What Are Inbound Sales: A Guide to Modern Selling Strategies

As businesses evolve, so do their sales strategies. This begs the question, what are inbound sales? Inbound sales represent a powerful shift from traditional outbound methods. It’s about drawing customers to you, rather than chasing them down.

What Are Inbound Sales: A Modern Approach

Inbound sales is a sales methodology centered around attracting potential customers with valuable content and resources. It’s about being less of a salesperson and more of a trusted advisor. Instead of cold calling, inbound sales emphasizes quality content and interactions that build lasting relationships with inbound sales leads. This inbound sales process starts with attracting potential customers.

With virtually limitless buying information online, today’s buyers are often more than halfway through the buying process before contacting a sales rep. Inbound sales acknowledges this shift in buyer behavior and provides valuable, relevant content to nurture leads.

Inbound vs. Outbound: A Shift in Focus

The core difference between inbound and outbound sales lies in who initiates contact. Outbound sales involves directly reaching out to potential customers through methods like cold calling and email blasts.

This often leads to high rejection rates. Inbound sales, however, focuses on attracting customers to you. By creating compelling content such as blog posts (like this one about effective inbound sales), ebooks, webinars, and social media posts, businesses provide value.

These marketing efforts can help to establish the business as experts in their respective industries and close deals more easily with potential customers. Outbound sales involves less of a focus on creating relevant content and more on reaching out to a large number of potential customers through marketing activity such as sales calls and email marketing.

Why Inbound Sales Matter

Inbound leads cost 60% less to acquire than outbound leads (according to HubSpot). These leads are usually warmer because the potential customer has already done some research and are looking for specific information related to their pain points.

Personalization also matters in the inbound marketing and sales process. A significant 75% of B2B buyers want a personalized sales journey. Being heard makes the customer feel less like another number in your system. The selling process with inbound can make sales reps much more effective.

Account Based Marketing is extremely important in today's digital age. An MIT study showed reaching out very fast after a lead fills out an online form pays off. In the ever-changing market, being fast wins customers almost half the time. Content marketing can also play an important role.

Building Your Inbound Sales Strategy

Building an effective inbound sales strategy requires understanding your ideal customer's biggest pain points. This sales strategy requires understanding of your target audience and how they interact with content online.

Content is King (and Queen)

Creating high-quality content is critical to a successful inbound sales process. Consider which offerings resonate with your ideal customer. Then, brainstorm different content formats they might find helpful and create content around their interests and challenges.

• Blog Posts: Share detailed information, industry insights, and best practices. Weave in storytelling and address customer pain points.
• Ebooks & White Papers: Offer complete guides and deep dives into specialized topics. Gated content generates qualified leads.
• Webinars & Videos: Host live sessions and encourage viewer questions about your service offering. Active listening is crucial for engagement. Alternatively, provide on-demand videos and demos to showcase your product's value. Case studies are another valuable form of content that can be included here.
• Infographics: Present facts in quick-digesting infographics. Include information that customers might overlook, creating a useful and visually appealing piece of content marketing. Email marketing campaigns can be used to distribute infographics to a wider audience. Use marketing automation to track results.

SEO Optimization

Creating amazing content is worthless if nobody finds it. Optimizing your content for organic search attracts qualified leads. It includes solid keyword research and social listening. Inbound sales strategy requires an understanding of SEO optimization.

Social Media Engagement

Social media provides excellent avenues for content sharing, starting conversations, and engaging potential customers on social channels. Most buyers respond well to salespeople who've nurtured connections by sharing insightful information on social media. Consider using different social media marketing tactics such as video marketing or paid social media campaigns to engage potential customers.

Lead Nurturing

Inbound sales involves nurturing leads over time, especially with bigger purchases where the sales process is longer. This builds trust by educating leads about their problems and how your business solves them. A strong sales strategy requires an understanding of lead nurturing and other marketing efforts. Once prospects trust you, they’re more likely to buy from you.

FAQs about what are inbound sales

What do you mean by inbound sales?

Inbound sales attracts customers to you, rather than hunting them through cold calling or email blasts. This involves creating a steady stream of relevant content and building relationships through valuable interactions. By using effective inbound techniques, businesses can capture leads, nurture leads, and build trust with potential customers. This process starts with a clear understanding of the target audience's pain points.

What is an example of inbound selling?

A SaaS business writes blog posts about cloud accounting solutions, using relevant SEO keywords. A Fortune 100 user (the ideal customer) searches for help with that solution. Google shows them the blog post. The user clicks on the contact form and starts a relationship with your brand.

What is inbound vs outbound sales?

Inbound sales attracts customers with targeted, consultative content aimed at solving their challenges. Inbound sales reps become trusted advisors, guiding prospects through the buyer's journey. Outbound sales reps initiate contact, focusing on direct sales pitches without first discovering pain points.

How much do inbound sales reps make?

Inbound sales representative salaries vary. The average base pay is around $50,000 yearly, with potential earnings exceeding $100,000 including commissions. High-earning sales representatives close large deals easily.

Conclusion

So, what are inbound sales? Inbound sales is more than a tactic; it’s about understanding customers. It's about meeting their needs organically through relevant content, social engagement, and SEO. Truly understanding customers means focusing less on selling and more on advising.

Today's buyers make decisions before talking to someone. Providing upfront resources answers buyer questions and positions your brand as the expert, which helps you win customers over competitors. Sales pros know the value of building these connections. Building trust is a major factor.

This makes it more likely that buyers will choose you. Sales teams should learn about these differences. A good inbound marketing strategy can make the sales team more successful.