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Let us start with the fact that the birth of the internet changed so many things and businesses. One of them is the way of sales and marketing work. We didn’t need the word inbound sales at all, salesmen would go door by door to sell their product and the customer didn’t have that much choice. But now, it’s them that decide what and when to approach you to fulfill their needs.
The old ways of selling may have gone on the backseat. But, they are still effective and running today as outbound sales with some changes. Though, in this article, we will deep dive into the inbound sales and the ways to start it from scratch.
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What is Inbound Sales?
So what is inbound sales that’s one of the so many children of the internet? To understand it well, we should talk about how old ways of sales used to work first. In the door-by-door method, it was the salesman who approached the customer and would try to sell his/her product or service. In opposite, inbound sales is all about the customer. It’s them that reaches you to buy and it will not happen until you have a minimum threshold to make them interested in your business.
Now, what are the minimums that you should have?
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Facts
Yes, no one wants to waste their time on unreal and makeup stuff, at least most people don’t want this.
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Content
Assume that you have some facts to present and your content can be present fast and easy as a snack, now it’s time to make them align with google’s algorithms. This way, you have way more chances to present your content to your audiences through the google search engine.
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Nurturing
The fact that you had success to make your audience into your work and show them what you have is good, but not enough. Here is the time when you should land your sale by showing them what they want and redirect them to the path of buying it. Even after their first purchase, this should go on, never drop it.
Why Should You Use Inbound Sales?
As I mentioned earlier, the old ways of salesmen approaching customers in that specific term are passed. But, to be specific we refer to google’s research that shows 90% of B2B online buyers use search specifically to research business purchases, and they conduct an average of 12 searches before engaging on any particular brand’s website.
This alone shows the fact of changing ways. But, let’s look at one more example. In the same research, we can prioritize this point that customers are taking their time to search for the best, not any product. They watch and learn about what they need as it shows almost %70 of customers have spent more than 30 minutes on videos about their needs.
I hope that the importance of this topic is made clear for you. As it’s time to take steps towards having a great Inbound Sale circle.
Top 7 Essential Steps to Start Inbound Sales
There are multiple approaches and opinions on how to start the process of Inbound sales. Yet, no one can say which one is the best. So, we decided to emphasize the speed and insurance that this advice provides for your business.
1. Know Exactly What Your Audience Needs
First things first, analyze and evaluate exactly what your audience’s interests are and how you can help them with their needs.
One of the best tools for this matter is the WatchThemLive monitoring service. Using a user behavior analytics tool like WatchThemLive is an excellent way to understand your target market.
This tool offers helpful features such as website analytics and session replays that provide you with valuable information about your audience.
2. Make Sure you Know your Target for inbound sales
So now that you have gathered some information about your audiences and also know your limits and budget, it’s time to exactly determine who you want to focus on. Try to know them more, their background, motivations, other areas they like to participate in, and so on. All of this information will help you to make the conversion easier and more effective.
3. SEO Makes you a Winner
As I said before, aligning your website with google’s algorithms will result in google suggesting it for customers’ search. It’s important to win the SEO battle. It will make you known to more people and this way, you will grow faster.
4. Have a Buyer Journey Map
Don’t leave your customers alone. Track them and find out where is your weakness and is causing your customers problems. A map will accompany the customer from the first beginning to the end and make sure that your support will help them after their purchase. If you don’t know how to make one, this article can help you.
5. Beauty is a Feast for the Eyes
The crucial foundational step to launching inbound sales is searching for ways to optimize your most powerful asset for lead generation — your website. Is it easy to navigate, intuitive, and informative? Is it built to convert traffic into leads? And the most important thing, is your website pretty?
6. Publish your Content
Share your brand with the world by developing, publishing, and promoting fresh, relevant content. Here you can demonstrate your industry knowledge and show that you can solve your personas’ problems. Brainstorm all the formats you can use: blogs, videos, photos, eBooks, etc. keep your content fresh.
7. Listen
As the last step, after all the technical works that were said before, I will always mention this ridiculously simple but important fact that many businesses even the big ones forget sometimes. Listen to your customers. They are the most important part of your business circle and you must learn from them and improve your work. That’s a must-do, but easy to forget.
Conclusion
As these steps show, starting with inbound sales is no joke; you need to be committed. Try to get help if needed. Make sure you have enough budget for making your Inbound sale start running and constantly update it.
