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The Difference between Inbound and Outbound Sales Strategy

Sales strategy can be referred to as a plan of action prepared and followed by a company to increase its sales, revenue and thereby profits. It is very important to have a good sales strategy which is in alignment with the mission and vision of the company. It is imperative to keep in mind the goal of the company as a whole and not only the sales team while preparing the sales strategy. If this is not done, then it will have a negative impact on the performance of the company in the long run.

Sales strategy should be revised from time to time in order to maximize the results. This is because with the passage of time, requirements of the business and attitude of the customer changes. To keep up with the changes, strategies should be updated.

Inbound Sales: Inbound sale is like pull sales. In this, a customer’s requirements are found and studied. As per their requirements, products and services are designed, thereby attracting and bringing a customer to us. Customer’s requirement can be studied by following prospective customer on social media, surveys, etc. It is the latest sales methodology which focuses on increasing sales by fulfilling the customer’s need and not focused on increasing sales by just selling a product. This provides the personalized experience. For this, digital marketing can be used.

Outbound Sales: Outbound sale is referred to as push sales. It is selling what you already have; finding and bringing clients for products/services which are already designed. This includes things like cold calling to leads which may include people who have shown interest/demand previously, emailing them, etc. In outbound sales, sales representatives of the company try to create the need for the product in the mind of the customers, which can be done by demonstrating the product/service to the customer.

Inbound sales can be considered as easier as compared to outbound sales. But in inbound sales, it is not necessary that you get the exact type of customer you are looking for and in enough numbers so as to increase the revenue of the company. In outbound sales, a company gets the type of customer it is looking for and need not wait for the customers to find and approach you.

Inbound sales strategy v/s Outbound sales strategy

Inbound sales strategy:

  1. Find and analyze buyer’s requirement: In inbound sales, it is necessary to define to whom you want to sell/offer the products/services. After identifying, find out the exact requirements and expectations of customer you are seeking. This is because then only you as a company can try to offer product/ services that customer is looking for; and can attract customer towards your company.
  2. Design the sales plan as per the requirement of the buyer: Make the plans as to how and what a company should do to attract customer and make them recognize the brand. Chalk out the measures, how the company can know what a customer wants and provide them with it.
  3. The representative of inbound sales team should act as advisors: Try to guide customer with how they can get what they are looking for.
  4. Try to connect/communicate with the prospective buyer: Get in contact with buyer through different channels – share blogs on the internet with the information which can be useful for a customer while making the decision, post content on social media. Help customer decide the priorities and help them to overcome any challenges they are facing.
  5. Make your product/service in such a manner which should act as the ultimate solution to the buyer: After understanding buyer’s point of view in detail, offer the product/service which they are exactly seeking. Try to be in touch with buyers, discuss the issues they are facing and offer solutions.

Outbound sales strategy:

  1. Define the target market: In outbound sales, it is first essential to define the target market company is trying to capture – the type of customers in terms of gender, income group, geographic location, etc., and in which segment/industry. The success will depend on how accurately a company defines its target market.
  2. Make plans to reach the target market: Now, after deciding the target market, the company is required to chalk out plans as to how to reach the targeted customers. It is required to decide correct channel – call, email, door-to-door marketing, etc.
  3. Gather data for leads: Collect the data of target customer – contact number, email id. This can be done with the help of third parties like the telephone service provider. A list of details can be obtained from them and leads can be contacted accordingly. Also, the company can use the data that it obtained previously through form filling or feedback and use it to generate leads,
  4. Work on accounts based marketing and not just focus on leads: Rather than just working on individual leads, the company can find out the company with which its targeted customers are associated with. Then, the company can do a tie-up with the company and become a product/service provider to all of its customers. Like tie-up of ABC bank with company X – to provide banking services to all the employees of X.
  5. Try to connect with customers through different platforms. Make use of the platform like Facebook, LinkedIn to connect with customers and to follow them.

In the end, I would like to mention one thing that while preparing both inbound and outbound sales strategy, the company should keep in mind to provide for the use of CRM software and provide free CRM service.

Written By

Apoorv Bhatnagar is a Digital marketer at Freshworks Inc. He generally writes about software that improve your marketing, sales or hiring process.

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