales cycle we need to
do a presentation to a client. As opposed to emailing out the slide deck and then walking
the prospect through each slide, a sales rep can use a web conferencing tool to open up
a session with a prospect and again have the client actually see their desk top. This
allows the sales rep to walk through the PowerPoint presentation with the client
interactively.
This also provides a number of advantages. For example, if a client asks a question that
might be addressed in material from another PowerPoint presentation, it is quick and
easy for the sales rep to bring up that presentation. With this approach, there is not a
delay in emailing the PowerPoint presentation to the prospect. Plus, other supporting
collateral pieces such as case studies can easily be shared with the client.
Additionally, by turning this into a much more dynamic and interactive session, the client
can guide the sales rep through just the steps they need to complete to move forward in
their buy cycle, instead of having to sift through the entire presentation one slide at a
time.
Contract Negotiations
What about at the end of the sales cycle? Were down to the last day of the quarter,
were trying to close a deal and we still have several other conversations that have to
happen before the deal is done.
One of the things we observed when benchmarking the sales process of a laser
manufacturer was that the majority of their contract negotiations between their lawyers,
the customers lawyers, the economic buyer on the customers side and their sales
management, etc., take place via web conferencing.
The appropriate players from both firms were able to conduct on an online meeting
during which they could display the current version of the contract, go through it section
by section, and item by item. By using web conferencing, everybody could see the
changes being made dynamically as they negotiated. At the end of the meeting they had
the completed agreement which could be executed by the customer and sent to the
vendor immediately.
SO WHATS THE ROI?
So how does this impact the overall sales performance? In looking again at companies
that are leveraging web conferencing, we see a number of advantages. First, they have
lower no decision rates; they are able to do a much better job of engaging and educating
their clients all the way through the sales cycle by having web-based meetings versus
just phone calls.
They also experience shorter sales cycles by ensuring that multiple things can get done
in one or two virtual meeting conversations versus emailing documents back and forth.
It is also a good way to get new reps up to speed faster because they can invite other
people to be a part of those conferences. For example, they can invite a system
CSO Insights - 2008
No portion of this report may be reproduced or distributed in any form
or by any means without the prior written permission of the authors.

Optimizing Inside/Telesales Sales Effectiveness Leveraging Web Conferencing

engineer to deliver part of the presentation, they can have their sales manager online to
handle objections, they can bring in the CFO to negotiate terms and conditions; all of
which can be done virtually with the sales reps located in New York, the client based in
San Francisco, and the other persons helping in Dallas.
CONCLUSION
So lets take a look at where we are today. We are in very tight economic times, were
seeing a lot more competition than weve ever seen, and were seeing higher demands
from customers and increasing expectations. So, weve got to be able to execute our
sales strategies very effectively and very consistently.
In looking forward to how we are going to cost-effectively maximize all of the revenue
potential within a territory, for most firms inside/telesales will be playing an increasingly
important role in sales as they try to enter new markets, cost-effectively sell mature parts
of the product lines, go after smaller accounts and smaller deal sizes which would be
cost prohibitive to call on directly, etc.
For companies looking to optimize the efficiency of this channel, web conferencing offers
a cost-effective, easy-to-implement way of maximizing how we sell. What we see today
is that web conferencing is not becoming an option, it is becoming a requirement of
doing business if you are expecting to compete effectively in todays markets.
The next question: Will you make this first move or will it be done by one of your
competitors? Based on the analysis of the data, we think the business case is
compelling enough to say that if you are the first to move, you are going to enjoy a better
2009 than your peers. If you want to know more about this topic, feel free to give us a
call.
Jim Dickie
(303) 521-4410
jim.dickie@csoinsights.com

Barry Trailer
(415) 924 3500
barry.trailer@csoinsights.com

CSO Insights - 2008

No portion of this report may be reproduced or distributed in any form
or by any means without the prior written permission of the authors.