Companies are constantly searching for the right sales strategies that can work to elevate their brands. During the search, they mostly consider inbound and outbound sales or opt for the hybrid of the two. However, when choosing the right sales strategy that works for your business, it is essential to understand that 92% of customer interactions occur through phones.
When you talk of inbound vas outbound sales, remember that inbound sales have an exceptional reputation which has proved them to be cost-effective in attracting new customers and scaling the way forward. On the other side, outbound sales are known to have a personal touch, which enhances trust and closes sales deals.
This article discusses inbound vs. outbound sales and what works well in certain circumstances. Let’s walk together for more actionable insights!
Inbound Vs. Outbound Sales
The major difference between inbound sales and outbound sales is who facilitates the sale. In an inbound sales circumstance, the customer begins the sales process themselves by contacting the company customer care for more information about certain products and services. In an outbound sale, the company starts the sales process through the sales representative.
The sales rep contacts customers directly, explain the products and services they are offering and persuades them to make a purchasing decision. Generally, everything trickles down to whether the immediate point of contact was the customer looking for the company or the company looking for the customer.
Even though this may appear to be a minor difference, it presents an enormous impact at the end of the day. Also, it draws a clear picture of how the company and the customer interact before closing a deal. It is valuable to note that inbound customers are more engaged and are always more aware of your brand and what you are offering.
On the flip side, outbound customers are usually less engaged since they do not have more knowledge about your brand and are less informed about your products and services. This means that you have to take some of your time and explain to outbound customers more about your brand to make them understand who you are and what you are offering before closing a deal.
Is Inbound or Outbound the Right Choice?
Many companies across the industries feel pressured to choose between inbound and outbound sales strategies. However, neither of the two is a better choice. A good sales strategy combines the two methodologies since they are powerful strategies in their ways.
Besides, a company may decide to focus on one strategy more than the other depending on the nature of the industry, the average sales size, customer awareness, and the type of the company. Regardless of your choice, note that both inbound sales and outbound sales are awesome successful growth channels that can transform a business to the next level.
Besides, there are no specific rules and guidelines set to identify the amount of focus that a company needs to invest in inbound and outbound sales. There are various factors and practices that you need to consider to adopt the strategy that can work for you. The surprising news is that there are companies that attained significant success after breaking the norms.
When to Use Inbound Sales Strategy
You can opt to use an inbound sales strategy if:
- You do not have money to invest in a powerful sales team
- You have a comprehensive audience in search of your services online
- You can create highly engaging content that attracts customers
- The outbound sales strategy does not work for your market audience
- You close a sales deal within the shortest time possible
When to Use Outbound Sales Strategy
Outbound sales strategy works well if:
- You are capable of solving a problem with both new and alternative solutions
- The audience does not mind receiving cold calls
- You have a clear and specific target audience
- You have enterprise clients and are selling expensive products and services
- You have a comprehensive sales cycle for your products
- You do not have any problem paying your sales rep generous commissions
What are Inbound Sales?
This refers to a sales technique where the company persuades interested customers and converts them into qualified leads to purchase products or services. Note that the inbound sales strategy focuses on the customer’s desires while the sales representatives adjust their modes of operation to help meet the buyers' journey.
When using an inbound sales strategy, the sales representative works as a trusted mentor, offering guidance across the entire sales process. Every inbound sale you record is different since every customer and their purchase product are extremely different. Every interested customer always has different levels of interest with varying questions.
A powerful inbound sales strategy identifies what the customer journey looks like. This enables the sales representatives to provide effective support that enables customers to close sales deals.
Stages of Inbound Sales
1. Locate Potential Customers
The organization begins with identifying the ideal customers and evaluates the challenges they face during the sales journey. At the end of the day, the company comes up with a concise strategy such as informative content or tools that summarize the entire process, making it easier for customers to navigate. This places the company on a better side of grabbing the customer's attention and attracts them to acquire solutions from the respective company.
2. Connect with Leads
Every company needs to identify the best way possible to connect with its potential customers. This is made possible by creating content that matches their market audience and posts across different channels depending on the nature of the customers. Consider posting the content on the channels where customers are most likely to do searches.
3. Explore Deeper
Once you have managed to create an engagement between your brand and customers, the sales representatives aid the customers in exploring solutions in a more detailed manner. At this point, the sales representative serves as a mentor or guide in building a robust relationship that aids in identifying the customer's challenges. After analyzing the customer challenges, it becomes easier to find a lasting solution and build an exceptional reputation in the industry.
4. Advice Solution
After analyzing all the customer needs, you now have to offer a solution based on the products and services you are offering. You need to persuade the customer to purchase your products or services to solve their problems. This is when the sales representative needs to suggest the call to action to close a deal.
What are Outbound Sales?
Outbound sales refer to a sales strategy where organizations launch sales pitches or messages to customers unaware of your brand to create attention and engagement and later convert them into leads. This sales strategy mainly includes cold emailing, social selling, and email marketing.
Since many customers have diverted to the use of online platforms, this strategy generates better results since it’s easier to access potential clients through direct messages. Note that outbound sales work tactfully without seeming intrusive and remain valuable in the long run.
Stages of Outbound Sales Strategy
1. Identify Potential Customers
The outbound sales strategy begins by prospecting for potential customers across your market audience. This is done by building a detailed list of potential clients who they want to conduct. The sales representative uses a list of people with similar characteristics, such as demographics.
Another rich source of customers is through aid networks that allow sales reps that generate a list depending on the location and interest. Also, you can acquire email finder tools that help you find valid email addresses for individuals within the company.
2. Generation of Leads
After you have created a list of potential customers, you now have to begin the process of contacting them. You have to choose the best mode of contact through phone calls, emails, or advertisements. You can decide to send your sales team to visit prospect clients in person at their place of work. The ultimate goal of this step is to create any form of formal engagement or get a response back from the clients. Once the prospect comes from being unaware of being responsive, you will have attained the first milestone.
3. Contact and Qualify Leads
When the sales representative gets the attention of potential clients, the immediate step is to identify if the customer can benefit from what the company is selling. However, you need some form of honesty to identify whether the customer is purchasing the products in their best interest. Qualifying a foundation is said to be the foundation for generating sales shortly.
4. Present Your Solution
When the sales representative has qualified the leads, it is now time to show off the solution tour customer problems. You need to present your product and services by either planning for a demo or a meeting with the client. Also, you need to make the customer understand how they can benefit from the products and services you are selling.
Bottom Line
Inbound and outbound sales mainly work towards achieving the same goal in business. However, it is essential to understand that the two methodologies work well depending on the nature of the business and the target market audience.