The Ultimate Guide to Outside Sales

 Before the advent of web conferencing tools, “sales” and “outside sales” were synonymous. These days, reps can easily talk to prospects on the other side of the state, country, and even world.

But does that mean field sales has lost all value?

While inside sales is growing at a far faster rate than outside sales, there is still a true need in some industries for good old-fashioned face-to-face selling.

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To help you navigate the world of outside sales, we’ve compiled a comprehensive guide covering:

• What is outside sales?
• What is an outside sales rep?
• How much do outside sales reps make?
• Most desirable outside sales skills
• The difference between outside sales and inside sales
• Outside sales vs. inside sales for your company
• Outside sales and inside sales working together
• Hiring outside sales reps
• Outside sales tips

Outside sales definition

Outside sales (a.k.a. field sales) is a type of selling strategy where reps meet prospects face-to-face. Field salespeople typically spend a lot of time traveling within their given sales territory.

What is an outside sales rep?

A field salesperson manages new and existing customer relationships within her territory. Unlike an inside sales rep, she meets with her prospects and clients in person -- usually at their offices, but occasionally at trade shows, conferences, and other industry events.

Outside sales representative salary

According to PayScale, the median take-home salary for outside sales reps is approximately $53,000. Commissions make up 25% of those earnings.

Outside sales skills

PayScale surveyed outside salespeople and found the most common skills include customer relations, new business development, account management, and account sales.
Having technical sales knowledge can increase a field sales rep’s salary by 24%, while new business development and strategic selling skills translate to a 10-24% earnings boost.

Outside sales vs. inside sales

Inside salespeople usually sell products with shorter sales cycles. Their deals are higher volume and more transactional. Outside reps tend to have longer and more complex sales processes.

Inside reps rely on phone, email, and virtual meetings to communicate with buyers and customers, whereas outside reps use phone and email to set up appointments and in-person meetings to qualify, identify needs, present value, and negotiate.

An inside salesperson has a fairly set, predictable schedule. Each day, they must drive a certain level of activity -- dials, meetings booked, proposals sent, and so on.

An outside salesperson, on the other hand, has a flexible, varied schedule. Because they travel often, their days are anything but regular. Outside reps typically have more autonomy (not to mention, their manager might see them as infrequently as once a quarter).

How to choose an inside or outside sales strategy

Making the call on inside sales versus outside depends on a few factors.

First, does your offering require a physical demo? Some products, like medical equipment or industrial machinery, can’t be demoed remotely. But that doesn’t mean outside sales is automatically the right fit -- it might be possible to use other resources, such as product specs, videos, and customer testimonials, to present your solution to the buyer without physically bringing it to them.

Outside sales is inherently more expensive. You must pay for your reps’ travel, food, and lodging on the road. In addition, outside sales reps usually have higher base salaries. According to SalesLoft, they earn 12-18% more than inside reps. Keep in mind that outside salespeople also usually have more experience -- which unsurprisingly boosts their earnings.

Although video conferencing tools and sales and marketing automation platforms have made it far easier to sell to prospects from hundreds or thousands of miles away, outside sales is more effective on the whole. Some studies have found field reps have a 22% higher win rate than inside reps. Again, it’s difficult to entirely separate this statistic from other variables. Taking a face-to-face meeting signals much higher buying intent than a virtual one, so it may be that field reps are working with more committed prospects and can therefore close deals at a greater rate.

One of the most important aspects of this decision is your buyer personas. Some prospects, like college professors and physicians, are accustomed to field salespeople. If you try to change their buying process, they might opt for your competitor. Use your influence on selling your product, not changing how they evaluate and make purchasing decisions.

Some prospects are extremely comfortable with buying products remotely -- in fact, using a field sales approach might make your company seem out-of-touch. Startups tend to be in this category.

And with an increasing number of people avoiding all direct contact with a rep (preferring to buy things by themselves or using chat to ask questions rather than a phone call), inside sales will probably become the optimal approach for more and more industries.