What Is Outbound Sales?
Outbound sales is a proactive sales approach in which sellers initiate contact with potential customers to introduce the company’s products or services.
This technique is used by companies that sell products or services that need a personalized or consultative sales approach. This could include:
- High-priced or complex products
- Products requiring education or explanation
- B2B (business-to-business) sales, with longer and more complex sales cycles
The Outbound Sales Process
The outbound sales process is the series of steps that a salesperson takes to identify, contact, and convert potential customers through direct outreach.
Six Key Outbound Sales Steps
- Defining a target audience: Before finding prospects to contact, sales representatives will define which people or accounts will be the best match for their product or service.
- Outbound prospecting: Also known as lead generation, outbound prospecting is the process of identifying potential customers who match the target audience and gathering their contact information.
- Contacting leads: Salespeople reach out to potential customers through phone calls, emails, and social media messages to connect and introduce the product or service.
- Qualifying leads: Outbound salespeople ask questions about the prospect’s needs and budget or use a lead scoring system to determine the likelihood of a sale.
- Closing the sale: The salesperson persuades the buyer to make a purchase. This can involve negotiating terms, offering discounts or incentives, or addressing potential customer objections.
- Following up: Staying in touch with a customer after a sale can improve satisfaction and help identify upsell and cross-sell opportunities.
Outbound Sales Best Practices
By leveraging the right techniques and technologies, sales teams can streamline outreach efforts, improve their chances of success, and drive better results.
- Focus on the customer’s needs: Take an interest in the potential customer’s goal and explain how the product can help them achieve it.
- Use technology: Automated dialers and lead management software streamline the outreach process.
- Leverage social media and other online channels: Use social media and other online channels to research and connect with potential customers, build relationships, and identify opportunities.
- Use data and analytics: With data and analytics, sales teams can identify trends and target the most promising leads.
- Provide training and coaching: Sales training and coaching help salespeople improve their skills and techniques.
- Use customer relationship management (CRM) software: CRM software can help sales teams track and manage customer interactions and data, build long-term relationships, and identify new sales opportunities.
The Difference Between Outbound and Inbound Sales
Inbound sales involves waiting for customers to initiate contact with the company, using inbound techniques to attract prospects to the company’s website or other online channels. Techniques include:
- Content marketing
- Search engine optimization
- Social media marketing
Better Data Transforms Your Outbound Sales Processes
Evaluating your martech stack for opportunities to improve outbound sales is a smart play. In addition to your CRM, a revenue generation platform that uses artificial intelligence can help sales teams identify, target, and close the best leads.
Look for a platform that includes:
- Access to real-time data and insights on your target audience
- Automation for key parts of the outbound sales process
- Signal analysis to help you prioritize the most promising leads
Your sales team works hard, but technology can streamline their processes and help them work smarter.
