Inbound vs Outbound Sales: What’s Better?

Inbound sales vs outbound sales, if you’re wondering what the best sales approach for your company is, you’re not alone.

On one hand, inbound sales is the cost-effective way of attracting customers to your business, on the other hand, is outbound sales, yet another strong way to build trust and bag big deals!

One might conclude that inbound sales is better than outbound because it gets you started on your business at less expense and with less risk, but what about the merits of outbound sales like improved quality? 

We’re here to break it down for you! Let’s dive right in.

What is Inbound Sales?

Inbound sales is a more personal and customer-focused approach to sales. A good inbound salesperson focuses on the prospect’s pain points, adopts a consultative approach, and adapts the sales process to suit the buyer journey.

Understanding Inbound Sales Strategies

People usually think that sales is just about going out into the world and meeting with potential customers. But it’s not. The way to sell inbound is different. Inbound sales strategy refers to tactics companies use to sell products and services without having to necessarily interact directly with their customers. 

The inbound sales team makes key efforts to analyze the goals, challenges, and interests of the buyers instead of rushing to close the sales deal as soon as possible. The focus is to provide information, suggestions, recommendations on the products and services offered by the company.

Do’s for Inbound Sales 

• Productivity

Make sure to keep your website content updated. For example, if a customer visits your website several months after their previous visit and you haven’t updated your content, they will think that you haven’t been active and they will leave.

Be productive and update your content as often as possible. The content does not need to be updated every day, but you should stay on top of it and make changes as necessary.

• Interlinking 

You should include internal links in your content so that your customers can click on them and find out more about your offerings. Keep your content up-to-date and make sure you offer everything you can. 

Related: All you need to know about managing your inside sales team

What is Outbound Sales?

Outbound sales begin with a salesperson’s or company’s action, unlike inbound sales, which begins with the prospect. After the first contact, the customer moves from being unaware to buying in a short amount of time.

The most commonly used outbound strategies by various businesses include direct mailing, print advertising, cold calls, television and radio spots, and so on.

Outbound sales can sometimes be quite costly. Also, they can often get long and tricky. So one must assess all the available lead information thoroughly. 

Understanding Outbound Sales Strategies

How your sales team ultimately presents itself to your audience determines the effectiveness of your outbound sales strategy. To take the lead or make the potential customer understand the value of your message, your sales team must be extra creative and communicate well with your customers.

Though digital trends dominate this industry, human interaction will never disappear. After you sell them your goods or services, make sure you take in feedback from customers. Keep your customers updated. Send emails, run social media campaigns, and so on. 

Do’s of Outbound Sales Strategies

• Sales Pitch and Onboarding

Make sure your sales team knows what to do and what to avoid. Ultimately, you should focus on conveying the right image of your company’s products and services. In order for your outbound strategy to be successful, make sure you invest in your sales team wisely.

• Simplicity 

In order to achieve your outbound sales objectives, avoid focusing on too many sales channels. You can’t use each and every channel to provide your potential customers and leads with information about your services and products. Therefore, it is important to determine which channel will work best for your outbound sales team. 

Inbound vs Outbound Sales: The Difference

Who initiates the sale is the main difference between inbound and outbound sales. When it comes to inbound sales, it’s the prospect who initiates contact, while with outbound sales, it’s the sales representative who contacts the prospect first. 

Inbound sales is about the prospect finding your business through various channels or platforms. Their interest in your business can be developed through an article, an event, referral, and so on. Once they express their interest in your business, your inside sales rep makes contact with them through email or call.

Whereas, in the case of outbound sales, the sales representative reaches out to prospects by making cold calls, sending cold emails or messages, running campaigns on social media, etc. 

That first point of contact makes all the difference!

The difference between inbound and outbound sales might seem minimal, but it speaks volumes about the type of customer that a business deals with through each of these approaches. The first time an outbound lead comes in, they are less aware and less engaged, while inbound prospects are generally more engaging with your business.

But the truth is, neither approach is better than the other. They are both powerful in their own ways. What you should choose depends on a variety of factors, such as the type of business you operate, the size of your average deal, and whether your clients are aware of the solutions you offer.

Inbound vs Outbound Sales: Better Together

Outbound and inbound sales strategies are inextricably linked, despite their differences. For inbound sales to succeed, you need more customers visiting your website which emphasises the need for an outbound sales strategy.  

Outbound sales and inbound sales both help you to create a comprehensive funnel that contains all the buyer information and related information that helps the sales team pitch their offers and close deals successfully.