Inside Sales Recruitment Agency Belgium

Archetype recruits Inside Sales professionals for B2B SMEs and mid-sized companies in Belgium: salespeople who sell remotely, by phone, video call and email, without visiting the client. The title covers very different jobs, from the seller who closes deals remotely on their own to the internal sales colleague who prepares quotes for the field team. So we start by agreeing with you on what the role sells, to whom and how far it goes. We work on a retainer, with fees set in a written proposal before the search starts, and a search takes 12 weeks on average. A 6-month replacement guarantee applies. Describe the role to us and you will receive a proposal within 48 to 72 hours.

Inside Sales professional on a video call next to a field sales colleague in a Flemish office — Inside sales or field sales: choose the model based on how your clients buy.

Inside Sales is a channel, not a stage of the cycle

An SDR, an Account Executive or an Account Manager is defined by the stage of the sales cycle they own. Inside Sales is defined by the channel: the person sells without travelling. That is why an “Inside Sales” job ad can describe three distinct jobs.

The full-cycle remote seller: they receive or find the opportunity, run the demo by video, send the offer and close. This is a seller in their own right, on deals where the client is willing to decide without meeting in person.
The prospecting and qualifying Inside Sales: they open conversations and hand over to a seller. This role is close to an SDR, covered in detail on our page on Sales Development Representative recruitment.
The field-support Inside Sales, often called internal sales in Belgium: they handle price requests, prepare offers, follow up, track orders and back up the salespeople on the road. They sell, but mostly to existing clients.

These three profiles are not recruited the same way and are not driven by the same things. Mixing up the first and the third is costly: you hire a closer for a support role, who gets bored, or a support profile for a closing role, who does not close. The full role profile is in our article Inside Sales: job description.

Inside sales or field sales: the decision grid

Before hiring, ask one simple question: do your clients need to see someone in order to buy? The grid below compares the two models on the criteria that shape the profile. It describes general tendencies, not rules, and the two models can be combined.

Inside sales or field sales: which model fits your role?
Criterion	Inside sales	Field sales
Channel	Phone, video, email, LinkedIn	On-site meetings, trade fairs, visits
Pace	Many short conversations a day	Fewer, longer meetings, with travel time
Typical sales	Offers clients can assess remotely, reorders, renewals	Technical offers that need to be seen on site, decisions with several stakeholders
Tools	CRM kept up to date in real time, telephony, video	CRM, route planning, demonstrations
What to test when hiring	Building trust without meeting, consistency, follow-up discipline	Autonomy, territory organisation, presence in meetings
Signal to choose it	Your clients already order by phone or online	Your clients insist on a visit before signing

If you need a seller who closes new opportunities, whatever the channel, see our page on Account Executive recruitment. If the role is mainly about growing a portfolio of existing clients face to face, that is Account Manager recruitment.

We’re specialists: Sales, Marketing, Management. Not generalists. When a generalist agency recruits a Sales Director, they read the CV. We know the actual job: the real trade-offs between prospecting and farming, what it means to lead a distributed trilingual team across the Benelux, how to build a commercial strategy that holds in complex B2B. That field-level understanding is what separates a placement that lasts from one that breaks at 18 months.
The Archetype method, since 1993

What we assess in an Inside Sales candidate

A good Inside Sales person earns the trust of a client they may never meet. They have to hear on the phone what a field seller would read on a face, and keep the same quality of conversation on the twentieth call of the day as on the first. These are exactly the two points a standard interview measures badly.

So the interview goes back over specific calls: what the candidate heard, what they answered, what followed. Every finalist also takes the KOAN assessment, which we have used for 30 years. It sheds light on the candidate’s competencies, drivers and behavioural dynamics. Within the KOAN Sales model, responsiveness, method and customer orientation weigh heavily for this role. To see the candidate at work, a remote role-play on a situation taken from your business can be added as part of an assessment: the approach is described on our page on assessment for recruitment.

Language is often what narrows the market. An Inside Sales person calling Flemish, Walloon and Brussels clients has to switch from Dutch to French within the same hour, sometimes to English. We recruit in all three languages across Belgium.

Our recruitment method

On the first call, we take a detailed brief and challenge the role: which of the three Inside Sales jobs are you really looking for, and is your salary range in line with the market? You receive a proposal within 48 to 72 hours. Between the two calls, we prepare a summary of the need, the open questions, the scorecard for the role and the sourcing strategy. On average, an assignment is signed 12 days after first contact.

In-depth briefing: type of Inside Sales role, target clients, share of new and existing clients, languages.
Written sourcing strategy for the assignment.
Structured screening: in-depth interview and KOAN.
Shortlist presentation with scorecard, interview transcripts and a validated job description.
Follow-up before, during and after the hire, including onboarding follow-up over the first three months.

Fees, timing and guarantee

We work on a retainer only, with no success fee. Our fee is set before the search starts, in the written proposal you sign, based on the languages required, the seniority of the role, the technical complexity of your offer and the difficulty of the assignment. Allow 12 weeks on average between signing the assignment and the candidate signing, then their notice period. The 6-month replacement guarantee applies if the candidate leaves.

Archetype is a Belgian family business founded in 1993 and a Federgon member. More than 75 to 80% of our assignments are carried through to placement.

About Archetype

Archetype is a Belgian family business founded in 1993 by Marc Diamant and now co-managed with Davy Diamant and Steve Diamant. A member of Federgon, it won Talent Business Innovation of the Year 2025 for its ethical and structured use of AI.

Frequently asked questions about hiring Inside Sales

What is Inside Sales?

Inside Sales means selling remotely, by phone, video call and email, without visiting the client. Depending on the company, the Inside Sales person closes their own deals, qualifies prospects for another seller, or supports the field team by handling quotes, follow-ups and orders.

Inside sales or field sales: which should you choose?

Look at how your clients buy. If they already order by phone or online, an Inside Sales role fits. If they insist on a visit, an on-site demonstration or a meeting with several decision-makers, you need a field salesperson, possibly backed by an Inside Sales colleague.

Are Inside Sales and SDR the same role?

Not always. An SDR is defined by their stage of the cycle: they prospect and qualify, then hand over. Inside Sales is defined by the channel: the person works remotely and may also negotiate and close. An SDR is almost always an Inside Sales role, but not the other way round.

How much does it cost to hire an Inside Sales professional?

The fee is set before the search starts, in a written proposal sent within 48 to 72 hours of the first call. It depends on the languages, the seniority of the role, the complexity of your offer and the difficulty of the assignment. We work on a retainer, with a 6-month replacement guarantee.