Inbound VS Outbound Sales: Choosing the Best Strategy

Attracting and retaining customers is challenging for businesses in today's competitive market. This is why companies are constantly searching for effective strategies that work and bring business to them. There are various approaches that the businesses can leverage to generate sales.Two of such strategy are Inbound vs outbound sales. So, let’s delve deep into the concepts and find how they can help us to reach customers and drive sales. 

Inbound vs Outbound Sales: 

Inbound and outbound sales are two different kinds of selling methods companies use to generate sales. When businesses focus on building relationships with customers by addressing their needs through targeted communication, we call it inbound sales while outbound sales involve rigorous customer outreach.Both strategies are different but they can work together effectively. They can generate leads and drive sales if you use them strategically.

What Is Inbound Sales?

Inbound sales is a method that prioritizes the customer’s needs, pain points, objectives, and interests. It does not involve selling the product or service aggressively to the potential customer but persuading them through meaningful content and communication. The sales process involves following stages.

1. Identify the interested leads: The first step is to identify the interested people. During this phase, sales people identify the people who have shown interest in their offering. They educate the interested people through content and communication. This is how the business development representative gets knowledge about the needs and interests of the potential customers.

2. Connect: This stage involves connecting with the potential client. Sales representatives can do it by sending personalized messages to the leads through which they address their needs and pain points. It not only breaks the ice but also builds rapport.

3. Explore: At this stage, the salesperson identifies the actual pain points of the potential customer. They offer consultation and collect relevant information by asking questions to identify how the product or service can solve the customer’s problem.

4. Advise: When the exploration phase is over, sales person offer a solution that addresses the prospect’s needs.The objective of this whole process is to provide the best solution to the person who is being pitched rather that selling the product or service agressively. 

Inbound Sales Funnel Techniques

Inbound sales begins with generating leads through marketing efforts. The techniques may include content marketing like personalized email messaging, social media advertisements to target specific demographics, paid campaigns, and search engine optimization (SEO). Through these techniques the businesses find potential customers who are then diverted to the website or social media handles to close sales.

Businesses also use lead capture tools and collect customer’s information like contact number and email address by offering free e-books, webinars, or white papers etc. Afterward, these leads are nurtured through inbound sales funnel.  Sales rep provide them the information about the offerings through blogs, videos and resourceful content persuading them to consider the product that eventually leads to the decision.  

Benefits of Inbound Sales

The inbound sales strategy is quite a successful way of guiding customers through the decision making process.It is fruitful for the businesses because it is less expensive than outbound sales methods. Moreover, It is less strenuous too as the businesses focus on leads that align with company’s values instead of wasting time on everyone. These methods rely on reliable metrics and data and help  build and strengthen relationships with the customers.

How B2B Inbound Sales Are Different from B2C Sales?

Selling to businesses (B2B) is different from selling to individual consumers (B2C). In B2C, you focus on understanding one person’s needs. Sometimes, it’s easy to guess what they need based on similar clients you’ve worked with before. Other times, you get an idea from how they engage with your content, which informs you about their pain points. 

On the other hand, B2B sales are more difficult because you’re dealing with a whole team to close the deal. So, when selling to a business, you need to understand the company's problems precisely and figure out who in the team needs the most convincing.

What is outbound sales?

Let’s move on to Outbound sales strategies that involve contacting customers through methods like cold calling or emailing rigorously. This is how businesses aim to create interest in their offerings.Outbound sales methods are quick, scalable and automated. The strategies involve cold calling, emailing, mass media advertising, participating in exhibitions, trade shows and events to promote the product and connect with potential customers or leveraging LinkedIn marketing and prospecting or Facebook advertisements to generate high-quality leads.

Inbound vs Outbound Sales: Final Thoughts

Businesses should make the decision wisely in order to capture target market share. They should ponder over the various marketing strategies and make choices that significantly impact their sales and drive success. The decision to choose between inbound and outbound sales significantly impacts how businesses interact with customers. Inbound sales are more customer-focused, while outbound sales emphasize persuading potential customers. Both approaches require different skills but they can be used together wisely to obtain a positive outcome.