Have you ever wondered what’s the best sales strategy your company needs to choose to succeed? You’ve probably heard of inbound and outbound sales before but some of you may not know that you don’t have to always choose between the two. A combination of the two approaches can help you engage more leads and convert them into sales. But what does an inbound sales representative do exactly? How do inbound and outbound sales strategies can work together? Keep on reading to find the answers to these and other questions.
What Is Inbound Sales Strategy?
An inbound sales representative is responsible for processing information on the prospect who got interested in your company’s products or services and finding out if their needs fit with your offer. For example, a prospect reads an article where your company is mentioned, sees your company’s ads, finds your website online, etc. These prospects are the ones who initiate the contact by giving a call to your corporate number or leaving an email through the contact form on a website.
The inbound sales process steps are described in the image below.
- Identify. Know what your perfect customer looks like. The next step is to identify your prospect’s challenges and how your company can help.
- Connect. Once you know what your customer needs, create a sales collateral or any other content describing your products/services, and what problems they solve. This content may be distributed across different channels where your potential clients search for the information.
- Explore. Connect with leads via phone, email, chat, or any other channel and let them explore your company’s offerings to see what value they get when partnering with your team.
- Advise. If your leads still have doubts (believe us, they sure will do) make sure to provide them with additional information, a demo version if possible, or advise them on the next step to close the deal.
In terms of cost-effectiveness, inbound sales require fewer expenses as you only engage with the prospect who is interested in your product/services and are likely to become your customer.
What Is Outbound Sales Strategy?
The outbound sales representative’s responsibility is to search for new clients with the help of cold-calling, email marketing, posts on social media, creating ads, etc. This is when your company pushes its message through different channels in order to attract more leads rather than waiting for them to contact your first.
The outbound sales strategy includes five steps.
- Prospecting. This step is very similar to the one we have in inbound sales. A salesperson needs to identify who they want to reach first. For instance, you can create a list of people via most of the social media channels and sort them out by gender, age, location, and other metrics you need.
- Outreach. Once you have a list of people that are your target audience, you can give them a call, send an email, or even visit your potential customers. As a sales rep, your goal is to initiate the contact and make prospects hear your offer out.
- Qualifying. The qualification process is straightforward – make sure your prospect’s needs align with your company’s offer. No matter how good your representatives are in sales. The deal won’t be closed and the time will be wasted if they can’t qualify the prospect properly.
- Making an offer. Once 100% sure that your company has what the prospect needs, make an offer. Once again, potential clients might have concerns about whether to take your offer or not. Make sure to address their key pain points and provide them with all the benefits they get when buying from your company.
- Closing the deal. The most pleasant part of the whole process is to convert leads into sales. Guide them through the next steps to make sure they understand what’s needed to finalize the deal.
Outbound sales tend to be effective in several business cases. For example, your company develops software only for corporate clients, or you sell expensive and exclusive products, or you are entering the market with a completely new idea.
Tools to Get Better End Results
Both inbound and outbound sales channels include calls, emails, social media, etc. The best way to manage all of these channels is to use proper tools and software. For instance, inbound sales specialists use the Qualified conversational marketing platform that allows them to connect with potential customers through various channels such as voice messages, video calls, chatbots, and much more. Meanwhile, those who work with outbound sales can implement tools familiar to the Revenue Grid sales engagement and revenue acceleration platform that educates the whole team on how to manage sales and automates the whole process for their convenience. Any of these tools can be connected with the CRM platforms such as Salesforce to make it even easier for your team to bring in new clients.
Why Combining Inbound Sales vs Outbound Sales Will Benefit Your Business
Joint inbound vs outbound sales effort allows you to get more information on your potential customers. The two teams help to:
- Close information gaps about the clients’ needs;
- Create content that responds to your clients’ questions;
- Eliminate the need to handle the same objections over and over again;
- Better prioritize marketing campaigns.
It’s up to you to choose what methodology is best for your business. If you are looking for an outbound or inbound CRM solution for your business, get in touch with the OMI specialists today. Our team will evaluate your current business challenges and will come up with a solution to cover them all.