Inbound sales refers to sales activities triggered by customer actions such as inquiries and requests for materials. This method has started to attract attention with the spread of the Internet, and companies are implementing various measures for more effective inbound sales.
In this article, we will explain the meaning of inbound sales, the difference from outbound sales, and its benefits and methods.
What is inbound sales?
Inbound sales refers to sales activities triggered by customer actions such as inquiries and requests for materials. This is different from outbound sales, such as tele-appointments and advertising, where companies approach customers.
In recent years, more and more users are gathering product information on SNS before making a purchase, and inbound sales is one of the most current sales methods. Since users themselves often already have (know) information about products and services, they are less likely to receive information from outbound sales.
In inbound sales, we utilize the acquired user information to advance sales activities using the following methods.
In this way, in order to conduct inbound sales, it is necessary to create a system that continuously creates content to disseminate information and records customer behavior and responds accordingly.
Difference between inbound sales and outbound sales
The word inbound has the meaning of “inward” or “from outside to inside.” Therefore, inbound sales refers to so-called PULL-type sales that induce customers to show interest in your company.
On the other hand, the word “outbound” has the meaning of “outward” or “from inside to outside.” In this sense, outbound sales refers to the so-called traditional PUSH type of sales in which you approach customers from your own side.
Inbound sales and outbound sales differ not only in the direction of “from the customer to your company” and “from your company to the customer,” but also in their objectives and processes. Let’s take a look at the differences here.
The purpose is not only to increase customer interest in purchasing but also to increase customer interest.
An important aspect of inbound sales is
branding
your company, products, and services. Inbound marketing begins by getting people interested in your company, products and services, and guiding them to your website and other owned media.
It is only the subsequent phase that leads to ”
= results.” The first step is to increase customer interest and interest and guide them to owned media.
The process to achieve results is different
In outbound sales, the amount of activity and the closing rate are generally proportional. The more you visit companies and conduct sales, the better your results will be. The same goes for telephone appointments.
On the other hand, inbound sales requires waiting for user responses, so increasing the amount of content does not necessarily lead to results. Even if the amount is small, if you have content that resonates with your customers, that alone can lead to results. In this way, there are differences in the process to generate CV between inbound sales and outbound sales.
Advantages and disadvantages of inbound sales
We will explain the advantages and disadvantages of inbound sales.
Advantages of inbound sales
The benefits of inbound sales include:
Perform sales activities efficiently
Unlike outbound sales, inbound sales do not involve visiting customers, but are mainly conducted using PCs. Therefore, there is no need to incur costs such as transportation and accommodation costs to go to the site, which saves time and effort.
Also, since we don’t blindly conduct door-to-door sales, there is less worry about employees becoming exhausted. Since you only sell to customers who are interested in your company, products, and services, you can conduct efficient sales with many customers who have a high response rate from the beginning.
tools available
Inbound sales can use IT-based tools. By semi-automating sales activities using a so-called “SFA (Sales Force Automation) = sales support system,” you can carry out efficient sales activities while reducing the burden on employees.
In addition, by utilizing the functions included in the tool to centrally manage sales status, sales and the actions of sales members can be visualized, allowing for effective sales based on data.
Easily understand customer needs
Access analysis can also be used for inbound sales. Data from customers visiting your website is accumulated, and by analyzing it you can easily understand customer needs.
By further improving the content based on the customer needs identified in this way, you can provide information that is more tailored to the customer’s interests.
Disadvantages of inbound sales
The disadvantages of inbound sales include:
It takes time for CV to occur
Owned media, including websites, which are the cornerstone of inbound sales, take time to grow into strong media. Therefore, when launching a new media, it is basically necessary to formulate a media strategy from a long-term perspective.
Also, even after you are able to attract customers, it will not immediately lead to CV. It is necessary to improve and modify the content while going through the PDCA cycle so that it leads to CV.
Resources are devoted to content creation
It is no exaggeration to say that inbound sales is all about the “content” that is put into owned media. If the quality of the content is poor and the content is weak, not only will it not attract the interest of customers, but it will also not be evaluated in terms of
SEO
. Companies focused on inbound sales allocate significant resources to creating quality content.
Limited target
Inbound sales is a type of sales that occurs when a customer contacts your company, so the target audience can be said to be very limited. This is in contrast to mass-market approaches such as outbound marketing, which utilizes mass advertising. Keep in mind that while you can expect a high contract rate and purchase rate, your target audience will be limited to a certain extent.
Types of inbound sales methods
Inbound sales is not a type of sales in which companies approach customers, such as advertising or walk-in sales. This is a sales style in which users request information or make inquiries by disseminating content.
We will introduce the following six specific methods for inbound sales.
E-mail magazine (mail magazine)
E
-mail newsletters
in inbound sales are a method of continuously distributing useful information to target users, such as market research data and the latest know-how, in an e-mail format. The purpose of email newsletters is to attract the interest of the target audience and increase the number of inquiries.
The benefits of using email newsletters as a sales method are as follows.
The Zion effect is a psychological phenomenon in which the more people come into contact with someone, the more likely they are to form a favorable impression. It is said that by reading emails sent regularly by a company, users are more likely to form a favorable impression of the company.
SNS
With the spread of the Internet environment, users have started gathering information on SNS etc. before purchasing products. One method of inbound sales is to use SNS to disseminate information about your products and services and aim to increase awareness.
Each SNS, such as X (formerly Twitter), Facebook, and Instagram, has its own characteristics, so the speed at which information spreads and the content that should be communicated also differ. Be sure to choose a SNS that matches your company’s products and services, as well as the content you want to promote.
Also, disseminating information on SNS is said to have a much higher ability to spread information than other sales methods. The benefit of spreading the word about your content is that you can instantly raise your company’s profile.
On the other hand, there is a danger that incorrect or negative information is also easily spread. When using SNS, be extremely careful about what you post and how you use it.
internet advertising
Internet advertising
is advertising using websites and
search engines
. Unlike advertisements published in newspapers and magazines, advertisements are published on websites and between posts on SNS.
The advantages of internet advertising are as follows.
Internet advertising can be
targeted
using not only basic data such as age and gender, but also data such as the user’s interests and search history. This allows you to effectively reach the target audience with information about your services and products.
YouTube
Disseminating information using the video viewing site YouTube is also one of the methods of inbound sales. The purpose is to get users interested in companies by finding videos posted by companies while watching YouTube.
When using YouTube, you need to create video content, so it may seem like a high hurdle to implement. However, if you create videos in-house, you can conduct inbound sales without spending on advertising.
It is quite possible to have a certain amount of influence even with in-house production if you use it strategically, such as increasing
the SEO
effect of YouTube and being particular about titles and thumbnails.
white paper
A white paper
is a document that summarizes useful information about a product or service. The purpose is to acquire potential customers by providing useful information to users in the form of a white paper.
White papers are often posted on websites in the form of eBooks or
PDFs
. By registering personal information such as email address, users can download the white paper and view its contents.
By providing whitepapers, companies can gain information from potential customers who are already interested in their company’s information. Therefore, the advantage is that it becomes easier to approach the purchase of products and contracts for services.
owned media
Owned media
refers to media owned by a company, and examples include blogs that are primarily run by the company.
Official websites and owned media are often seen as similar, but they have different purposes. The main purpose of an official website is to post information about the company itself and recruitment information.
Owned media, on the other hand, is used for
marketing
purposes, and includes information such as inquiry forms, product information, and information on where to request information regarding the company’s products and services.
The information posted on owned media serves as material for comparison when users purchase products or introduce services. You must be careful not only to ensure that the information published in materials and articles is correct, but also that the expressions used in product descriptions do not differ depending on the medium. Different expressions can easily cause misunderstandings, which may have a negative impact on purchasing and closing deals.
Key points for successful inbound sales
The main points for successful inbound sales are as follows.
Set up a persona
In inbound sales, it is necessary to firmly set up personas before introducing content to owned media. If you neglect to set up personas, you will lose focus during the operational stage, and you will not know what kind of demographic you are sending information to. In such a situation, the content will be inconsistent and the target will be further blurred. To make your media consistent and persuasive, be sure to set up personas before you go into full-scale operation.
Create content that fits your persona
Owned media is based on the premise of creating content that matches the persona. No matter how good your content is, if it doesn’t match your persona, it won’t interest your users. Website abandonment rates will increase and repeat visitors will decrease.
As a result, your SEO rating may drop, so in order to avoid such a situation, you should create content that matches your persona.
Design a path to CV within the web page
Setting up a lead line to CV within the web page will make it easier to generate CV. When you create an outline, you build a story, and by arranging the content so that the story develops according to that story, a guiding line will be created. For example, the flow is as follows.
1. Do you have problems like ○○○?
2. There was a time when I too had similar worries.
3. But I was able to solve it with something.
4. You might be able to solve the problem using it too.
5. That’s □□□
6. CV generation
This is just one example, but if you keep this kind of story in mind when structuring your outline, it will be easier to assemble the path to your CV.
summary
Inbound sales is an efficient sales method that is tailored to the current market characteristics. Since the objectives and processes are different from outbound sales, specialized knowledge and know-how are required, but if done correctly, the profits can be significant.
Looking at future market trends, there will likely be more situations where outbound sales alone will not be sufficient. To prevent this from happening, why not try incorporating inbound sales using a method and format that suits your company?