by Catherine Brown, President Initial Call

Work within “inside sales” is challenging enough, but the lack of standardization on various important terms makes it even tougher. My firm provides what we call “inside sales” contract help to other companies. We mean this to be broad, encompassing lead qualifying, research work and lead nurturing. However, not everyone means the same thing when they say “inside sales.” For example, some people call inside sales telesales or even telemarketing.

In selling and delivering our services, we and our clients must be aligned on what certain terms mean so that we are fulfilling expectations, not just contract terms. The importance of defining words properly becomes clear when sales departments’ and marketing departments’ purposes overlap in the area of account qualification, when they ask, “Is XYZ company even a target for us to be pursuing?”

A Sales organization may think, “If marketing would only provide us with qualified leads, we could focus on winning the business….” or “We just need Marketing to profile accounts so that we can go after them.” Account qualification can be broken down into increasingly specific, ever narrowing levels, and accounts are continually qualified as they move down through the funnel. So….where does Marketing end and Sales begin?

Distinguishing account profiling from account qualifying is helpful when mapping out a lead hand-off strategy. Common definitions must underlie the use of these terms so all parties work under the same assumptions about the scope of these tasks. We would love to see standard usage on these terms adopted within our industry.

When we at Initial Call say, “profiled,” we mean that the information sought can be gathered primarily on the internet, without a live conversation with the Buyer on the phone. When a client is looking for more—if someone has to find and reach the Buyer to answer questions, then it’s not profiling--it’s qualifying. Qualifying is gathering key market intelligence around a specific set of criteria, uncovering information that can only be learned through conversations with the prospect.

 The next few blog topics at Initial Call will revolve around this idea of account profiling and qualifying. In our next installment:  what a profiled account really costs.