Like any customer acquisition process, you first need to pass through a marketing funnel to get to a sales funnel. It is no different in an inbound process, you need to pass through the inbound marketing funnel to to start the process of inbound sales.
What is Inbound Sales?
Inbound sales is a sales methodology that prioritise the needs, challenges, goals and interests of individual buyers. It doesn’t focus on closing the sale as soon as possible, an inbound salesperson works to meet consumers where they are and then guide them through the decision-making process.
Since Inbound sales comes from an inbound methodology it also has a funnel with its 4 stages.
What are the Inbound Sales Stages?
The stages are meant to develop a sales process that supports your buyer through the journey. This inbound sales process supports the buyer through their purchasing journey and as a result, salespeople and buyers feel aligned through the buying and selling process.
According to Hubspot:
Stage 1: Identify
Inbound salespeople Identify strangers who may have goals or challenges they can help with. These strangers become leads.
Stage 2: Connect
Inbound salespeople Connect with the acquired leads to guide them and help them decide whether they should prioritize their goals or challenges. If the buyer decides to listen to the salesperson, these leads become qualified leads.
Stage 3: Explore
Inbound salespeople Explore their qualified leads’ goals or challenges to assess if the product or service they are offering is a good fit for the qualified leads’ context. If the result is positive, these qualified leads become opportunities.
Stage 4: Advise
Inbound salespeople Advise these opportunities on how their option is unique in the market & why the buyer should align with them. If the buyer agrees the salesperson’s offering is best for their context, these opportunities become customers.
What can The Inbound Project do for you?
At The Inbound project we can help you create strategy and help you understand the stages and the methodology. Contact us for a free consultation and start growing your business.
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