Telephone salespeople and outside sales reps often see each other as competitors. Why? Poor management, lack of planning, and a lack of communication are three of the most common reasons.

Outside reps perceive a telephone sales system within their own organization as a threat – to their job security, account control, selling skills and their own ability to maintain key accounts. “It didn’t work before,” say veteran reps who’ve had bad experiences with previous telephone sales efforts.

Does this mean that inside and outside sales are incompatible? Not at all. It does mean that starting a successful telephone sales program requires time and effort in preparation. The three key requirements are:

* a plan
* concrete goals
* a method to measure and report results

Most conflicts between inside and outside salespeople occur when either group feels it has no direction, no specific objectives and no idea about what the other is doing. By giving clear-cut direction to both teams of reps, companies can pull the two groups together into one winning team.

THE PLAN – WHAT ARE WE DOING?

Reps want to know: Will territories be split? Does the inside sales team cover marginal accounts while outside salespeople maintain “high potential” leads? Who will do monthly follow-ups of key clients?

If salespeople don’t know the answers to these questions, apprehension, fear and cut-throat competition will undermine the company’s sales efforts. Joint participation in establishing guidelines eliminates the “my account vs. your account” syndrome. Salespeople who are asked for input about how territories and priorities are divided up develop a positive “Let’s get the job done” attitude.

Unfortunately, many companies create problems by cutting up territories and handing them over to telephone sales without consulting their outside reps. Then when things go wrong, executives give up on telemarketing and later say “O, we tried that and it didn’t work for us.” Meanwhile, valuable sales opportunities are lost and the company’s sales team suffers – through accounts that are ruined and a sometimes have a devastating effect on employee trust in corporate management.

A well-planned team approach coordinates inside and outside reps for maximum sales effectiveness and improved morale. For instance, a major account with many divisions can’t be contacted in person each month. The telephone sales team can be used as a backup so that customers are never out of touch for more than a week or two. Or, you can use the inside reps to qualify leads so that expensive in-person calls are limited to “high potential” prospects. Less promising leads can be followed up by phone contact. The two types of reps learn to support one another to produce more sales than either group could do on its own.

GOALS – WHERE ARE WE GOING?

Sales objectives must be spelled out for the new telephone sales team to be successful. Inside reps often feel like interlopers – the outside reps are suspicious, uncooperative or downright hostile. Without specific goals, it may seem to the inside reps that all they themselves do is dial endless numbers and gain few rewards.

The underlying cause of outside reps’ hostility may be a fear of inside salespeople’s superior telephone skills. They may wonder whether they will be replaced completely because they can’t compete. Management must acknowledge that each type of rep has some stronger skills than the other and stress the reasons for these individual strengths. It is a rare salesperson who can be a master of both telephone and in-person sales. By focusing on teamwork rather than competition, inside and outside reps can feel good about their own professional specialty.

Coordination of inside/outside sales can be as simple as dividing prospects by the amount of profit or the quantity of an order. A sale that is low in profit or quantity can be more cost effective when handled through telephone sales. But there may be exceptions – a long-standing account, a client who has personal ties with the outside rep, etc.

The company’s goals might state:

Make a sale for the least possible calling costs unless:

a. the client has been buying from the company for more than five years
b. there is a good potential for upselling
c. a long-term customer personally recommended the company to the new prospect

With objectives clearly stated, sales reps will feel more confident about their work, themselves and their company.

REPORTS – HOW WELL ARE WE DOING?

Feedback. Everyone needs it, but in a joint inside/outside sales effort, it is absolutely crucial. Reports prepared once a week by each team allow reps to keep up with changing conditions. This can eliminate doubling of sales efforts – calling on an account that was already contacted by the other team the day before. It saves wasted time and effort preparing a presentation when all the customer needs is additional technical information that can be phoned in. And it keeps customers from falling through the cracks – calls not made at all, leads not followed up because “the other guy took care of that one.”

Passing information back and forth on a regular basis reinforces the team spirit because it requires planning, cooperation and joint participation. When each side of the sales team knows what the other half if doing, understanding replaces worrisome doubts about what the “other guy” is up to.

Individual reports by inside and outside sales reps can be joined into a comprehensive report that shows successes as well as areas that need improvement for the overall sales approach.

Internal competition becomes unbeatable teamwork when companies focus on overall, not inside vs. outside, sales success. Telephone and field reps each have their strong suits. By joining forces, they can help each other achieve more than they could as individuals – especially individuals who view each other as the “enemy.”