When Inside Sales Teams Stop Calling (and Start Coasting)

During COVID, many inside sales teams were flying.

Phones rang off the hook, customers answered, and every rep was busy.

But now? It’s different.

Email has taken over. Inbound calls are down. And when the phone does ring, most conversations are quick and transactional, solve the problem, hang up, move on.

Teams that were once thriving now feel flat. It’s not effort that’s missing — it’s depth.

As I listen to hundreds of calls across industries, I keep hearing the same things:

Reps answer questions but rarely ask them.

Conversations stay safe and surface-level.

Human connection gets skipped.

Many inside sellers were never taught what a consultative phone call sounds like — and that’s where growth is hiding.

Three Ways to Get Momentum Back

1. Listen to the questions your team is asking.

If most start with “Have you,” “Are you,” or “Do you,” they’re training customers to give short answers.

 Shift to “What”, "Tell me" and "Talk to me about" 

 These open up discovery:

“What else are you working on this quarter?”

 “Talk to me about how you are handling that issue today?”

 Curiosity is the difference between a transaction and a conversation.

2. Coach for connection, not just call count.

I hear customers mention life moments all the time: engagements, birthdays, new babies, and reps breeze right past them. Some are narcissistic and talk about themselves.

 A small moment of curiosity changes everything:

“What’s the baby’s name?”

 “How did you two meet?”

 “What school did they go to?”

Make people feel seen, then guide the call back to business. It will build trust.

3. Create a consultative call standard.

Give your team a structure to follow:

Agenda → Rapport → Discovery → Cross-sell → Next Step.

(Do rapport before verification so customers feel like people, not numbers. 

Record a few real calls each week. Coach what you hear, not what you assume. The magic is in the replay.

Growth today won’t come from more emails or faster responses — it’ll come from better conversations.

Inside sales teams don’t need to talk more.

They need to ask better questions that get people talking and listen more

Question for you:

If you lead an inside sales or call center team — what are you seeing right now?

Are your reps calling less, or just connecting less when they do?