How do you determine what type of sales role is the right fit for your business? There are many different types of salespeople, and many different roles that might be filled by people in a sales capacity of one sort or another. By identifying what type of role is needed for your organization, you are one step closer to filling your sales recruitment needs.

One very important element in building an effective sales force is to clarify the structure, both with personnel and to calculate the cost / benefit to the company. An outside sales rep is not always the best solution to every company’s need for more business. Below we have identified a number of different sales roles that businesses use.

Roles

There are at least 9 primary roles within sales. These include:

1. Inside Sales – Outbound calls
2. Inside Sales – Inbound calls
3. New Business Development – Lead Generation
4. Retail Sales
5. Outside Sales – New customer acquisition
6. Outside Sales – Existing customer retention
7. Outside Sales and Project management
8. Outside Sales – Territory Reps
9. Sales and Public Relations

Along with this, there are hundreds of permutations and derivations within sales organizations throughout the world. What follows is a brief summary description of each of the main categories listed above.

1. Inside Sales – Outbound Calls

These are your telemarketing team. They go through hundreds of “cold calls” or “semi-cold” leads each week, seeking to book appointments for more senior personnel. These positions are quite useful if the conversion rate of booked appointments to new customers is high among the salespeople who visit potential customers. Alternatively, they may also be useful when the dollars are high enough to justify this additional layer of support. 

One caution, the use of this system within a sales organization may get your more seasoned sales staff used to the notion of being handed leads. If it is the responsibility of the outside salesperson to seek out and find new business, the addition of a telemarketer may get the outside sales reps complacent.

Telemarketers have a role in high pressure sales situations. However, they also have a role in lower pressure environments if there is enough funding (either in percentage margin or in dollar volume) to justify the additional expense. Outbound sales reps are very often found in vacuum sales and encyclopedia sales, but also in sales of financial services and other high-end products and services. Newspapers use telemarketers as do people conducting surveys, though surveys are often more a customer service role than a sales role per se.

Because of the low pay involved, combined with the high stress of constantly hearing people say no, as well as customers hanging up, the burnout rate of telemarketers is quite high.

2. Inside Sales – Inbound Call Acceptance

Inbound sales people quite often take orders from customers calling in with requests. These are very common in industries with high volumes and repeat business from the same customers. Distributors that serve retailers, the printing business, and catalogue sales organizations are included in this group. Also included are all those TV infomercials that fill the television screens from 1 am to 6 am (or The Shopping Channel all day and night).

Many of these people are strong order takers and data entry people with strong telephone skills. The biggest factor for inside, inbound telephone sales reps is their ability to up-sell customers into the more expensive version of what they seek. Similar to the fast food clerk who asks you if you would like to “Super Size” that meal, these people can make a significant difference to the overall profitability of a program or campaign, dependent upon their effectiveness in up-selling their customers.

Whether inbound or outbound, these sales reps are usually most effective with an excellent telephone manner, a natural ability to connect with people and strong listening skills.

3. New Business Development – Lead Generation

People in New Business Development – Lead Generation roles are often asked to seek out and develop initial relationships with potential customers, with the view of bringing in more technically skilled specialists later in the process. Similar to telemarketers, there may be calling involved, but there is usually some market research done to pinpoint potential (usually large) opportunities.

Along with calls, a person in this role will also generally meet with potential customers, acting as the host of the relationship, while a technical person handles the more detailed aspects of the sales process. This tag-team effort can make a significant affect on the overall sales within a company. One approach we have seen that works very well is to hire New Business Development people who are incredibly well networked within your target market. Then, by providing them with a technical resource person, training times are cut dramatically, and you have two specialists at the table on behalf of your company, both already skilled at their roles.

We have had a project management company that does multimillion dollar contracts use this approach to customer acquisition. With this method, they increased their sales by 50% within 2 years. Future growth then became limited to their delivery capacity, rather than their sales ability.

We have also worked with a construction firm, again with contracts ranging from hundreds of thousands to millions (and sales cycles of up to a year or longer) who have started the process with the assistance of a New Business Development rep.

While the Inside Sales Reps are more junior positions, a New Business Development person may range from an intermediate position to a highly senior role within an organization.

Part 2 …