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What does an inside sales agent do?

Updated January 8, 2025
7 min read

The primary job of an inside sales agent is to prospect for new leads, service leads from internet sources and sign calls, and convert them to appointments for a sales agent. This role will require you to make cold calls, improve the company's lead conversion rate, and build good relationships with prospective clients. Other duties include following up with potential clients via telephone calls, emails, and other types of communication, creating and maintaining a database for potential and past clients, and developing new business opportunities.

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Inside sales agent responsibilities

Here are examples of responsibilities from real inside sales agent resumes:

  • Schedule and meet individuals\groups for assign or self-generate leads, assist and enroll eligible individuals in suitable Medicare product.
  • Demonstrate strong understanding of Comcast products, promoting and selling offerings to individual customers by knocking every door within assign territories.
  • Communicate ongoing contact activity utilizing Salesforce.com.

Inside sales agent skills and personality traits

We calculated that 17% of Inside Sales Agents are proficient in Customer Service, Health Insurance, and Life Insurance. They’re also known for soft skills such as Analytical skills, Detail oriented, and Initiative.

We break down the percentage of Inside Sales Agents that have these skills listed on their resume here:

  • Customer Service, 17%

    Coordinated and Enhanced the perfect enrollment process through executing on company objectives while providing excellent customer service.

  • Health Insurance, 9%

    Managed telephone sales on individual health insurance.

  • Life Insurance, 7%

    Analyzed life insurance needs and financial goals for individuals and business owners and provided customized solutions that addressed their specific needs.

  • Work Ethic, 6%

    Showed strong work ethic, often working extended hours to provide extra coverage and close additional sales.

  • Schedule Appointments, 6%

    Persuaded homeowners to schedule appointments for home improvement projects.

  • Insurance Products, 5%

    Advised buyers on the insurance products they may want or need, state insurance requirements and coverage limits.

Common skills that an inside sales agent uses to do their job include "customer service," "health insurance," and "life insurance." You can find details on the most important inside sales agent responsibilities below.

Analytical skills. To carry out their duties, the most important skill for an inside sales agent to have is analytical skills. Their role and responsibilities require that "to judge the profitability of potential deals, securities, commodities, and financial services sales agents must have strong analytical skills." Inside sales agents often use analytical skills in their day-to-day job, as shown by this real resume: "qualified and nurtured prospects from cold call to purchase, performing database stage and compliance updates. "

Detail oriented. Another soft skill that's essential for fulfilling inside sales agent duties is detail oriented. The role rewards competence in this skill because "investment bankers must pay close attention to the details of initial public offerings and mergers and acquisitions because small changes can have large consequences." According to an inside sales agent resume, here's how inside sales agents can utilize detail oriented in their job responsibilities: "provide customer with detailed product knowledge. "

Initiative. inside sales agents are also known for initiative, which are critical to their duties. You can see how this skill relates to inside sales agent responsibilities, because "securities, commodities, and financial services sales agents must create their own client base by making “cold” sales calls to people to whom they have not been referred and to people not expecting the call." An inside sales agent resume example shows how initiative is used in the workplace: "convert inbound calls to sales initiate outbound calls to qualified leads and participate in special campaign initiatives. "

Math skills. For certain inside sales agent responsibilities to be completed, the job requires competence in "math skills." The day-to-day duties of an inside sales agent rely on this skill, as "securities, commodities, and financial services sales agents need to be familiar with mathematical tools, including investment formulas." For example, this snippet was taken directly from a resume about how this skill applies to what inside sales agents do: "assembled report statistics for customer and technical staff to determine roi. "

Customer-service skills. A commonly-found skill in inside sales agent job descriptions, "customer-service skills" is essential to what inside sales agents do. Inside sales agent responsibilities rely on this skill because "securities, commodities, and financial services sales agents must be persuasive and make clients feel comfortable with the agent’s recommendations." You can also see how inside sales agent duties rely on customer-service skills in this resume example: "work with customer and manager to resolve customer issues for the purpose of improving the end to end customer experience. "

All inside sales agent skills

The three companies that hire the most inside sales agents are:

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Compare different inside sales agents

Inside sales agent vs. Sales/marketing

Among the responsibilities of working in sales and marketing is to reach out to clients to achieve sales targets and secure customer satisfaction. It is also essential to come up and develop strategies to obtain sales and find new opportunities that will strengthen the client base and improve the company's brand and image. Furthermore, working in sales and marketing requires coordination with team members and superiors, so it is vital to have an active line of coordination and communication.

If we compare the average inside sales agent annual salary with that of a sales/marketing, we find that sales/marketing typically earn a $12,826 lower salary than inside sales agents make annually.While their salaries may differ, the common ground between inside sales agents and sales/marketing are a few of the skills required in each roleacirc;euro;trade;s responsibilities. In both careers, employee duties involve skills like customer service, customer inquiries, and outbound calls.

There are some key differences in the responsibilities of each position. For example, inside sales agent responsibilities require skills like "health insurance," "life insurance," "work ethic," and "schedule appointments." Meanwhile a typical sales/marketing has skills in areas such as "digital marketing," "business development," "facebook," and "instagram." This difference in skills reveals the differences in what each career does.

Sales/marketing tend to make the most money working in the technology industry, where they earn an average salary of $49,506. In contrast, inside sales agents make the biggest average salary, $86,315, in the real estate industry.On average, sales/marketing reach similar levels of education than inside sales agents. Sales/marketing are 4.0% more likely to earn a Master's Degree and 0.2% more likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.

Inside sales agent vs. Agent

Agents are individuals who are employed by their clients to represent them in various dealings. Agents are usually employed by people in the show business industry, such as actors, writers, or directors. They meet people who are interested in dealing with their clients. They listen to the plans and vision for the project and assess if the project fits their clients' interests or public image. In the case of agents whose clients are actors, they send their clients to auditions upon review of the project details. Agents are also responsible for negotiating terms on behalf of their clients, such as salary, royalties, and set benefits, among others. They also inform the project leaders of their clients' demands on set. Agents are expected to be business-savvy and good negotiators.

On average, agents earn a $16,092 lower salary than inside sales agents a year.A few skills overlap for inside sales agents and agents. Resumes from both professions show that the duties of each career rely on skills like "customer service," "health insurance," and "life insurance. "

While some skills are similar in these professions, other skills aren't so similar. For example, resumes show us that inside sales agent responsibilities requires skills like "work ethic," "schedule appointments," "crm," and "phone calls." But an agent might use other skills in their typical duties, such as, "hr," "financial services," "real estate," and "windows."

Agents earn similar levels of education than inside sales agents in general. They're 1.8% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 0.2% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.

Inside sales agent vs. Sales trainer

As a sales trainer, you will perform various duties and responsibilities for an organization. Your job will typically include conducting orientation for new sales representatives, determining and organizing training, creating traditional and digital educational materials such as case studies and videos. You are responsible for coordinating sessions for individual and team performance and the monitoring of sales objectives. This role also requires you to gather feedback about training courses from managers and trainees and accomplish organization mission and sales training.

On average scale, sales trainers bring in higher salaries than inside sales agents. In fact, they earn a $20,501 higher salary per year.By looking over several inside sales agents and sales trainers resumes, we found that both roles require similar skills in their day-to-day duties, such as "customer service," "work ethic," and "crm." But beyond that, the careers look very different.

The required skills of the two careers differ considerably. For example, inside sales agents are more likely to have skills like "health insurance," "life insurance," "schedule appointments," and "insurance products." But a sales trainer is more likely to have skills like "lead generation," "sales professionals," "training content," and "sales management."

Sales trainers earn the best pay in the pharmaceutical industry, where they command an average salary of $86,155. Inside sales agents earn the highest pay from the real estate industry, with an average salary of $86,315.Most sales trainers achieve a similar degree level compared to inside sales agents. For example, they're 4.7% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree, and 0.3% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.

Inside sales agent vs. Sales internship

Sales internship is a program that requires work in the business and sales development. Sales interns work as assistants to managers and senior staff. Their duties and responsibilities are administrative. They do research, send emails, update records, and make calls. It is their job to maintain good client relationships. They observe the process and other details related to sales. Also, they help in identifying and tracking sales leads, evaluating success, and generating sales reports.

Sales interns typically earn lower pay than inside sales agents. On average, sales interns earn a $19,496 lower salary per year.While both inside sales agents and sales interns complete day-to-day tasks using similar skills like customer service, work ethic, and crm, the two careers vary in some skills.While some skills are required in each professionacirc;euro;trade;s responsibilities, there are some differences to note. "health insurance," "life insurance," "schedule appointments," and "insurance products" are skills that commonly show up on inside sales agent resumes. On the other hand, sales interns use skills like sales intern, powerpoint, salesforce, and client relationships on their resumes.In general, sales interns earn the most working in the technology industry, with an average salary of $36,889. The highest-paying industry for an inside sales agent is the real estate industry.In general, sales interns hold similar degree levels compared to inside sales agents. Sales interns are 2.1% more likely to earn their Master's Degree and 0.1% less likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.

Types of inside sales agent

Updated January 8, 2025

Zippia Research Team
Zippia Team

Editorial Staff

The Zippia Research Team has spent countless hours reviewing resumes, job postings, and government data to determine what goes into getting a job in each phase of life. Professional writers and data scientists comprise the Zippia Research Team.