Outbound vs inbound sales - making both work for you

Posted August 27, 2017

By Serena Miller

Editor, Sales Best Practices at Outreach

Getting those conversion rates that are the goal of every sales team means understanding the difference between outbound versus inbound sales and how each can help to increase your ROI.

There are best practices for both inbound & outbound sales to get your numbers up. Here's a few of the proven ways that you can make both work for you.

Inbound Sales Techniques

  • Listen to your potential clients. It's important to actually listen to what people are telling you in this day and age without constantly reinforcing the sales points on your products and services. Social media is a great way to find out what your prospects like and want. Solving their problems is a sure-fire way to increase your inbound sales numbers.
  • Staying ahead of innovation means keeping on top of what you're target market wants and needs. Finding out how mobility can help you accomplish those goals is a best practice you can't afford to ignore. Communication among global and even local sales teams is an important tool to leverage any market. Smart phones and laptops are critical for instantaneous communications and even research on the road.

Of course that's where we come in at Outreach as your industry leading sales engagement platform. The engagement insights we supply create industry leading advantages for both inbound and outbound sales. What's more, they work with both inbound vs outbound sales techniques.

Outbound Sales Techniques

  • A little preparation goes a long way. It's important to do some research about the company that you're planning on contacting. Nothing goes over like a lead balloon quicker than not knowing what the person at the other end of your call does for a living. Putting together a successful pitch can be as simple as going to LinkedIn first.
  • There's a few things that you shouldn't try because most people who are experienced in business have seen these tricks at work before. Pretending to know people in upper-level management when you don't is a quick way to have a pitch backfire on you.
  • Pretending your deal is in short supply and will only be offered for a limited time is usually a way to get a figurative door shut your face too.

Keep in mind that we are always looking for better ways to make salespeople more effective with our sales engagement platform. That's why we offer Gmail integration that works with the inbound vs outbound sales choices you implement.


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