Shortly after I started my sales career working at Leading Edge Products, a major PC manufacturer, our president Tom Shane was photographed and placed on the cover of Time Magazine because it was so unusual in 1984 to be selling computers (or any products) over the phone.

According to James Ledbetter from 1950 to 1980 sales represented one of the fastest growing occupations in America. But that growth slowed in the 1990′s and by 2007 the number of sales jobs was shrinking. In fact, no other job category has experienced a drop this sharp in the same time period. There are a number of causes but the biggest factor in the number of sales positions dropping is the Internet. Today buyers self-educate themselves so outside salespeople are not needed to show up and educate them. This caused a major shift and many companies today are hiring inside sales professionals rather than outside.

What are the key differences between Outside Sales and Inside Sales?

1. Cost: professional inside salespeople have total average compensation of $75K to $95K but professional outside salespeople have total average compensation between $120K and $150K or more and outside salespeople incur travel and entertainment expenses as well as their compensation.
2. Productivity: Inside salespeople can make an average of 46 calls a day and a outside salesperson (traffic permitting) can make two or three calls a day.

So inside salespeople are a LOT more efficient and they cost a lot less.

What’s the typical mix on a sales team between inside sales to outside?

In some organizations there are only inside salespeople but where there is a business need for both types of salespeople working as a team there are typically 1 inside to 3.5 outside on average.

Garth Rose Consulting Group has designed and grown many sales teams including inside sales teams of over 100 salespeople. We can show you how to hire and add inside salespeople to your existing outside sales team or start an inside sales team from the beginning.