The Inbound Growth Blog

The Inbound Growth Blog covers all topics relating to an integrated marketing strategy. We write about inbound marketing, social media, integrated marketing strategies and the sales process.

Small Business Growth Strategies - Inbound/Outbound Integration

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Posted by John Beveridge on Apr 12, 2012 12:13:00 PM

Small Business Growth StrategiesSo you’ve got your inbound marketing program up and running – you’ve chosen good keywords to target, optimized your website, you’re creating good content and are promoting it with social media.  So now you just sit back and wait for the leads to roll in, right?  WRONG!  FAIL!

 While inbound marketing is a great way to generate qualified leads, people still buy from people (unless you’re running an e-commerce site.)  Generating the qualified lead is only the first part of the process – now you have to close it.  Your lead nurturing program will score your inbound leads and pass them over for sales contact when appropriate.  Now is the time for the sales outreach.

Download Closing the Loop: The Ultimate Guide to Integrating Inbound Marketing Into Your Sales Process

Asher Strategies, a leading sales training company, describes what buyers want from sellers in its Solution Selling process:

  1. A thorough knowledge of the buyer’s business, the general market conditions for the buyer’s products and services and the buyer’s main issues.

  2. Thorough knowledge of how the seller’s solutions can help the buyer improve their business performance with higher revenues, higher margins and lower costs.

  3. People skills – the ability to develop personal rapport (i.e. – trust) with the buyer.

  4. Listening skills – the ability to listen and understand the buyer’s needs.  A good rule of thumb is that you should be talking 20% of the time and your prospect should talking 80% of the time.

It is only after you have demonstrated these 4 elements to the buyer that you have earned the right to present a solution that will address their needs.  Make sure that you know the first 2 elements before you reach out to the buyer and strive to demonstrate people skills and listening skills in your interaction.

You also need to add other marketing channels to your outbound channel to maximize your growth potential.  In my personal opinion, telemarketing and e-mail spamming are not good ways to generate outbound marketing leads.  They have very low success rates and you will annoy more people than you will find people interested in your products and services.

Rather than take a shotgun approach by cold-calling hundreds of potential leads, use a rifle approach by:

  1. Using your network of connections to introduce you to buyers that you would like to get to know – LinkedIn is a great tool for finding connections to the people you want to meet.

  2. Making networking a regula part of your schedule – try to attend at least one networking event per week such as industry events, trade shows and professional association events.

  3. Developing “coaches” within the buyer’s organization to help you earn the right to present your solution.

While your inbound marketing program will generate qualified leads, you need to apply a disciplined sales process to turn them into customers.  Above all, be positive and enthusiastic – a positive attitude is contagious and will turn into sales success eventually.

Topics: Marketing Strategy

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