In the opening chapter of our comprehensive exploration into the four pivotal Go-To-Market (GTM) strategies, we took a deep dive into Product-Led Growth (PLG) and Channel Sales. We unraveled how PLG becomes a powerhouse driving customer acquisition, conversion, and expansion, while Channel Sales, through strategic partnerships, can unlock the potential of other ecosystems to hasten growth. As we venture into the next installment of this series, our focus shifts to the dynamics of Inside Sales and Field Sales. Each of these strategies carries distinctive strengths and uses, depending on your business environment, and mastering them can shape a successful GTM strategy.
But First, A Little Intro
I am Wilson Huang, responsible for the GTM strategy at ATMOSIScience, and I invite you to delve deeper into our sales strategy toolkit as we explore the intriguing world of Inside Sales and Field Sales. For insights on the first two GTM motions, you can refer to the previous
1. Inside Sales
In the fast-paced world of Inside Sales, it's all about picking up the phone, dialing, and selling – much like scenes from "The Wolf of Wall Street". But beyond the cinematic allure, Inside Sales is a robust, practical strategy that uses virtual interactions to sell products or services. Inside Sales uses virtual, non-face-to-face interactions to sell, proving effective across all stages of the sales process – from prospecting to renewal and lead expansion.
Typical Roles in Inside Sales:
- Business Development Representative or Sales Development Representative (BDR or SDR): Lead qualification and prospecting.
- Account Executive (AE): Negotiation and deal closure.
- Customer Success Representative or Account Manager (CSR or AM): Customer retention and upselling.
Post-COVID, 60% of B2B buyers prefer non-interactive primary information sources, and 62% can finalize vendor selection based on digital content alone. Around 99% of US and 100% of EMEA enterprise B2B IT buyers prefer mostly or entirely virtual software purchases.
Note: Bain surveyed IT decision makers across industries and company sizes in US and Europe, ~70% of respondents were from enterprise-sized companies (1,000+ EE); the ‘Entirely virtual’ purchasing model represents the combination of video, phone, and email/messaging as well as entirely email or other purely digital interactions; ‘Majority virtual’ purchasing includes occasional in-person on-site meetings
Source:
Bain experience; Bain COVID-19 B2B IT software survey (September 2020; US N=98; EU N=50),
Forrester research
Determining Who to Call:
This involves identifying potential lead sources for your business, which could include the following:
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LinkedIn Ads and Organic Reach
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Twitter Ads and Organic Reach
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Facebook Ads and Organic Reach
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Instagram Ads and Organic Reach
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Social Media Influencers
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Blogging
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Search Engine Optimization
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Purchased Lists/Emails
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Google Search and Display Ads
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Bing Search and Display Ads
Once you've generated leads from these sources, it's crucial to qualify them. It's not necessary, or even feasible, to call all leads; focus on the qualified ones. A lead might qualify if they request a demo or download a brochure from your website - these are often termed Marketing Qualified Leads (MQLs).
Several scoring factors can help organizations determine whether a lead is qualified, including:
- Type of form (webinar, content download, demo request)
- Completeness of form information
- Use of a company email versus a personal email
- IP address location data
- Analysis of website page visits
- Email open/click rates
- Time decay factor
The sequence typically followed is: a content download leads to an immediate email follow-up, which triggers a content-dependent email sequence, and finally, the lead is added to the marketing list.
Inside Sales Considerations:
The price you are selling should ideally be a few hundred dollars per month (or better, a few thousand) for the Lifetime Value (LTV) to support Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC). Onboarding and hiring new reps take time.
Key Inside Sales Statistics:
A typical Inside Sales person makes about 350 phone calls, engages in 140 conversations, and sends approximately 530 emails per month.
Key Takeaways:
- It is suitable for selling complex products requiring purchasing assistance.
- More field sales and inside sales are moving toward digital discovery (or PLG).
- The preference for Inside Sales is often industry-dependent. For instance, individuals in the B2B software industry may lean towards this virtual method, while those in more traditional sectors, like the cigar industry, might favor face-to-face field sales and tradeshows. This happens to me very often as I interact with ATMOSIScience’s customer base.
2. Field Sales
Field sales refer to the deployment of experienced professional salespeople - who are direct employees of your business - into the 'field', meaning they visit customers in person multiple times a week. This model is typically applied in environments with long sales cycles, complex products, high-value customers, or complex matrixed customer decision-making units. The salespeople are geographically distributed and typically segmented by account, geography, sales stage, industry/vertical, or some combination thereof.
Characteristics:
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Compensation is a primary tool to drive behavior
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Geographically distributed sales organization that interacts with customers in person
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Inside resources such as BDRs often applied to generate or develop leads
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May require custom, complex contracts
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Combines the art and science of selling
Pros:
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Rapid, comprehensive customer feedback
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Closing larger deals with expansion potential
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Predictability when well executed
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Control over the sales cycle
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The ability to become a trusted partner to your customers
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The capacity to engineer deals to meet specific needs
Cons:
- The most costly GTM model
- Lengthy sales cycles
- Limits to experimenting at scale due to dominant company culture
- Growth is throttled by the speed of hiring
- Buyers may resist engaging with sales personnel
- Changing market dynamics can disrupt the economic feasibility
Key Takeaways:
- Field sales are suitable for complex products/services, especially in large accounts with large LTV. For example, companies like SpaceX, IBM, Oracle, and biotech companies in general.
- It provides valuable insights about your customer
- It has the potential to close larger deals with room for expansion
- It can define your company's culture
- It scales with growth in distributed headcount and infrastructure.
In conclusion, I want to share an insightful chart crafted by my mentors at MIT Sloan's Entrepreneurial Sales Class (15.387). This chart vividly illustrates the relationship between Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) and deal size, particularly in the context of the four Go-To-Market (GTM) strategies discussed in this series:
As we wrap up this deep dive into the four GTM strategies, I hope you've gained a more profound understanding of the nuances and complexities of these vital elements in shaping a business's growth trajectory. From Product-Led Growth and Channel Sales to Inside and Field Sales, each GTM strategy plays a unique role in shaping your customer outreach and defining your market position. While it may seem like a challenge to pick the 'right' GTM strategy, remember that the best approach is often a blend of these strategies tailored to your unique business context and market dynamics.
At
I hope this series has provided you with valuable insights, practical tools, and most importantly, the confidence to navigate your own journey with a strategic lens. In the realm of GTM, there's no one-size-fits-all. But with understanding, agility, and the right strategies in your toolkit, you'll be well-equipped to make the right moves for your business.