In today's society, it’s the buyer who dictates what happens, not the salesperson. Did you know that
Our purchasing habits have drastically changed in recent years. Marketing has followed and adapted to this change, but does that apply to your sales methods as well? Here are five reasons why salespeople have fallen in love with inbound marketing and sales.
Let’s face it: today's buyer has moved along and put you as a salesperson in the back seat. The buyers have not only pondered long and well on the challenges they face, and their need to be satisfied, they have also trawled the web for the best solutions – and landed on your website.
At this point, the buyer might already have decided which solution to go for but is somewhat unsure of which supplier he should choose. In other words: a super hot lead that needs your help to make the right decision.
And that's precisely why sellers love inbound marketing and inbound sales — they put them back in the driver's seat. Here’s how:
Five Ways You as a Seller Benefit From the Inbound Methodology
Inbound marketing is not just for marketers. There are countless reasons why salespeople love this methodology as well.
It's quite logical: in order for you to sell more, you need more hot leads from the marketing department. Is it not therefore natural that you work together across these departments to reach the company's overall goal?
Sales enablement is simply a method of inbound sales that involves the marketing and sales departments having to work together to achieve the best result for both departments.
With a well-functioning inbound marketing and sales initiative, not only does your business achieve better results, but it also makes your workdays considerably easier (and more fun!)
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1) You do not have to spend the whole day on the phone with people who don't want to talk to you
It has been said that the best gift the marketing department can offer to sales is a hot lead ready to talk. The traditional salesman may do well with a hunt, but even he would wish he could be handed ready-to-buy prospects on a silver platter.
The main reason why sellers love inbound marketing and sales is because it gives them higher conversion rates and increased sales efficiency. Since inbound leads have shown clear purchase signals, this ensures that the sales department spends its time on the prospects that are most likely to become a customer.
2) You don't have to hunt for customers yourself
It's time to put the bow and arrow on the shelf and let the inbound marketing take over the acquisition of leads. Today's modern salesperson is not looking for customers himself, he spends time talking to those leads who have already shown great interest in the business and the product or service the company delivers.
The inbound methodology implies that the nurturing of leads should be done automatically with the help of marketing automation. Due to a certain lead score that the company has set, the lead will get a score based on what actions he or she has taken on the website.
The sellers do not receive the lead before it has achieved a set score, and is, therefore, ready to buy. This ensures that the lead is actually ready to talk to you when you take over from the marketing department because he or she has met a number of criteria. With inbound marketing, you will therefore never receive cold leads. Pretty amazing, right?
3) You get customers you actually want to work with
As an inbound seller, it's not about selling at all costs, but about helping prospects solve their problems and challenges. Remember that you are the expert on the products or services your company offers and that therefore you also have the skills to decide whether or not the lead will be a suitable customer.
By advising rather than selling, what’s created is a foundation for stronger customer relationships – and more pleasant conversations. If you sell to all the leads that come into a whirlpool, both hot and cold, you will most likely end up with a lot of customers who do not get their needs satisfied and therefore become dissatisfied.
Therefore, use your expertise to be selective and sell only to those customers you know will be a good match for your business.
This will give you the ability to create trust in the customers who end up buying, or those that you end up giving an offer to, while you get to show that you understand their challenges and that you know what you're talking about.
4) You avoid being told no to straight to your face on a daily basis
If you convert a lead to a customer using the inbound methodology, you can be relatively sure that you get a yes when the contract is shipped. Not only does the lead show interest in your business, but you as a salesperson also have a good overview of the challenges the prospect has based on the content the lead has read.
Because of automatic lead nurturing, and the fact that leads automatically receive follow-up with relevant content based on what they have downloaded on the website, the lead will get custom and personalised follow-up until it's hot.
You are therefore well prepared when you first pick up the phone and make contact – and by this point know exactly what questions to ask and which buttons to tap. You know, after all, the entire journey that the lead has had and what his or her interests were along the way.
With more information about each lead, it's also easier for you as a salesperson to spend more time on those who are most likely to say yes, so you don’t waste time on cold leads.
5) You get customers who want to work with you too
Not only is it important that you convert customers you want to work with, customers must want to work with you and your company as well.
Do you want to collaborate with customers who already know what your company are doing and has shown interest? Nothing is better than those customers who have found the website or blog of your company on their own and left their contact details.
This way, you know what they've read, what they've shown interest for – and that they actually view your business as a potential partner.
Need help modernising your sales department and increase the collaboration between sales and market to reach your company's goals? We're more than happy to help, so drop us a line by clicking the button below.