Here’s all you need to know about outbound sales and how to set up your outreach strategy.
What are outbound sales?
Essentially, outbound sales are the sales process in which you reach out and contact leads to promote your business and close deals. You are first to initiate sales conversations, rather than waiting for them to come to you.
In this process, leads may be less aware of the business and it is likely that this a first contact.
In outbound sales, you establish a targeted prospecting strategy. Meaning you gather data and build a list of leads that may be interested in your product or service depending on aspects like interests, demographics, industry, job title, etc.
Your communication should be clear, understanding, personalized, and tailored to your leads and their pain points. Avoid being pushy or sales-y in your communication or you may lose their interest quickly.
With outbound sales, you need to take a persistent stance. This means you have to set up a schedule for each lead. Nurture your leads, send follow-ups, and interact across different platforms, so you can guide them through the sales funnel.
It’s also important to track your metrics, such as call volume, email open rates, reply rates, and conversion rates to measure the effectiveness of your outreach efforts and adjust your strategies accordingly.
Outbound sales can happen among different platforms including:
Cold emailing
The most common outreach channel is email, as it offers a scalable afghanistan phone number list and efficient way to engage with leads.
Emails can be used for prospecting, and reaching out to leads who haven’t engaged with your business. These cold emails aim to introduce the salesperson or company, establish rapport, and generate interest in the product or service.
Emails are a great platform for lead nurturing, where you can send follow-ups, additional resources, and demos of the product or service, and even set up meetings with calendar invites.
In outbound sales, effective email communication requires personalization, relevance, and timing to resonate with recipients and drive desired actions.
Cold calling
To create a more personal, and interactive approach, cold calling is definitely the way to go.
Before making your cold calls it’s important that you’ve researched your leads thoroughly so that you call them when they are working, but not too busy. Perhaps a few minutes after they’ve published something on LinkedIn.
Analyze your triggers and make sure you stick to them.
Emails or other messages can be easily missed, but they can be read at any time if you’ve contacted your leads when they were busy, or out of work. Which is why you need excellent timing for your cold calls.
69% of buyers accept cold calls from new providers.
Social media
Cold outreach does not have to occur necessarily on formal or typical platforms.
In your outbound sales process you can also reach your leads on social media platforms such as Twitter or LinkedIn.
If you want some tips to write banging messages on LinkedIn, check this video out
ELITE LinkedIn Messages Getting Leads - I WISH I'd Found Them Sooner
Importance of outbound sales in your business
Waiting for clients to just roll into your business may be a little bit too optimistic. It’s important to implement an outbound strategy to make your business and client list grow as much as possible.
Outbound sales offer a myriad of benefits, such as:
Targeted outreach
Outbound sales enable your business to target specific segments or demographics of your target audience.
By identifying ideal customer profiles and conducting targeted outreach, you can focus your efforts on prospects who are most likely to be interested in your products or services, increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of their sales efforts.
Scalability
Outbound sales strategies can be scaled to accommodate business growth.
Whether a business is looking to expand into new markets, launch new products, or increase market share, outbound sales can be scaled up to reach a larger audience and generate more sales opportunities.
Control over the sales process
With outbound sales, you have greater control over the sales process.
Sales teams can proactively manage leads, qualify prospects, and move them through the sales funnel at their own pace, rather than relying on inbound inquiries to drive the process forward.
By taking charge yourself and making things happen for your business, you can also feel empowered, and much more confident in your product or service.
Brand awareness
Outbound sales efforts, such as cold calling, email outreach, and networking, help to raise brand awareness and visibility in the marketplace.
By actively engaging with prospects and customers, you can increase your business brand presence and establish yourself as an industry leader.
By implementing effective outbound sales strategies, you will generate leads, close deals, and ultimately drive revenue and profitability.
Outbound sales vs inbound sales
While outbound sales require your business to take the first step in communication, inbound sales attract leads through organic traffic.
This means you have a wider approach. You are not targeting specific leads.
This can be done by posting on your blog, updating your webpage, hosting webinars, or regularly posting on LinkedIn.
