Which strategy is the right one for your business — inbound vs. outbound sales? It’s usually a combination of both. If your brand is already well-known and in demand, you probably already have a steady stream of inbound sales. If you’re a new business with less familiar offerings, you’ll need to create a more aggressive outbound sales strategy. In both cases, however, you need to maximize leads — and that means finding the right balance of inbound and outbound sales efforts.
We’ll show you the benefits of both approaches, along with six key questions to ask yourself when deciding which sales approach to take.
What you’ll learn:
What is inbound sales?
What is outbound sales?
Inbound sales vs. outbound sales: sales funnel differences
4 questions to consider when choosing inbound vs. outbound sales
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What is inbound sales?
Inbound sales happen when prospective customers approach america phone number list you to learn about your products or services. These customers are already familiar with your brand; they come directly to you through an internet search, advertising, or word of mouth. In order to convert these prospects, you need to develop an engagement strategy to keep them moving down the pipeline.
3 examples of inbound sales
There are many ways leads can find you, but here are the some of the most common:
1. Referrals
This is when an existing customer recommends you to someone they know and encourages them to try your product.
Example: A customer has a fantastic experience with a doggy daycare service, Puptastic Care in San Diego. The customer recommends Puptastic Care to a friend. The friend visits Puptastic Care’s Instagram page and sends a message asking how much it costs for five weekdays of pet care. An inbound sales rep answers the question. If the prospect doesn’t immediately sign up for the service, the rep sends a coupon code with a discount of 10%, which entices the customer to sign up for a week of Puptastic Care’s doggy daycare.
2. Search engine advertising
In this type of inbound sale, a prospect searches for a keyword in an online search platform and finds an ad in the search results for a product they might be interested in.
Example: Another potential customer does an internet search for “doggy daycare” and the name of their city. An ad for Puptastic Care pops up, and the customer clicks on it, leading to Puptastic Care’s website.