Sales Insider Blog | Inside Sales Training, Tips, Best Practices, and Research from InsideSales.com

5 Fascinating TED Talks Every Inside Sales Leader Must Watch

Posted on May 22, 2013 by Leo Dirr

Dog on Frog When was the last time you saw something that truly inspired you to be a better person and a better leader?

TED talks are good for the soul. It turns out that the principles they teach can boost business, too. These brief, entertaining presentations will help you understand your inside sales reps better and motivate them more effectively.

Find out what’s wrong with the modern workplace and how you can make your team happier and more productive.

Let’s take a look at five fascinating TED talks that every inside sales leader must watch.
Read more…

Leave a comment

Tags: Sales Management, Sales Motivation, sales productivity

Five Fantastic Movies Focused on Sales

Posted on May 21, 2013 by Jessica Winn

There are a lot of movies about sales. “Death of a Salesman,” “Glengarry Glen Ross,” “Broiler Room” and many other movies have all explored the world of sales and those who close the big deals. But there are some other movies that have also taken a look at what making money all means and how to be successful at it.

Here are a few movies about business, sales and how it’s all run:

1. Moneyball: Data wins every time. In this Brad Pitt flick, baseball general manager Billy Bean makes a move no one in the industry believes in. He bases his decisions to pick certain players on statistics only. In the end his decision pays off and changes the world of baseball forever. Sales reps can learn a thing or two from this movie. It’s not about what feels right; you should base your strategies and game plans around what the data tells you.

2. Jerry Maguire: A man has a change of heart when he takes a long, hard look at the sports agency he works for and decides things need to change. Unfortunately, he is fired after he distributes his thoughts at work. Struggling to hold onto the few athletes he tries to represent, he is left with two players he has to fight for.

“Jerry Maguire” is ultimately a story about business and the ethics surrounding it. This movie relates to sales reps who strive to be honest with their clients and secure them the best possible deal. It’s the story of an underdog who tries to win when everyone else is cheating and ultimately manages to come out on top.
Read more…

Leave a comment

Inside Sales Jobs: Who’s Hiring Right Now?

Posted on May 20, 2013 by Leo Dirr

Inside Job Are you looking for inside sales jobs in all the wrong places?

It’s actually a pretty good time to work in the industry because inside sales is growing 15 times faster than outside sales. We’ve scoured the Interwebs looking for awesome jobs to share with you.

Here are 10 employers who are hiring right now. The list covers a wide range of positions, including inside sales reps, managers and directors. We’ve included links to the online job postings for your convenience.
Read more…

Leave a comment

Tags: hiring inside sales reps, inside sales jobs, Inside Sales Management

6 Sales Motivation Secrets So Simple a Caveman Can Use Them

Posted on May 17, 2013 by Leo Dirr

Caveman How can you keep sales motivation high without constantly throwing more money at your reps?

It’s one of the toughest challenges facing inside sales teams today. For answers, let’s return to a simpler time when the world was still flat and people still thought it was a good idea to scribble strange pictures on their bedroom walls.

Cavemen sometimes get a bad rap, but they sure did know how to survive. And they can teach us a lot about human psychology, which is at the heart of effective sales motivation.
Read more…

Leave a comment

Tags: sales compensation, sales contests, Sales Motivation

3 Questions Every Sales Professional Should Ask the Email Marketing Manager

Posted on May 16, 2013 by Brad Perry

How many conversations do you have with prospects in a given day? And how many emails do you send to prospects in that same day? Is it safe to say you send more emails? Probably.

What’s the point? We’ll here it is …

You spend most of your waking hours perfecting and tweaking your sales pitch. What about your emails? How much time do you spend to polish them? Let’s be honest — not enough.

By upping your email game, you’ll find a simple way to boost your sales instead of wasting time lying on the flat of your back and looking up toward the ceiling at night pondering how to tweak your pitch to hit your number.

It’s time to have a cross-legged, powwow sit-down with your email marketing manager and get a few pointers (and if needed to reduce cross-divisional stress, get a couple puffs on that proverbial peace pipe as well).
Read more…

Leave a comment

Tags: Inbound Sales, Inside Sales, Marketing

6 Ways Your Sales Reps and Pet Cat are More Alike Than You Think

Posted on May 14, 2013 by Jessica Winn

If sales reps were classified as a certain animal it would be the cat.

Not a big cat, or king of the jungle cat, but the clever housecat that gives you those condescending looks until you pull out the tuna.

Cats are interesting creatures that know what they want, are patient, intelligent predators that go in for the kill.

Here are some other ways inside sales reps relate to our feline friends:

1. Finer Things: What sales rep or cat doesn’t want to have it all? They’re ambitious and will take whatever they think they can get away with; they don’t want just what you give them.

Case in point: that promotion at work. Sales reps will set their eyes on it even if they’re the newest recruit. Those older, more seasoned cats better watch out because some upstart might be gunning for the top spot on the cat tower.
Read more…

Leave a comment

Tags: Cats, inside sales reps, InsideSales.com, Sales Reps

The Inside Sales Exemption Explained

Posted on May 13, 2013 by Leo Dirr

Scales of Justice Employers often misinterpret and misapply the inside sales exemption to their workers’ wages. Because of the complexity of the law, some companies believe they are paying their employees appropriately until their payroll policies are overturned in court.

For example, sportswear company It’s Greek to Me discovered it owed more than $97,000 in back wages after the U.S. Department of Labor conducted an investigation. The company’s inside sales reps had been improperly classified as exempt, which means they didn’t receive overtime pay as required by the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).
Read more…

Leave a comment

Tags: inside sales exemption, Inside Sales Management, inside sales process

4 Informative Sales Podcasts for Inside Sales Professionals

Posted on May 9, 2013 by Alex Orton

Traditionally, podcasts have been used primarily as news, entertainment, and social commentary. But, recently some key players in the sales industry have taken the time to transform their content into valuable podcasts for sales.

Why is this helpful? Sales training can be extremely expensive. While nothing truly replaces a one-on-one, personalized training program, podcast are an underutilized resource for gaining quality sales training from industry experts.

We went through multiple podcasts related to the marketing and sales industry and found four podcasts that can provide you with the resources to boost your sales.
Read more…

View Comments (3)

Tags: Sales Training