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Trend Reports

BAO Trend Report: Inside Sales

BAO conducted a study of inside sales leaders to understand their team’s roles and responsibilities.
Inside sales serves as an organization’s front lines, constantly interacting with customers and prospects alike.

However, despite its importance, it’s also a role that’s greatly underappreciated and often misunderstood.

According to Kerry Cunningham, Sr. Research Director, Demand Creation Strategies at SiriusDecisions, “Inside sales is a critical function in any B2B business, but most organizations don’t believe that these teams are optimized or that activity levels are where they could be.

BAO conducted a market research study of more than 100 inside sales leaders at high tech companies to better understand their team’s roles and responsibilities in the organization’s go-to-market strategy. A few key trends we uncovered:

  • 63% of teams report that cold calling is one of their primary responsibilities.
  • However 55%, of inside teams make fewer than 40 phone calls a day.
  • 48% of respondents indicate that their organization offers 2-3 weeks of training for new reps.
  • 57% of respondents indicated that reaching leads was a top challenge.

The BAO Inside Sales Trend Report presents the complete findings of the study, including:

  • Trends around team structure, processes and compensation models being utilized by the most successful inside teams.
  • The best practices for hiring ISRs as well as the training and tools commonly utilized for onboarding.
  • Insights around key inside sales metrics like sales rep to manager ratios, average quota attainment and average number of phone calls made each day.
  • The biggest challenges facing teams and where inside sales leaders are looking to invest in the coming months.
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