Inbound Sales: Meaning, Tips and Examples

Inbound sales is a modern approach to marketing that is wholly customer-oriented. Implementation of this approach increases brand reputation, reduces churn rates, and simplifies the formation of a loyal customer base. We will examine the features of this approach, provide examples, and tell you how to build relationships with customers.

Inbound Sales Definition

Inbound sales is an approach where a company provides a customer with some value before offering a product. According to the terminology of old-school salespeople, it should "warm up" the audience by creating a natural curiosity for a product or service.

Inbound sales means consumers contact a company on their own to meet their needs. But to turn an inbound customer into a sale, a company needs to think through the customer journey in advance, creating perfect service conditions and eliminating all possible obstacles.

What Are Inbound Sales

The essence of inbound sales is adapting the company message to the requirements of the target audience. When conducting preliminary research, you should create relevant content - social media posts, articles, instructions, and responses on specialized platforms. 

The message must focus on consumer problems rather than a specific commercial offer. Sales and service managers should be involved only when a potential client shows interest. This approach implies patience, which is very important. Rush and extreme insistence can scare off customers.

What is the Difference Between Inbound and Outbound Sales

If we compare inbound sales vs outbound, the main difference is who makes the first contact. In the first case, a client contacts a company independently, knowing its product can meet their needs. In the second, the business promotes its commercial offer, hoping that it will resonate with the target audience. 

Both processes can be compared to different fishing methods. Using inbound marketing sales is similar to using a fishing rod. A fisherman throws a fishing rod with bait into the water and waits for the fish to bite. Waiting will be free time for a company to focus on optimizing the customer journey or internal business processes. Outbound sales are more like fishing with a net. Theoretically, you can get more customers in the same amount of time, but you'll need to put more effort into it, focusing on this particular work and ignoring everything else. 

To define inbound sales, you should also pay attention to the characteristics of the audience. Your target audience needs to be "warmed up" for this method to be effective. The audience should understand their problems and needs and know their desired product. 

In outbound sales, the company works with a "cold" audience - it has to start from scratch with each client.

But you should understand that modern marketing has no pure inbound and outbound sales. Any company combines both techniques. The only difference is in their ratio, which affects the nature of the customer journey.

5 Inbound Sales Examples

Such techniques are very popular in business - some are even considered integral to marketing strategies. Let's talk more about typical examples of inbound sales.

1. SEO

Search engine optimization is the best method of working with a wide target audience. If a user asks a question and sees a company's website at the top of the search results, a user will at least want to read a commercial offer. This is already a full-fledged lead that can be turned into a customer. 

Using Claspo, you can show your widget only to those visitors who came to your site from PPC ads with a specific keyword. This widget can welcome them to your site, remind them of your offer, and redirect them to the right page for details or to make a purchase, thereby speeding up the path to conversion. In another scenario, a widget can appear if the visitor intends to leave the site and show them your final offer, which will change their mind.

2. Blog

To attract a potential client's attention, you can offer them interesting and useful content. And the best tool for this is a blog on your website. According to HubSpot statistics, blogging companies receive 55% more visitors and have a much higher return on marketing investment. And a study by DemandMetric shows that having a blog increases the number of inbound sales leads by 67%.

By placing Claspo widgets on your homepage, you can draw more attention to your blog and easily redirect visitors to read it. You can also add widgets to various articles on your blog for the following purposes:

• Show other valuable materials on the selected topic,
• Offer a personal consultation,
• Promote products that solve the problem described in the article.

3. Multimedia content

One of the most efficient marketing tools is native integration. Most successful companies cooperate with video bloggers, podcasters, and streamers. They generate popular content that discusses the target audience's problems and methods of solving them. A mere mention of a product can significantly increase its popularity and, in some cases, even create a new trend that can completely reshape the market.

4. Education

In many cases, consumers have hidden needs. They are unaware that they could improve their lives if the need is satisfied. The task of any business is to make their future customers aware of their needs and tell them about products that can satisfy them. This can be done in a webinar, lecture, or other event format. Another effective method is to publish an e-book, brochure, or guide.

With Claspo widgets, you can promote such educational materials on your website and invite visitors to share their contact details in exchange for access to them.

5. SMM

The secret to the success of many companies is having creative official social media pages. They post interesting facts and valuable information, intrigue followers with new product announcements, and even generate memes. If done right, it allows companies to create viral content that customers share without the involvement of marketers.

If social media is integral to your online strategy, promote them with website widgets. With Claspo, you can add clickable icons that quickly redirect visitors to your company's official pages.

In another scenario, the widget can be displayed only to those visitors who came to the site from a particular social media channel. This approach can work perfectly if you, for example, announce your new products there and invite followers to learn more on the site. In this case, a widget can meet them on the main page, show them what's new, and redirect them to the relevant pages to see details. A personalized approach and a simplified way to purchase are guaranteed!

Inbound Sales Process Steps

Every business is unique; therefore, the points of contact with the target audience are also unique. Nevertheless, we can identify a general scheme that builds the inbound sales process.

Contact

Introduce your company, product, or commercial offer to potential customers. To reach the broadest possible audience, you should use the following tactics:

• Social media engagement. You need to motivate existing customers to share their experiences and leave feedback. According to Instapage, 90% of marketers consider recommendations and referral programs to be the best source of leads.
• Register on thematic forums and websites where people are looking for answers. It is necessary to generate high-quality content and build a reputation as an expert in a particular field.
• Creativity. Customers should be willing to open, study, and share company materials without additional motivation. If necessary, you can conclude partnership agreements with influencers.

Synchronization

Inbound marketing and sales techniques must be appropriate for a particular stage of the customer journey:

1. In the awareness phase, a consumer already sees a problem but cannot yet determine its cause. It is worth offering them educational content to help them understand the subject in more detail and help them make an informed decision. 
2. In the reflection phase, a potential client clearly understands the essence and causes of the problem. They are already looking for ways to solve it. Instructions and guides will be most beneficial for them, as they will facilitate the task and eventually lead to the company's product. 
3. In the decision-making phase, a consumer makes a decision on a method of solving a problem. They may have even made a list of products. It is necessary to prove why the company's offer best meets their needs.

Consultation

Having attracted a customer's attention, you should direct them to a pre-prepared path to conversion. But you need to do this carefully to avoid alienating a customer with excessive persistence. The following recommendations are relevant here:

• Ask open-ended questions. They provide a lot of information but do not force a client to make specific decisions.
• Show the gap between the current state and goals, problems and their solutions, and needs and means of satisfying them. Emphasize the fact that a consumer still needs a ready-made solution.
• Talk through all the conditions. It is very important to know whether the company's product meets the budget and timeframe of a potential buyer. If not, you can waste resources without getting a return.

Proposal

It's time to close the deal. You can use the following tools to motivate your customer to take the final step and proceed to conversion:

• Active listening. You should use the answers to the questions asked earlier to describe the product and its benefits. This will show that the company's offer perfectly meets a client's needs.
• Decision fork. If a consumer is offered only one product, they usually hesitate. But if you give them a choice, they will be more confident because they won't feel forced.
• Storytelling. Don't limit yourself to dry numbers and contract specifications. It's better to show how the company's product will help a buyer and how they can achieve their goals.

Build Your Inbound Sales Process with Claspo

Claspo is a powerful tool for marketers, business owners, and all those who want to take their website strategy to a new level. As you've noticed above, our widgets can streamline your inbound sales process in different ways. But the most pleasant thing is that their creation and embedding to the site does not require technical skills and experience. So, you can easily cope without outside help. 

Choose a suitable template from our library, customize it to your needs in the intuitive editor, and follow the step-by-step instructions to install the script. Just three simple steps to increase sales!

Try Claspo for free and see the effectiveness of widgets. Choose the right pricing plan only when your strategy requires it.