The Hybrid Rep: Moving Quickly to Win More Sales

Now more than ever, the win goes to the sales organization that is flexible enough to respond to the customer’s needs. The trend toward a rapid response is one that Bob Perkins and Larry Reeves, CEO and COO, respectively, of the American Association of Inside Sales Professionals (AA-ISP) have been aware of for years.

"The fact is, the way customers want to be sold to is different today from what it was twenty or even five years ago," Perkins observes. "People today are connected immediately. They’re doing business in their cars and on their BlackBerrys. Often, they don’t want to take the time to do a face-to-face meeting."

To meet customer demands, many companies have adopted a "hybrid rep" model. Perkins defines "hybrid reps" as "traditional inside sales reps who do the majority of their selling via the phone, email, and Web-conferencing demos, with the option to travel to schedule a face-to-face meeting as needed."

Adds Reeves, "Typically, a hybrid rep is an inside rep who is going out into the field a percentage of time to close a deal or meet a customer to maintain that relationship." In other words, the hybrid model blurs the distinction between telesales and face-to-face selling. Perkins and Reeves identify the following as characteristics of the hybrid rep:

• Uses virtual presentation tools, such as WebEx and Adobe Connect, to give demos in real time
• Uses smart phones to stay in constant touch from the road
• Makes approximately four to eight trips in a calendar year to visit customers
• Leverages social networks to maintain customer relationships

The hybrid rep also takes on some of the responsibility traditionally held by marketing groups. "They’re quota carrying and have sales responsibilities, but they’re also doing a version of lead generation and qualification beyond just doing the sales process, such as following up on trade-show leads," Reeves explains.

Not surprisingly, hybrid reps are more common in small to medium-size firms than in large enterprises. "Larger companies such as Oracle or salesforce.com [are more likely to] have a discrete prospecting role and then a discrete selling and closing role," says Perkins.

Even so, it’s clear that the hybrid model – empowered by Sales 2.0 technology – represents a way for companies to swiftly respond to market shifts.