The inbound sales process is a method that prioritizes the challenges and needs of individual buyers. The idea behind it, is that the sales people will be more of consultants for the buyers to guide them along their buyer’s journey towards their purchase. They have the answers the customers need before they even know to ask the question.
The Inbound Sales Process Explained
The inbound sales process consists of four main steps: attract, convert, close, and delight.
First, you attract customers, specifically your target buyer personas, by creating relevant and creative content. Your main goal is to answer any questions that they may have using blogging, social media, and SEO strategies.
Next, you need to convert your customers by optimizing landing pages and adding call to actions to your site. Including things such as eBooks, tip sheets, and webinars, are valuable aspects to your online marketing.
Then, it’s time to close the deal, by taking the customers that you’ve already attracted and converted to buying customers and make sure you keep them coming back in the future.
Finally, you must delight your customers by continuing to post content and engage them.
Difference Between Inbound Sales and Traditional Sales
The main difference between inbound sales and traditional sales is their approaches. Traditional sales is more focused on increasing sales and numbers and not as concerned with the customer itself. On the other hand, the inbound sales process goal is to find their potential customers when they feel they need their products and services. This is a more genuine way to go about grabbing a potential new client’s attention and more beneficial for keeping them as clients in the long run.
The inbound sales process believes in being transparent with customers. The traditional sales approach was to be secretive and give away as little information as possible. People believed that by giving away all of their information, they would negatively sway the customers into not buying. However, with the new digital age, people can easily look up information by themselves, so it’s now proven that it’s more beneficial to offer up information and details about your products and services. This makes your company seem more credible and people are more willing to believe and trust you.
A successful inbound sales process is important because it’ll increase consistency of sales. With the change of technology, companies have had to change their approaches to reach potential customers. No longer is cold calling, or cold emails an acceptable form of marketing. Many people ignore unknown phone calls and emails. Companies have had to change their approaches to benefit the customers and as a result, people are more interested in new products and services.