Most leadership teams I speak with agree: inbound sales enquiries are growing. Buyers today are already well down their research path before they reach out.

But here’s the thing—who’s the first human voice or reply they encounter when they do?

Not your external sales team. Usually, it’s your internal sales support or customer service team. The unsung frontline.

And yet, too often, their development is an afterthought.

That’s a missed opportunity. For three clear reasons:

1. They’re the face of your organisation.

2. They’re a proven talent pool for future external sales hires.

3. They can win—or lose—you serious business.

One client I worked with recently proved the point. Their internal team was measured on call volume—how many calls handled per day. Predictably, the team’s focus became: answer the question, get the customer off the line. Fast.

Good for speed metrics. Terrible for uncovering actual sales opportunities.

We changed one thing: Instead of tracking ‘calls handled,’ we tracked ‘sales opportunities uncovered.’

We trained the team to ask better questions, listen properly, and show real interest in the caller’s situation. It wasn’t about turning them into hard sellers—it was about equipping them with the skills to spot and pass on live opportunities.

The result? A 35% uplift in qualified sales leads passed to the external team.

And we closed the loop. Sales leads were tracked, outcomes reported back, and we built a reward structure so the internal team shared in the wins. That’s how you create sustained motivation—and lasting business impact.

The Challenge for You

Ask yourself honestly:

· Are you training and equipping your internal team as a key sales channel?

· Are you measuring what matters—or what’s easy to measure?

If you’d like to explore other practical ways to get more from your sales team—internal and external—I’m always open for a conversation.

👉 Let’s have a 15-minute chat. Drop me a message via peterholland.uk and we’ll set it up.