Inside sales employees have many day-to-day responsibilities including working from a designated list to contact customers and educate them about product offerings, finding solutions to customer problems, issuing refunds or processing complaints and following up with customers to guarantee their satisfaction. They also document all interactions in a secure portal and maintain an organized and clean workspace.
In your inside sales job description, encourage candidates to possess such skills as self-confidence and customer service. Successful sales people are able to communicate effectively, negotiate, mediate conflict, maintain an objective, have a professional and friendly demeanor and be able to learn about new products quickly.
Decision-making skills are also crucial to make independent choices regarding customers’ needs without having to consult a superior every time. This inside sales job description demonstrates other valuable information you could incorporate into your posting.
Inside Sales Job Summary
As an inside sales representative, you will be part of an energetic team of professionals who are committed to educating customers and providing superior service. You will have the opportunity to work with a variety of people and learn about a group of unique products to inform customers of specifications including price, usage and complementary merchandise. We value our sales force and will be coming to you for ideas regarding product improvements, marketing strategies and sales tactics. If you are someone who enjoys working with people, is friendly and outgoing and committed to making a difference, then this job could be the perfect fit for you.
Job Responsibilities
- Participate in lead generation strategies, such as cold calling, to identify business prospects and create a list of potential customers
- Utilize designated resources to contact customers and gauge their interest in obtaining products or services offered by the company, analyze each individual and make product recommendations based on a need or problem to be solved
- Mediate conflict in situations where customers are disgruntled or seeking recompense, and provide solutions that reestablish credibility and maintain business but effectively benefit the customer
- Maintain a log of which customers have been contacted, the outcome of each interaction and issues that need to be flagged for follow up
- Proactively follow up with customers to get their feedback, guarantee their satisfaction and develop ideas for pitch modification to more successfully advertise products
- Collaborate with professionals from other departments to identify improvements to product offerings, sales education, marketing strategies and other business-related topics
- Encourage team members to be productive, friendly, professional and integrity-driven by maintaining a positive demeanor and objective approach to customer conflict
- Uphold standards of self-motivation, time management and productivity, and maintain a workspace that is clean, organized and professional
Job Skills & Qualifications
Reqiured:
- High school diploma or equivalent degree
- Willingness to learn
- Self-motivated and able to manage time effectively
Preferred:
- 1-3 years of experience working in customer service
- Familiarity with negotiation, upselling and other sales tactics
Inside Sales Job Responsibilities
Having a strong inside sales team is often just as important as building an outside sales presence. The staff you have working on the inside are integral to reaching potential clients, providing sales support and closing deals. If you want to realize the full potential of your inside sales team, writing a great inside sales job description is one of the most important parts of the process.
To do so, you must clearly illustrate for prospective applicants what the job entails on a day to day basis. This is the purpose of the inside sales job responsibilities section. Here, you will detail what tasks you expect a successful candidate to perform. It is a good idea to include anywhere from 6-8 examples—utilizing action words—in the form of a bulleted list. Consider the following for inspiration as you write your inside sales job description:
- Receive incoming calls from customers looking for more information on the services and products our company offers
- Interact with customers and potential clients using platforms such as email and social media to initiate sales opportunities
- Guide customers through the order process from start to finish so that they understand what to expect and to maximize the value of the sale
- Demonstrate accurate and extensive knowledge of all products and services
Inside Sales Job Specifications
Outlining the responsibilities of a job is important, but it may be even more important to specify its requirements. You don’t want an inbox full of unqualified and ill-suited applicants, and you can pare down your prospects by writing a great inside sales job description. When you are drafting the inside sales job specifications, it may be a good idea to consult your hiring manager or any other person overseeing the hiring process to brainstorm what specifications are the most important to include in the job qualifications and skills section.
After you have done so and compiled a list of the job’s most essential requirements, it is time to write and put them in your inside sales job description. Just as you did with the responsibilities you listed, you should organize the specifications for the job in the form of a bullet point list. Including anywhere from 4-6 items is generally a good idea, and the following list can serve as a model for your company’s own job description specifications:
- High School Diploma required
- Associate’s degree or higher preferred
- At least 2 years of experience in sales
- Exemplary customer service skills
- Superior written and spoken communication skills
- Familiarity with Microsoft suite and sales software