How much of your sales strategy focuses on inbound sales? Since these are all about bringing in prospects who are already interested in your product instead of reaching out to prospects and trying to convince them that they need what you’re selling — probably not enough. 

The Inbound Sales Process Steps

Writing for HubSpot, Mark Roberge offers some insight on providing the incomparable value you need to break into these sales.

Identify

The first step is to identify companies and individuals who could become leads. You may be asking yourself how that’s different from outbound sales. The answer is that they are aware that they have a problem that needs to be solved and are actively considering what action they should take to solve it. Sales reps can gather this information through their company’s website data. 

Roberge says that active buyers like these “may have recently visited the company website, filled out a form, opened one of the inbound sales representative’s emails, or left a clue of their need in some other way.” If you pay attention to who has been visiting your website or opening your email campaign messages, you’ll get a list of leads you can sift through to identify who you believe your product or service is a good fit for before moving on to the next stage.

Connect

Instead of cold calls and emails, salespeople practicing a good inbound sales strategy reach out to have a conversation. During the identifying stage, you've already learned that your lead has already researched your company and has learned about your product or service. 

Now is your chance to start a conversation with them through an offer such as a free consultation or links to sources with more information about the research they are doing. Roberge recommends varying your outreach between calls, emails, and outreach via social channels.

Explore

Once you’ve successfully connected with a lead and they decide to take action based on your offers, they become qualified inbound sales leads. At this stage, you’re beginning to explore a possible business partnership with them by identifying their goals and challenges. “Through proper value positioning and a strategic questioning process,” says Roberge, “inbound salespeople guide prospects to draw their own conclusions about whether a product is right for their needs.” 

Discuss their plans, timeline, budget, and the negatives and positives of taking action. By addressing each of these topics, you’ll know all the ins and outs of not only the qualified lead’s current situation but also the process they’ll need to go through to make the necessary purchase to fulfill their needs. 

Once you have that information, you’ll know without a shadow of a doubt if you’re the person who can best help them on this inbound sales journey, as well as if you’re talking with the person you’ll need to address to close a future deal. Even if you’re not, at this point, you’ve built enough rapport with the person you’re currently talking with for them to introduce you to the decision-maker.

What’s the final step in the process? Check out Roberge’s article to find out.