Over the last five years, contract training teams have had to focus on lead generation more than ever in the past. No longer are the phones constantly ringing, but their institutions are expecting increased revenue, operating margin, and net.
Ideally salespeople should not be focusing their time on lead generation. 75 percent of their time should be lasered in on relationship building and contract closing; especially since it takes nine months or more to close a client for the first time.
To support lead generation, contract training teams are adding inside salespeople. They are responsible for marketing, lead generation, lead nurturing, and supporting salespeople.
Inside sales is not telemarketing. An organization that has sales cycle complexity focused on solution-selling, like continuing education units, is more likely to have inside salespeople. Having an inside salesperson should be more cost-effective, enables better collaboration, and offers salespeople tools that increase performance.
The following are key inside salespeople tasks:
- Manage integrated marketing efforts, such as digital marketing, website (being able to generate content to support lead generation is important), advertising, and any other actions generating visibility and/or leads.
- Develop and implement lead generation campaigns such as events, webinars, consortiums, and other activities.
- Support salespeople with materials for visits and networking events, and also be available to attend events and handle salespeople duties.
- Do data analysis to identify potential clients and then contact potential clients to share information and ideally generate leads.
- Coordinate with the salespeople on developing lead nurturing plans. In some cases, a lead may be handed off to a salesperson, while at other times the lead is not warm enough and the inside salesperson will continue to nurture.
- Where appropriate set up appointments for salespeople.
- Ensure CRM is being updated with new contacts and activities. A CRM with inbound/outbound marketing functionality is important. The inside salesperson may be accountable for generating a weekly Pipeline Report.
- Ensure all materials are up to date, branded correctly, and in stock both electronically and in print. This would include sales kit and appropriate inserts.
Successful continuing education contract training teams are experimenting with insides salespeople and finding success. Thus, their staffing structure is transitioning to four primary components – inside salesperson, salesperson, product development scoping, development and implementation position, and operations position.
To grow contract training the right structure is critical, thus the need to invest in the right people in the right seats.