All the power in the sales process used to lie with salespeople. Then came the internet. Now your buyers have access to all the information they need prior to reaching out to any organizations like yours. In today’s business world, the power lies with the buyer. Inbound sales is forced to transform to meet that change head on.
Inbound sales strategy is essential for businesses of all sizes, sales cycles, and strategies, even those that rely heavily on outbound sales. Regardless of the origin of your leads, you’ll want to learn how to sell the way your empowered customers want to buy.
So, if inbound sales doesn’t indicate origin of the lead, what does it mean?
Inbound sales is a methodology based on personalization, helpfulness, and selling the way modern buyers want to buy. It focuses on the prospect’s pain points and presents the sales people as trusted consultants by adapting the sales process to the buyer.
It starts with attracting qualified leads through marketing. It could be email or social media outreach, video marketing, ads, or blogging – as long as it brings interested audiences to your sales team and allows them to begin conversations.
The next step is consultative sales. Connect with the prospects and learn as much as you can about the problem or challenge that brought them to you or prompted them to respond. You will find some leads during this process that aren’t a fit, and now is also the best time to find that out.
If there is a mutual fit, it’s time to dig a little deeper. What pain points can your company or solution address? How will you be able to improve this prospect’s life directly? Really focus on hammering home how you can help this person specifically in achieving their goals more easily. If you listen well, with genuine interest in helping them, the sales will follow easily for the right customers, and you can stop wasting your time on uninterested prospects or those that aren’t a fit.