What is inbound sales and how is it related to inbound marketing?

The Inbound Marketing methodology has been around since the mid-2000s, when marketing and sales began to be rethought to be less intrusive and more valuable to customers. In short, make marketing educate and sales become a service. 

Previously, people made their purchasing decisions under the full influence of brands, with massive campaigns on television, radio or newspapers, making salespeople the main source of attracting prospects through invasive techniques such as cold calls or door to door visits. However, the rapid advancement of the internet and social networks marked a new starting point in consumer buying habits. Now it is difficult to reach them in a massive way with generalized messages, because now they investigate and look for the option that best suits their needs, this process includes: the evaluation of different suppliers and brands, the search for reviews and opinions of other users, the comparison of prices, characteristics, functionalities, etc. 

Table of Contents  

• What is Inbound Sales? 
• How is Inbound Sales related to Inbound Marketing? 
• How to make Inbound Sales enhanced with Inbound Marketing? 
• The 4 stages of the Inbound Sales methodology 

What is Inbound Sales? 

Inbound Sales is a sales methodology that seeks to prioritize the needs, goals and interests of buyers, leaving aside that sellers focus on closing the sale as soon as possible, this methodology seeks to be consultants and guide the person in a natural way offering them accompaniment, and paying attention to their needs and solving their weak points. 

Once the behavior that the consumer is having in the Buyer's Journey (Sil este con link a blog de Buyer Journey que escribí) has been analyzed, the Inbound Sales salesperson will be able to design a sales approach that is useful for each prospect. Therefore, the extra time and care that is dedicated to that potential customer will increase the probability of converting them into customers and keeping them loyal. 

How is Inbound Sales related to Inbound Marketing?  

To carry out Inbound Sales, Inbound marketing is an essential requirement. Inbound marketing provides the Buyer Persona with the right content at the right time, and feeds them with information that helps alleviate their need. The inbound sales salesperson on his side will be prepared so that when contacting the client and if he is still not 100% decided, it is possible for him to offer more relevant content to help in the decision process.  

How to make Inbound Sales enhanced with Inbound Marketing? 

First you must combine the efforts of the teams, we call this process Smarketing. Both teams must manage common goals and work together to create strategies that help manage potential customers in the most effective way possible, from before they arrive as visitors to the website until they finally become buyers. 

By merging them so to speak, a powerful symbiosis is created between the two departments, which allows them to support each other, share indicators, pursue common goals, exchange strategic information, work on the same database of prospects, among others. 

The 4 stages of the Inbound Sales methodology 

Creating an Inbound Sales strategy can be divided into four key parts. 

1. Identify  

In this first part, active buyers will be identified, that is, those who have begun to look for a solution to their problem. It is very likely that this person has found you through a blog that the company wrote, or they have completed a form to download quality content or have simply interacted with a chatbot. Identify them and try to get clues before starting the process, this can be by previously investigating the buyer on social networks or in the case of B2B on your website, or having a series of questions to start the conversation to see if it is prudent continue or direct you to another solution. 

2. Connect 

At this stage you will have already investigated your prospect, it is time to connect in a personalized way, if you give yourself the time to understand the prospect, surely from this stage you can differentiate yourself. Remember that the first impression is important and can be essential. Some tips for a good connection are: 

• Don't talk too much, please start by listening to your prospect and what they want to achieve. 

• Be honest, don't try to sell him something he doesn't need, and be clear if you can help him. 
• Tell him about a real success story in which your company has helped solve a similar problem. 
• Analyze if it is time to move on to the exploration stage, if not be sure to schedule a next step. 

3. Explore: 

 Is it time to solve problems? Not yet, it's time to understand the problem and if my product (or service) can solve it. Remember Inbound Sales is customer-focused, so don't go with a keynote presentation of how good your company is. Rather, focus on continuing to learn more about your prospect and guide them through key questions that will give you the information you need to be able to generate a plan, solution, or offer the right product to the person based on their particular needs. 

 4. Advise: 

Finally, it is time to support your potential clients and advise them on their decision. 

 If you have already identified the buyer's problem and how to solve it, it will be easy to make a tailored, simple, concrete proposal, to the point and with the right price. 

Finally, if your client has concerns about what you are offering, you must evacuate them thoroughly, do not cling to defending your proposal, understand their concern in depth, it is most likely that if you do, it will be easy to explain to the client how this can be decreased.

Finally, remember that happy customers are brand ambassadors, and the perfect coordination of the marketing, sales and customer service teams will produce better results for your company with benefits such as faster conversion rates, faster sales closing, higher lead flow and overall revenue growth.