Inside Sales vs Outside Sales: Which Strategy Reigns Supreme in 2024?

When you’re representing a brand, you need a sales process you can rely on to close deals.

Some sales reps specialize in outside sales. Others focus on inside sales. And some use a hybrid model. But as customer trends and needs continue to shift in 2024—which approach should sales reps focus on?

Let’s take a closer look at the differences between inside and outside sales.

We’ll examine their benefits, answer your questions, and share some tips to help you make the most out of these sales models.

What are inside sales?

Inside sales is when sales representatives sell products or services remotely. Some people refer to this sales model as “virtual sales” or “remote sales.”

It’s a great sales technique that works for both brick-and-mortar and online businesses. 

For example, an outsourced lead generation company (let’s call them CIENCE 🙂) may employ an inside sales team to reach out to potential clients via phone, email, and social media. The inside sales reps can identify prospects who have a need for the company's lead generation services, qualify those leads based on predefined criteria, and nurture the most promising opportunities until they are ready to be handed off to an account executive to close the deal.

With inside sales strategies, sales reps use digital communication channels to create sales funnels, collect qualified leads, and nurture prospects to conversion.

This makes it a preferred sales method for B2B businesses, tech companies, and B2C organizations alike.

Benefits of inside sales strategies

Inside sales strategies can save you money. Using digital channels to reach out to leads costs less than flying reps out to meet potential clients in person.

Inside sales methods also tend to have shorter sales cycles. But possibly the best benefit of inside sales?

Your sales reps can create sales automation processes.

With strategic sales funnels, the right messaging, and continuous refinement, reps can create automated sales activities that generate leads and new customers while you sleep.

While this method works for many industries, it especially aligns with B2B SaaS customer journeys (think free trials and automated subscription models).

What are outside sales?

Outside sales refers to activities field sales reps use to nurture leads and convert prospects.

With this sales model, sales reps meet with clients and prospects in person to discuss products and services.

Outside sales work for virtually any business model, but not every company can afford to invest in it. Not only do travel expenses add up, but outside sales models tend to have longer sales cycles. There’s no telling how many meetings it’ll take to get a “yes.”

For example, imagine having reps set up in-person meetings at your offices and flying to meet with potential clients to discuss your software. While this hands-on approach can help solidify trust in your brand, the hours and travel time involved can eat up your sales budget.

In fact, the use of outside sales has been steadily declining for years, largely due to the high costs associated with travel and in-person meetings. This trend was dramatically accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic, which severely curtailed business travel from 2020 to 2022. As a result, many companies were forced to pivot to inside sales models, relying more heavily on virtual meetings, phone calls, and digital communication channels to reach prospects and close deals.

Outside sales reps also cost an extra $40,000 per year on average—not including travel fees or commissions.

In fact, according to Glassdoor, the average salary for outside sales reps is just over $107,000. For inside sales reps, the average salary is just over $67,000.

Benefits of outside sales strategies

Outside sales strategies help build trust and relationships with customers. Qualified leads appreciate in-person interactions and the “hand-holding” that an outside sales rep provides.

Outside sales strategies are especially helpful if you sell a product or service that:

• Has more barriers to entry (i.e., a customer needs to qualify to use your product or service before they can buy it)
• Takes additional time and money to implement, onboard, or use
• Is highly niched down for a specific customer segment
• Needs (or would benefit from) in-person demos
• Is complex or difficult to explain
• Requires real-time feedback
• Sparks endless questions
• Is expensive

For example, if you sell business formation services, having registered agents work with potential clients in person can help remove some barriers to entry. While you may have some agents work with leads virtually, other prospects may require hands-on support to set up their business frameworks.

Consider a high-tech medical device company that sells complex equipment. An outside sales representative visits a busy hospital to demonstrate the product directly to the healthcare professionals (the ultimate busy niche).

During the live demo, the rep can answer questions, adjust the presentation based on immediate feedback, and help the staff understand the integration of the device into their workflows. This hands-on approach not only clarifies the product’s utility and compatibility with existing systems but also builds a strong relationship with potential buyers.

With these key differences and benefits in mind … which sales process should your reps use?

Let’s take a look in the next section.

Which sales strategy is best in 2024?

In the end, the best sales strategy depends on your unique business and sales goals. But ideally—you’d use a healthy mix of both!

The strategies you choose also depend on your business finances. If you have a limited sales budget, you may not have the option to hire outside sales reps.

In a perfect world, you’d test both strategies, learn what works best about each, and then templatize that framework.

For example, if you sell wine and spirits, you’d have inside sales reps design automatic selling sequences for your business. These may include guided selling strategies on your website, social media marketing funnels, and automated ad campaigns. Ideally, they’d also test, analyze, and refine their automated sales strategies (consistently) to help you get the best results.

You’d also use outside sales reps to set up meetings with large retailers that sell wine and spirits. In this case, your field reps would fly out to grocery store chains, wine bars, and spirit distributors to land wholesale accounts. They’d test communication strategies and playbooks to see which styles align best with qualified leads. After learning what works, they’d train your junior sales reps so they can replicate it.

In other words, aim for a hybrid sales approach and build strategic systems for both sales models. But, if you’re on a limited budget, stick with inside sales until you have more wiggle room to bring in outside reps, too.

It’s also important to remember that what works well for a competitor may not work well for you.

You may learn that outside sales are a complete waste of time for your specific business. Or you may learn that inside sales don’t build enough trust with your ideal customer. Adjust your sales process so that it fits your business model and target customer.

3 Must-have tips for inside and outside sales  

Whether you choose to use an inside, outside, or hybrid sales process, there are three tips you can’t skip.

Here’s what we recommend:

1. Use a CDP to centralize customer data

Keep rich customer insights in one spot with a customer data platform or CDP.

A CDP gives inside sales reps a complete data set of each customer so they can create targeted online marketing campaigns. Outside sales reps can leverage your CDP to qualify leads before meetings and to make sure they're prepared to address specific customer needs.

2. Create buyer personas to understand your target audience deeply

Craft buyer personas for each of your audience segments and include their top pain points, traits, and core needs.

Get ultra-specific by creating a “customer story” for each buyer persona. This is key to helping your reps really picture what your audience is struggling with. By deeply understanding your ideal customer, your reps can tailor their sales approaches to help your leads feel seen, heard, and taken care of.

This is especially helpful for customizing online messaging and in-person communication styles.

And speaking of communication …

3. Solve pain points with effective messaging and strong communication skills

Messaging is your golden ticket to getting more sales—but your reps need to be super dialed into your ideal client. Having access to CDP insights and detailed buyer personas is the closest your reps will get to walk in your customer’s shoes without interviewing them directly.

That’s why it’s essential to make sure your sales representatives have studied your CDP and buyer personas.

Before hiring new reps, ask them to present you with potential messaging styles based on these resources for inside and outside sales campaigns. Their recommendations can help you uncover if they know enough about your target audience to build strong relationships and nurture them to conversion.

Here’s an important question to ask them:

“Based on our CDP insights and buyer personas, what messages could help a potential lead drop into our online sales funnel? What communication styles and scripts could help an in-person lead have the “aha” moment they need to buy or continue the conversation?”

If their examples demonstrate clear solutions and an aligned messaging style, consider hiring them on a trial basis or offering a probation period.

Study their tactics and results during this timeframe to see if they’re a good fit for your business. 

Leverage Inside and Outside Sales for B2B Success

Inside and outside sales have pros and cons, but if you have the option, consider testing both sales processes.

Inside sales strategies can help you secure online clients—while outside sales strategies can help you land in-person customers. Each option requires different sales efforts, budgets, and sales cycles, so you’ll need to strike the right balance between the two.

If you’re on a limited budget, start with inside sales. It offers a faster sales cycle and is often cheaper to implement.  When you have more funds to allocate, try outside sales tactics, too.

But whatever method you choose, you’re going to need a growth machine. And that’s where CIENCE comes in.