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Any business owner knows the importance of creating a healthy sales pipeline. Besides allowing you to accurately determine how many deals will be closed, it will also enable you to monitor your team’s progress. Allocating resources and nurturing leads would become easier, as well.
Establishing a healthy sales pipeline may be important; however, a lot of business owners tend to underestimate the value it brings. Here are a few statistics that show its effect on your company’s profits:
Given these statistics, it’s clear that establishing a healthy sales pipeline should be a priority for your business.
The Sales Pipeline: Outbound Opportunities
“Outbound sales is the technique where companies push their message or pitch to their prospects through cold-calling, social selling, email marketing, and the like. In it, the sales representatives are contacting leads instead of waiting for the leads to come to them.” – Diego Garzon, CloudTask
To close deals with new clients, an outbound sales strategy usually makes use of the following techniques:
It may seem difficult to wrap your head around these techniques but basically, an outbound sales strategy will consist of the following activities:
Needless to say, there are several advantages and disadvantages to using this strategy. You might want to consider these before instructing your team to focus on outbound opportunities.
Pros:
Cons:
The Sales Pipeline: Inbound Opportunities
“Inbound sales is the technique where companies ‘pull’ interested prospects and qualify them to see if they’re a fit for their product or service. In other words, it focuses on the customer’s needs and the salesperson adapts to the buyer’s journey, acting as a trusted advisor.” – Diego Garzon, CloudTask
An inbound sales strategy takes advantage of the buyer’s journey, which consists of the following stages:
Before becoming an actual paying customer, a lead will move through all three of these stages. They become aware of your product or service through social media platforms, then learn more about it through touchpoints, such as videos and how-to guides on your website. Finally, they’ll make their purchase decision after a representative gives them a guided demo or a follow-up phone call.
This strategy focuses on nurturing the lead, which is a stark contrast to outbound sales, wherein traditional methods, like cold-calling and bulk email sequences, are used, in the hopes that a prospect will bite. A representative taking advantage of inbound opportunities will strive to foster a strong relationship between him and the potential customer, making rejection less likely to happen.
To close deals with new clients, an inbound sales strategy usually makes use of the following techniques:
Much like outbound sales, focusing only on inbound opportunities has several advantages and disadvantages too.
Pros:
Cons:
Outbound Leads vs. Inbound Leads: Which is Better?
There are pros and cons to both outbound leads and inbound leads; however, your long-term strategy should be to focus on the latter.
But if you still lack the volume and quality of customers to support your business, then going after outbound opportunities is recommended.
Consider this:
“...these are two separate approaches that can be used effectively on their own or even together. Each one has its unique set of advantages and disadvantages. Outbound is a better short-term solution with higher long-term costs, while inbound tends to be the better long-term solution with its own set of associated investment costs.” – Liz Moorehead, Impact Plus
So, to answer your question – there isn’t a strategy that’s better than the other. Rather, their effectiveness is hinged on where your business is.
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