It’s no secret today’s consumers are digitally driven. 93% of buyers use search to begin the buying process (Marketo) and 54% more leads are generated from inbound digital marketing than traditional marketing (Hubspot).
Therefore, it only make senses that a sales team should be digitally driven also. While many companies have already begun thinking about their inbound marketing strategy, few have identified how inbound marketing affects their sales process.
Furthermore, some have been hindered by mistrust and miscommunication or misalignment between their sales and marketing operations.
What barriers may be preventing a successful inbound sales strategy within your team? What barriers may be preventing your team from converting leads into sales?
Barriers that Prevent a Successful Inbound Sales Strategy
An inability to see the buyer’s journey
One barrier that prevents sales representatives from having an effective inbound sales strategy is the inability to transparently see the buyer’s journey before they became a sales-ready lead. Integration of your customer relation management system and marketing automation platform is critical. Inbound sales should use every bit of information available about the prospect’s journey online before and during engagement with the sales team.
Using lead scoring in your marketing automation platform can also help determine which prospects are most likely qualified to speak with a sales representative and when they are ready for a conversation. With each communication, your sales rep should become armed with a detailed history of the buyer’s behavior and an understanding of his or her product and service knowledge.
Lack of inbound sales training
Another barrier that prevents an effective inbound sales strategy is training. Companies oftentimes don’t have an inbound sales process, and therefore, most sales reps haven’t been trained on how to tailor the sales process for an inbound lead.
An inbound lead has already found answers online. Regurgitating information the lead already has runs the risk of damaging the relationship and turning prospects off. No one likes to feel “sold.”
It is critical that sales reps are able to customize their sales process to meet the changing needs of an inbound lead. The goal should be to provide additional information that is relevant and helpful in a non-interruptive way. Inbound sales processes and methodologies should position the sales rep as a trusted adviser, resource and expert.
Not having a repeatable, scalable inbound sales methodology
How do you determine a repeatable, scalable sales process and methodology that works for your company?
- The sales process should be a specific set of actions that your team follows, such as how many call attempts should be made to an online customer and in what
time frame. - The sales process should be well-defined and specific, but able to be adjusted based on what you know about your potential customer.
- Sales methodology should be the approach or framework for how the different parts of your sales process are actually carried out, like creating an email template with discovery questions for the first engagement with an online directory lead.
Remove the barriers that could prevent a sales rep from de-prioritizing an online lead. What they likely don’t realize is a prospect coming from an inbound marketing strategy is most likely further along in the sales process and closer to a decision than a prospect who walked in off the street would be.
