· Reviewed by Issabela Masters
What does a remote inside sales agent do?
An AssistBPO inside sales agent works a standing brief of 9 duties, and anything on it can be added or dropped in the weekly review.
- Answer inbound sales calls, chats and emails in your hours and qualify the need
- Prepare and send quotes and proposals from your approved price list and templates
- Follow up every open quote on a set cadence by phone and email with lawful consent and do-not-call scrubbing
- Close transactional deals within the discount limits you set
- Route complex or high-value opportunities to your senior sellers with a full handover
- Process orders and hand them to fulfillment or onboarding with the right details
- Keep pipeline stages, close dates and next steps accurate in the CRM
- Upsell and renew existing customers from a list and offer you approve
- Report weekly on inbound volume, quotes sent, win rate and average deal size
What skills and tools does a remote inside sales agent need?
The 7 skills below are the ones AssistBPO screens for, and the inside sales agent works them inside 9 platforms you already run.
- Consultative phone manner: asks before pitching
- Fast, accurate quoting and proposal building
- Persistent, polite follow-up without pressure tactics
- Product and pricing knowledge applied within your rules
- CRM pipeline discipline
- Clear written proposals and confirmation emails
- Judgment on when to close and when to hand over
Tools this role works in
A sample day, in your time zone
- 8:30Shift starts in your time zone: overnight web enquiries and chat leads called back first, two quotes requested
- 9:30Inbound call from a returning customer, order taken and confirmed, upsell accepted on a service plan
- 10:30Three quotes built from the price list and sent with a follow-up task set for Thursday
- 12:00Open-quote follow-up block: 18 calls with consent on file, 2 deals closed, 4 objections logged
- 13:30Large enterprise enquiry qualified and handed to your senior seller with notes and a booked call
- 15:00Renewal list worked: 9 customers contacted, 5 renewed, 2 asked for a revised proposal
- 16:30Pipeline cleaned: close dates updated, 6 stale deals marked lost with reasons
- 17:30End-of-day report: 27 inbound contacts, 11 quotes sent, 7 deals closed, handovers listed
Times are illustrative. Your shift is fixed to your opening hours during onboarding.
Hours and models
Models
- Dedicated inside sales agent, 160 hours a month
- Dedicated inside sales agent, 80 hours a month for peak-hour cover
- Inside sales pod of 3 to 10 with a lead for high inbound volume
Coverage
Fixed shifts in US, UK and Canadian business hours from the group's two offices, aligned to when your inbound enquiries arrive. AEST shifts on request.
What are the terms for a remote inside sales agent?
The card, the contract terms and this role's own schedule and screening, in one place.
| Specification | What you get |
|---|---|
| Focus, 20 hours a week | $800 a month, 80 hours |
| Dedicated, 40 hours a week | $1,600 a month, 160 hours |
| Managed Pod, three seats or more | From $4,800 a month |
| Standard schedule | Dedicated inside sales agent, 160 hours a month |
| Coverage | Fixed shifts in US, UK and Canadian business hours from the group's two offices, aligned to when your inbound enquiries arrive. |
| Screening | 5 gates, named candidate within 72 hours |
| Setup fee | None |
| Minimum term | Month to month, no lock-in |
| Notice | 30 days, to stop or to change hours |
| If the fit is wrong | Trained backup covers the desk the same day, re-match at no charge |
| Continuity | One named assistant, one named backup, one team lead |
| Who does the work | Employed by SS Support Network LLC, never freelancers or contractors |
These are rate-card starting points. What you pay depends on the hours, the desk and the coverage window, which is what the staffing plan sets. Rates improve as you add assistants. Your staffing plan states the rate for the number of seats you need. The rate card carries the other currencies, the add-ons and the six things that move a plan off it.
How much does it cost to hire a remote inside sales agent?
Plans start at $400 a month for 40 hours, at $10 an hour, and rates improve as you add assistants. Get a staffing plan within 1 business day.
What moves the plan
- Hours a week and whether the role is dedicated or shared
- Seniority and the tools involved
- Coverage zone: business hours, after-hours or 24/7
- One person or a pod with a lead
What the market publishes
Other providers' published ranges, by market, so you have something to hold this against. These are not AssistBPO prices.
| Market | Published range | Source |
|---|---|---|
| United States | Indeed average $27.15 an hour and PayScale average $19.45 an hour for virtual assistants; premium US managed providers publish $2,600 for 40 hours to $3,900 for 60 hours a month | Indeed and PayScale via Wishup; Boldly pricing via Staffify and Nacho roundups, 2026 |
| United Kingdom | UK virtual assistant agencies around £28 an hour or £1,680 per 60-hour block; PayScale employed average £15.33 an hour; experienced EA salary about £46,000 | Virtalent published pricing and PayScale UK, 2026 |
| Australia | Onshore virtual assistants A$39.90 to A$65 an hour; offshore managed staff A$8 to A$35 an hour; a loaded local employee A$91,000 or more a year | DotVA, Virtual Coworker and Australian agency pricing roundups, 2026 |
How are remote inside sales agents vetted?
5 gates, in order. A candidate who fails one does not reach the next.
- English and phone assessment
- Typing and tool tests
- Background check
- NDA and security onboarding
- Shadowing and QA scorecard
Candidates who clear all 5 gates are proposed to you by name within 72 hours.
Inside sales candidates take a recorded set of inbound calls: a price shopper, a customer with a wrong assumption about the product, a buyer ready to order and a caller who wants a discount you do not offer. We score listening, accuracy on the price list, close attempts and how gracefully they held the line on price.
Typing at 50 words a minute, then a practical: build three quotes from a price sheet with tiered discounts in a spreadsheet and a CRM quote tool, move deals through pipeline stages in HubSpot or Pipedrive, and write a confirmation email that a customer could act on without calling back.
Identity, employment history and criminal record where lawful are verified by a third-party provider. Because inside sales agents apply discounts and take orders, two former managers are asked about honesty in reporting, discount discipline and customer complaints.
Group NDA plus your confidentiality terms, then security and compliance onboarding: MFA and managed devices, no exports of customer or pricing data, card payments only through your portal, discount authority limits written into the playbook, and consent and do-not-call rules for every outbound follow-up.
A week listening to a live inside sales desk, then a week on your line with a senior reviewing every quote before it goes out. From go-live the team lead scores a monthly sample of calls and quotes for accuracy, tone, follow-up cadence and discount discipline, and reviews the QA scorecard beside your win-rate data.
The full pipeline is on the how we hire and manage assistants page. Assistants are employees of the group, never freelancers, and you never co-employ them.
Services this role delivers
Frequently asked questions
How much does it cost to hire a remote inside sales agent?
Plans depend on hours, desks and coverage. Get a staffing plan within 1 business day. For a reference point, Indeed's US average for virtual assistants is $27.15 an hour and PayScale's is $19.45, while premium US managed providers publish $2,600 for 40 hours to $3,900 for 60 hours a month (Wishup, Staffify and Nacho roundups, 2026). AssistBPO prices a dedicated inside sales agent per person for a monthly block of hours, never on commission.
Is it the same person every day?
Yes. One named agent answers your sales line, learns your products, price list and regular customers, and owns the open-quote follow-up list. A backup agent trained on your account covers leave so quotes are not left hanging, and a team lead reviews the pipeline with you weekly. Returning customers speak to someone who remembers their last order, their pricing tier and the objection they raised last time.
What hours will the inside sales agent work?
The hours your enquiries arrive. Most clients run a fixed shift such as 8:30am to 5:30pm in their own time zone on a 160-hour plan, so every inbound call and chat is answered live. An 80-hour plan covers the peak half of the day. Outbound follow-up calls stay within the permitted hours for the customer's jurisdiction. US, UK and Canadian shifts are standard; AEST is available on request.
How are inside sales agents vetted?
Through a recorded inbound-call assessment built around price shoppers and discount requests, a typing and quoting practical in a spreadsheet and CRM, a third-party background check with manager references on discount discipline, an NDA with security and consent training, and two weeks of shadowing with every quote reviewed. The team lead then scores calls and quotes monthly on the QA scorecard.
Is the agent an employee or a contractor?
An employee of the group. Inside sales agents are hired, trained, paid and managed by us, with a team lead and HR above them and our compliance policies around them. You set the price list, discount limits and handover rules; you do not co-employ, contract or pay commission. That structure keeps the agent focused on the right deals rather than the quickest ones.
Can the agent close deals or only pass leads?
Both, according to rules you set. During onboarding we agree which products, deal sizes and discount levels the agent can close alone and which go to your senior sellers. Transactional orders, renewals and quotes inside those limits are closed and processed by the agent; anything larger gets a written handover and a booked call with your team. The limits are adjusted in the weekly review as trust builds.
How does the agent handle pricing and discounts?
From your approved price list and a discount authority written into the playbook. The agent can apply the discounts you allow and must escalate anything beyond them, with the request logged in the CRM. Card payments are taken only through your payment portal, never over the phone into a notepad. Quotes are built from your templates so terms and expiry dates are consistent.
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