Inside sales vs. outside sales. Not quite a timeless struggle, but they do reflect two different methodologies of selling that can be at odds with one another. The tldr version: inside sales happens remotely (phone and email) and outside sales happens face-to-face (in real life).
Inside sales reps often spend their workdays contacting prospects while behind a computer screen while outside sales reps drive from office to office meeting with existing customers.
Zippia estimates there's roughly 2,058,000 sales reps (as of August 2025) in the United States between inside sales and outside sales. 53.7% work as inside sales reps while 46.3% work as outside sales reps.
Whether you're building a sales team or considering a career in sales, here's everything you need to know when it comes to inside sales vs. outside sales.
Inside sales happens within the walls (or virtual walls) of an office. Reps perform everything from prospecting to closing deals remotely. They use phones, email, text, and video calls instead of face‑to‑face meetings with prospects. Inside sales predominantly drives growth at technology or software as a service (SaaS) firms (but exists in many other industries).
The prospect-facing inside sales motion started with telephone selling, but now mostly occurs digitally through video conferencing. An inside salesperson needs to be comfortable juggling multiple conversations while using tools like customer relationship management (CRM) platforms and email automation tools. They also prospect by building targeted lists through sales intelligence go-to-market platforms.
Because inside reps don’t leave the building (or home office), they can connect with prospects all over the world in a single work day. Their managers can listen in on calls or check their email sequences to offer coaching. Inside reps often handle smaller transactions or recurring subscriptions, especially in B2B sectors like software or professional services.
Outside sales (also known as field sales or territory sales) happens in-person. Outside sales reps travel between places of business (offices, construction jobsites, medical facilities, etc.) to meet prospects and customers. They also attend tradeshows and conferences in an effort to connect with and create new business.
They still do research and reach out by phone or email, but most of the work happens face-to-face. These reps manage territories, which are typically defined by geography (zip code, city, state). Their sales motion involves everything from driving between 20 customer locations to flying across the country to close large enterprise deals. They are self‑directed and act as ambassadors for a brand. Companies typically expect more experience and autonomy from their outside team.
Industries like equipment rental and medical device sales typically grow through outside sales. In SaaS, outside reps often handle complex deals that are too detailed to close remotely.
[Video] RepMove's Outside Sales Platform
Daily sales calls/visits
Time Spent Selling
Qualified Lead Conversion Rate
Different products and buyers suit different approaches. Inside sales excels with straightforward products, especially in technology and SaaS, where the buyer already understands their problem and mostly needs to evaluate features and pricing.
Outside sales becomes critical when the product is specialized or the stakes are high. If you’re selling a multi-million dollar piece of heavy machinery or highly-regulated medical devices, an in-person demo is the base requirement.
Deal size and complexity also vary. Contract values are usually (but are not always) larger in outside sales due to the complexity of the products and of the deals. That's not to say inside sales only specializes in deals of lower stakes. At many firms, inside sales drives the largest enterprise deals.
The sales cycle often reflects these dynamics. Inside deals can close in days, sometimes hours, because all documents and discussions happen remotely. Outside deals involve travel, scheduling, and multiple in‑person conversations, which stretches the timeline to weeks or months.
Then there’s overhead. Inside teams need a desk, Wi‑Fi, a tech stack, and a headset. Outside reps get reimbursed for driving hundreds of miles each week. They need entertainment budgets. They can also need budget for flights, hotels, and tradeshows. Those expenses mean outside sales must deliver larger margins. Conversely, inside sales scales easily because one rep can manage dozens of conversations from a single location.
Inside sales deals nearly exclusively with prospects and leads in an attempt to create new business. This starts with a list of cold leads from a sales intelligence tool and/or warm leads from their CRM or sourced from marketing. They create outreach sequences that consist of numerous call and email tasks. They often also include LinkedIn messaging, texting, and even direct mail for larger prospects. Their goal is to get a prospect into the funnel and turned into a qualified lead through discovery and demo meetings. Ultimately, inside sales reps get judged on pipeline created and closed-won deals.
Conversely, outside sales often (but not always) deals with existing customers and relationships. Their ultimate goal is to create a relationship with customers that lasts over a long period of time where they return consistently to fill customer needs. Prospecting is still critical in outside sales, and sometimes gets more overlooked than it should, but it's ultimately a relationship-based motion that relies on trust built over many visits.
Personality and skill set play a big role in success. Inside reps rarely meet clients in person and rely on email and phone calls. That environment suits people who are tech‑savvy, comfortable sitting at a desk, and thrive under close coaching.
Outside sales reps drive between customer and prospect locations. They need to be outgoing, adaptable, and self‑directed. It can also be quite taxing. Getting rejected in-person simply hits differently than over the phone.
Many sales careers start inside, where new reps can shadow managers and receive immediate feedback, before progressing to outside roles that require more independence. Inside sales in some industries works in a support function to outside sales. They fulfill orders and manage the minutiae of deals. This lends itself well to learning products and customers and eventually stepping into a more lucrative role on the outside team.
Salary
Commissions
$59,183
$12,000
$87,380
$22,560
Compensation differs with the scale and complexity of deals. Both inside and outside roles use some mix of base pay and variable commissions. According to Indeed (as of August 2025), inside sales reps average $59,411 salary and $12,000 in commissions. Salary ranges from a low of about $32,000 to a high of about $109,000.
Also according to Indeed, outside sales reps average $87,380 in salary and $22,560 in commissions. The lower end of the pay range is about $45,000 while the higher end nears $170,000.
These figures vary by industry and region, but they illustrate how field reps often command higher pay for managing larger, more complex deals.
Businesses don’t have to choose one or the other exclusively. Many combine both approaches. Start‑ups with tight budgets may lean toward inside sales because they can reach more prospects quickly without travel.
Established firms selling enterprise software often send outside reps to secure large contracts while maintaining an inside team to handle small and midsize accounts. A hybrid model allows them to meet clients where they are. Remote when they want convenience and in‑person when trust needs to be built.
Firms selling construction supply, renting or selling heavy machinery, and selling medical equipment or pharmaceuticals employ a field team to grow business and meet with prospects and customers. They often use inside sales to support product fulfillment.
The decision may also reflect the customer journey. If your buyers are comfortable researching online and making decisions independently, a responsive inside sales team might suffice. If your solution is highly customized or you’re competing for a long‑term partnership, face‑to‑face interactions can make the difference. In practice, the most successful organizations equip their inside reps with modern tools and training while empowering outside reps with the resources to build relationships on the ground.
Most sales software meets the various needs of inside sales reps. These are some of the most common categories of inside sales tools:
Fewer options exist for outside sales reps, but it's a growing category. Here are some of the most popular categories of tools for outside sales:
If you need an outside sales management platform that meets all of these needs, give RepMove a free try or sign up for a demo today.
