Inbound vs Outbound Sales: Which is Right for Your Business?

Sales teams are always looking for new leads and ways to increase their sales pipeline and close more deals. But what’s the best way to go about it? Inbound vs outbound sales is a common debate with pros and cons for each method. So which one is right for your business? Read on to find out!

I remember when I was first starting out in sales, I didn’t really know the difference between inbound vs outbound selling. My manager at the time told me that as long as I was making calls and getting my name out there, that was all that mattered. And so, armed with this advice, I set out to make as many cold calls as possible.

It wasn’t until later on in my career that I realized there was a big difference between the two methods – and that one wasn’t necessarily better than the other. It all depends on your product or service, your target market, and your own personal selling style. So let’s take a closer look at inbound vs outbound sales, shall we?

Inbound Sales

The prospect goes to a company to look for solutions to their problems. They may also read blog posts, attend webinars, schedule consultations, and fill out forms. They submit their email addresses for eBooks, infographics, tools, and more. Inbound sales representatives then contact these buyers via email and phone.

Inbound customers tend to be more aware of their issues and more engaged with your company.

Outbound Sales 

The sales reps reach out, offering them the products and services. The sales reps might use cold emails, texts, or phone calls.

Because these outbound sales tactics are less targeted, the sales reps normally have less awareness and engagement.

Both approaches can be powerful for the growth of a business.

The approach you take will depend largely on the nature of your business, the average size of your deals, and how well customers understand your offerings.

Let’s take a closer look at both methods so that you can decide which one will be most effective for the growth of your company.

Inbound vs Outbound Sales: The Difference

In Inbound sales, the potential customer initiates the contact, while in Outbound, the salesperson makes the first move.

Outbound and inbound sales are two different methods of selling.

When deciding whether to build out an inbound or outbound sales department, this is the guide for making that decision.

Inbound marketing is attractive to marketers because it allows them to target potential customers, be cost effective, and scale up their marketing efforts.

Outbound selling is a great way to build trust and close big deals while maintaining control of the sale.

Both methods are effective but should be used as tools to achieve your ultimate goal.

The strategy that you develop for your team will be based on your sales team’s needs, the objectives that you have, who your target audience is, what product you’re offering, and any other factors that may affect your approach.

Let’s begin by explaining what the difference is between a cold and warm lead.

Combining Outbound and Inbound to Grow Your Revenue

Of course, you don’t have to choose just one.

It’s important to use a mix of both inbound and outbound methods when growing your sales funnel. For example, in recent years it became popular to use more types of marketing, such as content marketing, to generate leads.

So, once you have those inbound leads to follow up on, you can move on to qualifying them and closing the deal.

For example, you could reach out to those leads that have signed up for your emails but have not responded to your follow-ups.

If you’re not getting enough inbound leads, outbound sales can be a great way to supplement your funnel. Done properly, it can be very effective in growing your business.

Use both inbound marketing and outbound marketing together to get the best results.

How Inbound Marketing Can Help Close More Deals

In inbound marketing, instead of reaching out to customers through advertisements, you approach them. In doing this, you find out what they need and what they’re interested in buying.

The success of sales teams depends on creating relevant content that appeals to your target audience.

Inbound marketing can help close more deals by integrating content marketing with social media platforms. This way, you can get real feedback from your audience about what works and what doesn’t. By understanding your audience’s needs, you can create content that resonates with them and drives conversions.

Inbound marketing can help close more deals by building relationships with prospects and creating value for them. By doing this, you will earn trust from your prospects, which will make them more likely to do business with you.

In 2022, Inbound Marketing will surpass Outbound Marketing and become the most sought-after form of Digital Marketing.

This graphic provides a quick overview of how Inbound marketing can help you generate more qualified sales opportunities.

The pros and cons of Inbound Sales

Inbound sales strategies have many benefits for your sales teams. These include:

• Brand building. You can build brand awareness and acquire leads by running campaigns similar to inbound lead generation. Even if they don’t buy from your company today, businesses who get to know your brand might purchase in the future. This is where a good marketing tool can be your best friend.
• Thought leadership building. Content is not just for acquiring leads. You are also sharing valuable perspectives and opinions that help build a following.
• Organic reach, ad-free. Ads are not a good investment. You can still reap the benefits of existing audiences with a marketing strategy that is based on email marketing or evergreen content.

However, there are some drawbacks to the benefits.

• More timeframe. Leads who answer a sales call may be ready to purchase today. A person who reads an article may not be ready to buy for months, or even years. Inbound sales require patience.
• Attribution challenges. It can be difficult to determine which inbound marketing tactic is performing the best when you combine several. Is it the PPC ad that a prospect clicked on or the article they read? Or the email drip campaign that made the sale? Maybe all of these. For more precise tracking, consider a campaign management tool.
• Less targeted. By definition, inbound methods mean attracting leads. Sometimes, the leads that you attract aren’t your ideal customers. Inbound can bring you quality but not quantity if you aren’t careful.

The pros & cons of outbound sales

Outbound sales tactics offer some benefits that are not available with an inbound strategy.

• Get in touch with ICP faster. Cold calls and emails get you in touch quickly. You can start talking to outbound leads as soon as you start.
• Improved targeting control. Outbound marketing strategies can help you quickly narrow down your ideal customer base and reach those leads, while avoiding others. Outbound strategies will allow you to fill your pipeline only with the ideal prospects.
• It’s easier to close. A lead that has moved through your outbound funnel generally means that they are a high-quality prospect interested in buying. You can speed up the sales process.

These are the disadvantages of an outbound strategy:

• More time-intensive. Inbound marketing is more time-consuming than outbound.
• More expensive. Outbound strategies will cost more. This is because highly targeted campaigns can be more expensive. You’ll also need to pay extra for the additional hours.
• Intrusive campaigns. You’ll need thick skin if you’re responsible for cold calls and cold emails. Prospects often find outbound methods intrusive, irritating, or worse.

Tips to Help You Choose Between Inbound Vs Outbound Sales Techniques

After learning the difference between Outbound and Inbound sales, we will now discuss how to choose which strategy is right for your situation.

Understand your prospect’s buyer persona

If your buyers are one who likes interacting more with your company, then an inbound approach would work better.

If your prospect prefers a more hands-on approach to selling, then an inbound marketing strategy will work best. If they want a more passive experience, then an outbound marketing strategy will be best.

Analyze The Prospect’s Digital Knowledge

In the age of the Internet, people like to see reviews and feedback from others before making a purchase. While those less digitally savvy prefer to talk to experts before making a decision.

In situations where the prospective customer is unsure, the outbound team can step in and offer their expertise. On the other hand, if the prospect is certain, the inbound sales department can take the lead.

The time it takes for a prospect to make a buying decision

If you’re selling a product that requires a good amount of consideration, then Outbound sales techniques might be a better option. This is because, with Inbound sales, the prospective buyer may get confused or back out and decide not to buy.

If you have a high-ticket item, the prospective customer may have trouble deciding between your product and your competitor’s. In cases like this, an Outbound Sales Representative can step in and help explain the advantages of your offering and assist in making a purchasing decision.

Outbound sales is most effective when trying to sell real property, while inbound is the most effective when trying to make a sale for a software as a service (SaaS).

Inbound and Outbound Sales Tools to Scale Your Business

To effectively handle all the processes described above, you’ll need a fewsales tools to help you be more productive.

SalesHandy- For Sales Engagement

With saleshandy.com, you can schedule all your outbound email marketing campaigns.

SalesHandy is a productivity tool used by professionals in top companies such as Amazon, Microsoft, and Oracle. It has many benefits that make it an essential tool for anyone looking to improve their productivity. Some of these benefits include the ability to automate email campaigns, schedule cold emails, and track your progress.

The sales automation software, called “Saleshandy.com”, is used by thousands of sales companies worldwide. It’s known for its ability to send out personalized emails to up to 10000 recipients a day. It also provides the ability to automate follow ups and integrate with popular CRM systems.

Prices start at $9mo.

LinkedIn- For Lead Prospecting 

There are more than 30 million people on LinkedIn, and most of them are connected to at least one company.

You can gather information about a prospect, such as their job title and organization. This data will help you create content that is tailored to them.

Using your LinkedIn profile, you can determine whether a prospect is a good fit for you. Furthermore, using Linkedin’s sales navigator, you can gather detailed data on your prospect and their company.

The pricing for Salesforce’s sales navigator is $79.99mo.

Hunter- For finding Leads

Using this tool, you can find the email addresses of your sales prospects. Just enter their name and company and we can find their email for you.

The Email Verification Tool can make sure that the email addresses you have for your prospects are valid. This is important, because if you send emails to an invalid address, your delivery rate can decrease and your reputation as a sender can suffer.

Pricing: Our Premium Features start from just $49 a month.

Pipedrive- CRM Tool

With pipe drive, you can keep track of your prospect’s activity and ensure that all conversations are never lost. This ensures that your lead is never neglected and is nurtured properly.

In addition to their robust CRM, they also feature integrated sales forecasts, integration with other business tools such as Google apps, Mailchimp, and zapier, and an API for those that prefer to build their own solutions.

All plans start at $15month.

WordPress- For CRM

The best content management system for managing online content is WordPress. It is extremely flexible, easy to use, and perfect for businesses of any size.

WordPress is an extremely versatile and easy-to-use content management system for any organization. With thousands of plugins available, anyone can easily manage their website’s content without any technical expertise.

One of the greatest benefits of working with WordPress is that it’s easy to import and export content in an XML file format. This makes it incredibly easy to move your data to another platform if you ever want to do so.

The basic plan is free.

What’s the difference between inbound and outbound?

Inbound marketing strategy focuses on getting found by customers. In inbound marketing, you attract potential customers with interesting, valuable content that they find online. This makes them want to learn more about your company, and makes it easy for them to find you.

Outbound marketing strategy focuses on finding customers. Outbound marketing teams interrupt potential customers with messages they don’t want, in places they don’t look, and at times they don’t want to be interrupted.

What makes inbound sales different?

Inbound sales is a process in which a company proactively reaches out to potential customers, rather than waiting for them to come to the company. This type of selling is often done through online channels such as social media, search engine optimization, and content marketing. Inbound sales is different from outbound sales in that it requires a different approach and mindset. In order to be successful in inbound sales, companies must be able to attract customers with helpful and relevant information, rather than simply trying to sell them something.

Conclusion

There’s no easy answer when it comes to inbound vs outbound sales techniques. It all depends on your product or service, your target audience, and your own personal selling style. If you’re not sure which method is right for you, experiment with both and see what works best for your business.

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