A few years back, hard-hitting sales tactics were all the rage. Salespeople relied on bulk emails and cold calls to close deals.
These days, customers have rejected these outdated sales tactics and prefer to build relationships with the businesses they are buying from. As a result, the industry has shifted towards a new way of selling: inbound sales.
What Is Inbound Sales?
Inbound sales is a modern approach to sales that focuses on the potential buyer. In traditional sales strategies, the salesperson would focus on pushing the product or service and closing the deal.
In inbound sales, the inbound closer hones in on the prospective buyer’s priorities, pain points, interests, and challenges. The inbound closer must educate, guide, and support the prospective buyer throughout the buying decision.
Who Is an Inbound Closer?
A closer is a person responsible for finalizing a sales deal with a client. These are usually high ticket sales that are sold on phone calls. As a sales closer, you are responsible for finding prospects and sales leads and convincing them to sign a contract.
An inbound closer is a sales closer who works in inbound sales.
As an inbound closer, your focus is not on closing the deal as fast as possible. Instead, you spend your time nurturing the prospective buyer by interacting, guiding, and educating them throughout the buyer journey.
Inbound closing requires you to become a trusted consultant who nurtures the client relationship from awareness and consideration to closing the deal and beyond.
What Is the Difference Between Inbound and Outbound Sales?
Inbound sales is a business model that focuses on attracting leads that are already interested in your product or service. These are the easiest high ticket leads to close a deal with. You then build lasting relationships with these leads and help them solve their problems.
In outbound sales, you engage all potential buyers before you know for sure that they need your product.
In outbound sales, you go out of your way to make direct contact with potential buyers and start a conversation about your products or services. Because you are the one initiating the conversation, outbound sales give you control over how you reach out, when you reach out, and who you reach out to.
In inbound sales, you let the customer find you and your high ticket product. Here is how that goes.
Let’s say, Harry, the customer has a problem. So Harry goes online and researches his problem. He finds a blog post you have written about their pain and realizes that your company is the solution they have been seeking.
Harry then contacts your company to ask for more information. By doing so, he has shown you that he is interested in your products or services and has given you a crucial opportunity to close the sale.
Inbound sales is an effective way of selling because it allows the customer to come to you. Customers like to research before making a purchase. If you can find a way to inform or educate the potential customer before you speak with them, you will build trust and set the pace for a lasting and mutually beneficial relationship.
Why Inbound Sales Matter
So, why are inbound sales so important? Here are a few advantages of inbound sales:
1. Inbound sales save time
As an inbound closer, you don’t have to do massive research because you allow potential customers to come to you to discuss your product or service rather than trying to chase them. This is why this business model of inbound closing leveraging inbound calls is so effective.
Because your leads are already familiar with your business by the time they reach out to you, you don’t have to do a lot of explaining about your high ticket product. You no longer waste time making a cold call to get the prospect on the phone.
Moreover, because you are dealing with warm leads who are already ready to buy, you don’t have to waste your time talking to people who have no interest in making a purchase.
2. Inbound sales save money
The more time you spend trying to convince leads to make a purchase, the more money and resources you use in the buyer journey.
Since inbound sales take less time to close, they help you save the money you would otherwise have used in outbound sales.
3. Inbound sales have more potential for growth
Inbound sales can scale effectively. With outbound sales, businesses have to hire more sales closers to bolster their sales strategy. However, with a high ticket inbound sales team, companies only have to streamline their marketing and advertising approach.
Even better, the assets that are developed through an inbound sales strategy are reasonably permanent. This permanence means that they will continue to give value to your business long after you have created them.
4. Genuine customer interest
One of the main benefits of inbound sales is that your leads genuinely care about what you have to say.
Think about how the outbound sales process works. You call someone randomly and try to convince them that you have something they need. Even if you have already researched them and know that they are part of your target audience, the customer has not considered their needs before your call. Therefore, it will be more difficult for you to convince them they need a product they have not thought of before.
Conversely, with inbound sales, the customer discovered your brand through their own research. They already know they have a problem and are reaching out to you because they believe you have the solution. In addition, they are genuinely interested in who you are and what you do.
5. Better relationships and higher trust
By the time a lead reaches out to you for more information, they already have some level of trust in your brand.
As an inbound closer, you act as a consultative expert and help such leads gain more trust in your business.
Building trust with your customers is vital for creating good customer relationships. As a result, your customers will begin their relationships with your business on the right foot, and they will be more likely to become loyal customers of your brand.
Better trust with your clients translates to better communication, increased sales, and higher customer lifetime value.
Now that you know how critical inbound sales are to modern business owners, you must be wondering how you can dip your toes into this world. In the next section of this blog post, we will look at how to become an inbound closer.
How to Become an Inbound Closer
The first step you take to become a successful inbound closer is to develop the characteristics that make for a great salesperson a fantastic inbound closer. Here are several qualities that you must have to become a great sales closer:
A. A desire to build relationships
As an inbound closer, clients will view you more as a partner than a salesperson. For this reason, you should always be striving to create solid relationships with potential customers.
For instance, you should always follow up with emails containing industry-specific information. You should also share tips that will help the buyer in the buying decision.
As your relationship with a client solidifies, you want your client to see you as a consultant or resource. Once a customer trusts your judgment, it becomes easier for you to maintain the relationship.
B. A focus on customer needs
The inbound sales process is all about the customer. Who they are, what they need, their expectations, and their problems.
As an inbound closer, you must strive to identify and focus on what your client needs. How well you understand your client’s needs could make the difference between closing a sale and losing a potential customer who would otherwise have made a purchase.
With a solid knowledge of your customer’s needs, you are better positioned to help them see how your products or services solve their problems.
C. A mindset focused on value
To be a successful sales closer, you must learn to focus on value. In some cases, especially if you’re working a high ticket sales job, you will not always have the lowest prices. Therefore, you must focus on the value that your products or services are providing to your clients.
When talking of value, you must help your potential customers see what they get for purchasing your product and what they are losing by not using your product.
D. Ability to listen before you sell
Your success as an inbound closer will largely depend on your ability to listen. Communication skills are key for a high ticket closer. Instead of assuming, you must start by listening to potential customers to learn why they buy and how the buying process works. You could also go a step further and take notes so you can use them for subsequent meetings.
By adopting these characteristics, you will be better positioned to become an inbound closer. The next thing to do is pick up an online course on the fundamentals of sales training.
Then you need a killer high ticket, inbound closer business model to start converting your inbound calls into real money.
How to Create a Killer High Ticket Inbound Sales Strategy
1. Automate the process
Remember, inbound sales work well because they allow the customer to come to you. This means that you must automate the beginning stages of your sales journey by eliminating the manual tasks, so your clients can better reach out to you.
2. Use a multi-channel approach
Everyone in inbound sales has a different idea of what works best. However, there is no one-size-fits-all when it comes to the best strategy for inbound sales. As such, it is better to use a multi-channel approach.
With a multi-channel approach, you can reap the benefits of all the channels you use. Some of the strategies you can consider using include paid advertisements, social media marketing, content marketing, influencer marketing, and SEO.
3. Simplify your message
Simple messages are effective.
Instead of bombarding your potential client with a long list of all the benefits your product offers, choose a few and mention them. Again, a simplified message comes down to your ability to listen keenly and identify your buyer’s needs.
When you know your client’s pain points, you can select a few benefits of your products to help solve those problems and mention them. This way, you position your products and services as precisely what your client needs.
4. Test and optimize conversation rates
As an inbound closer, you must make it easier for potential clients to reach out to you. If it’s easy to contact you, more people will do it. One of the ways you can make it easy for people to contact you is to use prominent CTAs and simple, short forms to collect personal information about clients.
A good CTA and proper methods of collecting data are the cornerstones of a good conversion rate optimization strategy.
Final Word
As an inbound closer, you will be responsible for finalizing deals with clients who have already shown interest in your company’s product without being sold to. This means that you will mainly be dealing with warm leads and selling them high ticket products.
Remember that even though these leads have researched the problem and think your products or services can help them, they have not yet finalized their decision to purchase. Therefore, you must be patient with the clients. Follow up, encourage, and direct them all through the buyer’s journey and finally persuade them to close the deal.
At the end of the day, your ability to close deals will determine how successful you are as an inbound closer. Your communication skills are what is going to help you make money here.
What are your thoughts on becoming an inbound closer? Is it a position you would consider working in? Please share your thoughts in the comments section below.
