Generate hot leads with inbound sales! How does it work and what do I have to do? You can find the answer here. But first; what is inbound sales?
Inbound sales is a sales methodology that provides personalised and helpful information to be found by potential customers and to win them over and build long-term relationships.
The activities in the sales process are adapted to the respective buyer persona and buyer's journey in order to accompany the customer and provide helpful support.
Inbound sales and marketing work closely together to achieve the best possible results. The goal is to celebrate a shopping experience with a happy, satisfied customer who remembers it fondly and shares the experience with others.
What is the best way to get started with inbound sales?
The basis of inbound sales and inbound marketing is the buyer persona & buyer's journey.
Every purchase decision is about a need, desire or problem. Therefore, knowing the Buyer Persona and Buyer's Journey is critical to the success of inbound sales.
The buyer persona is the target person, who should be defined first. This includes the following points:
- Interests
- Gender
- Age
- Professional position
- Goals
- Challenges
- etc.
The Buyer's Journey is the buying process divided into 3 phases:
- Awareness
- Consideration
- Decision
Those who can put themselves in their personae's shoes are able to align their strategy and measures accordingly and facilitate the buying process.
The inbound sales methodology has 4 phases
1. Identify
Lead scoring determines when a lead is passed on to the sales. The task of the salesperson is to check whether everything is correct.
That means in detail to evaluate the existing data, which information was used, how often and in which distances the website was visited.
As well as which personal information is available, and whether the person is ready for a personal contact.
2. Connect
Before you make contact, you should do further research on the Internet. Visit the website, search for the following answers on social media:
What are his interests and what is the best way to reach him and when?
And then make personalized contact to find out how you can help them. This will help you to clarify the level of interest and whether the timing is right.
3. Explore
The interest is there, now it's time to get even more specific. Analyze the existing data and find out more about the company and also about personal interests on LinkedIn or Xing.
Find similarities with your contact. Obtain relevant knowledge about the industry in order to speak the same language.
Prepare how you can help to have a conversation at eye level.
What does the challenge look like, what goals are associated with it, what is the timeline and budget?
Very important: listen!
4. Advise
You have the information and can now start preparing an offer for the next appointment.
Include options that specifically address the customer's needs. During the meeting, go through the individual points and emphasize why your offer is so unique and just right for their challenges.
In the end, everything should be right - goals, budget and schedule. Now submit your offer, taking into account when the best time for implementation is.
Don't put pressure on them.
The most important inbound sales tools and assets
To practice inbound sales effectively, your sales department needs the right tool. And that is a central and easily accessible database that is also used by marketing. This allows everyone to see the current status of the lead and which notes are available for the contact in order to personalize communication.
The CRM system from HubSpot
Features that make the HubSpot CRM particularly valuable include:
- User-friendly interface that allows for easy navigation
- Integrated marketing, sales and service tools for seamless customer interaction
- Extensive automation functions to increase efficiency
- Cloud-based, allowing access from anywhere and at any time
- Regular updates and improvements to keep up with the latest technologies (e.g. AI agents)
- Website and other contact activities
- Gmail and Outlook integration, as well as other integration possibilities with other platforms and applications
- Insight into your potential customers and their companies
- Creation of tasks
The sales automation software from HubSpot
A brief overview of the functions of the HubSpot Sales Automation software.
- Efficient management of leads and contacts
- Automation of email communication and follow-ups
- Integration with CRM systems for seamless data management
- Use of dashboards and reports for performance analysis
- Simplification of scheduling and customer communication
Image source: Unsplash © Tao Wen
