INBOUND MARKETING & SALES
Start Selling the Way Prospects Buy
WE ARE EXPERTS IN INBOUND.
We help clarify, document, set up and implement your Inbound Marketing & Inbound Sales structure.
We show you how to identify and hire the ideal people for your inbound team.
Inbound is a methodology that prioritizes the needs, challenges, goals, and interests of individual buyers.
Instead of focusing on closing the sale as soon as possible, inbound salespeople work to meet consumers where they are and then guide — not push — them through the decision-making process.
INBOUND FUNDAMENTALS
Inbound sales is a more personalized, helpful way of selling that focuses on individual buyers and their needs, frustrations, and goals.
Inbound is a consultative, advisory style of approaching customers to ensure they aren’t getting content (and individual agendas) forced upon them, and instead, are getting the necessary information to complete their buying decision.
Understanding and having the ability to effectively use inbound sales and marketing techniques is an essential tool for your business development and sales teams.
You have the ability to stop chasing prospects and let them come to you.
INBOUND vs. OUTBOUND
The one-size-fits-all approach of outbound sales won’t work with the modern buyer. Using only outbound techniques is akin to a carpenter only having a hammer in his toolbox.
Cold calls, content blasting, and convincing people who aren’t interested in buying your product to buy are, for the most part, wasted efforts.
Cold calls are like junk mail, no one asked for it and no one wants it.
All buyers are unique depending on where they are in their buying journey, and teaching your sales teams the technique to reach those customers wherever they may be on this journey is the inbound sales methodology.
THE BUYERS JOURNEY.
The buyer's journey is “the process that a buyer goes through to become aware of, evaluate, and purchase a new product or service.” Each customer has unique needs depending on their stage in the buyer’s journey. In inbound sales, it’s imperative to understand what that journey is, what your customer’s pain points are, and how you can reach them at each stage.
3 Stages -- Awareness | Consideration | Decision
A big mistake we see in inbound sales is salespeople not understanding where their buyers are in their journey. If a customer comes to you and is ready to buy, but you’re sending them introductory blogs and additional information that they don’t need, you’re slowing down their decision and they may lose patience. During your exploratory call, take queues on specific verbiage your prospects are using so that you can understand where they are in the process before trying to provide value.
THE METHODOLOGY.
Buyers aren’t dependent on a salesperson to make a buying decision anymore. There is so much marketing taking place on the internet, so much information available, that they are looking for a personalized experience from you and your brand. Inbound sales incorporate the following 4 steps.
Identify
You want to prioritize active buyers instead of passive buyers —have they recently visited your website or opened one of your emails? If yes, they are a good fit customer and are ready to be engaged with further.
Connect
Engage them with personalized content in this stage, and define what their buyer persona is so that you can craft future content that will engage them further.
Explore
Dive deeper into finding out your qualified lead’s goals, challenges, and pain points to assess if your business’s offering is a good fit for them. Connect their goals to these challenges. Discuss their budget, and share plans for how your solution can help them accomplish these goals - on their timeline.
Advise
Advise your lead why your company's solution will address their problem. Provide a thorough recap of what you’ve learned about them, their goals, and their challenges. Show exactly how your product or service will benefit them, and confirm the budget, authority, and timeline one more time.
BUYER PERSONAS vs. CUSTOMER PROFILES
Buyer personas and ideal customer profiles help you understand your customers on a generalized level, which in turn allows you to understand their journey through the buying process even better.
An Ideal Customer Profile is a description of the company, the industry, and the specific business vertical that your ideal customer is in. How many employees work there? What is the company’s annual revenue? Where are they located? From there, you can look into the diverse set of individuals that work within this company.
A Buyer Persona is a semi-fictionalized representation of your ideal customer based on market research, interviews, and real data about your existing customers. A buyer persona includes demographics, behavior patterns, and goals your different customer types may have.
CRM PLATFORMS
CRM is an acronym that stands for customer relationship management. Customer relationship management is any tool, strategy, or process that helps businesses better organize and access customer data. It all started with handwritten notes and Rolodexes, but with the advent and proliferation of digital technology, it eventually evolved into databases stored on individual computers, and then the CRM definition shifted into something far more complex. It was no longer just notes. Managing your business’s relationships with customers became a complicated process. Now, in order to compete in any industry, you need a reliable system built on CRM software.
CRM is a platform that connects your different departments, from marketing to sales to customer service, and organizes their notes, activities, and metrics into one cohesive system. Every user has easy, direct access to the real-time client data they need. This not only allows for unparalleled coordination across teams and departments but also makes it possible for businesses to provide their customers with something extraordinary: personalize, one-to-one customer journeys. Compare that to the limited functionality of old analog and legacy systems, and you have something with the ability to revolutionize the way you connect with customers.
Thirty-nine percent of companies that have integrated CRM platforms cite their data as a competitive advantage or a strategic asset. With a CRM system, most companies see a significant increase in leads, sales revenue, and customer retention.
With over one hundred platforms available, we can help you connect the dots and separate the "would be nice to have" features from the practical features that will make a difference in your company's growth.
If sales are holding you back from hitting your goals, we can help.
