Elements of a Successful Inbound Sales Strategy" loading="lazy">
Sun Tzu’s Art of War has legions of fans from every generation of readers all over the world because the principles and strategies he laid out in the book are applicable not only in the context of war but even in everyday life.
It is not hard to understand how anyone can be engrossed when reading the Art of War, not only does it reflect the highly political and military mind of the author, you can apply the strategies and principles in dealing with your own life, whatever your profession may be. It highlights tactics, and teaches us that a good strategy can be the difference between victory or defeat.
A good strategy has components that make it work. Each one carefully thought-out, with all possible consequences foreseen and allotted with a corresponding solution should things go south.
In implementing Inbound Sales, having a strategy is crucial, too.
Today, we’re going to discuss what are the elements of an inbound sales strategy and how important can an inbound sales strategy be in any business.
Let’s begin.
What is an Inbound Sales Strategy?
An Inbound Sales Strategy is basically a game plan in relation to the implementation of an inbound sales approach in your business.
It could vary depending on the company that is intent on implementing it. But in a nutshell, an inbound sales strategy refers to the detailed plan of action that you must take in order to achieve your overall sales target.
Elements of an Inbound Sales Strategy
To succeed in anything requires an effective strategy. Implementing an inbound approach to your sales strategy requires no less than a good strategy. To come up with a great inbound sales strategy, you have to make use of certain elements that will help solidify your plan of action and enable you to achieve your goals.
So what are the elements of an inbound sales strategy? Check out our list below!
Invest in Inbound Sales Training
Providing your sales team with inbound sales training is an investment that will pay off in no time. A sales team with inbound sales training will know how to conduct themselves in a sales process while exhibiting the following inbound qualities:
Making Connections Based on Context: If you have invested in inbound sales training for your sales team, they will know that not every opportunity to interact with a prospect should be taken as an opportunity to sell. The inbound approach is essentially a method of drawing people in instead of seeking them out to purchase your product. A sales person who has had training in inbound sales should know that. Instead, they will take every interaction as an opportunity to know and better understand the challenges of a prospect in order to best gauge how to lead them into making a purchase eventually.
Advising: This is supportive of the preceding paragraph. Inbound sales people should carry themselves not as people intent on landing a sale, but rather, as reliable sources of information that are sure to educate prospects. Understand that inbound sales is all about helping prospects at every step in their buyer’s journey. Investing in inbound sales training will help them be great at advising, and having that kind of sales team will only solidify people’s perception that you are indeed a thought leader– they can see that you know your trade, and you will instill in their minds that your products are just as great!
Does away with Sales Pitches: If you have trained your sales team in the inbound sales approach, then you can rest assured that they will know exactly how to sell without resorting to those dull, annoying, and time-consuming sales pitches. That’s just not the inbound way, after all.
Distinguish Ideal Buyer Profile from Buyer Persona (but learn to make use of the two)
An Ideal Buyer Profile and a Buyer Persona are two different things. But both are needed in order for you to know with whom to spend your time and resources on.
Your products aren’t for everyone, but there are certain people who can surely use your product. Part of an effective inbound sales strategy is knowing who those people are so you can target them and spend your time and resources on them as they are the one who are most likely to make a purchase.
Now that’s just a simple concept of investment and return of investment.
Invest in a CRM
This is supportive of the preceding paragraph. Having a clear ideal buyer profile and buyer personas within that ideal buyer profile is a useful element in an inbound sales strategy. To accomplish that, make use of CRMs, or Customer Relationship Management tools to gauge which stage in the buyer’s journey a certain prospect is so you can personalize your approach to them and heighten your chances of making a connection and leading them to a sale.
Harmonize Sales and Marketing Teams
Sales and Marketing teams have different functions, but both serve one goal: to get prospects to buy their company’s product.
It would help if the two unite in their approaches, align their goals, and be clear on their functions so there won’t be an overlap of duties, which might just jeopardize things for you at some point.
Final Take: Importance of an Inbound Sales Strategy
One of our questions earlier was how important can an inbound sales strategy be?
Any person with ambition gets inspired upon reading Sun Tzu’s Art of War. Why? Because strategies are always interesting to discuss, it helps you feel like success is within your grasp. And to attain success, growth, and victory at any endeavor in life is something that we all yearn for, whether we have already realized that or not.
In the realms of business, marketing, and sales– an inbound sales strategy is very important because it will equip any business with the right approach, its people with the right mindset, and customers who experience it, with a fantastic customer experience.
By the end of every interaction with the customer-facing people in your company, prospects won’t feel their energy depleted, they won’t find themselves hating your brand.
Instead, they will feel assisted and informed. And when it’s time for them to make a purchase, you need not seek them out. They will come to you.
Still not sure exactly how important an inbound sales strategy is?
From what we have discussed so far, it turns out, very!
