Compared to inbound sales, outbound sales have traditionally had a terrible reputation among businesses. The data from HubSpot indicates that 75% of companies prefer an inbound sales pipeline to an outbound sales pipeline.
Why so? It’s straightforward: unlike inbound sales, where potential customers approach the sales representative, outbound sales representatives do not have prior contact with leads, which makes it challenging to build trust. Most prospects automatically delete pitches because they think they are all spam. This makes building an outbound sales pipeline a difficult task.
Steps to Building an Outbound sales pipeline
Any outbound sales pipeline strategy typically follows the following steps:
- Identifying Prospects
- Sales outreach exercise that includes calls, demonstrations etc.
- Finalizing the sale
- Client success
1. Outbound Prospects (Lead Generation)
Prospecting, another name for lead generation, is the process of gathering contact information from potential new clients. It’s crucial to have a firm understanding of your target audience. There are various techniques to generate leads:
- Sales Navigator on LinkedIn
- Directories, on social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, and more
- Data extraction tools on company websites
Any additional information gathered can filter leads and help you customize your emails and offers (particularly in the case of outbound prospecting from LinkedIn).
2. Sales Outreach
This phase involves cold calls, cold emails, and social media engagements. Keeping conversations with the leads brief, individualized, and concrete is crucial in an outbound motion.
3. Demos and Lead Qualification
When a potential customer expresses interest and consent to a sales call after hearing about your service or product, you have converted a cold lead into a prospect. This is where outbound sales professionals pitch the product in most outbound sales pipeline.
The first live conversation between the leads and the sales representative usually occurs during the first sales call. Therefore, having accurate knowledge about them and a perfect demo to woo them is crucial.
Salespeople can make a better-customized proposal and increase the likelihood of closing the purchase by learning more about the lead and their company as they move through the sales pipeline.
4. Close the Deal
The potential customer is happy and agrees to try the remedy. At this step, contracts must be signed, and the onboarding process and the specifics of the product, service, and agreements explained.
5. Keeping the Client Happy: Upsell, Customer Success and Nurturing
It is crucial for reducing turnover and opens the door for cross-selling or upselling. When done with the consumer’s needs in mind, it creates a solid customer base framework.
Another excellent chance for word-of-mouth advertising is where a consumer can introduce a recommendation and open doors for new prospects.
Ways to Improve your Outbound Sales Strategy
1. Set concrete objectives by using revenue targets
Make sure to specify the KPIs or sales objectives you wish to track. Your outbound sales goals should be quantifiable, attainable, and relevant, regardless of whether your primary target is to connect 200 calls or schedule 10 demos each week.
Many sales teams employ the weighted sales pipeline technique. They establish a specific revenue target and work backwards to determine the deal flow that must be produced each week, month, or quarter. You may then calculate the number of outbound prospects required to meet your pipeline objectives.
2. Use a script, but focus more on your ears
Always be careful not to rely too much on a call script. No matter how reliable and efficient you believe your system to be, never be entirely sure of how each call will turn out. Additionally, monotonous sales pitches will make potential clients tune you out before they even hear your entire pitch.
But it’s still helpful to have a broad outline. It ensures you’ll cover all of your essential points, maintain the accuracy of your information, and have all of the responses to the queries the prospect may have.
3. Define your ideal customer persona
Cold outreach will be more effective if you understand your current customers more deeply. Top sellers advise developing an ideal customer profile (ICP) and segmenting your audience into multiple personas.
Everything from industry, size and budget to consumer pain points, job title, and goals should be included in your ICP.
Build quality outbound sales pipeline
A thorough understanding of your ideal client allows you to target your outreach and prospecting efforts on the most promising prospects. Building an outbound sales pipeline can be more difficult and complex than planning an inbound sales approach. In addition, the B2B buyer’s journey is more complex, so thorough comprehension of the sales process, target market and nuances is required to establish a solid foundation.
