Inbound sales transforms selling to match the way people buy.
Inbound Sales & Marketing is a methodology that attracts qualified visitors to your website and then nurtures leads using Content marketing from being a stranger to a loyal customer.
How Do I Know If I Have A Problem With Outbound Sales?
- Inconsistent results – especially if you over rely on cold calling for new business development.
- Not remaining top of mind with your prospects or existing customers – because you do less educating and only make contact when you are selling.
- Not knowing how to connect with leads who aren’t ready to buy yet – and a lack of knowledge on how to turn this into an opportunity to advise rather than a “dead-end”.
- Knowing how to nurture leads that are just starting their buying process – resisting the desire to go for the sale as soon as they do something remotely interesting.
Changing “all about me” To A Buyer-Centric Mindset.
- Use content as a way to educate prospects so they can self-qualify for you.
- Set up lead scoring and workflows to ensure that you work on the best opportunities, and that you’re not missing out on any others.
- Become a trusted “expert” by sharing insights and offering advice.
- Work together with marketing to nurture leads and learn how to recognise when prospects are open to engage.
- Implement and use a sales CRM tool to manage and record your actions.
- And think of sales as relationship building, people rather than decision makers and offering advice rather than closing a sale.
Inbound sales – Identify
Most buyers are already in the Awareness stage of their buying journey – before they engage with salespeople, having already done their own research. As a salesperson focus first on those buyers that are active, who may have recently visited your website, filled out a form or opened a salesperson’s email. Talk to customers that are a good fit, ask for introductions on LinkedIn and set up Google alerts to track key events that should trigger your interest i.e. new recruitment, firms seeking new investments, expanding business, etc.
Inbound sales – Connect
Your sales message should be tailored to the buyer’s situation – not yours. This context could be the buyer’s industry, role, interests, common connections, etc. A well developed buyer’s persona will help you understand the unique pain that they are looking to address. Each persona will have a particular way that they will want to build a relationship, digital media habits and goals. Most of these buyers are also in the “awareness” stage of their buying journey so your sales goal is to educate them on the problem or opportunity rather than selling your solution. Be ready to nurture them along the sales funnel.
Inbound sales – Explore
Guide an exploratory conversation with your prospect to fully understanding their challenges, what the consequences of failure are, and what solutions are in place. Your sales objective is to position how your solution can help and at the same time understand how the prospect will fund and manage any solution to gauge if this prospect would make a good fit for your company.
Inbound sales – Advise
Inbound salespeople advise prospects on what would be the best decision addressing the challenges in the buyer’s context. A sales prospect will want to be confident that your solution demonstrates a strong understanding of their company, industry and specific needs.
Now is the time to craft a customised proposal that connects the prospects goals and challenges to your offering, and shows exactly how they’ll benefit with your service.