Reply To: How to Overcome 7 Inside Sales Management Challenges

[Anonymous]

Here are 7 most common and severe challenges that an Inside Sales Manager comes across:

Challenge #1 Hiring & Recruiting Right People

Hiring right salespeople is always a challenge for managers because a wrong selection can lead to damaged customer relationships and eroded sales numbers. You need to evaluate a candidate smartly depending on your company’s products and services. Inside Sales reps must possess a few traits to outlast in this field and a manager’s job is to identify those traits in a candidate.

Challenge #2 Training, Development & Coaching

In order to make sure that your sales reps deliver the results you expect, provide them with enough training and coaching to develop and enhance their skills, traits, and attitude. But one common challenge is finding the time to train them since most of the manager’s time is spent on setting goals/targets, analyzing data and reviewing sales numbers.

Challenge #3 Retaining Talent

As a manager, you can’t afford to lose your top performers to your competitors. Loss of even a few key employees can be devastating to a company. Sales leaders must take proactive measures to overcome this challenge and to ensure long term employee commitment.

Challenge #4 Enabling Tools & Technologies

It has been found that managers either don’t bother to facilitate their inside sales representatives with technology tools or are confused among too many technology choices available. Sales managers must evaluate their team and their selling requirements appropriately before deciding on the necessary tools and technologies so that the reps are productive and are able to meet their targets.

Challenge #5 Compensating Employees

Retaining employees sometimes directly relates to the compensation being offered to them. Satisfying top talent on this front is a challenge for managers. It is important for managers to implement a structured reward and recognition program that is healthy and unbiased.

Challenge #6 Finding Quality Leads

Salespeople often come across poor leads that turns out to be a complete waste of time. Having a few quality leads is much better than simply dialing endless number of waste leads. But finding good quality leads is a real challenge for both the Inside sales managers and sales representatives.

Challenge #7 Longer Sales Cycles- > Deals Taking Longer to Close

Length of a sales cycle is one of the greatest challenges for Inside sales Manager. When closing of a deal takes a long time, it directly impacts the revenue flow and spirit of the team. So, managing the timescales and resources properly until the deal is closed is very important for a Inside sales manager.