What Are the Different Roles of an Inside Sales Representative?

In today’s virtual world, with a drastic change in the buyers' journey, inside sales have become the most popular sales model for high-ticket industries. Besides, a global pandemic forced millions of people to work remotely. Thus, inside sales has become a vital part of many organisations.

In this article, we're going to talk about various inside sales job roles and specialisations. Whether you're aspiring to enter the world of sales, actively trying to build an efficient sales team, or want to brush up on your industry knowledge—this article will serve you well regardless of your intentions. Let’s look at the different roles of an inside sales team.

Let's explore!

Business Development Reps (BDR)

BDRs are responsible for the primary part of the sales process—researching, prospecting, and qualifying leads. They are the ones who identify and reach out to potential prospects. You can consider them as a bridge between marketing and sales.

Other Names:

• Sales Development Reps

Every company has distinct inside sales job roles defined for BDRs and SDRs. The distinction relies on factors like lead types, reporting structure, industry, product, customer type, etc.

Inside Sales Job Role: Business Development Reps

Their Key Responsibility Areas (or KRAs) involve:

• Answering requests and providing information about the product/service
• Following up with the interested prospects who download content
• Searching prospects through social networks
• Accepting inquiries (inbound calls, lead forms, and such)
• Qualifying and guiding the prospective customers to the correct channels
• Contact potential clients and work on the lead lists

Performance Metrics

A BDR's performance metrics involve tasks like the number of calls, talk time, appointments generated, show rates, acceptance rates, conversion rates, and so on.

Some companies base a BDR's commission on the number of meetings or opportunities they pass to the sales reps (leads) and the number accepted by those reps (conversions).

Personality Traits Best Suited for the Role

This role usually demands competitive, confident and outgoing people. You should be able to handle rejection without getting too affected and you being a multi-tasker is the cherry on top.

Account Executive

Once you have gotten some selling experience under your belt, opting for the job of an AE would be the natural next step. After spending approximately 6 to 18 months in the sales or business development roles, a BDR can get promoted to account executive.

AEs are trusted to work high-opportunity deals, uncover needs, match your product/service to the leads, explore customer values to generate excitement, and close the business.

Other Names:

• Inside Sales Representative (ISR)
• Closer
• Sales Executive Rep

Inside Sales Job Role: Account Executive

You'll spend most of your day in meetings, on the phone, sending emails, or engaging prospects on social media. Some other KRAs of an AE include:

• Running demos and giving presentations
• Identifying, surfacing, and addressing buying obstacles that the prospect customers face
• Crafting personalised value propositions
• Negotiating the terms and conditions

Performance Metrics

Usually, an AE's performance metrics involve pipeline revenue, sales velocity (how quickly your potential customers move through the sales funnel), and close rates. Opportunities remain in the hands of AEs until closed-lost (the potential customer is no longer interested in buying from you) or closed-won (you’ve successfully onboarded your prospects and they’re now officially your customer).

Personality Traits Best Suited for the Role

If you are someone with strong interpersonal skills, you can thrive as an AE. Resilience is a primary trait for AEs. Rejection and uncertainty are common for AEs. It might make you miserable. You'll need to bounce back quickly after failure and remain calm in stressful situations.

If the idea of closing a big deal or a low-probability opportunity thrills you, this position is just perfect for you.

Account Manager

After the initial purchase by a customer, Account managers come into the picture. An account manager's portfolio is relatively stable compared to other sales jobs.

Other Names:

• Client Engagement Rep
• Client Success Manager
• Existing Accounts Rep
• Key Account Manager
• Account Executive (in some cases)

Inside Sales Job Roles: Account Manager

Customer Success Reps or Account Managers are newer roles and typically align with SaaS. You will serve as the customer's primary point of contact. You will work with each customer to:

• Understand their needs
• Create a long-term business plan
• Help them realise your USP
• Show them a possibility of better ROI if they use your product

Account managers also look for upselling and cross-selling opportunities. Within startups or SMBs, account managers handle the conversion for upselling with the customer. An Account Manager essentially helps to conduct more business with the existing clients. For enterprise brands, it's usually the salesperson who does this.

Performance Metrics

Retention!

The primary goal of an account manager is retention. Hence, their performance will be evaluated by the same. On top of that, satisfaction rates would also matter.

Personality Traits Best Suited for the Role

The account manager role will suit you best if you are passionate about building relationships and being an internal advocate for customers. Successful account managers must possess the skill of balancing multiple needs. Besides, you'll have to think of an account from the client's perspective, your company's perspective, sales targets, and more.

Essential Skill: You must speak your customer's language. Without a deep understanding of your customer's business, market, objectives, and industry, you may find it difficult to earn their confidence.

To Conclude

So, this is our list of the different inside sales job roles explained.

We know now how different inside sales job roles function. From the BDR teams who hunt for new opportunities to the account executives who work on communicating with the prospects and push them towards the sales funnel through demos, trials, etc.

Then the Account Managers work closely with the customers and serve as their primary point of contact. If you are interested in shaping a career in any of these roles, you must check out Juno’s skill enhancement program to kickstart your journey! Juno can help you sharpen your skills in the sales niche of your choice. Do check it out!

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