Making the Most of Inside Sales and Your CRM: Best Practices and Strategies

Inside sales is a crucial component of any successful sales motion. However, managing and coaching an inside sales team can be a challenge, especially when it comes to leveraging the full capabilities of CRM’s. In this blog post, we will explore some of the best practices for inside sales and how to leverage a CRM to support inside sales, and provide guidance on how to get the most out of your sales team and technology.

Process Over Technology: It can be tempting to believe that the latest and greatest sales automation tools will automatically lead to improved performance. However, having a solid sales process in place is far more important than having the latest technology. Make sure that your team understands the steps involved in the sales process, how to leverage the existing technology and that they are using their tools properly to support their efforts before adding to your tech stack.

Customizing the CRM: Many CRMs, such as Hubspot, are not built natively for Outbound sales. But they can be customized to better reflect the specific needs of your inside sales team. I have seen Inside Sales underserved in this regard at almost every company I work with. Improvements can include creating a pipeline specifically for Inside Sales, custom fields, reports, and workflows that align with the customer journey to move deals along. For better or worse, a good amount of customization is necessary to enablement, coaching and reporting in a way that reflects the true customer journey.

Reflecting the Inside Sales Journey in the CRM: It's important to remember that your CRM should be customized to align with your sales process, and your process shouldn’t be bent to the needs of the CRM. Don't try to make your process fit the technology; Instead, make the technology fit your process. By customizing your CRM to align with your sales process, you can ensure that all of the customer interactions, activities and milestones are captured and tracked in an efficient and accurate way. This will give you a clear view of the customer journey and make it easier for you to identify opportunities easier within your sales cycle.

Your Inside Sales Process should not be carved in stone: In addition to customizing the CRM, it is also essential to keep the process updated. As your business and the market evolve, your sales process should too. Putting in place a change management process for adjustments and iterating your process as the customer journey evolves will facilitate the implementation of new strategies, and allow you to quickly adjust to market changes and customer needs.

Automation versus Personalization: Automating your sales cadences can help your team move more quickly through the sales process. Tools like Sequences in Hubspot can be used to streamline follow-ups and other repetitive tasks. However, it’s important to remember that automation should not come at the expense of personalization. Every customer is unique and it's crucial to balance automation with the right amount of personal touch.

Tracking is essential: Tracking sales activity is essential for accurate reporting and compensation, but it's also the first line of defense against underperformance. By monitoring activity levels, you can identify areas where team members may need additional coaching or support. This will give you an insight into which aspects of the process need to be improved and acted on, and which are already working well.

Prioritizing Prospects: With a CRM, it's easy to get overwhelmed with the sheer number of leads and opportunities. However, it’s important to prioritize which prospects should be contacted and when. Use your CRM to segment your database and prioritize contacts based on factors such as lead score, demographics, or behavior. This will help you focus your efforts on the most promising leads. Also, never forget to disqualify dead leads! A cluttered pipeline is detrimental to the performance and productivity of an inside sales team.

Measuring Success: A good CRM will provide you with powerful analytics and reporting capabilities, enabling you to track key performance indicators (KPIs) and measure the success of your inside sales efforts. Use these reports to track progress, identify patterns and trends, and fine-tune your strategies. This can help you make data-driven decisions that will optimize performance.

Coaching is Key: The most effective way to improve the performance of your inside sales team is through regular coaching and training. This can include everything from teaching them the best practices for using the CRM, to helping them refine their pitch, process, and product knowledge. By providing ongoing coaching and support, you can ensure that your team has the skills and knowledge they need to be successful in their roles. I always tell sales leaders, weekly inter-team meetings to share knowledge is a key to the success of any sales motion 

Inter-team Collaboration within the CRM is important: A tight feedback loop between inside sales and sales is key to tackling complex prospects. Sharing information and best practices can help teams better understand customer needs, and develop strategies to close deals. A CRM can be a great tool for facilitating collaboration and communication between teams, making it an essential component of any inside sales strategy.

A well-implemented CRM system can be a powerful tool for managing and coaching an inside sales team. By following best practices such as regular coaching, customizing the CRM to align with your sales process, fostering collaboration and communication, and tracking performance, you can ensure that your team is leveraging the full capabilities of the technology. Additionally, it's important to stay aware of your process, and make sure it reflects the customer journey. Automation, personalization, data management, and integrations with other tools all need to be taken into account to make the most out of the CRM. With the right approach, you can improve the performance of your inside sales team and achieve better results for your business.