Revolutionizing Sales: What Inside Sales Can Do for Your Business

Somewhere along the line, the word sales got a bad rap, right? When we think of sales, I think we think of like, used car salesmen or someone trying to sell me this unnecessary skin cream or kitchen utensil in the middle of the mall. When you walk down at Christmas time with your family, it's annoying, right? You're running away from these people. Well, the deal is sales got a bad rap somewhere along the way. But when you think about taking a step back from sales, sales is a noble process, right? Because you're trying to counsel someone through a process that helps them overcome an obstacle or a challenge that they're facing that therefore makes their life better. On the other side, sales is a good thing. It helps people when it's done right. So when I met my friend Dawn Gruder, we were at an event where she was coaching a group of people about inside sales. And I thought, man, more people need to hear and understand this process. Because inside sales, whether you're a wholesale brand or a sales agency or a retailer, inside sales is a huge opportunity for lifted and recaptured sales that we may have missed otherwise with just digital marketing alone or road reps alone. So we're going to bring you in. Dawn is going to talk about what it means to live inside sales, what type of sales processes and strategies and scripts and dialogues we should use with inside sales. And again, no matter if you're wholesale or retail, how inside sales could be a huge better benefit to recapture some lost dollars within your business. So let's get started. I'm going to jump into my interview with Don Grutters. You guys are going to want to take some notes. I know you're going to love this one. Business can be a lonely game, but it doesn't have to be. Welcome to Boutique Chat, where we explore community over competition and how to scale your company with the balance and the happiness that we all seek. We'll hear from product based businesses of all types, retailers, e commerce and wholesale brands, along with industry experts shaping the future of our industry. I'm your host, Ashley Alderson from the Boutique Hub and I can't wait to chat. Hey guys, welcome back to the podcast this week I am kind of excited about this topic, Dawn. For myself, I want to learn all the things from you today, so this timing is perfect. Um, you and I had an opportunity to meet recently in person as you were consulting a group that I was also working with and I thought, oh, there's so much that we all can learn from you. So as we dig into it today, I know, we're going to take lots of notes, but tell me first, how did you get to this point? How did you decide that inside sales were your gig? This is what you wanted to pursue?

Yeah. So I didn't plan on this. And most of the best laid plans are not plans that I set in place by any means. Exactly. I started in the gift in home industry as a buyer. So I was a buyer for a chain of Hallmark stores. And I did buying for about six years, and then I started my sales career with a national sales group. It wasn't national at the time, but started as an outside sales rep and did that for like three years. Was on the road going to local stores in my state and just, you know, pulling out catalogs, showing samples. Did that for about three years. And in 2011, my second son ended up passing away unexpectedly. And when that happened, I was like, I can't do this. I can't go back out on the road. And so the company that I was working with, they had said, hey, we're interested in starting inside sales. Would you be interested in doing that? And so at that point I was like, well, I can work from home. I can still help bring in an income for my family. And I had a lot to process and go through and heal and all of those things. And so when that happened, I was like, all right, I'll just give it a try and see what happens. Maybe it'll work, maybe it won't. So I started doing inside sales, literally calling retailers, trying to sell products, and I didn't know what I was doing. And so I had to kind of figure out, like, how could I sell products? And like, I did when I was on the road because I was successful at that, so how can I do it over the phone? And so when I, I just tried a bunch of things, made a lot of mistakes, got hung up on all the things that happened, and I just started to figure out, like, oh, this works better and this works better. And so I literally did inside sales for about, I think it was seven years of just calling retailers. So that's thousands and thousands of conversations that I've had with retailers. And when I, when I was having those conversations, I just learned more about them. And I am very relationship based. And so I wanted to know them and they would tell me about their kids and their vacations over the phone. And. And so that just turned into like, oh, being successful at that. Excuse me. And then when I. And then I started training other people in the team to just, how, how do you do inside sales well. And that kind of turned into a couple. Another role within the company that I was with. And then in 2020, I got let go. Like, just sales in the industry were really hard and got let go. But by that time, I had already had this calling, like, there's something next. There's. There's something more for you to do. And that when I got let go, I had vendors and I had sales reps calling me, saying, you know how to do inside sales. We can't go to stores, we can't see our customers. So what do I do? And that kind of set this ball in motion of, like, this is how I can help. This is how I can help sales reps and vendors and help retailers by sharing what I had learned and just did consistently over those seven plus years of doing inside sales. So that's kind of how I got here. We're almost five years into. I started my LLC in 2019, and so we're almost five years into this.

That's incredible. That's a lot of. You just jammed a lot of ups and downs into a very short couple of minutes that we're gonna unpack.

Yes.

But isn't that amazing? Like, I feel like something good always comes from every bad situation if you.

Choose to look for it.

Like, there's always a silver lining. There's always a new opportunity if you look hard enough. And so I'm sure that's true in so many different areas of your life. But I. I've got to just like, pause here. So if anyone's listening and they're like, wait, Don, this sounds great, but just start at the basics. What does inside sales mean to most people? What does it mean to a sales rep? To a wholesale brand? What does it mean to a retailer?

Yeah. Yeah. So inside sales to a wholesale brand, that's where I usually start, is with a wholesale brand. They have a list of customers. Usually it's customers that have fallen off the radar or. Or it's customers that maybe sales reps aren't getting to. Maybe. Like when I was talking to sales reps, sometimes they're like, my territory is nine hours from 1 end to the other end. And so they're not getting to those far out places in their regions as much. And so for wholesale vendors, there's customers that are not getting reached. And so those vendors need people to reach those customers. And so inside sales is little. Literally calling those customers on a regular, consistent basis, letting them know about specials that the vendors are offering, letting them know about new Product introductions and letting them know about what bestsellers are. Kind of being that sales rep, but just doing it over the phone. For sales reps, that is something that they have a list of, you know, anywhere from 250 to 350 customers. They cannot physically go to those customers as much as they would like to. Even if it's four times a year. That's like 1400. Like it could be so many different, so many different. That can be like so many different appointments that they can't get to 1400 appointments every year. Just physically not possible. So using inside sales helps them reach those customers that maybe only want to see them at shows, but in between they need reorders or they need a customer, they want a sales rep to answer questions for them or hey, I just need a quick reorder. Those are things. Inside sales is a skills, is a skill set that sales reps can utilize. And then for retailers, many retailers now, especially since COVID are like, the staffing is not great. They don't have time to spend and sit two hours with the sales rep in their store. So many retailers are saying, I don't want a sales rep to come into my store, but I still need their help. I still need them to tell me what's working and what are trends and what are the best sellers. So they still need that kind of help. But inside sales helps them do that in a quicker way. And it's maybe a phone call of, you know, 20 minutes rather than a two hour appointment. So it helps the retailers as well.

Yeah, that I hear that feedback from retailers a lot where they used to have more time for reps and now they're like, oh, I'm so busy, I don't, I don't have the time. Especially a rep that doesn't make an appointment like that all becomes, I think, pretty hairy. So I could see how this would be so beneficial. So if a company is new and they're new to inside sales, let's say, where do most companies get started? How do most companies, like, how do you start to craft an inside sales program for your business?

So it's really looking at data. So it's looking at their customer list. So if it's a wholesale vendor or even sales reps, they're looking at their customer list and they're saying which customers have fallen off the radar? Which customers am I not talking to anymore? Which customers am I not getting to as often? That's the best place to start. Because those customers, you know, maybe haven't been contacted for two Years or, you know, even a year. And there's some sales that are missed there. The retailers are missing the products from the vendors. And so starting with that customer list is the best place to go when you are looking to add inside sales. And a lot of that is, you know, just looking through the data. Where are this, where we're missing sales, when was the last order, what were the sales? And then, you know, literally contacting that customer. There's definitely some research that needs to be done for those customers to understand their business. A lot of businesses have changed their model. Retailers have changed their model from 2020 to now. So what are they buying now? What works for them, what's not working for them, and asking questions, looking at their social media to see what products they're selling and what are they doing well with. It's researching those customers and then having a conversation with them.

Okay, so if I'm looking at the data are, am I typically then grouping my customers? Like, do you have a system that you like, like, okay, A, B, C, D, like I rate my customers or I put them in different groups like based on some sort of status. How do you outline that piece?

Yeah, yeah. So usually when it comes to that, it's, it's almost like putting those customers in buckets. And customers will jump from one bucket to another, which is completely fine, but it's putting them in different buckets. Like these are customers that maybe I set a show appointment with in January and in the summer markets. And then those customers in between, I'm going to call. Or maybe it's customers that, you know, they, they want you in their store four times a year or more. And so then those are in another bucket. And then you have customers that maybe you get to once a year. And so then you know that I'm gonna have to call them these times. So it's putting those customers in different buckets and customers are gonna order in a variety of different ways and they can jump from those buckets, but it's just making sure that you're contacting those customers to know how they want to be worked with.

Yeah. That's so important. Do you, I'm sure you must have stats on like an average company implements an inside sales program. What is the typical like lift or return that they get on that program? What kind of numbers do a lot?

Yeah, so it kind of depends on what, what they were doing before. So if they don't have one at all, then obviously the, the rate of return on that and the, and the increase on that is going to be very different. But you know, the one company I worked with, they were primarily doing inside sales, but through email. And so they were sending out like hundreds and hundreds of emails to their customers. Within the first month they had like a 30% increase in their sales just by switching over from all those emails to calling. Obviously there's, you know, calling and then following up with an email. There's a process in that, but it was a huge increase just by calling those customers. And that that particular vendor then learned more about each one of those customers so they could tailor what's going to work for them and you know, send them an email with recommendations because they learned more that through a conversation that you can't learn through email.

Yeah, that's so true. The value of that relationship, the customer can just become so much stickier through that. Hey, can we meet up in person? It is one of my favorite things to do here at the Boutique Hub. To get to meet you face to face to hear your personal business story and your journey and what you're working on, but also to put you in contact with and to build friendships with some of the most amazing business owners from around the world. Boutique owners, wholesale brands, industry service providers and experts. All of us together in one room. And that's what we do at our annual Boutique Summit event this year. I would love for you to come to Dallas, Texas, of course, on June 8th and 9th for our annual Boutique Summit. Our theme this year is the summit and your business completely reimagined. And I think it's time for that theme to take effect. Right. We have been through some crazy highs and lows in this industry and I think going into 2025, we are all ready to reimagine what's possible in this industry and in your business personally. So get ready for detailed hands on workshops. Not just you listening to speakers, but you actually getting things done, pulling out your Facebook ads account and building some ads together or planning out an entire quarter of content, maybe doing some social media audits with some of our most well listened to experts in the room along with fellow boutique owners. It's time to dig deeper into your business. And that's what we're going to do together at the Boutique Summit in Dallas, Texas, June 8th and 9th. I hope to see you there. It is our biggest and best and favorite event of the year. And it's time to take your business to the next level. Let's do it together. Do you what would you say to somebody who's like, okay, I want to Start implementing calling. I'm sure there's some technical questions like I don't want to call from my personal phone number. Maybe I need a Google phone number. Like what's the technical setup to get someone ready to start the process and then talk to me about like just kind of a general script. How do you start to frame questions up to make this better?

Yeah, yeah. So just to get set up with like calling. So we actually, and I did it for years using my cell phone just because I think, you know, and if you, you're, if you were a business, like a corporation or something like that, obviously you would use your office phone number. But I did it for years just using my cell phone. So usually I just say you can use a computer. If you have a computer and you have a cell phone, it's a great way to do it. One of the features that we have is we use HubSpot as our CRM, which you can do calling within that as well and have a separate phone number for that. So that's another way you can have a phone number for that. But when it comes to actually making the phone calls and talking to customers, obviously you want to introduce yourself. We're always very transparent when we're calling people, letting them know who we are, what company we're calling on behalf of, and then just letting them know that what we do. And then we go from there. We start, we ask questions like how is business going? It's rapport questions, right? Like, how is business going? How are you doing? As you start to build a relationship then obviously you would be calling customers, especially if you knew, like, hey, they went on this great vacation. How was your vacation? We want them to get to know us and we want to get to know them. Then we go in from there. Once we learn more about that customer through the conversations and listening to the answers of the questions we've asked them, then we start to let them know, well, I'm calling you about, so what is the purpose of the call I'm calling you about? This vendor has a promotion this month. Or did you see the new introductions that this vendor has? Once we let them know that information, then we go into, you know, like, how can we help you? What is the best way for us to work with you? And again, we ask a few more questions with all of that, but then we let them know, like, I'm going to send you a follow up email. It's going to include A, B and C. And then I'm going to follow up with you in A week to seven days or you know, sometimes they'll be like, give me two weeks. And so we'll say, yep, we're going to follow up with you in two weeks. And then we send out that, we finish the call, thank you for your time, and then we send out that email and then we follow up. So we set tasks within our CRM to follow up and do it in a timely manner.

Okay, got it. So lots of questions and like you said, lots of pre work in terms of like looking at their social media ahead of time, all of that.

Yes, got it.

How do. So most companies, I'll say companies with reps that have reps on the road, how do they typically handle like the customer relationship and who owns the customer? With an inside sales program, there must be some sort of like commission sharing or how does that work for wholesale brands?

Yeah, so it does vary with different brands. Usually it's good to separate out those customers. So these are road rep or these are sales rep customers and these are inside sales customers. That's the best way to eliminate the confusion with customers and eliminate the, any tension between those two. Because there can be. Even when I started, there was a lot of confusion and tension around. Wait, wait, are you calling my customers or what? What are you doing? And I'm like, no, it's not that. But so if you can, if you can separate what customers sales reps are working with versus inside sales, that's the best way to go, honestly. But then from there there are some companies that I've worked with that kind of integrate that a little bit and can share commission on that. They can help facilitate things. So having us inside salesperson calling about like maybe there's your order shipped and you know, or I need payment or I, I'm trying to set up appointments for market. Like an inside salesperson can do some of that as well. So that is a way to share it. Just you have to have, I would say you have to have transparency in it. You have to set guidelines, both sides have guidelines and stay within those guidelines to eliminate any of the confusion. And everybody knows what role they play and stick within that lane.

Yeah, I think that's really beneficial over, communicate, getting all those things set up for sure. Do you feel like there's other, like what other best practices do you see when people are on the phone in inside sales?

Yeah, so I would say when I've trained people and I've listened to them, I think they tend to talk too much. As an inside salesperson, you tend to talk too Much. And so leaving a space in between a question that you ask or, you know, if you're telling them about the promotion, leave a space for the retailer to react and say, oh, wait, oh, yeah, that sounds really good. Or, you know, you can get more feedback and more intentionality in your conversation if you listen more than what you talk. And so a lot of times people talk way more, and they're like, I want to get this out and get it done quick. And that's not what you need to do. They need. Yes, yes. Yeah. And so they need to leave a little bit more space in there and wait for the reaction, and then they can continue. Or it may change the course of the conversation, too, based on the reaction.

Yeah.

It's so funny.

I feel like it's common anymore for people to feel uncomfortable with silence. Like, we're such instant gratification people that it's very rare that we can just sit in silence and be content with that. But I do think that's a huge part of sales.

Yeah. Yeah.

Are there other, like, are there kiss of death questions or are there kiss of death statements that you see people make that people should definitely avoid?

I think I've probably done it all. And so I, you know, I think I've probably. I've been hung up on. I've been swore at. I've been, you know, all the different things.

But.

But I think you can recover from most of that. Most people have grace with you. If there is a customer that, you know, hangs up on you or says, please don't call me, obviously we respect that. But usually it is more something that they're dealing with. Maybe they're, you know, maybe the store is struggling right now, and they're like, the last thing I want to do is talk to you. That's okay. Like, we let those things roll off our back. It's not. We don't take it personally. And. But I think that anything. I don't know that there's really a kiss of death on it. I think there's ways to recover it. There's missed opportunities that you. That happen where you're like, oh, man, I should have told them about this. Well, then you create another opportunity to call them back about something and tell them, you know what? I forgot to tell you about this. But also, here's X, Y, and Z. And so I think there's ways to take or help missed opportunities and really grow those.

Yeah, I love that you said create another opportunity, because something you said earlier, you were talking about was making sure you're telling them about like the promotion or the thing. I'm assuming that's a best practice is if you're going to be calling somebody, there has to be like some kind of carrot attached to the call, right?

Yes, absolutely. We all, we only want to create value for the retailers that we're calling. So if you do not have value, then it, you shouldn't be making the call if you're just calling. The only other way I would say that is when you have, especially during COVID it was a lot of courtesy calls and that's what I call them is courtesy calls like how are you doing? That builds relationship. And so unless. And some of them were like, I'm fine and then you move on. And then some of them were like, this really sucks. Or I had called somebody during COVID and they said I'm really struggling on how to set up a website. Well, I had just done that for my own business and I was like, okay, well here's what I would recommend. And so that was something that gave me an opportunity to share what I had just learned with a retailer, especially during COVID And so it came out of a courtesy call. And so I think adding value in ways that help the retailer not just take up the time, not just to get a call in, but to add value is the way it needs to be done.

Yeah, that makes so much sense. No one wants to just be sold to. Everybody wants to have some sort of relationship. So I think that's really, really good. Any other just like best practices, like what do you see the brands that are doing this really well? What do they have in common?

A CRM is essential. There's when especially brands and sales agencies, they have so many customers, like there's thousands upon thousands of customers that they are dealing with and there is no way for one person to remember every single thing, especially when you're doing consistent follow up. And so using a CRM helps you to, helps you to record the information like when you last talked to them, what you talked to them about, the emails that they responded to. You see all of that in the CRM. And so it jogs your memory very quickly to say, oh yeah, I talked to Ashley about this and so I'm going to bring it up again to see if she made a decision on it or you know, talk to her about her kids or something like that. So those are things that help you be better at your job without having to store that information in your brain. Because we're all overloaded with information.

Yeah, Perfect. CRM.

That is huge. That is huge.

So, okay, as you're talking and I, we've got all kinds of wholesale, like brand based customers that listen to this podcast. This is perfect. But I'm also thinking about this as a retailer and I'm wondering, a retail store with a large customer base, how could they implement inside sales into their business?

Yeah, so I've actually worked with some retailers that have done it. That that wasn't necessarily my primary goal. Again, it wasn't my plan. But I've had retailers that I've talked to about it and they're like, I want to do this. So especially retailers that have an online store or they have an online component, they have a lot of retail, a lot of consumers that go on their website and they put stuff in their cart. Abandoned carts is a great way for a retailer to use inside sales to call those customers and say, hey, I saw, you know, I see that you put this, this and this in your cart. You know, do you have questions on these products? Do you have, is there something holding you back from placing your order? What is it? One, as a retailer you learn a lot about your customers then. And two, you could help close those sales to get that customer to click purchase. And then we also had, I've had retailers that have done it where they, especially during COVID when they had all these customers, they would just call those customers and say, hey, you know what? I know you've purchased this before. We just got this in. Is this something that you would really like to take a look at? Let me email you some pictures. So it's kind of more that just personal way to see sell to the consumers through the retailer.

Yeah, I think it's such an opportunity because our world has gotten so digital that I mean, whether it's a phone call. Right. Like the only phone calls you get anymore are spam.

Yes.

And same with postal mail. The only thing you get in the mail is bills. So I just think these are two really underutifi. Underutilized mediums for both wholesalers and retailers to really dig into. Um, I'm assuming one of the biggest questions people listening are asking themselves is, okay, dawn, this is great, I would love to do this, but what kind of manpower does it take for me to implement a program like this?

Yeah, so literally the equipment is a phone and a computer. So those you can do it from anywhere. And so I would recommend, if you're even interested in starting it, hire part time. Like hire someone part time, say 20 hours a week. And here's a list of customers. So start with a small list and say, you know, even if it's a retailer or a wholesale vendor, a hundred customers, start with a small list and see where that takes you. Because that's going to give you a good indication to say, yes, this is going to work. Or even if it's not working, like, what is the things I need to change in that. But starting small. I always recommend starting small because then you're going to be able to say, oh, this works and now how are we going to scale this? But I would hate for somebody to be like, I'm going to hire five people and you know, there's thousands of customers. And then they're like, wait a minute, this is not working. And so starting small. I started with a mom that was part time. Like, that's how I started my inside sales team. She was a mom, she was working part time. We had one vendor and we said, let's give this a try. And so she helped me figure out, like, what are the things that we needed to do? What resources did we need within our business? And. And she helped me do that. And so then as we gained more vendors and we talked to more customers, then we can continue to add there. But even starting part time, to help get some of those customers contacted, you're going to see customers and get information from either those consumers or those retail customers that will really help you say, yes, this is working and this is how we're going to move forward.

Got it. So, so then as you're starting that, is there like one or two metrics that you're like, okay, this is, we're going to implement this program and then this is how we're going to measure its success. What are the metrics that you would go after?

Yeah, so I look at, obviously you want to look at sales. So how, what is the, the sales that come in from the effort. You want that return on investment. Right. And then the other thing I look at, so I set goals all the time. The number of calls, it's not necessarily to like number of dials, it's the number of calls. But I also look at our connection rate. So how many customers are we actually connecting with? Yes, we're going to leave voicemails. That happens a lot. But what are the number of customers we're connecting with? Because that's where we're going to be able to close that sale or that's where we can get the sale. And so what is that percentage of connection rate within the number of Calls that you're making every day.

Okay, that's really helpful. Awesome. Dawn, this is incredibly helpful, all of this. Is there any other, like, best words of wisdom for both retailers and for wholesale brands that are listing today?

Yeah, you know, I always focus on insight or I always focus on relationship based inside sales. The number of phone conversations that I had where I had just these meaningful conversations with retailers was so impactful to me because both personally and professionally. And so you want it to be that relationship. And so I know some people think of inside sales of like, oh, it's like dialing for dollars or it's a call center type thing or I don't want to make those phone calls. It shouldn't be about that. You're connecting with a person and that's what a phone call does. And those conversations help you to accomplish so much more than sending an email. And so that information is priceless to, to a retailer, it's priceless to the wholesale vendors and it's priceless to the sales reps. And so I think that's the approach you should take is I'm connecting with somebody through a phone call even if I can't get there and visit them and it's not just an email. Yeah.

So good. People are so lonely today.

Yes.

I just feel like people want to do business with people, not companies. And people are so lonely. So it seems like, you know, kind of a no brainer. Seems like it should be a huge opportunity for a lot of people. So, Don, this is awesome. Thank you so much. I'm so glad that our paths crossed because I think there's so many people who can, who can utilize this and you're a consultant in this space. So you guys, as you're listening, I'm going to link up all of Dawn's information. So if you have any questions for her, you'll know how to touch base.

With her as well.

But this is awesome, dawn, thank you so much.

Yes, thank you so much.

Thanks for listening, guys. I hope you took away all kinds of nuggets and new ideas from this week's episode. Don't forget to subscribe and leave a rating and review. We love to hear your feedback and give you a chance to be featured on the show each and every week. For more information on our spirit of community over competition and to access guest downloads and bonuses and all the resources we talked about on the show, head on over to the boutiquehub.com and join the community. We'll see you next week.