3 Inside Sales Benchmarks to Gauge the Health of Your Team

As evidenced by the attendance at AA-ISP's 2015 Inside Sales Leadership Summit, inside sales is growing by the minute. Today, it's rare to find a company that doesn't at least have an inside sales rep or two working in tandem with those in the field. Alternatively, some organizations are nixing the outside component altogether in favor of 100% inside sales. To varying degrees, companies are embracing and increasingly relying on inside sales metrics and models to make their revenue goals.

But considering that inside sales might be a new initiative at your organization, it can be helpful to benchmark your team against those of your peers to see where you stack up. In its newly released "2015 Inside/Telesales Performance" report, CSO Insights provides three useful statistics for inside sales managers:

1. Percentage of reps meeting or beating quota: 49% at companies whose inside hiring practices need improvement; 61% at companies whose inside sales hiring practices meet or exceed expectations.
2. Voluntary turnover: 13.6% (hiring needs improvement); 9.3% (hiring meets/exceeds expectations)
3. Percentage of reps who can properly qualify and prioritize opportunities: 38% (hiring needs improvement); 67% (hiring meets/exceeds expectations)

It's clear that hiring practices are of prime importance to the success of inside sales teams. So what should inside sales managers look for when hiring reps?

"There are concrete examples and attributes given in Mark Roberge’s book The Sales Acceleration Formula to guide you in this regard," the report states. "For example, attributes you might consider include: indicators of sales excellence, longevity with their current/former employers, alignment between the prospect’s current buyer context and your buyer context, and quality of LinkedIn profile."

After determining how your inside sales team compares to these benchmarks, you might consider taking a look at your hiring practices before you invest in training or any other initiative. 

What do you think about these benchmarks? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.