Torchora
Back to Home

Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for Inside Sales Manager

💰 $ - $

SalesInside SalesManagement

🎯 Role Definition

We are seeking an experienced Inside Sales Manager to lead and scale a high-performing inside sales team focused on B2B/B2C pipeline generation, qualification and conversion. This role is responsible for driving quota attainment, coaching sales reps, optimizing sales processes (CRM: Salesforce/HubSpot), and collaborating with marketing, product and customer success to accelerate revenue growth. The ideal candidate brings hands-on selling experience, a data-driven approach to forecasting and pipeline management, strong coaching skills, and a track record of improving conversion rates and average deal size.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

  • Inside Sales Representative / Senior Inside Sales Rep
  • Business Development Representative (BDR) / Sales Development Representative (SDR)
  • Account Manager or Customer Success Manager transitioning to a sales leadership track

Advancement To:

  • Senior Inside Sales Manager / Regional Inside Sales Manager
  • Director of Inside Sales / Director of Sales Operations
  • VP of Sales / Head of Revenue

Lateral Moves:

  • Sales Operations Manager
  • Customer Success Director
  • Business Development or Channel Sales Manager

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

  • Lead, hire, coach and develop a team of inside sales representatives and sales development reps to consistently meet and exceed monthly and quarterly revenue quotas, conversion rate targets, and pipeline velocity goals.
  • Own and optimize the end-to-end inside sales playbook, including lead qualification criteria, call cadences, email sequences, objection handling scripts, qualification frameworks (BANT/CHAMP/MEDDIC), and demo handoff processes.
  • Manage day-to-day team activities: monitor outbound calling, inbound lead follow-up, demo scheduling, proposal delivery, and contract handoffs to account executives or customer success teams.
  • Set clear, measurable KPIs (e.g., calls per rep, meetings booked, SQL conversion, pipeline coverage ratio, win rate, average deal size) and report weekly/monthly performance to senior sales leadership with insight-driven recommendations.
  • Build, maintain and forecast an accurate sales pipeline using CRM systems (Salesforce, HubSpot, Pipedrive), ensuring data hygiene, stage gating, and predictable revenue forecasting.
  • Collaborate closely with marketing to align on inbound lead quality, lead scoring, campaign routing, and follow-up SLAs to improve lead-to-opportunity conversion and reduce lead leakage.
  • Drive outbound prospecting programs using multi-channel outreach (phone, email, LinkedIn Sales Navigator, social selling), ABM tactics, and targeted lists to expand territory coverage and generate net-new business opportunities.
  • Conduct regular 1:1 coaching, ride-alongs, call reviews and role-plays to elevate individual rep performance, close skill gaps, and institutionalize best practices across the team.
  • Develop and execute onboarding and ramp plans for new hires, including training on product value propositions, competitive positioning, CRM usage, objection handling and demo frameworks.
  • Own quota assignments, territory design and account segmentation to maximize coverage, reduce overlap and align rep skills with target customer segments.
  • Partner with product and solutions teams to provide market feedback, surface product gaps, influence roadmap priorities and empower the team to sell new features or packages effectively.
  • Manage deal desk activities for inside sales: assist with pricing approvals, discount requests, commercial terms, renewals/upsell coordination and contract escalation support.
  • Work with sales operations to design and maintain compensation plans, incentive structures and recognition programs that drive desired behaviors and sustained revenue growth.
  • Lead forecasting cadence: prepare pipeline reviews, risk mitigation plans for at-risk deals, and monthly/quarterly business reviews (QBRs) to support sales leadership and executive decision-making.
  • Implement continuous process improvements using data: A/B test call scripts, email subject lines, sequence timing, lead distribution rules, and follow-up cadences to improve conversion funnels.
  • Ensure compliance with company policy and legal requirements for outreach (TCPA, GDPR, CAN-SPAM), and maintain records for auditability in CRM and sales enablement platforms.
  • Facilitate cross-functional alignment with customer success on onboarding handoffs, churn risk identification, and expansion opportunities to improve customer lifetime value (CLTV).
  • Manage and escalate complex deal negotiations, provide deal strategy support to reps, and personally own high-value or strategic accounts to close deals when necessary.
  • Champion and implement sales enablement tools (e.g., Outreach.io, SalesLoft, Gong, Chorus, LinkedIn Navigator) to improve productivity, capture coaching data and provide visibility into team activity.
  • Analyze market and competitive intelligence to refine targeting, objection handling, and messaging; deliver periodic competitive battlecards and sales collateral updates.
  • Drive retention and internal mobility by creating career development plans for reps, identifying high-potential sellers for promotion, and running structured mentorship programs.

Secondary Functions

  • Support cross-department projects such as pricing pilots, pilot program rollouts, and regional expansion planning that require inside-sales input or resources.
  • Assist in the design and rollout of new CRM customizations, reports and dashboards that enable smarter forecasting and rep performance monitoring.
  • Participate in sales hiring panels, candidate selection, and structured interviewing to build a diverse and capable inside sales team.
  • Collaborate with marketing on content needs, webinar strategies, and campaign performance reviews to ensure alignment between demand generation and inside sales follow-up.
  • Contribute to sales playbook updates, knowledge base articles, and internal enablement content to streamline onboarding and continuous learning.
  • Evaluate and recommend third-party sales tools, vendors and training programs to scale team capabilities and process automation.
  • Support ad-hoc competitive analysis and customer win/loss reviews and present findings with actionable recommendations to product, marketing and leadership.
  • Participate in cross-functional sprint planning and project kickoffs that influence go-to-market timing, pricing and sales training schedules.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

  • CRM proficiency: Salesforce (preferred), HubSpot, or comparable CRMs — ability to build reports, dashboards and ensure data hygiene.
  • Sales forecasting and pipeline management: experience producing reliable monthly and quarterly forecasts, managing coverage ratios and deal slippage.
  • Sales enablement tools: familiarity with Outreach, SalesLoft, Gong, Chorus, LinkedIn Sales Navigator and sales engagement platforms.
  • Data literacy: Excel (advanced formulas, pivot tables), Google Sheets, and basic understanding of Tableau/Looker or BI tools for performance analysis.
  • Sales methodologies: practical knowledge of MEDDIC, BANT, SPIN, Challenger or other qualification and negotiation frameworks.
  • Prospecting & outreach: experience designing multi-channel cadences (cold calling, cold email, social selling) and ABM campaigns.
  • Contract and pricing fundamentals: understanding of commercial terms, discounting strategies, and basic legal/compliance considerations.
  • Reporting & analytics: ability to build KPI dashboards, run cohort analysis and derive actionable insights from sales metrics.
  • Presentation & proposal skills: ability to craft compelling proposals, sales decks and product demonstrations.
  • Technology adoption: experience with sales automation, CPQ tools and integrating third-party apps into CRM workflow.

Soft Skills

  • Coaching & leadership: proven ability to develop reps through coaching, feedback and measurable performance improvement.
  • Communication: clear, persuasive verbal and written communication tailored to internal stakeholders and customers.
  • Results-oriented: strong bias for action with a track record of meeting or exceeding quota and driving continuous improvement.
  • Problem-solving: structured thinking and the ability to diagnose performance gaps and implement scalable solutions.
  • Empathy & customer focus: understand customer needs and translate them into value-based sales conversations and outcomes.
  • Collaboration: ability to work cross-functionally with marketing, product, finance and customer success to achieve shared goals.
  • Resilience & adaptability: thrives in fast-changing environments and able to prioritize effectively under pressure.
  • Time management: disciplined approach to pipeline hygiene, activity planning and balancing coaching with hands-on selling.
  • Influence & stakeholder management: able to influence peers and leaders without direct authority and drive alignment across teams.
  • Analytical mindset: comfort working with data to set targets, measure outcomes, and iterate on processes.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

  • Bachelor's degree OR equivalent experience in sales or business development roles.

Preferred Education:

  • Bachelor's degree in Business Administration, Marketing, Communications, Finance or related field.
  • MBA or relevant advanced degree is a plus for senior roles.

Relevant Fields of Study:

  • Business Administration
  • Marketing
  • Communications
  • Finance
  • Economics
  • Sales / Sales Management

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range: 3–8 years in inside sales or business development, with at least 1–3 years of direct people management experience.

Preferred:

  • 5+ years of progressive inside sales experience and 2+ years managing a team of inside sellers.
  • Demonstrated success achieving quota in SaaS, tech, manufacturing, or B2B services.
  • Experience working with enterprise and mid-market accounts, multi-touch sales cycles, and cross-functional go-to-market teams.
  • Track record implementing CRM processes, running data-driven forecasting cycles, and deploying sales engagement platforms.
Explore More Careers