Inbound Selling

Chapter 3IdentifyHow to Identify the Right People and Businesses to Pursue

To change the way you sell to match how people buy, you are better off starting your sales activities by engaging active buyers. These are individuals who have already entered the Awareness stage of the buyer's journey. This means speaking with individuals who have already self-identified that they may have a problem they're trying to solve, as opposed to you solely identifying that they look and feel like the type of company you want to, or should, sell to.

An inbound seller can pick up on clues that the buyer has entered the Awareness stage of the buyer's journey by looking for signs that someone has visited your company's website, filled out a form on the site (e.g., registered for a webinar, downloaded an e-book, etc.), opened a recent email from the company, engaged with certain pieces of content on LinkedIn, and more. By taking this approach, you are more likely to seam yourself into a conversation with a person who is in a receptive, learning mindset as opposed to interrupting someone who has their attention focused on anything other than speaking with you.

Moreover, inbound sellers should primarily talk to good-fit customers, inbound leads, and inbound companies. Yet, I can tell you that, as a practitioner, this approach will lead to failure for an inbound seller unless the business has already defined what “good fit” means, is generating inbound leads or inbound companies, and has crafted the ...