The roles of outside and inside sales representatives

Abstract

Telemarketing emerged as a major force in business-to-business selling during the past decade and fundamentally changed industrial selling practices. The majority of writers suggest that alliances between inside and outside salespeople will result in increased profits, but a few have also noted the propensity for the development of tensions between the two groups. In investigating the effect that the introduction of telemarketing has on the jobs of outside sales representatives, the researchers found that the use of telemarketing changes the work roles of outside sales reps and that success in telemarketing was associated with even greater changes in the work of the outside sales-forces. The research found also that support of sales management and the outside salesforce are important in achieving success in telemarketing. Implications for management and theory are drawn.