Inside Sales Strategy: 3 Rules for Success

Anyone will tell you that excelling in a career takes hard work and perseverance. But when I started working in an inside sales position here at memoryBlue, I got a whole new perspective on hard work and the approach I’d need to take to succeed. Beyond hard work, excelling in an inside sales position takes a special kind of grit and fearlessness.

What does it take to be able to really thrive in an inside sales role?  The answer to this question is something we all seek every day here at memoryBlue. While everyone has to find his or her own best practices, here are three rules that I’m dedicated to following, and by doing so, have established a solid foundation for a successful career. Use them to build you own personal success strategy for inside sales.

Rule 1: Make prospecting a game

The way that you approach your everyday workload should be a reflection of your personality and passions.  If you can’t find ways to inject enthusiasm into prospecting and make it enjoyable, you’re not going to be in this position very long. The way I see it, you must make prospecting into a game. Make sure you’re enjoying yourself when speaking to prospective customers and clients. Stay relaxed by treating every conversation as if you’re sharing it with one of your best friends. You can ensure success when you learn to be yourself regardless of the situation, while always utilizing good sales tactics. Try something unique every day, you never know what will grab your prospect’s attention until you try it.

Rule 2: Set your own goals

The number one way to ensure success in a sales career is to set personal goals for yourself on a daily basis. No one can argue the importance of setting yearly goals, or overall life goals. But what’s more important, especially in an inside sales role, is to make sure you set goals for yourself on a daily basis. What I do is take five minutes every morning to carefully plan out my entire day – down to each hour.  I make sure I have a game plan for the morning and afternoon, and then set a goal that I can work to achieve by the end of the day. Once these goals are set, I make sure to do all I can to reach and even exceed those goals. I make sure to set my personal expectations much higher than the goals my boss or client has for me. The key is to be completely committed to reaching them but not to make them so unattainable that you are discouraged – because a goal never reached is not a goal at all. Over time I have found that by making this a habit, I’ve been able to control my activity, hit my quotas, and improve my sales game significantly.

Rule 3: Strengthen your mentality

Anyone who’s worked in sales for even the shortest amount of time can tell you – attitude is the single MOST important thing, and your most valuable asset. Dealing with the ups and downs of our everyday interactions requires a specific mindset. That mindset should be centered around gratitude and appreciation. I recently read a book by master salesman and author Robert Terson titled, “Selling Fearlessly.” If you haven’t read it, I strongly suggest you do. In it, he uses his experiences to convey the many strategies used by sales people in their daily conversations with prospects. His emphasis on building a strong emotional foundation is what stuck out to me. As you grow in your sales career, you will experience countless moments when the task at hand seems impossible and negativity takes over.  You must learn to make the most of each experience, whether good or bad. In the words of Terson, “The salesperson who has a heart full of gratitude sells a lot more than the one who doesn’t.”

These rules are a great place to start when building your personal strategy for success in inside sales. Over time, you might adjust mine or find more of your own. Once you find a set of rules that work for you, stick to them and incorporate them into your daily lifestyle — you’ll be on track to a successful and fulfilling career.

Think an inside sales career at memoryBlue might be right for you? Check out what it’s like to work here, see what some of our alumni have done, and then get in touch.