Inside Sales Prospecting: How Many Opportunities Can Companies Expect? [Infographic]

Despite analyst predictions that it would be extinct by now, the outbound sales campaign is alive and well. According to BridgeGroup, inside sales jobs – sometimes called “sales lead generation” jobs – are up by 54%. You didn’t really think that all those inside sales reps were taking inbound calls all day, did you?  Well, they are definitely taking a few. Mostly, however, inside sales reps exist to find opportunities.

An incredible new survey by AG Salesworks & BridgeGroup estimates that reps should be generating roughly 32 opportunities per 1,000 outbound calls. Obviously, that’s not going to happen overnight. The pitch has to be perfected over time (or at least sometime early in the 2.1-year period that the average inside sales rep stays in their role).

Also, according to the study, some of the most productive reps are those that have a “lead researcher” on their sales team. This is an individual that focuses on establishing who to call, and also focuses on keeping the CRM data clean, so that the outbound-focused reps can power through their lists at maximum velocity. For you football fans, it’s sort of like running downfield behind a big offensive lineman that’s clearing obstacles for you. If you can clear a few of those 350-pound tacklers out of the way, you’ll score more touchdowns.

Although not part of the study, a strong component of productivity has to be research. Sales reps spend an average of 24% of their time researching to make sales calls. That means visiting lots of different sites to figure out who reps are and what they want, and that wastes a lot of time. This particular productivity challenge is at least part of the reason why Revenue.io solutions for inside sales were created.  Revenue.io delivers one unified view of prospect data, on an inside sales rep’s favorite device.