8 Effective Strategies to Win at Inbound and Outbound Sales

Why would any business exist without sales?

Be it outbound or inbound, it’s Sales that bring magic to any business.

Inbound sale is a double-edged sword- It brings in folks who are finding you.

That is people who’re already interested. These people experience pain, hear about your solution and then contact you after which you together explore if there’s a fit between your solution and the pain they have.

But there are a lot of people who are a good fit for your solution but haven’t heard about you, so you need to go out and find them, and explore whether their pain is severe enough for you to be fit.

That is outbound sales.

Both these approaches are magical but come with their own problems.

Inbound and outbound sales both help businesses generate revenue, but they work differently. Inbound sales converts people who already show interest, while outbound sales helps teams reach relevant prospects who may not know the business yet. The best sales strategy combines both: track every lead, respond quickly, follow up consistently, segment prospects and use a CRM like telecrm to manage conversations from one place.

But to beautifully scale and thrive, all you need to do is the right systems. Maybe add more sales reps and automate a few processes with Sales CRM.

Here are a few techniques to excel in both, inbound and outbound sales:

4 secrets to succeed at inbound sales:

Definitions:

• Inbound sales means converting leads who come to your business through your website, ads, content, referrals or other channels.

1. Track your lead’s journey

What would sound better?

Generic: “Hi, could you tell me who you are and how you found us?”

Or

Contextual: “Hi, I noticed you just visited our website. How can I help you today?”

Keeping track of all your leads, from the time they enter your system helps in having a better-personalized conversation. Makes your prospect feel considerate from the very first step, which makes it highly likely for him to convert.

Along with this, it’ll help you spend your money and energy in the right direction.

2. Set up lead integrations

Delayed responses can cost sales. Lead integrations help by bringing leads from different platforms into one CRM, so the sales team can receive alerts, view lead details and contact each enquiry faster.
For instance, with Facebook CRM, one can hook all the FB leads directly to CRM, receive lead alerts and instantly connect with each lead through one-click WhatsApp/ SMS/ Email.

Similarly, all the leads coming through WhatsApp can be captured in the Whatsapp CRM.
The sales and support teams can now refer to it, all from one location.

3. Conversion needs simplicity:

Simplicity is everything.

The simple things get successful results. Be it the processes or the system. A good process accounts for a good customer experience while a simple system allows the prospects to understand better, and make the most out of the system. A complex system on the other hand would lead to users running away from using your product.

Aware of the hassle Excel sheets bring while carrying out all your calling activities?
Imagine doing the same, that is dialing numbers, calling, setting reminders for follow-ups, and noting feedback from one single system.

How easy it would become for the users, who would then always prefer that system over anything else. And hence, would always stick with your business.

4. Take one step at a time:

When it comes to inbound sales, it’s better to take one step at a time. For instance, when a visitor comes to your website, get their contact detail, and then when you email them the valuable content, you can ask them for becoming your newsletter member.
Capture all those leads, and then start sending out relevant messages.

Entice them, provide valuable information, and then close the deals.

Now, having been aware of the secrets of inbound, let’s have a sneak peek into the magical world of outbound sales. 

4 secrets to succeed in outbound sales:

Definitions:

• Outbound sales means proactively reaching out to relevant prospects through calls, emails, WhatsApp, SMS or other outreach channels.

1. Call the relevant leads before they cool down:

The faster your team responds, the better the chance of converting an interested lead. Treat the first few minutes after an enquiry as a high-priority follow-up window, especially for website, Facebook and other inbound leads.

But this can only be made possible with the right lead management system in place. With the right CRM, the sales team can instantly connect with all the incoming leads, be it from the Website, Facebook, or any other platform, making it highly likely for the prospect to remember you and easily convert.

2. Stay in touch with the leads:

80% of the customers require 5 follow-up calls after the first one. So it becomes highly crucial to keep following up with your customers.

Source: Society for Marketing Professional Services

And since following up with each customer can become a hassle, it becomes of utmost necessity to use a tool that can remind you every time you schedule a follow-up.

Connecting with leads at the right time builds trust and good brand perception.

3. Build an Outreach Plan (using your CRM database)

Figure out an outreach plan according to the needs of your customers. Segregate all leads based on their present status, for instance:

• Untouched leads
• Touched leads
• Cooling leads, then formulate different ways of targeting these leads. For say, what content strategy is required to reheat the cooling leads (leads that were interested at a point in time, but have not been converted yet)?
  telecrm offers these inbuilt filters, which makes this dirty task a piece of cake.

4. Segment and tailor personalized emails/WhatsApp messages/SMS.

Generic promotional messages are easy to ignore. Segment leads by status, source, interest or previous interaction, then use templates that personalise more than just the name. This makes WhatsApp, SMS and email follow-ups more relevant to each prospect.

To avoid the hassle, one can use the already built-in template messages. Personalizing not just the name but any number of fields as required.

Conclusion

So in the end, things that need to be got right are focusing on the right companies and building the correct systems.

Because no matter whether it’s outbound or inbound both these techniques can seem to be daunting if done without automation and a proper system.