With a sales territory plan, you can improve the efficiency of your field sales team and ensure no one is working overlapping areas or duplicating sales efforts.

In this post, we’ll look at the sales territory mapping process— what it is, what it entails, and how sales managers can improve it.

What Is A Sales Territory Map?

A sales territory map is a visual layout of your sales territories. You can manually create maps or use territory mapping software to define territories and assign them to the reps that are the best fit for each one.

What Is Sales Territory Mapping?

Sales territory mapping is the creation and assignment of sales territories based on factors like geography, revenue potential, and the individual expertise of sales reps.

Territory planning also incorporates the size of accounts to ensure a fair balance. For example, two large accounts might be equal in revenue to four smaller accounts, so managers might want to rebalance territories to ensure reps have equal opportunities to hit their sales quota.

The Old Approach to Sales Territory Mapping

Territory mapping with Google Maps and a highlighter leaves room for error and confusion. You have no way to determine how many prospects you’re assigning to each rep, how many customers you have in each territory, or whether prospect demographics in each territory align with your ideal customer profile.

Not to mention once you send a rep out with their printed sales territory map, you’ll rarely get it back — and therefore have no idea where you’ve worked or haven’t worked.

Consider this situation:

1. A rep made a sale outside of the territory you assigned them, claiming they weren’t sure where it ended.
2. The rep who was assigned to that territory lost the opportunity to make that sale.

Who do you give the sale to — the rep who closed the deal, or the rep who covers the territory where the sale occurred?

The same issues can occur with other legacy solutions like Streets and Trips and MapPoint. Today, sales organizations can use software to design sales territories, prevent territory disputes among sales teams, and gather the insights sales managers need to adjust territory boundaries or reassign reps.

The Benefits Of Modern Sales Territory Management

Modern sales territory mapping tools help managers:

Assign territories strategically

You wouldn’t assign a junior sales rep to your highest-value territory. With the multiple data points available in territory mapping platforms, you can segment sales territories and assign reps to territories that align with their experience level. This approach to sales planning and territory management ensures your best reps are working the most valuable territories.

Balance workloads

To maintain harmony among your sales team, you should be mapping sales territories in a way that balances the workload. That means looking at more than just the geographic area of each territory — a small territory could contain just as many leads as a territory that spans two ZIP Codes.

Increase rep selling time

The way you map sales territories can help reps maximize their selling time. For example, you might find that shifting the territory boundaries gives each rep a simple sales route, with little distance between stops. Route optimization is one of the best features of territory mapping apps.

Boost rep productivity

In the days of analog territory mapping, field sales reps wasted countless hours jotting notes on paper and marking up maps to keep track of their progress. Digital territory maps integrate with CRM data, giving reps instant access to important data when they’re in the field. And they can update notes from their mobile phones, which eliminates the need for manual entry and increases sales productivity.

4 Ways To Create A Sales Territory

To save time, be more efficient, eliminate confusion, and increase performance, create territories for your sales team using the following strategies:

1. Target Market Demographics

One of the most effective strategies for territory management is to gather market demographics before sending your team out to knock on doors. This will minimize unproductive time for your reps in the field.

Using a tool like SPOTIO’s Lead Machine will help you to identify key territories, target qualified customers that match your ideal customer profile (ICP), and ensure that your team is targeting prospects that have real buying potential.

You’ll also have the ability to track the progress of each of these leads in your sales pipeline through the app. This prevents leads that you’ve spent money on from slipping through the cracks and increases the return on your investment. (This is one of the main features SPOTIO offers that causes many outside sales reps to switch from the competition).

The more information you have about your current customers, the better. You can understand where you’re having the most success and identify higher-quality potential customers with a greater chance of buying.

Download this resource to learn more:

2. Include Current Customers In Each Territory

Your current customers are extremely valuable to your business, and not just because they purchased your product or service.

Your customers can provide you with some of the highest converting and cheapest leads: referrals. You just have to ask.

Start by generating a list of all of your current customers. If you use a sales tracking app like SPOTIO, it’s simple to upload this list into your account, or you can simply sort the pins in your account by the status you created to signify a closed-won deal.

If you’re not using a sales tracking app, you’ll have to map these addresses by hand individually. It will be a much longer process, but well worth it.

Once you’re able to see all of your customers on a map, draw out territories for your reps to work based on these locations.

There are two strategies for this approach:

1. Evenly distribute the number of customers in each sale’s reps territories.
2. The other option, if your customers are more spread out, is to assign a couple of smaller territories to each rep, but still distribute them as evenly as possible.

The goal is to use your current customers as references when pitching a new prospect. You can also have your team visit satisfied customers to ask for referrals.

3. Distribute By Number Of Prospects

Making sure that sales reps have enough prospects to visit is essential to their performance and production.

Without sales territory mapping software, you can spend hours on this process. Sales territory mapping software significantly simplifies this process, saving you many hours and ensuring greater accuracy.

Create and assign territories based on the number of contacts you want each rep to work.

As you start drawing out a sales territory plan in SPOTIO, the app will tell you the estimated number of prospects in that territory.

Using territory mapping software will allow you to create equitable territories for your entire team in less than 10 minutes.

4. Distribute By City/ZIP Code

Creating territories by city or ZIP Code is a little bit trickier because of the size of the area. Even so, distributing territories by city or ZIP Code is one of the easiest methods because there’s no room for misinterpretation.

You can tell a rep, “This is your ZIP Code, and if you get a lead or sale outside of your territory, it’s going to the rep that territory belongs to.” Creating territories this way eliminates a lot of the conflict and guesswork for reps.

These territories won’t be quick to work through and shouldn’t be changed frequently like smaller territories.

How To Evaluate And Optimize Sales Territories

You’ll need to periodically review your sales territories, because circumstances change. Your prospects might move to a new area, a competitor may begin working in your territories, or your staffing levels may increase or decrease.

Review Your Rep Count

If you’ve gained or lost reps or customers since you first defined sales territories, you’ll need to reevaluate. You may need to adjust or merge territories quarterly or yearly.

Consider Your Team’s Skills

You may have new hires with expertise in a certain aspect of sales that makes them a good fit for a territory, or you may find you need two people to cover one territory if you’ve lost the superstar who once covered it.

Analyze Existing Territory Performance

An underperforming territory might not be a result of sales performance. B2B and B2C prospects might have shrinking budgets or new priorities, or a competitor might be luring your prospects away. An underperforming territory always merits closer inspection.

Reassess Market Potential

Has the spending potential within your territories changed? That’s an important question to consider as you review your territory design. Review your sales data for the past year to detect any trends that may help you forecast market potential.

3 Common Mistakes To Avoid In The Territory Mapping Phase

1. Using Limited Data – And The Wrong Territory Management Tool

If you don’t know your client and/or account data, you can’t gauge how well the sales rep is doing, let alone make improvements.

Refrain from making continuous changes to sales territories, as it will negatively impact client engagement. However, you will want the ability to modify territories occasionally.

Find the best sales CRM tool to aid you in this process.

2. Failing To Include Your Sales Team

In order to be effective in territory mapping, you need to involve your sales teams and reps and take their experience and talents into account. If reps feel they have a say in territory planning, they are more likely to feel satisfied in their roles.

3. Relying On Spreadsheets

Spreadsheets won’t help your reps see their territory boundaries. If you want to win in sales performance and motivate your reps/teams, you must incorporate the right tools and applications that improve territory visibility.

8 Reasons To Use Sales Territory Mapping Software

According to an MIT study, 90% of the information transmitted to the brain is visual. It’s no surprise that visual territory management tools are especially helpful for sales teams.

Sales territory mapping software provides a simple way for sales teams to visualize geographical areas and ensure:

• Territories are a manageable size for reps
• There is no overlap between reps
• Sales leaders and managers are thoughtfully and strategically assigning the top performers to the right territories

Here are eight reasons to use sales territory mapping software:

1. Prevent Deals From Falling Through The Cracks

If one rep has too many leads to manage, some of them will fall through the cracks. Sales territory planning software helps you balance territories and ensure reps have the capacity to manage all leads in their territory.

2. Uncover New Leads In Existing Territories

The temptation to expand to new territories is only natural. But it’s likely that your team hasn’t covered all potential leads within their existing sales territories.

With sales territory management tools like SPOTIO, you can use insights about your territories to reveal new leads in your existing territories.

3. Save Hours With Segmentation

Without territory mapping software, sales managers often have to spend hours creating sales maps.

Solutions like SPOTIO make it easier to categorize areas or regions by:

• High or low sales potential
• High sales volume
• High-quality leads

These features make it easy to map territories quickly while providing a simple-to-use interface for the reps in each territory.

4. Improve Close Rates With Data-Driven Area Assignments

Sales territory mapping solutions help sales leaders place their reps strategically.

With integrated key insights like sales performance, geographical history, total revenue earned, and leads converted, sales leaders can use SPOTIO to place people where they can make the most impact.

Whether this is about placing high performers where they’re needed most, or placing average performers in an environment that allows them to reach their potential, consider your team’s strengths and opportunities as you’re creating a sales territory plan.

5. Optimize sales routes and improve productivity

Without an effective and comprehensive system, territory mapping and sales route planning tend to be two separate activities.

Using smart features like those offered by SPOTIO, you can quickly see which territories landed the most accounts and where the highest-value clients are.

Sales route planning is adjustable on the fly. When new leads arise, the app helps users adjust their route and plan efficiently.

6. Measure Sales Data Across Territories

The best sales territory mapping software solution makes it easy to measure and compare sales data across multiple territories.

For example, using SPOTIO’s smart reporting features, you can quickly see which territories landed the most accounts, where the highest-value clients are, and which territories are underperforming.

This gives you strong visual data to understand where to invest as well as how sales reps are performing by region.

7. Boost Team Morale

When sales territories are unevenly distributed, sales goals may be unattainable for some reps, and morale may suffer. Whether a territory is too small and lacks potential, or the territory is too big for a rep to manage, a workload imbalance can cause frustration and resentment among your team.

With the data you gather from smart sales territory mapping software, you can closely monitor the level of work required to support each territory and allocate your sales team accordingly.

8. Help Your Team Succeed

Most sales territory mapping tools are part of a field sales enablement platform (like SPOTIO). That means you get a suite of tools that reps can use to:

• Add notes about prospects and leads using their mobile device
• Drop real-time location pins as they move through their territories
• Automate reminders to follow up with leads
• Sync data to your CRM remotely
• Share notes and reports
• Access a complete history of all interactions with leads and prospects
• Review essential steps in your sales process

All of these features help reps work more effectively — and reduce the need for time-consuming manual data entry.

Supercharge Sales Productivity And Increase Revenue With Sales Territory Mapping

Organize and divide territories: Define and reorganize territories in just a few minutes with SPOTIO’s intuitive interface.

Visualize lead and customer data: SPOTIO lets reps color-code map pins based on any data point, such as previously contacted leads, new prospects, and existing customers.

Monitor territory performance: Click on a territory to see performance data for sales teams and sales reps, and run reports that show performance metrics for all territories.

Find out how SPOTIO helps field sales teams stay organized, increase productivity, and close more deals. Request a demo today!

Door to door sales gives reps the opportunity to explain the ROI of a solar energy system, discuss financing options, and even show homeowners a rendering of what their home will look like after solar panel installation.

In this post, we’ll outline a 10-step process solar companies can use to boost door to door solar sales, and how to simplify the sales process with the right tools and technology.

10 Steps to Increase Door To Door Solar Sales

Want to learn how to sell solar door to door? We should warn you, it will take time and effort. But once you learn and implement the 10-step process below, you’ll start to see results. So let’s dive in with step number one!

Identify Your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP)

Success in sales starts with an in-depth knowledge of the people you’re trying to sell to. The same is true for solar companies. So before you do anything else, build an ideal customer profile (ICP.)

An ICP defines the perfect customer for a company’s products and/or services. In your case, it will be a description of the person (or company, if you sell solar panels to other businesses) who is most likely to invest in your company’s solar systems.

The ICP should include customer location data, financial details, and information regarding specific “pain points” you can help solve. And you may have more than one ICP. Here are two examples of homeowners that might be interested in installing solar panels:

The Environmentalist

• Donates to environmental charities
• Drives an electric vehicle
• Has a master’s degree
• Follows environmental groups on social media
• Lives in a neighborhood where the average home value is $500,000
• Pain point: Wants to reduce reliance on fossil fuels

The Investor

• Owns secondary property, like land or a rental home
• Works in finance or senior leadership
• Follows investment and wealth management topics on LinkedIn
• Lives in a neighborhood where the average home value is $800,000
• Pain point: Wants to reduce electric bills without sacrificing personal comfort
• Pain point: Wants to increase the value of their home

Use ICP data to prospect efficiently

It doesn’t matter how good you are at door to door sales; you won’t be able to close every deal. There are a variety of reasons for this.

Some people, for example, don’t get enough sun on their property to make solar a worthwhile investment. The last thing you want to do is waste your valuable time talking to a prospect who has no intention of making a purchase.

To avoid this, use your ICP data to only connect with potential customers.

Tools like SPOTIO make it much easier to prospect efficiently, thanks to features like Lead Machine, which allows users to filter prospects using 200+ data points.

Map and assign sales territories

At this point, you know what your ideal customer looks like and you’ve identified a few of them in the field. Now it’s time to map and assign territories so your canvassers and/or reps don’t waste time visiting the same prospects.

Once again, the right tools can help with this. Take SPOTIO’s Territory Management tool, which lets you assign territories based on geographical boundaries or by drawing on a digital map. Sales leaders can then assign territories to the most qualified reps on their team and monitor the results.

Also of note, Territory Management provides data-backed insights into territory history and performance so you always know what’s going on and why.

Perfect your pitch

What do sales reps do once they’ve been assigned a territory? They hit the road and go talk to people, of course! When they do, they need to be ready to pitch.

Here are five door to door sales pitch examples your reps can use:

1. The Opener Pitch: This pitch aims to build connections with prospects as quickly as possible and create a positive first impression.
2. The Elevator Pitch: This sales pitch is short and sweet, giving prospects a wealth of information in quick bursts.
3. The Storyteller Pitch: This pitch uses the power of story to build trust with prospects and deliver information in an entertaining way.
4. The Pain-Based Pitch: This sales pitch helps reps uncover prospect pains so they can pinpoint how their company can help.
5. The Close Pitch: Reps use this sales pitch when they’ve built rapport with prospects and are ready to ask them to make a purchase.

For more information on these five pitch examples and how solar companies can use them to fuel a door to door solar sales strategy, read our blog post on the topic.

Don’t Educate — Showcase The Value

Here’s the thing: Your prospects don’t need to know the technical details of solar.

How each panel works might be interesting information to you. But prospects only care about smaller energy bills, higher home values, and (maybe) environmental factors associated with the solar system you can install on their properties.

So, don’t delve too deep into education. Tell prospects what they want to know. For environmentally conscious homeowners, that might mean preparing data about how solar energy can reduce their carbon footprint. For investment-minded homeowners, be ready to present evidence of how solar will save them money and raise the value of their home.

Enable canvassers to send leads to reps

If your solar sales department is like many others, it asks different employees to handle different tasks. Canvassers, for example, are responsible for pinpointing leads, making initial contact, and scheduling future appointments.

Closers, on the other hand, attend the appointments their canvassers make, explain the benefits of solar, and convince prospects to make a purchase.

To be successful, this system requires the seamless transfer of information. Manually tracking these steps in the sales process can be cumbersome, but it’s easy to do with the right technology.

SPOTIO, for example, makes these kinds of transfers smooth by automatically transferring canvasser notes to a company CRM, documenting all communication channels that canvassers use, and automatically capturing lead data.

Integrate your CRM data

Your sales team acquires a lot of data. Make sure your reps have access to it so they can consistently close more deals in less time.

You can do this by integrating your preferred CRM with SPOTIO. Once you do, your reps will be able to access all of your company’s important sales data from any device, including their phones, which is handy when out in the field.

More importantly, you can organize data on a digital map, filter it based on the needs of individual reps, and manipulate it in a variety of other ways.

Track sales activity and performance

You can’t help your sales reps improve if you don’t know how they spend their time in the field. That’s why it’s so important to track sales activity and performance.

With SPOTIO, you can see each of your field rep’s routes in real time and track sales rep activities so that you know exactly who they contact and when, and the communication channel they use.

This information will tell you whether you need to retrain your reps or motivate them to work more efficiently.

Prepare for objections

Prospects always have a reason not to buy. Because of this, the best door to door solar sales reps have learned to handle objections the right way.

Here’s what we suggest:

Prepare Specific Rebuttals

Cost is probably the single biggest objection, and any solar sales rep should be prepared to address those concerns. Reps could, for example, explain how in the long term, homeowners end up saving money after installing a solar energy system, which means they’ll recoup their installation costs.

Visual aids can be quite effective in door to door sales. So if a solar company creates an illustrated one-sheet explaining the benefits of solar, a sales rep can leave that with a prospect to review.

Use The LAER Model

The LAER Model stands for Listen, Acknowledge, Explore, Respond. Basically, it means that sales reps should listen to prospect objections, acknowledge that they hear and understand them, explore the reasons why these objections have come up, and then reply in a sincere way that may help prospects see past their objections and make purchases.

For more information on common sales objections and how to handle them, read through our blog post on the topic.

Use Social Proof

In the solar market, social proof can be a great way to help hesitant prospects overcome objections. Again, this is where a handout could be useful, if it includes testimonials from customers. And when you do make a sale in a neighborhood, ask your customer if you can place a sign in their yard for your solar business. Even seeing your business name regularly could make a homeowner more receptive to a sale.

Always follow up

Selling solar door to door is a numbers game. The more people you talk to, the more sales you’ll make. This applies to follow-ups, too.

Just because a prospect says “No” doesn’t mean they’ll never buy from your company. A “No” today could easily turn into a “Yes” next month or next year. But you’ll never realize that potential if your reps quit after the first “No” they hear.

The hardest part about following-up is keeping track of who you contacted, when you contacted them, and when you need to contact them again.

With a tool like SPOTIO, a solar salesperson doesn’t have to worry about tracking these tasks. Instead, they’ll use the platform’s Autoplays feature to automate follow-ups at the cadence of their choosing. This ensures leads don’t fall through the cracks.

Start Selling More Solar Panels

The key to solar sales is having the right strategies, processes, and technology in place.

SPOTIO enables solar sales reps to be more productive and hit higher sales numbers thanks to a host of helpful features:

Lead generation: Find leads that fit your ICP using SPOTIO’s unique Lead Generation tool, which quickly pulls up a list of prospects for your reps to contact. Reps can then filter prospects by homeownership status, age, credit capacity, and a host of other factors to make sure they’re a good fit for your brand.

Appointment setting: Whether you employ a team of canvassers or ask reps to source their own leads, they can do it more efficiently with SPOTIO’s Appointment Setting tool. Users can instantly set appointments from the field, pass them off to other team members, automate time-consuming tasks, and more.

Activity management: Where have your reps been? How many times have they contacted Prospect X? Come to think of it, where are they right now? SPOTIO’s Activity Management feature will tell you exactly how your reps spend their on-the-clock hours. (Note: This feature can be turned off if desired.)

Territory management: You can cut, manage, and assign territories inside SPOTIO, too. Use our intuitive suite of tools to divide geographical areas by ZIP Code or by drawing on a digital map. Then assign the territories you create to specific sales reps. You can run territory-level reports in SPOTIO to evaluate performance.

Route planning: Door to door sales is effective, but not always efficient. SPOTIO helps reps maintain peak productivity by automatically planning the most efficient routes between prospects. That way reps focus more on how to sell solar panels instead of how to get from point A to point B.

CRM integrations: Every solar sales team needs a CRM solution. One of the best things about SPOTIO is that it integrates with just about all of them. Whether you’re a loyal Salesforce user, a HubSpot enthusiast, or you use another platform, you can connect your CRM of choice to SPOTIO and reap the benefits.

Tracking and reporting: SPOTIO does a lot for solar sales reps. But what about the folks that manage them? SPOTIO was built for you, too. Enjoy detailed tracking and reporting features that will help you keep your finger on the pulse of your department at all times. Even better, SPOTIO reports are easy to create and read!

Does SPOTIO sound like the right tool for your door to door solar sales team? Then what are you waiting for? Request a free demo of our platform to see it in action.

Let’s be honest. Some people think door to door sales is an antiquated way of selling. As the next generation of outside sales reps join the workforce, the majority may be unaware just how powerful door to door selling can be.

We know the reason D2D prospecting is still relevant: It works. Today, 65% of outside sales reps attain quota, which is 10% higher than quota attainment for inside sales reps.

Door to door sales can be a rewarding sales career and drive the bottom line for businesses in many different industries. In this post, we’ll cover the fundamentals of door to door selling, share some tips for success, and talk about technology that can help sales teams and managers achieve their objectives.

Let’s get started.

What is Door to Door Sales?

Door to door sales is the process of canvassing a territory and speaking face to face with potential customers about the benefits of a product or service.

In a B2B context, door to door sales involves visiting a business to speak with a decision maker, book an appointment, or provide promotional material, such as sales sheets or a business card.

B2C salespeople may target prospects in a specific neighborhood, knocking on doors to speak with residents. Reps may also use social proof in their process — for example, telling a prospect whether someone else in their neighborhood has purchased the product the rep is selling.

Pillars Of The D2D Sales Process

Wondering how to be a good door to door salesperson? Effective door to door sales processes are based on the following pillars:

Prospecting is the search for new customers. Prospects are essential to your sales funnel, because you need a steady stream of new customers in order to grow.

Qualifying means identifying a prospect’s need that matches one of the features or benefits you offer. Qualifying is based on prospects’ “pain” (enough pain to buy), budget (the money to buy), and decision power (authority to buy). It requires a door to door salesperson to ask a lot of open-ended questions, listen carefully, and respond appropriately.

Pitching: is when you make an offer and describe the benefits to your qualified prospect. You provide a solution for their pain points and explain how your product makes their lives or jobs easier. 

Closing is when you convince the potential customer to buy your product or service. There are numerous ways to close a deal, and finding the one that works best for you and each qualified prospect is a vital skill for successful door to door sales. 

Follow-up means that after the sale, the door to door salesperson contacts the customer to ensure they received what they ordered and are satisfied with their purchase. It’s essential to establishing a relationship with your new customer, and the gateway to future opportunities with the customer, should their needs change.

How To Be A Successful Door To Door Salesperson

We have identified 11 traits that most successful door to door selling professionals share:

1. They know their product inside and out. To explain the features and benefits, or even to gauge need, a door to door salesperson must have thorough knowledge of their product or service.

2. Their expertise provides value to the customer. Customers are more educated than ever, with the resources available to them online. If sales reps tell them what they already know, they’re not providing any value. HubSpot recommends that door to door sales professionals educate the prospect about what they can’t discover on their own, thereby establishing credibility and trust.

3. They build rapport immediately. The most successful door to door salespeople have excellent emotional intelligence and are skillful in the art of finding connections with other people. Some people have these skills naturally and don’t have to think about it; others have to research a prospect to find common ground.

4. They understand how to ask questions that qualify potential customers. The best sales reps ask open-ended questions to gather information and close-ended probes to establish needs.

5. They are expert listeners. Once they ask questions, they actively listen as the prospect answers.

6. They are excellent at WIFM, which stands for, “What’s In It For Me?” The most successful sales reps are able to explain how their product or service will help the prospect.

7. They know how to establish expectations for the call. The most successful salespeople explain to the prospect what will happen next. InsightSquared suggests creating a buyer-seller agreement, which is a verbal agreement that outlines what will happen next in the call and makes the lead more comfortable.

8.They outline the purchasing process well. Honesty is key to building trust. Door to door sales reps that explain what the prospect will experience before, during, and after the sale will be successful at establishing that trust.

9. They are strategic about prospecting and manage their time well. Whether that means calling on current customers and looking for referrals or reviving lost opportunities, the most successful door to door sales reps are strategic in their prospecting manage their time well, and focus on the prospects most likely to convert.

10. They have a few ways to close. Knowing how and when to close is a critical skill for all sales reps, especially in door to door sales. Not all customers are the same, and neither are your prospects, so make sure you understand what appeals to your target audience. When you are presenting and handling objections, you should also be thinking of how you will ask for the order. (See our blog on specific strategies for closing deals).

11.They maintain excellent activity records. A successful door to door salesperson keeps detailed notes about potential customers, pain points, and meetings. With this information, they can continue to build rapport and move the prospect further into the sales funnel.

12 Door To Door Sales Tips To Crush Sales Quota

Below are some direct sales strategies that will help door to door salespeople succeed.

Master the Product

Why is this important?

Excellent product knowledge is paramount to your success. After all, you can’t sell what you don’t understand.

Actionable tip:

Practice explaining your product’s features and benefits to someone who knows nothing about it (a friend or family member, for example)Then ask what questions they have or if they have feedback on your presentation.

Prospect Efficiently

Why is this important?

Qualified prospects are the best prospects that will lead to more revenue for your company’s (and your) bottom line. By finding the fastest ways to identify qualified potential customers, you can shorten the selling cycle and close more sales.

Additionally, by having a solid lead qualification process in place, you can sell with confidence knowing you’re not wasting valuable time pitching to someone that’s a poor fit.

Actionable tip:

Ask your satisfied customers for referrals. Not only will a satisfied customer want to help you, but they are also likely to refer you to someone they know needs your product or service because they don’t want to irritate their contacts with a pointless sales call.

Assign Sales Territories

Why is this important?

Outlining and assigning territories ensures there is no overlap, reps have enough leads to work, and the top reps are working the biggest accounts.

Actionable tip:

Use territory management software to reduce the manual work of assigning territories and create territory hierarchies with just a few clicks. You can also use it to gather data-backed insight into territory history and performance.

Automate Tedious Tasks

Why is this important?

Automating routine tasks can increase rep productivity by as much as 46%. And higher productivity correlates with more sales.

Actionable tip:

Use a tool that automates tasks such as CRM data entry, sending emails, updating contact info, logging activities, and planning a day in the field.

Find the Pain

Why is this important?

When the pain of change is less than the pain of the status quo, prospects will invest in solutions. Sometimes a prospect might have become accustomed to a pain point in their current situation and not realize that a better alternative exists.

Actionable tip:

Ask questions about how a prospect’s challenges affect their productivity, resources, or profits, so they can begin to recognize the importance of resolving the issue.

Employing the Sandler Selling method here would be ideal because this technique is built around selling to a prospects pain points.

Pay Attention To Body Language

Why is this important?

People communicate with far more than their words. Recognizing and understanding the visual cues that people give you can tell you a lot about what they think of your product or service.

Actionable tip:

Know your pitch so well that you can deliver it while simultaneously assessing the signals your prospect is giving you. Observe facial expression, body position, and even breathing patterns to discern whether your cold-call is giving you the cold shoulder or warming up to your suggestions.

Pitch Perfectly

Why is this important?

People form impressions of you quickly — sometimes in as little as10 seconds. So, you need to communicate what you are selling and present your best information, quickly.

Actionable tip:

Structure your pitch to align with these four steps: introduction, questions, presentation, and close.

First, introduce yourself and your product while making eye contact and smiling. Then, ask open-ended questions and let the prospect do the talking. Present your product with the pertinent information first, and keep it short. Finally, ask for their business.

Get to the “No” Faster

Why is this important?

Many people are too polite to say “No,” and they may let you pitch, even when they have no intention of buying.

Actionable tip:

Example: “If at any point you feel the product I’m selling is of no value to you, please don’t hesitate to tell me so. You won’t hurt my feelings, and I don’t want to waste anyone’s time.”

Craft a Sales Script

Why is this important?

Knowing what you’re going to say and what you need to find out will help when you’re making cold calls. A sales script will help you seem eloquent and knowledgeable, and keep you on track and calm in a sales call.

Actionable tip:

Take notes about your calls as you work. Over time, you’ll see what qualified leads had in common, and you can use that information as the basis for your sales script.

The script should include basic details, like the introduction and the pitch, along with questions you use to qualify leads. By putting together a script, you can navigate the sales call and quickly determine which potential customers are uninterested and which may be open to learning more.

Learn How to Handle Objections

Why is this important?

Objections are the reasons prospects have for not buying your product. In a D2D sales situation, these reasons might also be a way to put off a “Yes.” Your job is to determine if the objection is really a “No,” or just an obstacle to overcome.

Actionable tip:

Use the LAER model, an objection-handling concept created by Carew International (a leading provider of sales training, leadership development and customer service programs).

LAER stands for “Listen, acknowledge, explore, and respond.” In other words, pay attention to their objection, acknowledge that you understand it, ask them why they feel the way they do, then reply to their feelings with empathy and an explanation that might resolve their objection.

Analyze The Data

Why is this important?

Data can help managers identify opportunities for improvement. Some key metrics to track: leads created by each rep, visits made, pipeline velocity, and number of activities per rep.

Actionable tip:

Keep a record of daily activity that includes how many calls you had, people you talked to, demos you performed, and units you sold. Then analyze your results to look for weak points in your process. For example, if you didn’t sell a lot, maybe your demo needs work.

Always Follow Up

Why is this important?

Nearly half of sales reps never make a follow-up attempt, and that can result in lost sales. (See our blog post about why following up is important).

Actionable tip:

Use an appointment app or book to organize and optimize your call back schedule. Also, whenever possible, get prospect email addresses so you can add them to any automatic follow-up software you might be using.

Within SPOTIO’s appointment setting feature you can easily organize and manage the follow-up process. From the field, you can capture lead notes, input a prospect’s contact details, and view, set, and manage appointments. All this information will automatically sync to SPOTIO, eliminating the need to re-enter field notes at the end of the day.

How to Recruit High-Performing Door to Door Sales Reps

One of the first things you should do when hiring a D2D sales team is to decide who your ideal candidate is. What traits are you looking for, and what kind of skills do you require?

You should also decide early if you want experienced or inexperienced D2D sales professionals.
Experienced canvassers can get right to work and start delivering leads, but their sales techniques may not align with your goals. New canvassers might be slower to get results, but you have the opportunity to train them on exactly how you want them to work.

We recommend finding up to five candidates to interview before extending a job offer. You can look for candidates on LinkedIn, Indeed, and ZipRecruiter, as well as ask your professional network for any recommendations.

Determine Your Compensation Model

Here are a few of the most common compensation models for door to door sales reps:

Commission Only

Sales reps working on a commission-only structure are usually independent contractors, not full-time employees. This payment structure is best for people that are self-motivated and eager to sell.

Gross Margin

While it may or may not have a base salary, a gross margin commission structure pays the door to door salesperson on the amount of profit a sale generates. For example, if the deal is for $1,000, but the costs associated with the sale are $300, then the rep earns commission on $1,000 minus $300, or $700 gross margin.

Tiered Commission

When a company uses the tiered-commission compensation model, they pay higher commission on sales that exceed a certain threshold. For example, the sales rep might earn 5% commission on all sales up to $10,000, but then earn an additional 3% on any sales over that amount for a total of 8% commission.

Interview Questions For Door To Door Salespeople

Once you have a pool of appropriate candidates, it’s time for you to screen for the best of the bunch.

Some examples of great questions include:

• What do you do for fun?
• What motivates you and why?
• What streaming shows have you enjoyed the most?
• Would you please describe for me a typical day for you on your last job?
• Can you please share an example of when you convinced someone to do something they were not interested in doing at the time?
• How do you set goals and hold yourself accountable?
• What do you want to be doing a year from now? Three? Five?
• Who was your best boss so far and what did you learn from him or her?
• What is the best lesson you ever learned in a work training session that you still use today?
• How do you deal with rejection?
• How do you celebrate success?

Popular Door to Door Sales Industries

Many industries employ a door to door sales force. Some of the most prominent include the following:

Solar Energy

Door to door sales of residential rooftop solar panels work well for the solar energy industry, because the product is complicated and is best explained in a one-on-one, in-home consultation.

Roofing

Roofing is expensive, and a homeowner might be more likely to purchase a new roof if a sales rep explains the benefits of it in person.

Home Improvement

Door to door sales works well for home improvement services, because D2D sales professionals can demonstrate how homeowners can upgrade or maintain their homes. Sales reps also know that they’re speaking with decision-makers, when they meet with homeowners and can typically know within minutes which leads are viable.

Alarm/Security

Alarms and security systems that protect a homeowner’s property are other products that are best explained in person.

Telecom

Canvassing efforts have worked well for sellers of telecommunications services, because they can offer persuasive reasons to switch from a current provider to a new service.

The Ultimate Door to Door Sales Toolset

The technology you use is a crucial part of success in door to door sales. Following are some of the best tools for managing the D2D sales process:

Reps

1. Route Planner

A route planner optimizes route efficiency, so you make the most of your time in the field. SPOTIO’s route planning feature automatically creates the best route for sales reps, tracks mileage, and syncs completed routes to your CRM.

2. Lead Machine

SPOTIO Lead Machine lets sales teams import existing customers and prospects, color-code map pins based on account type, and filter leads by more than 200 data points. With the user-friendly mobile app, reps can find contact information with a single tap while in the field.

3. Appointment Setting

You need technology that makes it easy to schedule appointments — for yourself or for other members of the sales team. SPOTIO’s appointment setting feature lets you see everyone’s schedule and schedule demos or appointments from your mobile device.

4. Customer Mapping

A customer mapping solution takes complex data from your CRM and compiles it into an easy-to-view interactive map.

With a mapping tool, you can look at a map, zoom in on a territory, and tap it to see all prospect information and rep data.

5. Autoplays

Autoplays are like a roadmap for sales activities and next steps. They eliminate the need for a door to door salesperson to keep track of when they should follow up, where prospects are in the pipeline, and what activity comes next.

Whether it’s a text, email, visit, or call, Autoplays deploys the right activity at the right time, keeping prospects engaged, reps productive, and leads moving through the pipeline.

6. CRM Integration

Manual processes can be a drag on productivity. With CRM integration, any notes or data recorded while canvassing will automatically push to your CRM, ensuring sales reps are always working with the most recent information.

Managers

1. Territory Management

Territory management software allows you to determine strategic territories for your sales reps by geography, ZIP Code, and other factors. You can also define parent and child territories, set user permissions for territory views, and get detailed analytics for every territory.

2. Sales Leaderboards

Sales leaderboards encourage healthy competition between reps and boost engagement in contests and other incentives you use to motivate team members.

3. Rep Tracking

Rep tracking tools show you where reps are in real-time. Reps can drop pins on a map at each visit, so you can see the exact time of every sales call, how long reps met with a contact, and whether they completed their route for the day.

4. Sales Tracking

Sales tracking offers management and operations key insights into rep and territory performance, with activity metrics and KPIs.

FAQ

What are the pros of door to door sales?

Door to door sales can help businesses build relationships with prospects, which is especially important when selling high-value items.

What are the cons of door to door sales?

It’s possible that reps could inadvertently cold-knock prospects who have already interacted with another sales rep, but sales territory mapping and prospecting software can prevent this misstep.

What’s the average conversion rate in D2D sales?

The average conversion rate for field sales is 2-3%; however, that figure may vary based on factors like the cost of the purchase, competition, and market trends.

Ready. Set. Sell.

Door to door sales isn’t for everybody or for every type of business. But if you have the right combination of opportunity, talent, and technology, you can take your business development efforts to a new level.

____________

SPOTIO is the #1 field sales engagement and performance management software that will increase revenue, maximize profitability, and boost sales productivity.

Want to see a product demonstration? Click here to see how SPOTIO can take your sales game to the next level.

It’s a great way to make sales—unless your door knocking game is subpar. Fortunately, there are plenty of door knocking apps you can use to improve your efforts in this area.

Once you add this kind of tool to your tech stack, you’ll plan more efficient routes between prospects, eliminate double visits (i.e. knocking on the same door more than once,) and minimize tedious admin tasks that reduce the amount of time you have to close deals.

In this article, we’ll explain what door knocking apps are, the unique advantages they represent, the specific features you should look for in the best door knocking apps, and more.

What Is A Door Knocking App?

A door knocking app is a piece of software that simplifies the door knocking process, helping users stay organized and knock on more doors than they otherwise could on their own.

Every door knocking app is different. But the best ones include territory and document management, location tracking, multichannel communication, detailed reporting, and automation features. They also integrate seamlessly with the other tools you already use.

The result? A much better door knocking experience for you and/or your team that leads to more sales, more revenue, and more success. Let’s talk more about these benefits…

What Are The Advantages Of A Door Knocking App?

Now that we know what door knocking apps are, let’s talk about why they’re so beneficial to outside sales reps. Here are four advantages you’ll enjoy once you invest in this kind of tool:

It Simplifies Route Planning

You could plan door knocking routes with a pen, a piece of paper, and that faded paper map you found in your attic last summer. But you won’t win you any points for productivity.

Door knocking apps feature digital maps, which make it much easier to design logical routes between prospects. The best door knocking apps take things a step further, allowing you to simply input addresses, then wait as the tool generates the most efficient route between them.

Tools like SPOTIO will automatically track your mileage, too, then export the data for a clean, accurate, and simple reimbursement process—no admin work required.

It Gives You Instant Access To Lead And Prospect Details

As mentioned above, the best door knocking apps do more than plan routes. Some of them will also help you learn about your prospects, then use that information in sales scenarios.

Quickly discover basic contact information for each lead on your list, as well as details regarding business type, revenue, and number of locations (for B2B sellers;) and age, home ownership status, and credit capacity (for B2C sellers,) directly on your mobile device.

It Helps Reps Stay Organized

Which doors have you already knocked on? And what was the result? A quality door knocking software will keep track of that information for you so that you can reach peak productivity.

For example, you’ll know exactly which doors in your territory to knock next, so you don’t waste time on double visits. More importantly, you’ll know which prospects showed interest in your products/services, and which have already booked appointments with your company.

Note: the SPOTIO mobile app will let you set appointments from your phone, which means you can use our tool to plan efficient door knocking routes, learn about your leads before you engage them in conversation, and book sales meetings that sync with your preferred CRM.

It Reduces Time-Consuming Admin Tasks

The average sales rep spends just 28% of their time selling. Why? Because non-selling activities like administration work require the bulk of their on-the-clock hours.

This is another reason to invest in a quality door knocking app. Once you have one, you can tap into automation to win back your day in a serious way. We’re not joking. SPOTIO has been proven to boost rep productivity by 46%. Say hello to insane levels of efficiency!

What To Look For In A Door Knocking App

You don’t want to buy any ol’ door knocking app. You want to buy the best door knocking app on the market, right? That’s why you should look for these eight essential features:

Territory Management

Invest in a door knocking app that includes territory management features.

SPOTIO makes it easy for sales managers to cut territories based on geographic boundaries or by drawing on a map. They can then quickly assign said territories to qualified sales.

Also of note, SPOTIO can be used to assess territory performance, thanks to in-depth reports. This will help you make key adjustments, or double down on winning tactics, to close deals.

Automated Sales Sequences

Door knocks are important, but they’re only one step in the field sales process. SPOTIO will help you complete them all in less time, thanks to powerful automation tools.

Use our platform to automatically capture prospect information and sync it with your CRM of choice. Then build entire automated sales sequences that include visit and call reminders, email and text message sends, and more. That way your leads don’t fall through the cracks.

The best part is, sales sequences can be designed and viewed on any device, which means field sales reps will always have access to them. In addition, sales sequences can be saved, reused, and even shared with colleagues to ensure maximum success for your whole team.

Digital Business Cards

What do you do if a prospect answers the door after you knock on it? Hopefully you have a strong sales pitch prepared that will pique their interest and lead to a future sale.

Just as important, you need to give your prospect a way to contact you down the road. An old school business card might work. But a modern digital business card is a much better option.

With SPOTIO, you can easily design digital business cards that live on your prospects’ phones. You know, the devices they already spend hours looking at every day.

Even better, SPOTIO’s digital business cards can be updated in a flash and will alert you when they’ve been viewed. That way you can contact prospects at the most ideal times.

Integrations

Door knocking apps are fantastic, but they aren’t the only tool in your field sales team’s arsenal. That’s why integrations are so important to team productivity levels.

Connect SPOTIO to the other solutions you use on a daily basis, such as your email provider and your preferred CRM. SPOTIO seamlessly connects with Gmail, Salesforce, HubSpot, and SOLO. It also integrates with Zapier, so almost every other integration is available to you, too.

Document Management

In all likelihood, your field reps use a variety of sales enablement materials to help close deals. We’re talking about product images, case studies, white papers, and the like.

Top-end door knocking apps like SPOTIO give reps easy access to all of these things, which will make it much easier for them to build trust with new leads and drive revenue.

SPOTIO can even be used to store and distribute contracts with e-sign capabilities. So, when you knock on a door and meet a perfect, buy-ready prospect, you can make the sale ASAP.

Location Tracking

Where are your reps? Like, right now.

SPOTIO includes a location tracking feature, so you always know where your reps are in the field. That way you can make sure they actually knock on the doors they say they knock on.

You can also use this feature to assess travel routes and ensure reps make the most of their time, and evaluate the number of visits your reps make on a daily basis.

Note: this feature can be turned off if your reps feel it violates their privacy.

Multi-Channel Communication

Yes, your reps spend a significant portion of their time in the field. But if in-person visits are the only way they communicate with potential customers, they won’t close many deals.

The best door knocking apps include multi-channel communication features, which will allow your reps to call, email, and text prospects directly from their mobile devices. With SPOTIO, you can then automatically log these activities in your CRM and analyze the results of each.

How is Rep A so successful? Why is Rep B struggling to meet quota? SPOTIO’s activity and communication metrics will help you answer these questions. Speaking of which…

Detailed Reporting

You’re knocking on doors, but are your efforts moving you closer to success?

Look for a door knocking app that includes a detailed reporting dashboard. That way you can evaluate your approach, eliminate subpar tactics, and double down on winning strategies.

One of the best things about SPOTIO is that it will allow you to create custom reports—about your team’s door knocking activities or anything else. Simply choose the metrics and KPIs you care about. Then generate reports that only include these bits of information.

See Why SPOTIO Is The Best Door Knocking App

SPOTIO has the features you need to elevate performance for your field sales team.

Sign up for a free demonstration of SPOTIO right now to see our industry-leading tool in action. A knowledgeable representative will get in touch with you as soon as possible.

When they do, they’ll be able to show you all of the door knocking features we mentioned in this article, including our route planning, territory management, location tracking, multichannel communication, automation, and reporting features, as well as our integration capabilities.

It’s not always easy, but it’s far from impossible. We’re about to teach you exactly how to get solar leads for your business in 2023 using 12 proven strategies.

Once you master the techniques below, you’ll be on your way to success in the solar market. Intrigued? Then let’s dive in and discover the secrets to boosting your solar sales potential.

12 Ways to Generate High-Quality Solar Leads

Solar lead generation isn’t some mystical art. If you implement a few of these free and paid techniques, you will connect with more prospects and close more deals. Let’s get to it…

Define your target audience

You can’t generate solar leads if you don’t know who your target audience is.

When you understand these people, you can tailor your sales approach to their unique needs and dispositions. You’ll also know which channels you can use to reach them.

So take a moment to define your target audience. Are they residential or commercial customers? What goals do they have? What challenges do they face? And how can your products and/or services help them overcome said challenges in the near future?

For example, your ideal customer might be homeowners between the ages of 30 and 50, who currently spend too much money on their electricity bills. By installing solar on their homes, your company can give them more financial flexibility.

Craft messaging for both residential and commercial solar leads

What if your solar business serves residential and commercial customers?

It’s important to differentiate between these two groups of people. Each will have different pain points and motivations. The incentives and tax breaks will vary as well.

By crafting unique messaging for different customer segments, you’ll appeal to more people, thus increasing your chances of securing the best solar leads available.

Canvass (and recanvass)

One of the most effective ways to generate solar leads is to canvass neighborhoods in your area. Talk to as many people as you can to see if they’re ready to make the switch.

Remember: you shouldn’t talk to just anybody. Focus on homeowners who meet the criteria in your ICP and have solar potential, i.e., live in a location that gets enough sun.

ICP stands for ideal customer profile. To create one, use the data you collected about your target audience to create a fictional person/company that will benefit from your offerings.

One more thing: recanvass neighborhoods on a regular basis. This will help you connect with people who weren’t available to meet in the past and follow up with folks who previously expressed interest but haven’t yet signed a contract with your company.

Keep the value front and center

When it comes to solar lead generation, keep this in mind: your prospects don’t care about how solar technology works. They care about saving money, going green, etc.

So don’t drown prospects in an ocean of technical information. Focus on the value they’ll receive once they purchase a solar system from you. Then focus on the value your specific company brings to the table, such as faster install times and better customer service.

Run paid ads to interested prospects

We recommend paid advertising campaigns for solar lead generation, too, which will enable you to reach red-hot prospects on platforms like Facebook and Google.

The trick is to target people who are already interested in solar energy.

In-market ads will help you find prospects who are currently searching for what you sell. Retargeting ads will help you connect with folks who have already visited your website.

Whatever you decide to do, make sure you understand your target audience (see above) and use keywords that will resonate with them. That way, you only attract good-fit leads.

Get listed on local service directories

What do potential customers do when they decide to invest in green energy?

Simple: they whip out their phones and search for solar companies in their areas. Then they scour sites like Yelp and Angie’s List to find reliable providers who fit their budgets.

Your company needs to have a presence on these kinds of directories. That way, you can reach customers who are actively using them to find solar brands.

Other important directories include Solar Reviews, EnergySage, Clean Energy Experts, and Consumer Affairs. Make sure your company appears on them.

Launch SMS marketing campaigns

Did you know that 98% of text messages are opened? That means SMS marketing can be a super effective way to generate solar leads. You just have to use this channel the right way.

The question is, how? Start by building up your subscriber list, i.e., a list of people who have agreed to receive text messages from your company. The easiest way to do this is to offer subscribers something of value in exchange for their phone numbers.

Once you have a few numbers in your database, follow up with potential customers. Thank them for joining your list, and ask them if they’d like to schedule a quick meeting with you.

If you don’t hear back from them, try again a few days later. You may want to incentivize them, too. Bet you’d get a lot more meetings if you offered a limited-time discount on a solar system!

Purchase solar lead lists

Just about every solar sales professional has purchased a leads list in the past, which goes to show you it’s an effective strategy—assuming you use it wisely, of course.

Purchasing leads lists will help you generate solar leads fast. This is especially helpful when building an inbound marketing strategy, as this kind of tactic can take a while to bear fruit.

There is a downside, however. Buyable leads lists don’t always feature the best solar leads. The information you receive could be non-exclusive, which means your competitors can access it, too. And the information might be outdated, which can harm your productivity.

Still, when learning how to generate solar leads, you should give it a shot. Just purchase a high-quality list. The extra money you send will be more than worth it.

Get visual on social media

Potential customers want to see your work. So make sure you publish a variety of images on your company’s Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter profiles. Consider using Pinterest and TikTok, too, as long as you (or a member of your team) can post content consistently.

What kind of content should you publish? Here’s a quick list to get you started:

• Work-in-progress photos
• Before and after photos
• Company event photos
• Happy customer photos
• Solar industry-related photos
• Company award photos
• Work-related videos

We should mention hashtags, too, which are kind of like keywords on social media. By including them in your posts, you’ll reach more of your target audience for free.

Go to local trade shows and events

Since most solar companies only operate in specific geographical areas, local trade shows and other events can be a fantastic way to score quality solar leads.

Research a few events in your city. Then plan to rent a booth, distribute promotional materials, connect with potential customers, and demonstrate certain products. If possible, run a contest or raffle to engage event attendees and help them remember your company.

And, of course, take lots of pictures during the event and post them on social media.

Incentivize customer referrals

Customer referrals are incredibly important to the success of your solar company. So it makes sense to ask current customers to send them to you.

To make sure they actually follow through and do this, why not incentivize them? Offer them a discount on their solar system if they refer X number of leads to you. Or, if the customer already purchased their system, offer them X% back per referred lead.

Set up a solar CRM

Finally, invest in customer relationship management (CRM) software.

The right CRM system will help you track leads, follow up with potential customers, and close more sales. This begs the question, which CRM is “right” for your solar company?

First, choose a CRM that is tailored to the solar industry. This will help you get the most out of the tool. Then do your best to balance the necessary features with your current budget.

Or, if that sounds like too much work, just use SPOTIO. Our CRM platform was specifically designed for outside sales teams. Dozens of solar companies use it to reach quota and drive revenue. Schedule a free demo of SPOTIO today to see our solution in action.

Start filling your pipeline with qualified solar leads

Your solar business needs high-quality leads. Fortunately, the 12 lead generation techniques in this article will help you get them. All you have to do is implement the tips, tricks, and strategies above to connect with more prospects and close more deals.

Looking for additional advice to supercharge your solar company? Download your free copy of the Complete Field Guide for Solar Sales Leaders right now!

Being the face of the product/service makes the role of an outside salesperson an important one. Face-to-face interaction is what sets outside sales reps apart from their inside selling counterparts.

In this guide, we’ll talk you through everything you need to know about outside sales, including what it is, how it differs from inside sales, what outside sales reps do, the skills they need to find success, and a whole lot more. Let’s get started!

Table Of Contents

What Is Outside Sales?
Inside Sales vs. Outside Sales
What Does An Outside Sales Rep Do?
Most Important Skills For Outside Sales Reps
Average Outside Sales Rep Salaries
How To Hire Top Performing Outside Sales Professionals
Outside Sales Interview Questions
7-Step Guide To Building A Winning Outside Sales Team
Inside And Outside Sales Teams Can Work Together
The Ultimate Outside Sales Stack
Outside Sales Training Resources

What Is Outside Sales?

Outside (or Field) Sales reps work outside a formal office and formal team environment. They travel to meet customers face-to-face, spending  the majority of their time meeting clients and prospects in person.

Inside Sales vs. Outside Sales

When looking at outside sales, you’re working autonomously most of the time. The area around you is your “office” – in that you meet with people all over the place – and you spend quite a bit of time driving around in your car.

With inside sales, you are more likely to be in a team environment in an office working set hours, depending on the industry you are in. You will likely make many more contacts with prospects and customers in a day since you are not spending any time driving around to an appointment.

Bonus resource: Inside vs. Outside Sales: Which is Right for Your Business?

A top performing sales strategy will include elements of both inside and outside sales.

What Does An Outside Sales Rep Do?

A day in the life of a sales rep can be broken up in the following ways:

Prospecting For Leads

According to a poll done by HubSpot.com, when salespeople were asked what they struggle with the most, 42% said it was prospecting. It doesn’t matter how good you are at selling, if you have nobody to talk to, that skill won’t matter.

Field sales reps need to be able to easily access and use a variety of demographic and customer data to prospect efficiently. With a tool like SPOTIO’s Lead Machine, reps can pull valuable data about factors such as a prospect’s income, credit capacity, age of home, home’s square footage, whether they’re a renter or owner, and more.

Image: SPOTIO’s Lead Machine enables outside sales reps to filter prospects using 200+ different data attributes.

Being able to harness accurate data means that reps are able to engage with the right prospects and avoid working poor leads.

Sales Territory Mapping

How many prospects live in or operate a business in a given area? How close together are they? How many of them are near an existing customer that you could introduce yourself to in case your appointment cancels or ends sooner than you thought? This is where sales territory mapping comes in.

As mentioned before, spending too much time in your car zig-zagging across town will minimize the efficiency of the time you spend out in the field.

Knowing where to go, with minimal travel between engagements, is a great way to maximize your time and energy during the day.

Customer Mapping

Where are all your customers located? Is it a concentrated area or is it spread out? Where are they in relation to prospects you’d like to meet?

When you engage in customer mapping, you may find that you haven’t penetrated a desired market nearly as much as you would like to. Maybe you’ll see that you are into an area more than you would like to be and that there are more profitable markets to pursue.

Knowing your footprint from past deals and how it relates to where you would like to go is a vital part of managing your existing business as you seek to grow it.

With field sales software tools (such as SPOTIO), this process is automated — you can drop pins on properties located on a map so that you have a physical representation of a desired territory.

It’s much easier to see on a map exactly where a desired property is located rather than staring at unorganized data in a spreadsheet or a handwritten list.

Having this level or organization at your fingertips is one of the main benefits of using field sales software.

Appointment Setting

You have the names. Now it’s time to set appointments with them. First, you should think about what to say, whether it be in person or on the phone. Using a script can help eliminate robotic, bumpy, and awkward conversations with prospects.

Here’s An Example Call Script:

Route Planning

Have you booked a few appointments? Great, now it’s time to go meet with these potential customers. There are two ways to do this:

You can drive to each prospect in a random order, crisscrossing your territory multiple times. Or you can plan your route in the most efficient manner possible so that you never have to backtrack. We suggest option #2.

For easy and effective route planning, check out SPOTIO’s Route Planning Software, which will automatically track mileage for you, too.

Sales Presentation

Data shows 75% of sales presentations leave prospects feeling like the salesperson just “didn’t get it.”

Obviously, this will have a negative impact on your chances of closing that deal. You want the prospect to feel like you understand, so practice your listening skills.

Make sure the presentation comes after a thorough discovery

It’s self-defeating to make a pitch when you haven’t gotten the answers to all the pertinent questions.

It’s possible that you have either the perfect answer to the problem the prospect has, or that you are the last solution they need to look at – this will be determined when you ask the right questions to determine if a presentation is even warranted.

Use case studies

To build your credibility, talk about real-life situations where you solved the same struggle(s) that the current prospect is facing.

Observe the 60-second rule

Don’t dominate the conversation. In order to maximize your chances of closing the deal, it needs to be an interactive presentation. Never talk for more than 60 seconds at a time. Ask for questions, etc. Pull them in.

Use feedback loops

This is how you stick to the 60-second rule. Asking “Does that make sense?” or “Are we on the same page?” will prompt responses that will keep the prospect engaged.

If you lose them, stop

When/if you feel like you’re starting to lose your prospect, there is nothing wrong with just stopping and asking for feedback.

Keep it brief

Getting off track will cost more sales than it will land. Stick to the points at hand. If you do anything other than present a solution to the problems that the prospect has, you’re going to lose them more often.

Explain The Next Steps

Most of the time, there are going to be next steps before you can close the deal. Make sure they are clearly defined, and most importantly scheduled, so that prospects know what to expect.

Lead Management

How do you keep track of all your prospects?

At any given time, your “sales funnel could contain hundreds to thousands of leads. When someone says, “Call me in a month,” or anything else that isn’t leading to a sale right now, how do you manage that contact? How do you make sure you don’t forget to call that contact again in a month?

The process and method of lead management is what drives the success of a sales team. Capturing specific details about each prospect quickly and efficiently, and then being able to use that data to increase productivity and sales is the goal of SPOTIO’s lead management software.

Automate Sales Tasks

For example, you can use SPOTIO’s Autoplays feature to build custom sales sequences. You simply decide when you want to contact a lead in the future and the method of communication you’d like to use. Then SPOTIO will either remind you to take this predetermined action at the appropriate time, or automate the communication for you so that nothing falls through the cracks.

Sales Reporting

How do you know if you’re effective enough at what you do? What are the most important metrics to keep track of so that you can keep everything else in line?

Here are some of the most vital metrics to monitor:

• Team performance in relation to your sales funnel
• Data from custom statuses and fields based on KPIs
• Team performance and best time and day to knock
• Number of attempts it takes to establish contacts, get leads, and make sales

SPOTIO’S Performance Reporting tool provides real-time insights that identify exactly where each individual team member needs assistance in the sales process. With this information, you will be able to spot-train reps on the areas where they need the most assistance to be successful.

Most Important Skills For Outside Sales Reps

If you are thinking about outside sales as a career path, it’s probably a good idea to assess yourself and see if you possess the skills that employers are looking for. Employers may debate heavily as to what the most important skills are, so this isn’t an all-inclusive list.

You must be a subject matter expert when it comes to the product or service you are selling. You need to be able to answer any questions that come your way, and in a confident manner. If you aren’t confident in your answers, your prospect may have a hard time being confident in you.

Do Your Research

When you make your approach and have those initial contacts, being able to talk about their company shows that you are a professional that is truly interested in their business.

Doing research will also help you avoid contacting a prospect/company that is not a good fit.

Know Your Metrics

It’s hard to know if you’re hitting an objective if you don’t know what it takes to get there. These simple formulas can help you determine your key metrics:

Contact Rate: the number of decision makers (DMs) a rep speaks with.

Lead Rate: the number of leads generated from conversations.

Close Rate: the number of closed/won opportunities from the number of leads.

Average Revenue per Sale: the average amount of revenue a rep generates for each sale made.

Rate of Follow-up Contact: number of opportunities with at least 1 follow-up activity recorded.

Make A Good First Impression

When someone opens a door you knock on, or a decision maker in a business takes a minute to shake your hand, you have a short period to win more time with that person.

Your smile, the handshake, what you say, how you say it — all of these factors have a major impact on whether you can hope to turn this prospect into a client.

Qualify The Prospect

This is the process of asking deep, meaningful questions to determine if you are able to meet the challenge(s) your prospect is facing, and how to do so.

Answer Objections

Most objections at the forefront aren’t real objections, but a “smokescreen.” Being skilled at answering objections is vital to keeping a valid sale alive.

Learn To Handle Rejection

You must have the ability to “shake it off”– don’t take rejection personally.

Know When To Move On

Any individual you meet with will fall into one of 3 categories: They will buy right now, they will buy later, or they will never buy. Your job is to quickly figure out which one they are.

The sooner you can figure out what kind of person you are dealing with, the sooner you can either take them to the next step or move on to the next prospect.

Close The Deal

This is where you are putting together all the information you gathered, proposing a solution to your prospect’s need(s), and asking for their business.

Average Outside Sales Salary

The range of salaries for outside sales is between$17,500 and $100,000, with an average of $53,577.

That range includes salary, bonus, profit sharing, and commission. As you can imagine, the numbers will vary quite a bit from industry to industry.

How To Hire Top-Performing Outside Sales Professionals

Plain and simple, hiring the right people is hard. And expensive. The cost of replacing one employee can be up to two times their annual salary, and the process takes an average of four months.

This makes having a solid hiring strategy absolutely essential. So, how do you go about finding, hiring, and retaining your ideal candidates?

The Job Description  

Attracting top talent starts with writing a compelling job description that generates excitement about the role. Start by asking yourself what skills the ideal candidate should have, what their responsibilities should be, and what kind of experience and qualifications they will need to be successful.

1. Skills

When thinking about the skills your candidate should have, consider the skills exemplified by top performers in your organization and prioritize them.

In general, successful sales professionals typically:

• Thrive with minimal direction and are willing to work independently
• Have strong communication and interpersonal skills
• Are comfortable initiating and carrying out uncomfortable conversations
• Are natural team players
• Are detail-oriented

Consider these and other attributes you feel are important to success in the role and list them in order of priority in your job description.

2. Experience And Qualifications

Other relevant experience and qualifications to consider include familiarity working with a CRM, a proven track record of exceeding sales quotas, and industry-relevant certifications.

When listing experiences and qualifications, aim high. Those who desire the role, but don’t quite meet the listed qualifications will probably still apply — and they could end up being ideal candidates.

3. Responsibilities

Responsibilities should be clear based on the role you’re hiring for. Some examples include:

• Develop and build relationships with new and existing customers
• Maintain customer data related to leads, deals, and accounts within the company CRM
• Travel within the sales territory
• Stay continuously informed on matters important to the customer base, including industry trends, competition, company strategy, products, and market conditions
• Collaborate with marketing and other teams to achieve success

Avoid being ambiguous in how you describe responsibilities. Being clear ensures that candidates who apply are indeed interested in the role you’re looking to fill.

Outside Sales Interview Questions

What kind of questions should you ask? If you focus on three main areas – personality, skills, and performance – you can easily find that superstar among your pool of candidates.

Some examples include:

1. Personality Questions

• What drives you to succeed?
• What are you looking forward to in this role?
• What would you like to achieve in the next 3-5 years?
• How do you prefer to work with your sales manager?
• What is your optimal sales environment?
• How do you see yourself fitting in with our company and this team?

2. Skills Questions

• Would you rather call or email prospects? Why?
• How do you deal with rejection?
• What is your closing percentage?
• How do you get around the gatekeeper when you call on a prospect?
• When do you decide to walk away from a prospect?
• Does social media play a role in your sales process? If so, how?
• How do you stay up-to-date with industry trends? What specific resources do you reference?
• What is your negotiation style?

3. Performance Questions

• Tell me about a time when you were in a competition to win a prospect’s business that you ultimately won. What caused that to happen?
• Tell me about a time when you won-over a hard-to-convince prospect. How did you do that?
• When you lose a deal, what is the most common reason?
• Tell me about a time when you didn’t hit your performance objective. Why did you fail, and what did you do to make sure it didn’t happen again?
• Tell me about the achievement you are most proud of in your career.
• What is the length of your current sales cycle?
• How often do you beat your quota?

7-Step Guide To Building A Winning Outside Sales Team

A company can’t be successful without an effective sales team. That’s why  recruiting and retaining strong players is critical to success.

Once you have the right team in place, you need an effective management strategy.

1. Assign territories strategically.

Outside sales shouldn’t be a free-for-all. You need to take a strategic approach if you want to find success. So before you do anything else, cut territories and assign them to the most qualified sales representative.

SPOTIO will enable you to cut territories based on geographic boundaries or by drawing on a digital map. It will also give your team clarity as to who owns which territory, preventing unproductive overlap between reps.

Once territories are cut and assigned, management professionals will have access to important metrics they can use to design better sales strategies.

Why do some territories perform better than others? Do some territories lack qualified leads? Do some reps put in more effort than others? SPOTIO will help you answer these questions so that you can take appropriate action.

2. Set clear activity and performance goals

Are your reps over or underperforming? You won’t know unless you set clear goals and then track results. We suggest setting two kinds of goals:

• Activity Goals: These are goals that have to do with sales rep effort. For example, sending 100 prospecting emails a week would be an activity goal. Decide which activities you want your reps to take on a regular basis, and how many times they need to do them.
• Performance Goals: These are goals that have to do with results. For instance, maintaining a 40% close rate would be a performance goal. Decide which performance metrics matter most to you and then set targets for your outside sales reps to aim for.

Both activity and performance goals can be tracked with SPOTIO. We’ll talk more about this in a later section of this outside sales article.

3. Automate sales sequences

Your outside sales team has a few incredible advantages over the sales teams of yesteryear. One of them is access to automation technology.

Using tools like SPOTIO, you can create automated sales sequences that engage prospects, drive up interest, and even close deals on autopilot. You owe it to your company to capitalize on these opportunities.

Fortunately, it’s not that difficult. For example, you can use SPOTIO Autoplays to design custom sequences that include automated emails and texts, as well as call and visit reminders.

The best part is, Autoplays can be tailored to each individual prospect.

They can also be shared between outside sales representatives. Has someone on your team discovered a wildly successful sequence? Ask them to share it with their colleagues so that everyone’s sales numbers go up.

4. Track rep activity and performance

How do you know if your outside sales process is successful? Simple: you track the results. A quick look at the data will help you determine whether to hold steady or to make adjustments to your approach. But this begs another question…

How do you get access to this data? One of the easiest ways is to use SPOTIO.

Our platform’s Sales Tracking technology will tell you which activities your reps perform, how often they perform them, and the result of each activity. You can then use this information to access both the activity and performance goals you set earlier, and determine the success of your outside sales process.

Because of the insights available inside SPOTIO, our tool can also be used for forecasting purposes. All you have to do is assess your team’s past performance to help predict your future results with a high-level of accuracy.

5. Integrate your sales and CRM workflows

To reduce busywork for your outside sales representatives, take a few minutes to integrate your company’s tech stack. Particularly your sales engagement platform (i.e. a tool like SPOTIO) and your CRM software of choice.

Once you do, team productivity will skyrocket. Why? Because your reps won’t have to complete many of the tedious data entry tasks that they have to do now.

For example, they’ll be able to automatically log prospect interactions in real time with SPOTIO. The information they gather will then automatically sync to your company’s CRM, eliminating the need for reps to do it themselves.

6. Enable communication with prospects across multiple channels

You manage a successful outside sales team, which means your reps spend most of their time attending face-to-face meetings with prospects. That said, reps who only communicate with prospects via in-person meetings aren’t successful.

These days, the best outside sales representatives use a multichannel approach to engage potential customers.

In other words, if you want your outside sales team to boost sales, you need to make sure they’re using the phone, email, and text messaging to contact prospective customers, in addition to face-to-face meetings.

SPOTIO makes multichannel communication easy. Use our platform to automate emails and text messages, remind reps to make calls at opportune moments, and track the results of each interaction with prospects.

7. Use software that improves ICP data for better prospecting

Last, but certainly not least, use the data at your disposal to better understand your prospective customers and create ideal customer profiles (ICPs).

This will allow you to generate higher quality leads, which, in turn, will enable you to close more deals in less time. Basically, improved sales performance starts with an in-depth knowledge of the people you sell to.

The data available inside SPOTIO, as we’ve already discussed, will help you develop ICPs, which you can then use to improve your results.

Inside And Outside Sales Teams Can Work Together

In an organization that uses both inside and outside sales teams, there’s a risk of an “us vs. them” mentality. And most of the time, that mentality starts from the top. If the executive team doesn’t promote the importance of working together, then it isn’t likely that inside and outside sales teams will see the value in collaboration.

Make sure the executive team is in alignment so they can model the desired behavior for their respective teams and spearhead efforts in working together.

The entire team needs to know what the other members of the team are doing. Are the marketing people actively developing leads in a salesperson’s territory? If so, is the sales rep aware of that activity?  And does the marketing team know whether a sales rep is following up with leads in a timely fashion?

SPOTIO integrates with a variety of popular CRM tools so that everyone remains on the same page. Every action outside sales reps take is easily logged in the SPOTIO platform, which will then sync with your company’s CRM of choice. This means that Marketing can easily view the quality of the leads they generate. And Sales can quickly see where each of their prospects are in the sales pipeline at any given moment.

Ultimately, this approach will improve relationships between sales and marketing teams.

The Ultimate Outside Sales Stack

SPOTIO’S software supports the tasks that help sales reps do their jobs — mapping, prospecting, lead management, reporting, and appointment setting. SPOTIO also helps sales managers track, manage and coach their teams.

Mapping

SPOTIO’s sales mapping software uses location data to create a visual representation of territories. Customer mapping software helps you get the most from your team’s valuable time and helps reps increase sales by optimizing face-to-face relationship building opportunities. Learn more here.

Image: SPOTIO helps reps and managers geographically represent CRM data on maps and identify hidden sales opportunities and insights.

Prospecting

SPOTIO’s prospecting functionality allows sales leadership to streamline the sales prospecting process with CRM integrations. This allows sales reps to spend less time on administrative tasks and more time selling.

Features include easy field data entry, a quick way to view account history, and the ability to filter and organize leads.

SPOTIO also gives users access to Digital Business Cards. If you’re not familiar with the term, digital business cards are electronic versions of the paper business cards that successful outside sales reps have carried in their wallets for decades. They include all of the same information—your name, company, contact details, etc.—but can be sent with a simple email or text message and stored in a prospect’s phone. As such, they’re incredibly convenient and have the power to revolutionize your sales process.

Lead Management

SPOTIO’s lead management software makes field data entry easy, creating clear funnel visibility for sales managers as well as easy access to critical sales data. This allows users to easily determine the next best action while ensuring reps are working the right territory.

Additionally, lead management makes it easy to identify and take action on leads, whether the prospect is hot now, a future lead, or is one that would be better reassigned to another rep.

Rep and Sales Tracking

Rep tracking gives sales managers useful information in real time regarding rep location. This helps ensure sales rep accountability, gives insight into the status of a customer interaction, and provides management with details that are useful in managing and coaching sales teams. Learn more here.

Image: SPOTIO’s GPS rep tracking software provides sales teams with geo-based accountability in the field.

Reporting

SPOTIO lets you create custom reports so you can track the data that will drive business results.

Features such as executive insights provide historical and real-time data that can help sales managers support their team as well as coach them for ongoing success.

• AutoPlays: As mentioned earlier, Autoplays will enable you to create custom sequences of events. The result is a more efficient sales process. Best of all, Autoplays can be accessed on any device, which means outside sales reps have access to their sequences in the field.
• My Reports: As an outside sales rep, you don’t need access to every company metric under the sun. With SPOTIO’s My Reports feature, You can easily create reports that only include the information you care about. Doing so will increase your productivity because you’ll be able to quickly view important KPIs without wading through other data points.

Appointment Setting

SPOTIO’s calendar feature allows users to create appointments right from their sales productivity interface.

All you have to do is integrate SPOTIO with your Google and/or Outlook calendar. Once you do, you’ll be able to manage your day and access lead notes from a single location, increasing field productivity in the process.

Additionally, appointments made with SPOTIO are easily transferred from one rep to another, as are important prospect notes. This means that canvassers can make appointments for closers, while minimizing miscommunications.

Routing and Mileage Tracking

Outside sales reps spend a lot of time in the car, traveling from one appointment to another. Unfortunately, every second you spend behind a windshield is a second you’re not closing deals. It makes sense, then, to minimize travel time.

SPOTIO’s Route Planning Software is designed to do just that!

Simply tell SPOTIO where you need to go and the software will automatically design the most efficient route between stops. Oh, and it gets better. SPOTIO will also automatically track and report your mileage, saving you hours of busywork.

The faster you get from Point A to Point B, the better. That’s what SPOTIO’s for!

Task Automation

It’s a well-known fact that most sales reps spend about 35% of their time selling. The other 65% of their days are spent on non-revenue generating tasks.

With SPOTIO’s Task Automation features, you can eliminate many of these activities, allowing you to spend more time doing what you were hired to do: close deals.

For instance, use SPOTIO to automatically log prospect interactions and transfer the data to your CRM of choice. Or use our platform’s talk-to-text feature to capture lead notes in your CRM while walking to lunch. Or create email sequences that are automated to send at specific times, enabling you to make sales on autopilot.

SPOTIO reduces the manual tasks outside sales reps hate so that they can increase their productivity levels and reach quota on a consistent basis.

Outside Sales Training Resources

Any true professional should be an ongoing student of their field. The sales profession is no different. Phone skills, general prospecting skills, fact-finding, closing technique, asking for referrals, marketing as a whole, client retention — these are all areas that a salesperson should continually work to improve.

Following are some resources to help develop those skills:

Wilson Learning offers resources and programs for sales, leadership, and workforce development. For sales, they offer programs on foundational and strategic selling, along with consulting, sales management, and sales support and service.

Customer Centric Selling offers sales training through training workshops around the globe. Their focus is on a buyer-driven sales process.

Richardson Sales Performance uses online curriculum and technology to facilitate their training and development programs.

There are literally hundreds of other places to seek out sales training in any area, whether it be based on a certain part of the sales process, or even based on industry.

Final Thoughts

Outside sales is a broad topic, and it’s impossible to cover everything in one article. The objective of this piece was to draw some attention to some key areas that will raise or lower the bottom line results in your organization and team.

From getting your sales team organized to equipping them with the tools to make them as pro productive as possible; all of these things require due diligence to ensure you are “stacking the deck” in your favor.

Speaking of tools, SPOTIO is the ultimate solution for outside sales teams. With our industry-leading software, field reps and the people who manage them will be able to work more efficiently, access important data with the click of a button, and boost their sales numbers to new heights.

Request a free demo of SPOTIO today to see it in action and decide if it’s the right tool for your needs. We’re confident it will be!

In this article, we’ll explain why solar sales are on the rise, the challenges of selling solar panels in 2022, and 14 best practices to help you close more deals right now.

We have a lot to get to, so let’s dive in and get started!

Why are solar sales on the rise

There’s no doubt about it: solar energy is more popular today than at any other point in human history. The question is, why? There are a few reasons:

• Customers: The average solar customer is unique. Sure, they want to save money on their electricity bill. But many of them want to produce clean energy, too, and support the planet. Solar gives them this opportunity.
• Affordability: New technology makes solar energy more affordable to everyday folks like you and me. In fact, the cost of large-scale solar projects has plunged by 85% in the last decade, thanks to advances in the space.
• Legislation: Finally, governmental commitments have helped the solar industry grow. As of this writing, 38 states in the U.S. offer solar incentives. The goal? To stimulate interest in this kind of energy.

It’s not hard to see why solar energy has become so popular in recent years. But that doesn’t mean that solar companies are walking down easy street. There are numerous challenges that said companies must overcome to find success.

The challenge for solar companies

As mentioned, solar sales are on the rise, which means there’s an incredible opportunity for solar companies (like yours!) to boost sales.

But, as in every industry, incredible opportunities often lead to stiff competition. Put simply, everyone wants a piece of the solar pie and is willing to fight tooth and nail to get it. This is a challenge that your company must overcome.

Here’s another challenge: the average sales cycle in the solar industry is 8.9 months. That’s a long time—much longer than it takes to sell a car or enterprise-level software, even though these things often cost much more.

Because of this, successful solar sales reps need to have an intimate understanding of the solar sales funnel. That way they can guide prospects through it faster.

Let’s talk more about that…

Key stages in the solar sales funnel

Solar sales is a numbers game.

Generally speaking, the more prospects your reps talk to, the more deals they’ll close. But you can streamline the entire sales process by optimizing your solar sales funnel. To do that, you first need to understand the five key stages, outlined below.

Prospecting

The prospecting stage is when solar sales reps identify potential customers to contact. The key to success at this point is qualification.

Here’s the hard truth: not everyone wants to buy solar panels from you. Some people will want solar, but won’t be able to afford it. Others will be interested, but own properties that don’t receive enough sunlight to operate panels.

To sell solar, you need to find prospects who want to invest in the technology, and have the ability to do so, both financially and geographically speaking.

Connecting

Once your reps have built up lists of potential leads, they need to reach out to them. This is known as the connecting stage of the solar sales funnel.

It’s important to remember that the goal at this stage of the sales process is not to make sales. It’s to set appointments. Once an appointment is set, reps will be able to expound on the benefits of solar and attempt to close a deal.

It’s worth pointing out that prospects forget about appointments all of the time. We suggest investing in some kind of appointment reminder app for your solar selling team. Doing so can reduce no-shows by 10% – 15%!

Considering

The considering stage of the solar sales funnel includes your reps’ pitches to prospects, follow-up procedures, and everything else that goes into making sales.

Every one of your reps’ pitches should answer three questions:

1. Why does solar make sense for this particular prospect?
2. Why should our company be the one to sell them solar panels?
3. Why should this specific prospect invest in solar right now, not tomorrow?

If your reps can answer these three questions in an adequate manner, they’ll be well on their way to closing deals. After that, they’ll just need to send eye-catching proposals, follow-up on a regular basis, and make it easy for prospects to say, “yes”.

Decision

Your reps have met with the prospect and answered all of their questions. Said prospect has now entered the decision stage of the solar sales funnel.

Unfortunately, this is often where deals stall or fall through. Sometimes it’s because the prospect can’t secure financing. Other times it’s because a trusted advisor (their real estate agent, for example) tells them not to install solar panels.

To ensure prospects sign on the dotted line, you need to stay focused, hammer home the benefits of your solar systems, and simplify the process when possible.

Post-win

Selling solar panels is the goal, but it’s not the end. Just because a prospect agrees to make a purchase doesn’t mean you can drop them like a hot potato.

The fifth and final stage of the solar sales process is known as post-win. This is when sales reps check in with new customers to make sure the installation process is smooth and painless. Failing to do this could result in expensive change orders.

Following-up with new customers will also give you the chance to ask for referrals. This is important because solar leads can cost hundreds of dollars to secure. Referrals, on the other hand, are completely free. Win!

Solar sales best practices

Let’s recap:

So far, we’ve talked about why solar sales are on the rise and the challenges you’ll face when selling solar in 2022 and beyond. We also covered the key stages in the solar sales funnel so that you can, hopefully, guide prospects through them faster.

Now, let’s talk about a few solar sales best practices you can use to supercharge your department’s workflows. If you implement a few of these, selling solar panels will get a whole lot easier—we guarantee it!

Start with your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP)

Who are you selling solar to? If you don’t know the answer to this question, you’ll struggle to find customers, close deals, and achieve success.

So, before you do anything else, pinpoint your ideal customer. Then create an ideal customer profile, often referred to as an ICP, to distribute to your reps.

Your ICP should include information about the person (or company, if you sell solar panels to commercial clients) you want to sell to, including their geographical location, their financial situation, and the specific problems you’ll help them solve.

Use ICP data to find qualified prospects

Once you’ve created an ICP, you can use it in your prospecting efforts.

This is the key to finding qualified prospects who actually want to invest in the solar panels you sell. Just make sure you look for four key pieces of information:

1. Home Ownership: Only talk to folks who own their homes.
2. Home Value: Spend extra time with people who own big, expensive houses, as these homes will use more electricity than smaller ones.
3. Credit Score: Focus on prospects who have the financial ability to buy solar panels from you. Their credit score will be a good indicator.
4. Location: Center your efforts on the people who live in locations that can accommodate solar panels. Strike all others from your leads list.

SPOTIO makes it easy to find qualified leads thanks to its impressive sales intelligence technology, which will enable you to filter through 200+ data points and pinpoint potential buyers that meet all of your ICP criteria.

Get crystal clear on what you’re selling

Always remember: your reps aren’t meeting with prospects to educate them on how solar panels work. They’re meeting with prospects to explain how your company’s solar panels will solve the energy-related problems they experience.

In other words, reps need to focus on the money prospects can save, the additional value solar panels lend to houses, the environmental impacts of solar energy, etc.

These are the things your company sells. Make sure this is crystal clear before you send reps to meet with potential customers. Trust us, selling solar will become much easier once you and your team internalize this fact.

Prepare your solar sales pitch

Success in solar sales requires a rock-solid pitch.

As mentioned above, the best solar sales pitches answer three questions. 1) Why should the prospect invest in solar? 2) Why should the prospect buy from your company? 3) And why should the prospect buy right now, not later?

Here are a few more tips to make sure your reps nail their pitches:

• Use Data and Visuals: Data and visuals make the benefits of solar come alive. Use them and watch your sales skyrocket.
• Tell Customer Stories: Customer stories build trust. Prospects will think, “Well, if it helped that guy, why won’t it help me, too?”
• Create a Sense of Urgency: Make prospects want to buy now by telling them about the changing nature of incentives, the continual rise in energy prices, and other true facts that may help them make a buying decision.

Set minimum daily sales activities

At the end of the day, you can’t force people to buy solar panels from you.

You can, however, make sure that your reps send emails, make phone calls, and otherwise follow-up with potential buyers in a consistent and timely manner.

Set minimum daily sales activities for each of the reps in your department. This will keep them accountable. It will also increase the number of sales they make.

Canvass in neighborhoods with solar

Here’s a super ninja solar selling tip for you: canvas in areas that already have solar.

“What?” you’re thinking. “Why would I do that? If one house in the neighborhood already has solar panels, the neighbors will undoubtedly know about the technology. If they really wanted panels, they’d simply reach out to us themselves.”

Not true. Most people don’t realize the benefits of solar. Some might not know who to contact to ask about getting panels on their home. Others are flat out busy.

All of these things keep prospects from reaching out to solar companies on their own. But none of them mean that said prospects aren’t interested. By asking reps to canvas in neighborhoods that already have solar, you give your team the best chance to connect with interested prospects and set more appointments.

Create a seamless transition from canvasser to closer

Does your sales department employ canvassers and closers? Then you need to make sure the transition from one to the other is completely seamless.

This is easy to do with a tool like SPOTIO, which will allow canvassers to capture important details about prospects and book appointments with them. Once this is done, canvassers can easily send said notes to closers and add the appointments to their personal calendars. It’s a super convenient way to do sales!

Automate the sales process

Your reps meet with and engage a ton of prospects. To save time and make sure none of these potential customers fall through the cracks, invest in automation.

Imagine how much more your reps will get done when emails and text messages can be scheduled to send at opportune moments—without reps having to click the “send” button. And how many more prospects they’ll talk to when they’re reminded to make follow-up calls based on proven sales sequences.

SPOTIO’s Autoplays feature will give you this ability.

Create customizable sales workflows that include the most important sales activities, like making calls, sending emails and texts, and scheduling in-person visits. Then allow reps to access these sequences on any device.

This will keep them accountable, help them remember which tasks to perform and when, and ensure that more of your prospects turn into paying customers.

Understand and plan for objections

You know that most people can benefit from solar. That won’t stop your prospects from showering you with a waterfall of objections…

• Solar is just too expensive.
• Solar panels are really hard to maintain.
• Solar will make it more difficult to sell my home.

The list goes on and on. Fortunately, these objections don’t have to slow your department down—as long as your reps understand the most common ones and the best ways to overcome them.

Follow up with leads

Did you know that 80% of sales require five or more follow-ups? If your reps don’t check in with prospects on a regular basis, they won’t close many deals.

Fortunately, following-up is easy with SPOTIO’s Autoplays (mentioned above) and similar tools. All you have to do is tell the app when you want to follow up. It will then send an email/text for you at the appropriate time, or shoot you a reminder to call/visit the prospect in question.

When your reps do follow-up, make sure they offer something of value. They can, for example, offer to answer questions or share an eBook your company just published on the benefits of solar. Ask them to limit “Just checking in” emails.

Re-canvass neighborhoods

Your team just canvassed a neighborhood. What should they do now? They should re-canvass said neighborhood after a suitable amount of time has passed.

Our research indicated that returning to neighborhoods until a 60% saturation level is reached can boost booked appointments by 25%.

This is because re-canvassing enables solar sales teams to connect with prospects they missed the first time around. It also allows prospects to become familiar with sales reps. Familiarity almost always leads to more sales.

While making second, third, and fourth passes through a neighborhood, make sure your reps name drop the people they’ve already booked appointments with and/or the folks who’ve already bought a solar system from them.

Doing so will help build trust with prospects and increase the likelihood of a sale. When it comes to selling solar panels, trust is key.

Monitor rep activity and performance

Do you know what your reps do in the field? You hope they’re talking with customers and closing deals. But how can you know this for sure? You have to closely monitor rep activity and performance, which you can do with SPOTIO.

The SPOTIO mobile app will allow you to track your reps in the field. That way you can see exactly where they go and when they go there.

This level of information will help you properly diagnose poor performance. Are your reps under performing because of a lack of effort or training? When you know the answer, you can act accordingly and improve your department.

(Note: This feature can be disabled in SPOTIO if reps feel it violates their privacy.)

You can use SPOTIO to track other rep activities, too, such as the number of emails and text messages they send, calls they make, and prospects they visit.

Ask for referrals

Every business wants more referrals. Why? Because they help sales teams close more deals without having to invest a ton of money into marketing.

Referrals are extra important in the solar industry, where it can cost $150 – $200 to generate an appointment-ready lead. Buy-ready leads can cost even more, often between $500 and $1,000 each. Referred leads, on the other hand, are free.

Even better, referred leads are often the highest quality leads your reps will encounter because the potential customer will already know and trust your brand.

Invest in the right technology

Last, but certainly not least, to sell solar at a consistent clip, you should invest in the right technology. We’re talking about CRM solutions, sales engagement platforms, proposal design apps, and other tools that make selling solar a lot easier.

• CRM Solutions: Customer relationship management software, CRM software for short, will help your sales team keep track of customers. It’s an essential tool for all sales teams, regardless of industry.
• Sales Engagement Platforms: A sales engagement platform does exactly what you think it would: help sales reps engage prospects. SPOTIO is the sales engagement platform that was specifically designed for field sales teams, which makes it perfect for solar sales purposes.
• Proposal Design Apps: A proposal design app will help you create custom, eye-catching proposals in a matter of minutes. This kind of tool will make your reps more productive and your company seem more professional.

Increase solar sales with SPOTIO

If you’re in the business of selling solar panels, you’re probably wondering, “How can I boost sales for my department?”

The answer is to implement the solar sales best practices we outline in this article. Once you do, you’ll be able to take advantage of the massive opportunity that the solar industry represents and shoot past your competitors.

One of the top best practices is to invest in technology solutions. CRMs, sales engagement platforms, etc. will make your reps more productive, help them appear more professional, and allow them to close more deals.

Speaking of technology, why not give SPOTIO a try today?

Thousands of solar sales reps use our app every day to connect with prospects and move them through the five stages of the solar sales funnel.

Sign up for a free demo of SPOTIO to see if it’s the right tool for your team.

The truth is, most people will benefit from solar energy. But you have to convince them that the investment will be worth their while.

In this article, we’ll share seven tips to help you create the ultimate door to door solar sales pitch—the kind that will get prospects excited to buy from you.

Does that sound like a plan? Then let’s dive in!

7 tips to create a high-converting solar sales pitch

Field sales is hard, and getting harder.

61% of reps think selling is more difficult today than it was five years ago. Fortunately, a great solar sales pitch will make things easier!

Implement these seven tips to crush your quotas and achieve success.

Understand your ideal customer profile (ICP)

First things first, you have to understand your audience to create a high-converting solar sales pitch. Then build an ideal customer profile (ICP) to match.

In the solar industry, ICPs are normally:

• Homeowners: Since renters don’t own the homes they live in, they won’t want to talk to you about solar. Focus your energy on homeowners.
• Financially Responsible: Few people can purchase solar panels without financing. Because of this, a prospect’s credit score is vital to the sales process. Identify financially responsible prospects to sell to.
• Geographically Relevant: Solar isn’t a viable option for everyone. Ensure your prospect’s homes get enough sun, face the right direction, etc.

The above information will get you started. But you really need to study your specific market to learn about your potential customers. Who are they and what unique challenges do they face in regard to energy?

Once you have a firm understanding, you can use a tool like SPOTIO’s Lead Generation, which will help you pinpoint quality leads in your territory using 200+ data attributes, such as home ownership status, age, and credit capacity.

Structure your pitch around 3 questions

Now that you know who to target, you can begin to craft your door to door solar sales pitch, which should address these three questions:

Why should I invest in solar?

If you can’t answer this question for potential customers, you won’t make many sales. Fortunately, it’s a simple one. Your prospects should invest in solar because it will result in a smaller electricity bill, cleaner energy, and a higher home value.

Why should I invest in solar now?

The benefits of solar are clear. The best solar sales pitch will make these benefits so clear and enticing that the prospect will want to invest in panels right now.

The cost of utilities is currently skyrocketing. The government offers a variety of incentives to encourage people to invest in solar technology. And you can always offer limited-time opportunities to increase urgency and drum up sales.

These are legitimate reasons for prospects to invest in solar today, not tomorrow.

Why should I choose your company?

Finally, your solar panel sales pitch needs to highlight the value of your company.

There are a lot of solar businesses out there. Why should your prospects buy panels from you and not one of your many competitors? Hopefully, the answer is because your company offers some kind of unique value, such as:

• More Financial Savings
• A Better Solar System
• Higher-End Features
• Amazing Customer Experiences
• Greater System Reliability

Take a moment to think about your company and the ways in which it outperforms the competition. Then use these things in your solar sales pitch.

Open with a question

We’re just going to say it: most solar sales pitch scripts are boring.

Why? Because they start with a generic introduction that’s more likely to put prospects to sleep than it is to make them want to buy solar panels.

Skip the standard intro and start your solar sales pitch with a question instead. Doing so will automatically engage your audience. They’ll hear your question—even if it’s a rhetorical one—and automatically think about their answer.

Asking questions is a great way to build relationships with prospects, too. Especially since the majority of solar sales reps don’t take the time to do this.

Here are a few questions you can ask your prospects:

• Have you ever noticed… ?
• You’re probably experiencing… Right?
• Is it just me, or does it seem like… ?

Remember to sell solutions, not panels

Are you trying to sell solar panels to your prospects? If so, your door to door solar sales pitch will fail. Always remember…

You don’t sell solar panels, you sell energy-related solutions.

This is important because your prospects don’t actually care about the panels. They care about lower electricity bills, being environmentally conscious, boosting the values of their homes, and the other benefits related to solar.

The truth is, solar panels are expensive. The only way you’ll convince someone to make a purchase is to present said panels as a solution to a pressing problem.

This is why it’s important to understand your audience. When you understand them, you’ll know which benefits to highlight in your solar sales script.

Use customer stories to build trust

Going solar is a big decision.

The panels are expensive. They’re installed on people’s homes—likely the largest investments they’ve ever made. And the technology, while gaining popularity, is far from mainstream. Only 3% of U.S. electricity comes from solar energy.

Because of these things, many of your prospects will be hesitant to buy solar panels. One of the best ways to earn their trust and close deals is to highlight other people who have already made the switch to solar and loved the experience.

In other words, tell prospects about your happiest customers.

Have you sold a solar system to anyone else in the prospect’s neighborhood? If so, how much money does that person save on their electricity bill every month? These bits of information will go a long way towards a sale.

Use data and visuals

Nobody buys solar because a sales rep told them to.

You have to show prospects that solar panels are a worthwhile investment, which is easier to do with substantial data and visuals aids.

Tell prospects how much money they can expect to save per month. Then tell them about the rising energy costs in their area. Finally, estimate the elevated savings your customers will enjoy in the future thanks to solar.

These are a few of the main data points that matter. But they aren’t the only ones.

If your prospect is environmentally conscious, share data regarding the benefits of clean energy. If your prospect plans to sell their house in a few years, share data regarding the ways in which solar panels increase home values.

One last thing: to make the data you share more palatable, use visuals. Graphs, pie charts, and diagrams make complex information easier to digest.

Use external factors to create urgency

While we already touched on urgency, it deserves a bit more attention.

The more urgent you make your solar sales pitch, the more successful it will be. Fortunately, urgency is incredibly easy to create when selling solar panels.

Here are a few ideas:

• Solar incentives are always changing. There’s no guarantee that the amazing offer available to the prospect today will be there in a few months.
• Energy prices are on the rise. Your prospect’s energy bill might be agreeable now, but it might not be in a year or two.
• The value of solar could increase. Solar panels are becoming more popular. As demand from them grows, the cost to install them could go up.
• External factors might play a role. Your prospects could be worried about their electricity bill in the summer. Or charging their new electric vehicle.

Your solar door to door sales pitch should hit on, at least, one of these four points to increase urgency. The one you choose will depend on your specific prospect.

Final thoughts

If you want to succeed in solar sales, you need a killer solar sales pitch. After reading this article, you have the knowledge to create one for yourself!

But there’s always more to learn, right? Download your free solar sales eBook for more insights on the solar sales process. In it, we cover everything from the current state of the solar energy to optimizing every stage of the solar sales funnel.

There’s a great debate taking place about Inside Sales vs Outside Sales. Is one method better than the other? If so, which one? There’s certainly no definitive answer because it depends on the person you’re talking to, their prior background, previous experience, and how they prefer to sell.

We’re going to let the cat out of the bag right now: inside sales isn’t any better than outside sales or vice versa. Both approaches can yield amazing results. The key is understanding the difference between the two so that you can choose the right one for your organization. So that’s what we’ll focus on today!

Keep reading to learn about inside and outside sales, how each can benefit your company, how to build teams in each medium, and more.

Inside Sales vs. Outside Sales: What’s the Difference?

You can’t settle the inside sales vs. outside sales debate for your company until you understand the main differences between these two approaches.

In this section, we’ll define what inside and outside sales are, as well as salary, sales cycle, job activities, popular tools, and necessary skill sets, for each.

What is Inside Sales?

Inside sales, sometimes referred to as remote sales, is the process of selling to customers from a distance. Inside sales reps typically work from a company office and use phones, emails, and other digital communication channels to close deals.

The organizations that tend to have the most success with an inside sales process are B2B brands, especially in the SaaS and tech industries.

What is Outside Sales?

Outside sales, AKA field sales, is the process of selling to customers via face-to-face correspondence. Outside sales reps spend a majority of their time traveling from customer to customer, away from their company’s headquarters.

Companies that employ field sales teams often sell expensive products and/or services.

Salaries for Inside and Outside Sales Rep Salaries

What does it cost to hire an inside sales team? What about the cost to bring in a few outside sales reps? Let’s talk about typical salaries for inside vs. outside sales:

Inside sales rep salary

According to Glassdoor, the average inside sales salary in the United States is $44,791 a year. Payscale pins the figure a bit higher at $45,448 a year. Either way, expect to pay inside sales reps about $45k a year.

Outside sales rep salary

Referring back to Glassdoor, the average outside sales salary in the United States is $57,696 per year. But according to Payscale, the average salary is closer to $50k per year. Regardless, outside sales reps typically make more than inside ones.

Of course, the salaries mentioned above are just averages. If your company is located in a high-cost area such as San Francisco, you’ll likely need to pay more.

Sales cycles

One of the biggest differences between inside and outside sales is the complexity and length of the sales cycle. Let’s examine this in greater detail:

Inside sales cycles

The average inside sales rep deals with short sales cycles. In fact, it’s possible for an inside seller to go through an entire cycle, start to finish in as little as a few hours.

This is because most inside sales reps sell low-cost products. As such, their margins are quite slim, which means they don’t have time to spend multiple days on each lead. The goal is volume: more sales in less time equals success.

Outside sales cycles

Outside sales reps, on the other hand, are used to long sales cycles. Why? Because they typically sell high-cost products and services. To close these kinds of deals reps must build trusting relationships with prospects, which requires time.

Job activities

So what do inside and outside sales teams actually do on a regular basis? Each has a unique set of sales activities they need to complete to find success.

Inside sales activities

• Report to a company office and work consistent hours.
• Use the phone, emails, and other digital channels to engage prospects.
• Nurture leads by answering questions and displaying product knowledge.
• Close deals at a consistent clip in order to meet predetermined quotas.
• Catalog relevant sales data into a CRM and report to management.

Outside sales activities

• Connect with leads and schedule in-person meetings with them.
• Travel from prospect to prospect to meet prospects face-to-face.
• Stay in-touch with leads and nurture them through the sales cycle.
• Catalog relevant sales data into a CRM and report to management.
• Close high-value deals as often as possible and meet quota.
• Attend industry conferences, trade shows, and other events.

Toolkits

Inside and outside sales teams use different tools—mostly because they’re asked to complete different tasks, as we talked about in the previous section.

Outside sales teams need tools that can help them do things like build and manage territories, map routes, and monitor rep activity. For inside sales teams, auto-dialers and email tracking software are more pertinent.

Let’s take a closer look at the tools used by inside and outside sales teams:

Inside sales toolkit

• CRM Software: Customer relationship management software, better known as CRM software, is essential for inside sales reps. With this tool, sellers can catalog information about prospects, track their progress through the buyer’s journey, identify upsell and cross sell opportunities, and much more.

• Email Sequence Software: Most inside sales reps use email to connect with, qualify, and sell to prospects. The problem is, it takes a lot of time to send individual emails. Email sequence software allows reps to automate emails so that they can accomplish more sales activities in less time.

• Prospecting Tools: An inside sales rep is only as good as his or her leads. That’s why prospecting tools like LinkedIn Sales Navigator and UpLead are so important for inside BDRs. With these tools, inside reps can easily find potential buyers, connect with them, and pass information along to their CRM of choice.

• Wireless Headsets: A wireless headset might not be mandatory for inside sales reps, but it’s pretty close. Once an inside seller has one, they’ll be able to multitask much easier. For example, they’ll be able to take notes while they chat with prospects on the phone, boosting their productivity levels.

Outside sales toolkit

• Canvassing: Before outside sales reps can close deals, they have to meet prospects. As such, canvassing is an integral part of the sales process. Canvassing software makes it much easier to organize prospect information.

• Territory management: One outside sales rep can’t sell to all of your company’s customers. That’s why you need software to divide territories and give each to the most qualified rep. Doing so will increase team efficiency.

• Appointment setting: Outside reps are asked to regularly connect with potential customers in face to face scenarios. But before they can do that, they have to schedule their meetings in the most efficient ways possible. An appointment setting tool is essential in this regard.

• Route planning: Outside sales reps spend a lot of time traveling. A software tool that can identify the shortest route between customers and prospects will greatly increase rep productivity.

• Rep tracking: Is your outside sales team succeeding? Management needs tools to track their reps’ activities to answer this question; then use the information gleaned to increase sales performance.

• Customer mapping: Where are your customers located? How about your leads and qualified opportunities? When outside sales reps can see this information on a map, their job becomes much easier to do.

• Sales tracking: At the end of the day, sales are the only things that matter. As such, outside sales managers need to track and forecast sales for their teams, which is much easier to do with the right software tools.

Skill sets

Inside sales and outside sales may have a lot of similarities, and while they’re both still “sales,” there are some key differences that define a successful rep for each category, like inside reps understanding the importance of terminology.

Sales models

While we’ve alluded to the different sales models for inside and outside sales teams, we haven’t fully described what each one looks like.

Inside sales model:

• Acquire qualified leads.
• Connect with potential buyers via digital channels.
• Typically close deals in 90 days or less. (Note: sales cycles can vary.)
• Spend less money on inside sales teams and scale with less effort.

Outside sales model:

• Travel from prospect to prospect.
• Nurture and convert potential buyers.
• Typically close deals in 90 days or more. (Note: sales cycles can vary.)
• Spend more money on outside sales teams and scale with greater effort.

Geographies

Another key distinction in the inside vs outside sales debate has to do with geographies. In general, inside sales teams focus on selling to prospects in large territories. In fact, some inside sellers don’t focus on territories at all. They might sell to a customer in Oklahoma one week and a customer in London the next.

Outside sales teams, though, usually focus their efforts in very narrow territories. For example, an outside seller might spend all of their time in a single neighborhood, assuming said neighborhood has a collection of quality prospects.

Outside sellers typically work narrow territories because they travel from prospect to prospect. It would be extremely time consuming, not to mention expensive, for outside sellers to travel to different states and/or countries to meet with leads.

Close rates

What about close rates? Do inside or field sales reps close a higher percentage of deals? There are always outliers, of course, i.e. folks who buck common trends. But generally speaking, outside sales teams boast higher close rates.

This is because outside sales teams are adamant about finding and pursuing high quality leads. If they don’t, their entire sales strategy falls apart because it will take too much time and cost too much money to make a sale.

Inside sellers have more leeway. As such, they often focus on quantity because their margins are so thin. This lowers their close rate.

So, as you can see, while outside sales professionals have better close rates than inside sales reps, it’s not because they’re better at their jobs. It’s because they focus on more buy-ready leads, allowing them to convert a higher percentage of them into paying customers.

Metrics and KPIs

By now it should be pretty obvious: inside and outside sales are very different. Because of this, each sales team structure focuses on different activity-based and performance metrics.

Here are a few important metrics and KPIs for each:

Inside sales metrics

• Connect Rate
• Call Outcome
• Calls Per Hour
• Meetings Scheduled
• Deals Closed
• Forecast Accuracy

Outside sales metrics

• Sales Activities
• Leads Created
• Meetings Scheduled
• Logged Visits
• Deals Closed
• Referral Requests
• Attempted Upsells

Benefits of Inside Sales

As we’ve said multiple times in this article, when it comes to inside vs outside sales, one is not better than the other. They’re just different. As such, each sales strategy has different benefits. Here are a few benefits of inside sales:

• Greater speed: Inside sales professionals are able to respond to customers quicker. Why? Because they don’t have to travel to meet them. They just pick up the phone and give them a call, or type out a quick email.

• Fewer costs: Inside sellers make sales from inside a company office, which means they don’t have to worry about travel expenses. This fact allows inside sales teams to generate and convert leads for less money.

• Higher productivity: It’s a well-known fact that the average sales rep spends just 37% of their time selling. The number is even lower for most outside sales professionals because, once again, they have to travel to prospects. Windshield time is one of the biggest productivity killers for outside sellers.

Benefits of Outside Sales

What about outside sales? What are the benefits of this sales model? There are many. But we’ll focus on the top three:

• Stronger relationships: Because outside sales teams have face to face interactions with prospects, they’re able to build stronger relationships with customers and encourage greater loyalty from them.

• Higher close rates: Like we discussed in a previous section, outside sellers boast higher close rates than their inside counterparts. This is doubly beneficial because outside sales generally result in bigger deals, too!

• Easier to motivate reps: Lastly, it’s usually easier to motivate outside sales reps than it is to motivate inside ones. Why? Because almost all outside sales teams are paid commissions. Most people will work harder when they have money on the line. When inside sellers are only paid an annual salary, there isn’t as much incentive for them to go above and beyond the call of duty.

Inside and Outside Sales Statistics

We’ve given you a ton of information so far. How about we share a few cold, hard facts next? Here are 14 statistics about inside vs. outside sales:

• Inside sales teams are growing 15x faster than outside sales teams.
• An outside sales call costs $308, an inside sales call costs $50 (PointClear)
• 44% of inside sales pipeline comes from marketing, and inside sales average dials are down 20% year-over-year (Bridge Group Inc)
• 37% of high-growth companies use inside sales as primary sales strategy (vs. 27% for field sales, 23% for internet sales, 8% for channel sales) (Pacific Crest)
• Only 33% of inside sales rep time is spent actively selling. (CSO Insights)
• Sales reps can spend up to 40% of their time looking for somebody to call. (Inside Sales)
• Research shows that 35% to 50% of sales go to the vendor that responds first. (InsideSales.com)
• The average yearly quota for an inside sales professional is $985,000. (Harvard Business Review)
• Face to face or field sales teams make up 71.2% of the sales force.
• 65% of outside account executives attain quota, which is 10% higher than inside reps.
• Outside sales reps now spend 89% more time selling remotely than in 2013.
• Outside sales reps achieve an average 40% closing rate. (IHireSalesPeople)
• Following the COVID-19 pandemic, 27% of field sales teams were considering a shift from traditional field sales into virtual sales roles.
• The average yearly quota for outside sales reps is approximately $2.7M. (Harvard Business Review)

Structuring Inside and Outside Sales Teams

Are you interested in building inside and outside sales teams for your company? Then you should know that there are three ways to structure your department:

1. Split Your Inside and Outside Sales Teams

With this approach, your inside and outside sales teams will operate independently and each will have their own goals, leads, and quotas to hit.

The best part about this setup is that it enables each team to play to their strengths. The downside is that you’ll essentially have to run two separate departments: one for inside sales and one for outside sales.

2. Have Your Inside and Outside Sales teams Work Together

With this approach, your inside and outside sales teams will work together. Don’t worry, inside reps will still handle inside sales tasks and outside sales reps will handle outside sales tasks. But they won’t operate in silos.

Here’s an example: Your inside sales reps will connect with potential customers who live outside of the hundred mile radius that your outside sales reps work. When they find ready-to-buy prospects, they hand them off to outside sellers who then travel to the prospects place of business and attempt to close the deal.

3. Hire Hybrid Sales Reps to Complete Inside and Outside Sales

With hybrid sales, your sales reps will handle both inside and outside sales tasks.

What does this look like in the real world? When your reps are in the office, they make calls, send emails, etc. in an attempt to connect with prospects. On out-of-office days, your reps travel to their highest priority leads for in-person meetings, at which they do their best to close deals.

Inside Sales or Outside Sales: Which is better for your business?

It’s a tough decision to make. Both inside and outside sales approaches have pros and cons. To help you make the right choice, analyze the table below.

Have you decided to invest in outside sales? Then sign up for a free demo of SPOTIO. Our industry-leading sales engagement platform will help your team automate tedious tasks, split territories, connect with prospects on a variety of channels, track rep activities and company sales, and more.

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SPOTIO is the #1 field sales engagement and territory management app to increase your revenue, maximize your profitability, and increase your team’s productivity in just 2 weeks.

Want to see a product demonstration? Click here to see how SPOTIO can take your sales game to the next level.