Why You Should be Choosing an Inbound Sales Strategy

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Lauren Newalani

Content Writer for Whistle with multidisciplinary experience spanning over a decade.

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Table of Contents

A company’s inbound sales numbers are an important indicator of its organic growth as well as the efficacy of its communication channels. Being available to users and providing valuable information and insight means that the company is interacting with users that have made an active decision to engage with the company. These users are more likely to make purchases based on the information and engagement that the organization has provided. This not only makes the sales process easier but also much cheaper. We look at some of the amazing attributes of a well-oiled inbound strategy.

 

Work Smart Not Hard

One of the easiest ways to solidify customer loyalty is to make your sales process align with the user’s product journey. Specific, personalized communication that is triggered by specific user actions is the smartest way to build rapport and loyalty. Offering users valuable advice and useful content, cements the organization’s ‘concierge’ status in the mind of the user and is seen as an additional ‘value add’. Users appreciate interaction that is ‘helpful’ rather than ‘pushy’ and would prefer to enter the sales funnel on their own terms. The sales rep is merely the facilitator of a very natural progression and is available to help the user arrive at the best product based on their needs and available budget. Inbound requires much less outward effort by the sales reps. As a result, inbound sales offer a far greater return on investment than outbound marketing efforts.

 

Use Your Sales Team Wisely

Leaning toward an inbound strategy lets you use your sales team in a way that gets you the best bang for your buck. CRM systems like HubSpot provide invaluable data and insight into user behavior. We know what users are looking at, if they are looking at pricing and how much time they are spending on specific content pages. This lets the company know what to engage the user on and what matters to them. An inbound sales rep is, in fact, making contact with a lead that is ‘hot’. It then becomes the task of the sales rep to guide the user to the best available solution to the user’s pain point. This means organizations can deploy their sales team in a manner that best targets ‘active’ users and facilitates the building of a higher-quality lead database. These prospects have already done their homework, had some interaction with the company and have experienced some form of personalized communication already. 

 

Understand Your Market

Understanding the data that your CRM is feeding you is critical to the success of any inbound strategy. You will be able to clearly define your market and create segmentation based on demographics, psychographics, geographic location and user proficiency. This information will make the personalization of your communication easier to accomplish. Having real-time data makes it simpler to track the user journey and identify potential challenges that may prevent a sale. Consistent trigger-based communication shows users that the organization is aware of the interaction and more importantly, is responsive to it. This leads to more sustainable brand-building and lets users build brand awareness on their own terms. This independence is valued by the user and leads to greater brand loyalty. Users want to be seen as people and not just sales targets. Treating every user as an individual makes them feel like they are important and that is a huge step toward creating long-lasting customer loyalty.

 

While there are benefits to an inbound sales strategy, one shouldn’t disregard outbound sales. Most companies eventually settle for a sustainable balance between the two as they both have inherent benefits. Need advice on your inbound sales? Whistle can help.