Why Outbounding is an Important Part of Sales
New sales are the lifeblood of most any business. Whether upselling/cross-selling existing customers or finding net new accounts, you literally cannot grow without adding new revenue. As a result, it is crucial that you have new business coming in on a regular basis. This can come from inbound or outbounding. What’s right for your business?
A few words on inbound business development
Inbound business almost always feels best. Someone calls or emails and says, “I want to give you money.” Hard to beat that feeling! Inbound sales come from advertising, marketing, word of mouth, referrals and a slew of other sources. Entire businesses are built on inbound sales. A little SEO here, some PPC there, a reputation for excellent services…inbound sales can indeed be the sole source of new accounts for your business and you can thrive.
Why is outbounding important?
But outbound sales are even more important. Why? Because with outbound sales your business becomes predictable and you remain in control. With inbound sales it’s possible that your ads will fall flat, that your SEO will not produce the right kinds of traffic, that your newest lead magnet won’t produce. With outbound sales you can (and should) effectively say, “This type of customer is PERFECT for what we do…I am going to contact them (and other people like them) directly and start a conversation.”
Inbound sales is waiting for someone, anyone to ask you to dance. Outbound sales is walking across the room and asking the girl or boy of your choice, “Would you like to waltz?”
When we take control of our pipeline we are also taking control of our business. You don’t want every customer, you want the RIGHT customer. By seeking out your prospects instead of hoping they will come to you, you get to choose exactly what type of client you will have. Most important, outbounding doesn’t put your business in the hands of circumstance, luck or hope as inbound marketing sometimes does. With outbounding your sales team can create a repeatable, trainable, scaleable process for growing the business. You can create a machine that says “with this many calls, emails and meetings we can generate this much business.” The whims of Google’s ranking algorithms and the market’s opinion of your latest ad campaign do not matter one iota. You’re back in control with outbound.
And that sure beats waiting for someone to ask you to dance.