How to build a strong in-house sales team

Build an in-house sales team around a defined customer, a repeatable qualification process and clear ownership from first contact through hand-off. Hiring more callers cannot repair a weak offer or a pipeline filled with poor-fit leads.

Set expectations for lawful outreach, record decisions in the CRM and coach from call or deal evidence rather than activity totals alone. Coordinate sales with marketing and customer service so prospects hear the same promise.

Build the sales process before scaling the team

Define the ideal customer, qualification rules and hand-off before adding more salespeople. These decisions determine which prospects enter the pipeline, what evidence a representative must collect and when another team becomes responsible.

Use a small set of consistent CRM fields and coach from real calls and deals. Review conversion quality, not just activity volume, and set clear standards for consent, privacy and lawful outreach. Marketing, sales and customer service should make the same promise.

Create an Outbound Call Center

If you have ever seen the film “Boiler Room,” and you lead a sales department, the idea of creating an outbound call center will certainly resonate – an outbound call meaning telemarketing. This being said, the techniques used in the year 2000 (when the film was shot) were quite different than the ones that we practice now. But besides that change, there is another more important one that came on the scene, a few years ago. In the film, there were cables everywhere, leading to landlines. Today, all you need to create an outbound call center is a VoIP phone system. You still don’t know what is a VoIP phone system? Software-based, it doesn’t need any of the physical objects from the past, which means, less space needed and no extreme costs to install the center.

Hire a Social Media Specialist

Experience is key in business life. However, age doesn’t necessarily mean that someone knows more about a given topic. That is especially true about social media. The younger generations were born with the internet, which means that they know it by heart, unlike those belonging to Generation X. If you hire someone from Gen Z to handle your social media, chances are that to him, the job will be just like sitting home all day, enjoying posting online. That is a sure way to create real good visibility on Instagram, Facebook and all other social media.

That is particularly true when it comes to TikTok. This app reaches more people under 25 years of age than any other. Its unwritten rules of engagement are a bit more complex than the ones for Instagram, though. In the latter, a brand can easily showcase its products on a post, and the followers will show their love. If you were to do the same on TikTok, you would probably just end-up losing followers. The reason why users go on this app is to have fun and to laugh. Therefore, if you are too serious or businesslike, they will feel like you don’t belong there.

Make Sure that You reach All Channels

A company that is not focused on being omnichannel, is one that won’t survive long in the 21st century. Individuals do not want to be approached in the company’s preferred way, but on their own. Therefore, if a company is not seen on social media (as an example), it will miss out on a part of the population that only lives there. The same is true about search engines, advertising inside public transportation, or having a monthly newsletter. If you don’t check all the boxes, your sales results will show it.

Naturally, a great sales force starts with a great leader at the top. Therefore, if you are not satisfied with your year-end result, when you look into it in the next few months, maybe you need to change your director of sales and marketing.