Inbound Sales Guide: How to Build an Inbound Sales Strategy

Inbound sales is a strategy that prioritizes the specific needs of potential buyers who have expressed interest in a product. An inbound sales approach helps you identify potential buyers looking for a solution to a problem, and it allows you to take the time necessary to convince them that your product will meet their needs. An inbound sales strategy thus requires a long-game approach to building relationships with customers.

Inbound and outbound sales are two different strategies for attracting customers. Inbound sales start with the potential customer reaching out to the sales team, either via email or in response to a webinar or newsletter. Outbound sales begin with a sales representative reaching out to a potential buyer, such as through cold calls or cold emails. The inbound sales process takes longer, but when done correctly, it will narrow the sales funnel and attract your ideal customers.

Great inbound sales teams use five strategies to build customer trust.

1. 1. Use buyer personas. A buyer persona is a fictional person who represents a target market. The more detailed this persona is, the better, since most salespeople find it easier to connect with a hypothetical individual buyer than a generalized target market. Keep these buyer personas in mind when prospecting leads, crafting messaging, and developing sales tactics.
2. 2. Follow the buyer's journey. The buyer's journey is the purchasing process for a potential buyer. The buyer identifies a goal or challenge, considers different categories of solutions, and then makes a buying decision. Understanding this journey can help you tailor your sales approach to interested prospects.
3. 3. Identify active buyers. Identify potential buyers who are already on a buyer’s journey and might be a good fit for your product or service. These potential buyers, known as qualified leads, may have interacted with your company or brand already by visiting your site or opening an email.
4. 4. Focus on pain points. Pain points are the problems your qualified lead is facing. Identify these pain points to help determine if your product or service is right for them, and come up with a personalized solution. Personalized solutions are key to the inbound sales methodology.
5. 5. Invest in inbound marketing. Inbound sales teams often work closely with marketing teams to achieve goals. Inbound marketing is a marketing methodology that focuses on attracting customers through content marketing, SEO strategy, social media, and chatbots. These marketing strategies can generate inbound leads when a potential customer interacts with the content the marketers created.

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