What is the difference between “inside sales” and “outside sales”. I am thinking about switching my career up or or simply going to dental school. Not sure yet. If I do not go back to school right away I want to look into a pharm or med sales position of some sort. I have an awesome science background, yet 100% lacking of any sales experience.
A requirement for most of the jobs is “outside sales” experience. What type of sales would that be, maybe insurance sales for example? I am kind of confused. I feel as if inside sales is sort of like retail sales?
Anyone know the difference or able to list off types of jobs that would fall into each category?
Inside sales = Local customers, small guys and big businesses
Outside sales = Travel, out of region, expanding, etc etc usually only bigger businesses.
I am inside sales for my company. I sit at a desk all day and take customer calls, and negotiate with vendors for different pricing and special situations. I will be outside sales quite shortly, and that is a position where you are the #1 point of contact for the customer.not only do you maintain existing accounts, you are expected to grow business and land new accounts. The company i work for is Rexel, we are the largest electrical distributor in the world and inside sales still pays like dog shit. Outside is generally between 55k to mid 100. Oh… Outside sales also has to deal with 99% of the problems that arise on a day to day basis since they are the point man.
Retail is retail, car dealer is retail, inside sales is typically a distributor or service situation answering calls and responding to needs. Some companies often mix these ideals and will call a telemarketer “inside sales” nope. You are still a telemarketer. Taking a sales position you really need to ask an interviewer lots of questions and get a feel for what type of position you are being thrown into. Also, presently i only make 1% of profit as a commission. THat is perfect because there is a decent base behind it. if they offer you a small base and say you have to work for your commissions, be leary.
see, i disagree with the bold. I feel that the outside staff has the entire rest of the staff at their disposal. The inside guys, and usually one or more administrative assistants are there to get you any required information, and to handle your customers as need occurs
Agree with this. Mike how is Rexel going ? I’m doing outside sales for the AB distributor here in Phoenix.
Inside sales - pretty safe job. As far as stocks go, this is a mutual fund. Safe bet, no risk. Answer phones, take orders, little to some product knowledge. Little application knowledge.
Outside sales - when you do your job, you’re not a hero, you’re just doing your job. When something goes wrong, you’re a piece of shit. But with that, comes the ability to easily make 6 figures. Outside people have to be very good at delegating tasks in order to get anything done. It would be impossible to do everything. Thats why they have everybody at there disposal. Plus they are responsible for 95% of the business income. In order to be good at this, you have to possess strong communication skills and be able to find a need in your customer. Those two go hand in hand.
LAH Insurance vendors have very little support at hand.
On the other hand…
Office equipment vendors will have alot of backup, as its the primary sales channel.
$0.02
Inside (retail) sales > outside sales IMO anyhow. it pays me well
Seriously, go back to school. You DO NOT want to be relying on sales to support you in life.
No matter how good of a salesman you are, relying on other people to buy for your income sucks. Sometimes, they’re just all Nos. I’ve turned down x hundred “financial planner” type jobs because I don’t want to sell shit.
Um, being a doctor and making your own hours > *
Plus, dentists make the most money of any doctors, because of things like their malpractice insurance is only $2500/year. You can work out of your house and not be considered “creepy”. You don’t have to take any insurance if you don’t want to be bothered with it. There are a lot of bonuses.
Sales = hard job, long hours, and stressful.
Plus, when you tell women you are a doctor, it sounds a lot better.
